Bliss 5 pt Major Win photo

Bliss, Grayhart's Launch My Line winning WB/BOW at the Valdosta Kennel Club show during the 2013 Weimaraner Club of America Nationals week.  Congratulations to owner/handler Jen Boyd for her amazing win with Bliss!

Deck Dogs

The girls are in heaven, after months of not being allowed on the deck due to the Hurricane Sandy damage and debris, the contractor finally cleaned it off this week  and today we allowed them out.  Happy dogs! Top to bottom: Savi, Trixie & Jam.

Fabulous Friday

What could be more fab than springtime puppies? Hard to believe that Savi has less than two weeks to go to her due date.  She's lost her girlish figure, with a weight gain of 14+ lbs!  
She enjoys the extra servings of food and has cravings for all human food but that is a not allowed.  The excitement is building...

Trixie Tuesday

With a future generation of Grayhart pups on the way, I thought it would be a wonderful way to honor our foundation bitch, Trixie, by giving her a weekly spotlight...Trixie Tuesdays!  Pictured is Trixie with her 2nd litter, out of Zeke, CH OB's 38 Special, in 2009.

2013 WCA National Specialty

5-pt Major winner Bliss with owner Jen Boyd

The 2013 Weimaraner Club of America National Specialty was held last week in Perry, Georgia, with the related agility and obedience trials on site and the WCA Ratings tests close by. It was disappointing that I was unable to attend due to work commitments but the three Grayhart dogs that did attend, made us super proud.  It was a week of exciting competition in various venues and all of our girls came home with ribbons and even a few titles!

The pups from our Trixie, CH GraytSky's I'm Not Really a Waitress, CD, RN, AX, OAJ, V BROM, Pet Partner Therapy Dog, had an awesome WCA Nationals week:

Bliss, Grayhart's Launch My Line, (Clay x Trixie) owned/handled by Jen Boyd, was 1st place Open bitch at the WCA National Specialty, was Winner's Bitch and Best of Winners for a 5-pt major at the Chattahoochie Weim Club Supported Entry on Thursday, and Open class winner/reserve winners bitch (RWB) to a 5-pt major at Friday's show!

Sky with her new AXJ title medallion & 2nd place ribbon

Sky, CH Grayhart Lightfoot Early Morning Rain,RN,TD, JH,OA, AXJ, CA, NSD, NRD,CGC, VX, (Parker x Trixie) owned/handled by Debbie Moody, earned her AXJ with a 2nd place at the Chattahoochie Weim Club Agility trial. On Thursday, Sky earned her 1st MXJ leg with 5 MACH points, then Double q'd on Saturday to earn an AX leg with 2nd place & an MXJ leg! Sky also earned her CAT (coursing ability) lure coursing title in 2 days!

Mia-belle, CH Grayhart's Special Request, CDX,RA,JH,NA,NAJ,NSD, RD, VX, (Zeke x Trixie), owned/handled by Jessica Scharff, showed in 3 different venues! In agility, they double Q'd with 2 - 1st places on Saturday in Open Standard and Open JWW, and then at the WCA National's Agility trial, Q'd in Open Standard with a 1st place! Mia-belle also made her Utility obedience debut with a nice performance and compliments from the judge even though she didn't qualify. Mia-belle also ran in the WCA RDX (Retrieving Dog Excellent) test but didn't want to share the bird.

Bravo, BIF, GCH Grayhart Crescent's Bravo, CGC, owned by Jay Logan, was invited to compete in the Top 20, and although he was not in attendance, Jay celebrated his ranking and was thrilled to receive the gorgeous ribbon & sash for the invitees. 

Bravo's loot!

Bravo looked handsome on his owner's banner!

Huge thanks to the owners for making their dogs shine!!! Sorry we couldn't be there to celebrate but we were there in spirit.

Bliss: 5 point Major Win during the WCA Nationals Week !

Unofficial win photo of our gorgeous girl, Bliss, Grayhart's Launch My Line, (Clay x Trixie), handled by owner, Jen Boyd, to a 5-point major going Winner's Bitch and Best of Winners! This was at the Chattahoochie Weimaraner Club supported entry at the Valdosta KC show in Perry, GA, on Thursday, during the WCA Nationals week! Thanks to Julie Aune for this lovely photo.

Huge congratulations to Jen and Bliss on this incredible win!

2013 WCA Nationals Week Day 2: 5-pt Major win for Bliss!!!

Bliss

Thursday was a day chock full of events and excitement.  The Chattahoochie Weimaraner Club had a supported entry at the Valdosta Kennel Club show and the entry was huge, as this was part of the WCA Nationals week.  We were thrilled to get the call that Bliss, Grayhart's Launch My Line, (Clay x Trixie), owner/handled by Jen Boyd was Winner's Bitch and Best of Winners for 5-point major under judge Barbara Stenmark!  Not only is this an amazing win for Bliss but Jen and her family had traveled down from Alaska for the Nationals.  This is Bliss' first major and first points as there are very few Weims in Alaska and difficult to win championship points.

