News and updates

10th of June: Last month, Katla was successful in obedience, MH and 'Bruks, this month she starts off with agility! Katla (Dazzling Spirit Icing on the Cake DNA-VP) passed the agility exam at the local club, which allows her to proceed to a higher class. The overall conclusion was: "A dog with great drive, already very reliable on the contacts, very confident, dares to takes intitiative, great weaving and an outstanding teamwork. The dog loves the game and can handle new challenges. The handler is very experienced and knows her dog well. Excellent!"

4th of June: New game for the girls: lure coursing. Just for fun, to see if they would do it and whether they would like it. They did!!
Watch Dazzle coursing: HERE.

1st of June: Pelle (Dazzling Spirit Chill Seeker) has started his sport career succesfully. This winter, he passed the exam for 'Gehoorzame Huishond', similar to CGC, and today he passed his first agility exam with 84 out of 90 points. Congratulations, Theo and Pelle!

29th of May: Gondola and Katla (Dazzling Spirit Icing on the Cake DNA-VP) seem unstoppable. After their successes in obedience and MH this month, they try their hand/paw at 'Bruks' this time. This is a Norwegian trial program involving tracking and obedience and a few extra elements.
Katla started in the first level of Bruks, which is called D. She earns an amazing score of 279 points out of 300, which is good for a shared 1st place. The other team that earned 279 points is a very experienced handler (18+ years) and her young dog.
An incredible accomplishment for the first Bruks trial of Gondola and Katla and this promotes them to class 'C'!
Huge congrats Gondola and Katla!

23rd of May: The first ASCA Farm Trial in Europe! I entered Dazzle in Open ducks, sheep and cattle. Now, stockdog trials are always fun, but this is something else. Both Dazzle and I simply love the variety of tasks, the clear goal and the teamwork that it requires. Watching the other competitors was a joy also, as they were all experienced dogs and handlers, most are already WTCH and the others are within a few legs of it. With such strong competition, I didn't expect much, but we had a blast and weren't unsuccessful either. Dazzle qualified in all runs and placed 2nd, 3rd and 5th! She now has her first legs towards her OFTDdsc!

Watch her runs here:
cattle, sheep, ducks.

22nd of May: Roxan (Moving Spirit Famous Flirt) entered her first dogfrisbee competition, the Bouncers Cup and earned a beautiful 6th place out of the 20 teams in the Starters class! Well done Willem and Roxan! Congrats!
C'est la Vie competed at the same trial in the Toss and Fetch Only division and earned a 5th place out of 17 teams. At 9 years of age she still outruns many of those youngsters!! Well done Frans and Vie!

17-19th of May: ASCA Stockdog Trials! Famy, Dazzle and Chap are entered and Djampi is entered on the fly when there are more runs available. The trials were once again very pleasant, great stock, nice work from handlers and dogs and a very nice and relaxed atmosphere. Our dogs did well.
Famy finished her STDds with a 1st place on ducks and a 2nd place on sheep! Well done, Karin and Famy, on to Open!
Chap made his trial debut at only 15 months of age. He qualified twice in Started sheep, once with a 1st place. Both Qs were under the same judge, so no titles as of yet, but I'm sure we won't have to wait long for them! Congrats Marja and Chap!
Dazzle ran in Advanced sheep and ducks and Open cattle. She qualified in all of them with scores of 101, 102 and 108 points! This was good for the High Combined Non-WTCH and earned Dazzle a beautiful new leash (JJ Stitches)! Super proud of my girl!
I'm not sure what I was thinking, but when Dazzle qualified in her runs on the first day, I decided to use the runs of the second day for Djampi. The baby dog has never seen ducks before, worked sheep only a couple of times and has had only one short exposure to cattle. Even although our preparation was pretty much lacking, Djampi qualified in ducks and sheep and even earned a 1st place in ducks! Great way to start her stockdog career, even although I promised her to try and prepare her a bit better for the next trials. ;)

Photos taken by Dorien Vogelaar! Thanks Dorien!

11th of May: Dazzle and I were lucky to get a chance to work cattle once. Blonde d'Aquitaine crosses that are used to dogs. It was fun and nice practice for us both. As a bonus, Djampi got her first exposure to cattle and surprised us all to be very confident and authorative on her first time out and doing really well! :) No pics of her unfortunately, as it was getting dark.

14th of May: Katla (Dazzling Spirit Icing on the Cake DNA-VP) is just doing incredible. Today, she was entered in 'MH', which is a kind of behaviour test. Human contact, response to visual stimuli, response to auditory stimuli, prey drive, guardian instinct, ability to unwind/calm down, play drive, etc are being tested. It is not an easy test, but it gives a very nice impression of how a dog's character/responses are. Katla did a very very nice MH test and impressed a lot of people with it. She was the youngest to be tested and came as best dog out of the test.

In general, the judged concluded that Katla is a very nice, fun, social and spontaneous dog. She doesn't act aggressive, even when she is being provoked, but she guards well. She reacts fast on different situations and recovers fast. She would be very suitable as police dog or similar tasks. She earned a 'quality stamp' as they call it. :)

Interested in the whole test and Katla's responses? Watch the videos: Part 1 and Part 2.

