The Big Orange Bumper

Ingrid has been walking around carrying her big orange bumper waiting to do some retrieving. She is a retrieving fool; would go all day if you needed her to. She is a true retriever in that, yes she drives out to get the item but...her main focus is to bring it back to as soon as possible. I love this, it is called "biddability" and is something that is strived for in any retriever. There are lots of dogs who drive out on the pick up but do not return immediately or sometimes not at all or they tease and play with the bumper or the bird.

The inportance of maintaining the "retrieving genes" is of utmost importance when considering a breeding regardless of whether owners do further field training or not. My puppies all get to do fun retrieves too, be it with a puppy bumper or a bird wing. And, if the weather cooperates they even have a chance to play in the kiddie pool and get used to being in water.

Ingrid's Pics below

I have attached some pics of Ingrid after unsuccessfully trying to post a video of her at a show..darn...how to do that, not sure...anyway most of these pics are not new ie some from when she was an older puppy but the Christmas pic with her on the left and 10 year old  Belle on the right was from this year. I need to get out and get some recent shots of her asap!

Ingrid

Friday Night Thoughts

I had fun setting up this blog. I do not have a website and rather than set one up a Flat Coat friend suggested I do a blog. I am having fun with this. The "background" visual of this blog is probably not the most typical for a dog related site but I chose it as it relates to how I live. "My" background is in design, heritage architecture, travel to unusual places, real estate and of course the beautiful and rare Flat Coated Retriever. I have to also admit to liking "black" horses too. "Goliath" lives here too, he is also  "rare and black", being a Friesian Horse; a big romantic baroque horse who flew over to the USA from Holland 14 years ago and since then travelled from Arizona to Nova Scotia. And here we all live in beautiful serenity and peace.

Friday night sunset view from my bedroom window, frozen river with the North Mountain in the distance.

The Handsome "Colin" Ingrid's Dad

Int. Ch. Branchalwood Aylancoll  "Colin"

Here are a couple of pictures of the  the handsome "Colin" who is Ingrid's father.

 

 

The joys and frustration of technology!

 

I spent all morning trying to create the perfect pedigree for these upcoming puppies...thought I had it all done right but found out later that there was a  mistake that was generated by the program that created the pedigree..darn...this time it was not my fault at least. So, here, in its as is state is the best I could do in several hours of working on this. As you can see there are some amazing dogs in the pedigree, combining lovely dogs in North America and the Continent. There was not enough room for hip etc clearances but all are available online if you google any of these dogs.

 

Ingrid had an ultrasound recently and it confirmed puppies! So to carry on with background information the photos here are of Ingrid's Mom, Swedish Norwegian CH. Caci's Thrilling Opportunity. She recently has done quite well winning Veterans Best in Show in Europe. Her call name is "Siri". In the first photo she is on the far right and is shown with other dogs from the Caci Kennel in Sweden.