More Holiday Cheer from the Grayhart family!

 CeCe (Parker x Savi) helping TSWR gift wrap presents at Petco!

 Chloe (Summit x Jam) above and below - this is how they celebrate in NYC!

Ranger (Parker x Trixie) and his lovely family!

Memphis and littermate Savi, (Clay x Trixie)

 Logan (Trixie x Clay) and Ripley

Above, Henley (Parker x Savi) with his gorgeous family!

KellyAnn and Chris' card with Haze, Junie and CeCe in her holiday best!

A Christmas movie by Nina - Rigby (Summit x Jam) and Rocky love getting presents!

Happy 1st Birthday to our Rockstar litter!!!!

Where has the year gone?  This incredible litter was brought up during Hurricane Sandy and we lost power for 17 days!  We also learned about losing a life, little Miss Pink, no matter how much you do, it is the way of Mother Nature and tube feeding and nursing a baby boy round the clock, who was an amazing fighter and we never gave up on him.  They are truly Rockstars and make music wherever they go.  These talented pups have been busy training for show, tracking, agility, obedience and therapy dog work.

Happy Birthday to our Rockstars - Chase, Chloe, Ella, Ember, Gabi, Rigby and Roxy!!!

The Rockstar litter is sired by BIF BISS CH Pike's Peak Silversmith Summit, SH, SDX, NRD, V, BROM and  out of Jam, CH Grayhart's Purple Haze, CD, JH, AX, AXJ, SD, VX.

Rockstar Update: Rigby & Roxie...pirated post from Rigby's blog!

Thank you Nina for Rigby's (Summit x Jam) fabulous blog posts...now for your reading pleasure...

Catching Up a Bit

I haven't posted for a while about Rigby and her exploits, so in order to bring the blog up to date this posting will be a mix of subjects, stories and photos.

As Rigby continues to grow and mature into a lovely young dog she is going through some mischievous times and her curiosity leads her to many new adventures.

BURIED TREASURE

The couch in our living room is a sectional that curves along a corner of the living room, creating a bit of an open space where we have a lamp placed.  Since Rigby's arrival, that space containing the lamp has also become a storage area for our throw pillows, keeping them safe from puppy teeth.

Recently Rigby has become more interested in the open space and she takes her toys to that area of the couch and holds them there while gazing into the void.  Now it seems that she thinks it's a hiding space for her treasures and, when we can't find one of her toys, that is the first place we look.

The other morning, as I was preparing to take Rigby for a walk, I could only find one of my tennis shoes sitting by the couch where I had left both of them.  I searched high and low, room to room looking for my other shoe, not understanding how one shoe would be where I expected, but the other one totally gone.  Then it hit me, Rigby must have taken my shoe.  Sure enough, when I looked behind the couch, there was my shoe in her special hiding place!

CRATE GAMES

Rigby's favorite crate game is not one you'll see on any video for training dogs to love their crate, it's one she has developed and perfected on her own.  She loves to take her Nylabones and stick them through the openings in her wire crate and drop them on the floor.  Now, as you might imagine, this takes a bit of skill to get the bone positioned in her mouth just right so that she will have the correct angle to line the bone up with the openings in the crate, then to push it far enough through until it falls out of the crate.  Sometimes she will even use her paws to get the bone into the desired position.  

She knows that when Rocky hears the bone drop he'll come to get it and go chew on it.  Then she protests loudly, crying and barking, until Dan or I fetch the bone from Rocky's mouth and return it to the crate.  Because she has several bones in her crate, at times there will be two bones laying on the floor near her crate that she has pushed through the bars. 

IN THE PINK

Rigby loves pens and so we try to keep all writing utensils out of her reach at all times.  The other night, though, I fell asleep on the couch with a red marking pen in my hand.  It must have fallen onto the couch where Rigby was chewing a toy beside me.  I woke up to the voice of my husband telling Rigby, No, and him trying to wrest the pen from Rigby as she was totally destroying it.  There was red ink on a couple of the throws we had on our couch as well as Rigby's legs and her chest.  She did a pretty good dye job on herself, but we're just pleased that no ink got on the couch.

Aww, don't tell everyone what I did!

You can see the pink on the white spot on her chest!

