Congratulations Bliss!

We are so proud of owner/handler, Jen Boyd for handling her lovely girl, Bliss, Grayhart's Launch My Line, (Clay x Trixie) to a Group 2 at the Cook Inlet Kennel Club show.  This is Bliss' 4th Sporting Group 2 placement this year and she also has a Group 4.  

Bliss and Jen's great show weekend continued and they garnered a Sporting Group 3 on Sunday!

Competing at the Group level is very difficult, especially for a virtually unknown team like Jen and Bliss, as many of the dogs are "campaigned".  When a dog is campaigned, they are shown by a professional handler with a lavish full color advertising campaign featured in the trade journals like Dog News, to help create a "brand" to make the team recognizable to help increase the chances of future wins.  They also travel across the country, making strategic decisions on which shows to enter based on how many points the wins carry and their chances of  winning based on the competition.  We are talking about big money, hundreds of thousands of dollars to back a dog and it is serious business.  The dog that won the Sporting Group, beating Bliss, was a Clumber Spaniel named Semour, who is currently ranked as the #2 Sporting Dog and #8 All Breeds.  Semour and his handler, Jorge, flew up to Alaska and not only won the Sporting Group but went Best in Show!

Bliss is a beautiful bitch and shows well.   Due to the lack of Weimaraner entries in Alaska, Bliss earns few if any breed points towards her AKC show championship by going Best of Breed, even though she earns group placements amongst top competition.  She is on the Top 20 All Breed Weimaraner list, the only non-champion.  Having earned a 5-pt major during the WCA Nationals week and winning the Open class at the WCA Nationals, we know that Bliss is a very special girl and would have finished easily in the lower 48.  A road trip is planned to finish her championship,

Congratulations to Jen and Bliss, our Alaskan Princess!

The Fast Times Litter from Birth to 8 weeks!

Our recent litter theme came from our love of Cameron Crowe, with one of his movies, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, as the inspiration for the litter name.  Almost Famous is one of our favorite movies, also written/inspired/directed by Cameron Crowe and has a terrific soundtrack.  One of our pups is even named Grayhart's Almost Famous, with a call name of CeCe, the two "C"s from Cameron Crowe!

What better way to celebrate the birth and first eight weeks of these fantastic pups but a mini-slideshow movie to one of the songs on the soundtrack, "Something in the Air" by Thunderclap Newman.

CeCe, Grayhart's Almost Famous

 Not just another pretty face, this pup is super sweet and smart, just like her momma!

Introducing the Fast Times Pups...

Top l-r: Mica, Henley, Ice, Sophie
Bottom l-r: CeCe, Cruise, Reagan

On May 9, 2013, we were thrilled to welcome to the world our Fast Times litter, 4 girls and 3 boys out of Parker, BISS GCH HiBourne's It's All About Me, BROM and Savi, CH Grayhart's Shear Genius, SH, NSD, NRD, V.  They have all gone to their new homes and I am proud to introduce the newest members of the Grayhart family and their new pups!

 CeCe, Grayhart's Almost Famous, aka Miss Pink, owned by KellyAnn and Chris Kwiatek and Linda Hartheimer.  CeCe will be a busy girl training for the conformation ring, agility, obedience and field.

 Cruise, Grayhart's Show Me The Money, aka Mr. Blue, owned by Lisa and Jason Luhrs and Linda Hartheimer.  Cruise will be strutting his stuff in the show ring and training to be a therapy dog.

Mica, Grayhart Lightfoot River of Light, aka Miss Teal, owned by Joe and Debbie Moody will join sister Sky, CH Grayhart Lightfoot Early Morning Rain, RN, JH, TD, OA, AXJ, NSD,NRD, CGC, VX2 in being a versatile Weim and hiking the mountains of North Carolina.  Mica will be shown in conformation and train for hunts tests, agility, and tracking.

 Ice, Grayhart's Going All the Way, aka Mr. Black, owned by Beth Rapp and Linda Hartheimer, will be shown in the conformation and competitive obedience rings.

Reagan, Grayhart's Wild Life, aka Miss Purple, owned by Kathy and Tim Thatcher and Linda Hartheimer, will be a training for the field to be a hunting companion for Tim and also join her littermates in the show ring.

 Henley, Grayhart's Pearl Jam, aka Mr. Orange, owned by Renee and Damir Skific, will be a wonderful companion and future therapy dog.

Sophie, Grayhart's Say Anything, aka Miss Red, owned by the Alaimo family will be a super companion and enjoy the trails by their new house in Chicago.