Debbie Moody and Sky, CH Grayhart Lightfoot Early Morning Rain,RN,TD, JH,OA, AXJ, NSD, NRD,CGC, VX, (Parker x Trixie) were back in the agility ring and Sky earned her first Master Jumpers with Weaves leg with 5 MACH points!

Jessica and Mia-belle, CH Grayhart's Special Request, CDX,RA,JH,NA,NAJ,NSD, RD, VX, (Zeke x Trixie), were entered in the RDX or Retrieving Dog Excellent stake of the WCA Retrieving Ratings.  Mia-belle, a high-drive performance dog, did a super job on her retrieve but refused to give the bird to Jessica - the prize was too good to share.  Back to more training and we are optimistic that Mia-belle will pass in the future.  The RDX is the highest level of the WCA Retrieving Ratings and includes multiple retrieves.

We are very proud of all our Grayhart girls and their owners at the Nationals!  They are entered in more events and we will keep you updated on all the fun.

2013 WCA Nationals Week Day 1: New AXJ Title for Sky!

Sky new AXJ!

The Weimaraner Club of America is being held this year in Perry, GA, in conjunction with the Peach Tree Cluster of All-Breed Shows.  Although we cannot attend due to work commitments, a number of the Grayhart family is in attendance, showing in conformation, agility, obedience, ratings and lure coursing.

The week began on Wednesday with the Chattahoochie Weimaraner Club All-Breed Agility trial.  Sky owned/handled by Debbie Moody, qualified in Excellent Jumpers with Weaves to earn Sky's AXJ title with a 2nd place!!!  Sky is now, CH Grayhart Lightfoot Early Morning Rain,RN,TD, JH,OA, AXJ, NSD, NRD,CGC, VX!  Congratulations to Debbie and Sky!

Exciting litter due: Savi and Parker

 Confirmed via ultrasound, Savi is expecting puppies in May! 

Savi,CH Grayhart's Shear Genius, SH, NSD, NRD, V, PetPartners Therapy Dog was bred to
Parker, BISS GCH HiBourne's It's All About Me, BROM. 

Parker is a gorgeous male, with elegant type, correct movement and a stable, friendly temperament. In addition to being a top winning show dog, Parker is a proven producer of multiple champions and versatile excellent offspring, with correct conformation and good health and temperaments. Our Trixie x Parker breeding produced champions, performance dogs and therapy dogs.

Parker attained 3 majors from the puppy classes and finished his Championship at 15 months of age with a 5-pt major Specialty win at the Yankee Weimaraner Club in conjunction with the WCA National Specialty where he also won an Award of Merit. Parker was Top Ten for two years, a Specialty and multiple Breed and Group winner.

This breeding should produce exceptional show and performance prospects and will be futurity/maturity nominated. 

New AXJ for Jam's Rockin' Agility Weekend

This past weekend was our first agility trial of the year and Jam made the most of it.  We traveled to Bloomsburg, PA to the Bloomsburg Agility Runner's Club first AKC Agility trial held at the Bloomburg  Fairgrounds in an indoor horse arena.  It was a small, relaxed one ring trial and we recognized some familiar faces from trials in our area and made some new friends from Western PA.  The judge Pam Sturz, designed flowing courses that were fast and fun.

On Friday, Jam earned her first MX or Masters Standard leg with 9 MACH points.  Saturday was her day to really shine, winning the Excellent Jumpers with Weaves class to finish her AXJ title with a 1st place! On Sunday, Jam again qualified in Masters Standard to earn her 2nd MX leg with 10 MACH points and 4th place!

I was pleased with how consistently Jam ran and got her weaves on most of our runs, something we've been working on. If not for handler error, Jam would have also qualified in Masters JWW.  She is very in tune and I called her too early to come to me and she missed a jump.  The only way to qualify in the Excellent and Masters classes it to have a clean run with no mistakes, refusals or wrong courses. We received many compliments and I appreciated the terrific feedback on our runs.

Trixie was also entered and had a harder time with the dusty indoor venue and came close to qualifying but we couldn't pull it together to Q.

And to end a great weekend with even more good news....Sky, Jam's littermate owned by Debbie Moody, qualified for her 2nd AXJ leg with a 1st place!!!  Congratulations to Debbie and Sky!

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.

Agility weekend

 Looking forward to our first agility trial of the year - a 3-day agility trial at an indoor facility!  Jam and Trixie will be running in Masters Standard and Excellent Jumpers with Weaves.  

Puppy love

Are Weims the best cuddlers?

Bed heads

Trixie and daughter, Jam, settling in for their morning nap...they have such a tough life!

Best buds

 Chase, Grayhart's Freeway Jam, moved in with his Aunt Mia, Grayhart's American Woman, and they are best friends.  Michele and her family fell in love with Chase, who was immediately at home, took over Mia's favorite chair, enjoys playing with her in the yard and sleeping with the family.  He even started obedience classes and was a little star!

 Playing in the yard...

 Jumping on the furniture...

 This was Mia's favorite chair, tee hee...

 Weimy sleep postition...yes, it is comfortable for them!

 Nap time..

Walks are good too!

April Fools Day

Silly Savi and Jam...both trying to practice their 2 on/2 off on the teeter!