10th of May: Katla (Dazzling Spirit Icing on the Cake DNA-VP) competed in her first obedience trial at only 15 months of age. She did great and won the trial! She earned 168.5 points out of 180! This earns her a promotion to the next class. Way to go Gondola and Katla. What an awesome team you are! :)

7th of May: Giusa (Dazzling Spirit in the Nick of Time) was shown in conformation at 5 months of age. She was BIG and BIS7! Wow, and that for a little working dog in her first show! Congratulations Tanja and Giusa!

30th of April: Jazzy earns a 2nd place in Advanced in the  NDDB Queensday dogdance competition. Congrats Maaike and Jazzy!

3rd of April: Jazzy (Moving Spirit Famous Frizzle STDds) did not only earn a promotion point in the Fall Video Competition, but also placed 3rd in the Advanced class!

3rd op April: The second day of the 'Cool' weekend involved an evaluation organized by the Dutch Aussie Club. It contains a behaviour test and a conformation test. The results were all very positive and the reports were as follows:

 Behaviour: "Friendly, enthusiastic dogs with a lot of temperament. Good responses to stimuli with good recovery. Excellent handler-dog relationships!"
Conformation: "4 males / 1 female, friendly, open and easy to judge. Males and masculine, female is feminine. Good bone, well developed oval feet. In head shorter muzzles, nicely filled muzzles. Full sciccors bites. Strong toplines. The dogs are balanced in angulation and move freely. The coats are of moderate length. Attractive and conformation wise an excellent litter."
Photos of the dogs during their behaviour test and posing for the conformation part, as well as photos of the walk afterwards are all in THIS ALBUM.

 
Mom Famy, Karin Hermans with Manny (DS Cool Quest DNA-VP), Jeanette Omloo with Aybo (DS Danny Cool), Marja Teegelbeckers with Chap (DS It's a Cool Chap), Theo ten Broeke with Pelle (DS Chill Seeker) and Gondola Guttormsen with Katla (DS Icing on the Cake DNA-VP)

We concluded the weekend with a nice walk on the beach. It seemed very much appreciated both by the dogs as the people. :)

2nd of April: We started a very fun weekend for the 'Cool' litter (Daniel x Famy) with an instinct test at the JJ Ranch. The pups are now 14 months of age and several of them had never been on sheep, but they all turned on and showed interest. Great experience for all handlers and pups! :)
More photos can be found HERE.

 24th of March: Unfortunately we have some sad news this time. :(

"Moving Spirit In Touch Skipp" (Ch. Touchstone Mercury Rising DNA CP x Moving Spirit First Love Genie GG1 GG2 RH-V A) has passed away at 12 years of age. After several surgeries, the cancer finally won the battle, and Max and Anja had to let Skipp go. Skipp was their first dog and has been a great friend for the whole family and an awesome ambassador of the breed.
Rest in peace Skipp.

Skipp in August 2010

Other sad news reached us from Finland. The ultrasound of Remy (Moving Spirit Famous Fireworks BH) showed that she isn't pregnant.

Fortunately, we also have some good news to share. :) Jazzy (Clinton x Famy) earned her first leg in Advanced Dogdance in the WCFO Fall Video Competition. Congratulations, Maaike and Jazzy!

The page where the pups introduce their new owners is updated. New pictures of Nari and Giusa with their new owners and good news for Gem, as she is staying at Dazzling Spirit for the time being.

18th of February: Pfff, time flies. Sorry for the delay, but here is finally the last pupdate where the pups introduce their new owners to you. Five of them have traveled far, but all arrived safe and sound and have settled well in their new homes.

The pups and planned litter page is updated. One pup available, one expected litter elsewhere and one tentatively planned litter.

Our recent Naishe x Dazzle litter can be found on the Previous litters page.

The links page was getting outdated and has been updated.

I'm working on Zoom's own pages and I'll upload them when I finish, but she already has her place on the 'Our dogs' page.

30th of January: The last week with all the pups together. It has been a busy one! Check out the new album, weekly portraits and a description of this week.

I've also chosen which pup gets to stay with us. Let me proudly introduce Zoom to you, aka "Dazzling Spirit Ready Steady Go"!

 23th of January: Tons of new stuff for the pups this week. Updates can be found, as every week, in a new album, weekly portraits, a description of this week and a few videos.

16th of January: Not only a new album and weekly portraits, but also stacked photos and a couple of videos this week!

16th of January: We had a great get together of all the 'Cool' pups at 10,5 months old. Photos can be found in this album.

9th of January: As every week, new photos in the 5th album and weekly portraits.

7th-9th of January: A very successful weekend for Karin and Famy at the LASC agility trials.

 
thanks to Dorien Vogelaar for the pictures

2nd of January:  Same old, same old. Again, new photos in a new album and weekly portraits. Is it starting to bore you already? ;)

See our News page from 2006!