The Fast Times Litter Puppy Party!

The Grayhart Gift Bags

What has evolved into an important event for all our litters, is the Puppy Party. This party, is a celebration and the day the pups go to their new homes. In the week leading up to the party, the pups were very busy.  On Tuesday, took an hour long drive to Gayle Watkin's property, owner of Avidog, and underwent Avidog Temperament Testing, on Friday, were met by a group of experienced breeders and Weim friends for the conformation evaluation, which was also a bagel brunch and on Saturday morning, went to the vet for their health checks.  The new owners were told the day before the party, after all the evaluations were complete and careful thought by me, which pup would be theirs.

Then, finally we had the Puppy Party! All the owners come and enjoy meeting each other, forming great camaraderie, attend the Grayhart Puppy Class, fill out all the necessary paperwork, including AKC Registration, sales agreement and WCA membership and if applicable, WCA Futurity/Maturity Forfeits. We then take family portraits, which will be in a separate post, and after goodbyes, (for now) the pups leave with their families to begin their new lives.

It seems with each litter, the gift bag, almost like the Oscar swag bags, get better and better.  We always include a used toy from the puppy pen, a new toy, treats and puppy books.  This time, KellyAnn, gave all kinds of Natural Balance treats, food samples, coupons and from Petco, poop bags and tennis balls.  Kathy, Reagan's owner, who was unable to attend as she was on vacation in Hawaii, sent a gift bag, color coded by collar color, for each pup with a special treats and an awesome bottle toy!  If all that wasn't enough, our friend, Kim in California, shipped homemade, gourmet dog biscuits for each pup!

A party would not be complete without terrific food and thank you to KellyAnn for bringing these amazing cupcakes with edible Fast Times litter logos!  Her cousin has a gourmet cupcake business and these cupcakes, some chocolate with raspberry filling, others, lemon with raspberry filling, tasted as good as they looked.  There were cupcakes to match every puppy collar color!

We have been suffering from a heat wave in New Jersey so it was way too hot for outdoor activities and even in the house, with the central air blasting.  We took the pups outside for a short play period before we got down to business.

Then the pups were hot and tired....

Always one who likes to sleep in the potty box!

 
While the puppies napped, we got down to business, going over important information from vaccines protocols, feeding guidelines, housebreaking, health and behavior issues. We also demonstrated how to dremel nails, clean ears and stack a pup and how to get a pup used to being handled including checking their bite and touching feet.

 The Grayhart Puppy Manual, with a custom designed logo by KellyAnn Kwiatek, only available to our puppy people, is the how to manual for your Grayhart puppy.

KellyAnn made a beautiful collage of Parker and Savi, the sire and dam of our pups.

 Going over the Grayhart Gift bags...

Momma Savi relaxing from all the partying!

Our friend, Danielle, who's family has a Rockstar pup (Summit x Jam), enjoying the pups.

 

Plenty of food, wine, the Greys of course, and lots of fun!

Savi and Anita

 

Thank you to my friend, Anita, for the beautiful roses!

2013 Blue Ribbon Issue: The Grayhart Ads

The most awaited issue of the year, the June Blue Ribbon Issue of The Weimaraner Magazine, (the official publication of the WCA) has arrived. The Blue Ribbon is the biggest advertising issue for breeders and fanciers and this issue is sent to all AKC Weimaraner judges. It is the place to showcase your dogs and the issue is kept as a reference book for years to come. We are very excited to share the Grayhart ads from the 2013 Blue Ribbon which were designed by my extremely talented friend, Sara Renee Beaver.  Sara even took some of the photos.

We had a total of six pages in the Breeder's Showcase section. This included the pages for Jam, Sky, Mia, Bliss, Ember, Mia-belle, Savi and Bravo. An update, Mia finished her AKC championship title in May. Also, Sky earned her WCA VX2 title.

 Mia-belle has earned her OA (Open Agility Standard) title and her VX2

Bliss has also received another Sporting Group placement...

On May 9th, Savi delivered 7 healthy pups, 4 girls and 3 boys!!!

It is always so much fun to plan, create and design the ads and of course, to see the finished product.

Playing catch up & just catching things!

The past two weeks have been super busy with puppy parties, training in multiple venues and dog shows.  We have wonderful updates to share on the Fast Times Litter and their new families and well as Grayhart show news.  For now, here is Savi, nine weeks post whelp, back in the field at a NAVHDA training day, retrieving a duck.  She was beyond happy to be back working.