Change of Plans and RIP Kloee

There have been several "change of plans" around here the last few weeks. It all stems from Spryte coming into season a week ago. It was sudden and unexpected. She had been on a 7 months cycle so I wasn't expecting her in until September at the earliest. So we had planned on attending the AAC National Championships this coming weekend and the UKI Nationals end of August in Edmonton.  She also only needs one more snooker Q for her ATCh and I was looking forward to finishing that too!  I was ready and excited to enter these big events and test our skills against the best in Canada.  And then the night before we were supposed to leave on holidays to Kelowna for a week and I noticed blood on Spryte. Well that just changed everything!
   So we have withdrawn from the big events and now breeding plans have taken over plans for competition.  The other big change of plans around here is the stud dog we are using. Originally it was supposed to be Flash, an amazing agility dog owned by friends of mine.  But a few weeks ago the breeder of Spryte and Strider (my mentor) had voiced concerns that Flash might not be a good match for Spryte after all.  I wasn't too concerned at the time, thinking I had lots of time to find a mate for her.  We discussed a few dogs, but one in particular peeked my interest.  This dog was "Dylan" (Ch, BPIG CanyonView Free Wheelin SJATD RN) from CanyonView Shelties. I had done some mild inquiries about him from people who knew him, but had not yet contacted Brenda Newlove the owner of Dylan.

   With the sudden heat cycle I was now in a bit of a panic!  I emailed Brenda at midnight on the night
I was leaving, hoping that I could meet Dylan (lucky for me they live in Kelowna), get more information on him and his lines and if everything seemed to fit then arrange to use him as stud.  Well I often think things happen for a reason.  And so far the whole breeding seems to be fitting perfectly into place.  Brenda got back to me right away and we went out for a visit to meet  Dylan and Brenda. Brenda is a very knowledgeable, long time breeder of Shetland Sheepdogs, and her dogs are wonderful.  They are very outgoing, happy and confident. Like myself, Brenda also strongly believes in all round dogs and good temperaments.  So her dogs are training and competing in rally obedience and agility and they are certified Saint Johns Ambulance Therapy Dogs.
  We will start breeding this Thursday and do three breedings, two days apart. So everyone keep their fingers crossed that all goes well and we have a nice healthy litter of puppies born beginning of October.

On a very sad note, it is probably time that I announced the passing of our Labrador Retriever Kloee ( Hotchoklit's Kloee Kisses CD RE RAMCL RL2 RNT AGIS AADC SGDC CGN).  She passed away three weeks ago from a spleen tumor that had erupted.  We never knew she was sick.  Right up until the day before she was swimming, playing, eating popcorn, generally acting like a happy and normal dog.  And then that night she was wobbly, couldn't walk, was weak.  We brought her in to a clinic the next day, ran some tests and she was then diagnosed with her fatal condition.  She had severe internal bleeding and there was nothing we could do.  We had to let her go. She would have been 11 years old in August.  It was tough, tragic and so unexpected.  Our only consolation was that she never suffered and never felt any pain. She lived her life to the fullest right until the very last day.  Even her last moments were not painful, she was only sleepy and out of it.
RIP Kloee, we miss you and hope you are chasing a ball, while splashing through streams on the other side of the rainbow bridge.
(all pictures in this post are of Kloee)