Rigby Red Legs -- she might start her own baseball team!

This shows the ink on her chest and her legs.

These stories show just a bit of Rigby's personality, the crazy puppy side.  For the most part Rigby is maturing into a well-behaved family dog, who listens pretty well.  She has been accompanying me to many different places and meeting people along the way.  Her manners are improving nicely and it's seldom that she attempts to jump on people.  Her mouthing has gotten to a minimum and usually only happens when unknowing people dangle their hands above her head as though they are toys to play with.  Her play time with Rocky has taught her to enjoy other dogs and she is always friendly and happy to meet new friends.

A PUPPY CELEBRATION!

One of Rigby's sisters, Roxy, (formerly known as Miss Yellow) had a big day with her family earlier this spring as she reached an important milestone in a puppy's life -- at least a Jewish puppy's life -- when she celebrated her Bark Mitzvah!  Here are some photos from the celebration, as well as some family photos.

Roxy at the synagogue.

Roxy and her family.

Aunt Danielle got in the photo, too!

The perfect pose -- Roxy is ready to follow in her
mom's footsteps for a modeling career!

Roxy on the day of her Bark Mitzvah!

Amazing Performance Pup Rigby

A guest post from Rigby's blog.  Rigby is Grayhart's Rider on the Storm, not even 7 months old and showing amazing potential in obedience, agility and tracking.  We are incredibly impressed with Rigby and the training Nina has done with her.  

Rigby's Home Movies

Grab some popcorn, it's movie night with Rigby!  These are a series of short videos showing our training for some of the exercises that Rigby is learning.

The first video shows our start of work on the Retrieve Over High Jump.  This exercise is designed to teach Rigby to go over the jump turn and come back to the center of the jump.  The idea is to give her the muscle memory to pick up her dumbbell, turn quickly and come back to the middle of the jump, no matter where the dumbbell lands when I throw it.  Here I'm just throwing food for her to retrieve.

The second video is just some dumbbell retrieves, first with her plastic dumbbell and then with a metal scent article dumbbell to get her used to having the feel of metal in her mouth.

This video shows some short heeling patterns with Rigby and then a couple recalls from a short distance, followed up with a bit of a recall game to keep her coming in quickly when called.

Here is Rigby playing one of her favorite games, retrieve the glove.  This is to teach Rigby to love gloves as she needs to find a glove at the end of each of her tracks.  This lesson has carried over and although she is not yet picking up the glove at the end of her tracks, she does play retrieve with the glove as a reward when she finishes each track.

Here Rigby practices her fronts and then some drops that, in time, will develop into her drop on recall in the Open Class.

And, in working toward the Utility Class, Rigby is learning to watch my hand direction for the Directed Retrieve.  Here I throw a treat and direct her toward it with my hand and then release her to go get the treat.  She returns and does a front and then lines up to do the exercise again.

Finally, this is just a bit of fun, Rigby playing and being herself.

Rigby in the snow

Rigby, Grayhart's Rider on the Storm, (Summit x Jam) all set for playing in the snow!
To see more shots of Rigby and what she's up to, check out Rigby's blog.

Merry Christmas from Rigby

A fabulous holiday card with Rigby, Grayhart's Rider on the Storm, (Summit x Jam).

J-S Pups: The Rockstar 8 week stacks

When the Rockstar pups turned 8 weeks old, we invited a few breeder friends over to help with the conformation evaluation.  These are respected and experienced breeders who have had great success in their breeding programs with show and performance dogs.  Ultimately, the decision was mine on deciding which pup goes to which home, but their valuable advice along with the temperament testing, makes my task a lot easier.  Below are our show/performance prospects who will be hitting show rings around the east coast.

"Ember"  Grayhart's Light My Fire

 "Gabi"  Grayhart's Something to Talk About

 "Rigby"  Grayhart's Rider on the Storm

 "Chloe"  Grayhart's Walk this Way

"Ella"  Grayhart's How High the Moon

The Rockstars are Produced by:

CH Grayhart's Purple Haze, CD,JH,OA,OAJ,SD, CGC ,VX

"Jam" 

x

"Summit"

Futurity, Specialty & Multiple Group Winner... 

CH Pike's Peak Silversmith Summit, SH,SDX,NRD,V