Hiking with dogs

Yesterday I decided I wanted to go for a nice hike with my dogs. I used to hike all the time in Germany. My best friends & I used to walk everywhere, and I miss it. . so, I grabbed the great bag that was for Meet winners at the LGRA/NOTRA nationals(They had a bunch of extras, so I was given one as the handler of FOcus as well as the one which came home to Bonnie), packed it with 6 20 oz bottles of water(three frozen), and one 33 oz, a water bowl, and some snacks for me, put my Camera in a zip log bag(in case it rained), my license & Iphone in another(IN case something happened!) grabbed Aurora & Secret and left at 8:30.



Our hiking place of choice was the Torrey C Brown Rail Trail Beautiful trail, mostly shaded by trees, lots of neat things to see and watch like the geese above.



As well as beautiful scenery like the gorgeous lily above. I love day lillies, even the tiger lilly, and that picture came out quite well if I may say so myself.



And if you payed really close attention, sometimes you'll find something really neat, like this bird, We THINK it's a Great Blue Heron. I thought at first it was a funny looking log. The tree he's on was across the river, so no way to get really close, so I pulled out the camera and zoomed in and took pictures from three different angles. I love these type of birds(herons, Cranes, etc), so was very pleased to see this on my walk! Unfortunately, tho my camera is a decent one, the quality of pics when I zoom in as much as I did isn't great, but it's still a rather neat photo!



Secret loves hiking in areas like this, she is constantly on hunt for fun things to chase. I would love to be able to take her out OFC because of how keen she is on game. We literally had a squirrely jump out underneath her nose and I had to drag her fuzzy butt away LOL I'm not exactly sure what caught her attention in the woods to bring up the radar ears above. She is my gamiest on live game dog, but so gentle with little dogs and cats, I love it.

The biggest problem were the rude bikers, but most of the bikers were wonderful. We'd be walking and I'd hear "On your left", I'd pull the girls in, and they'd go by, slowly so as not to scare the dogs. THe rude ones would just run up on our butts and zip by. Granted, by the end of the day, the two girls were pretty blaise about it, but at the beginning, Aurora was rather put out by the idiots flying by.



It was a great walk for Aurora, who hadn't seen strollers before. She learned quickly that Strollers meant kids, and she LOVES kids. She met this little boy going up and coming down, and had him giggling licking his face like crazy. She got to the point she'd see a stroller and get all excited, so she was in for a HUGE surprise when the last stroller she saw had a dachshund in it LOL

The weather wasn't horrendous, was 77, but the humidity was decently high that along our 7 mile trek, I stopped 5 times to offer the dogs water. It was pissing me off to see people out biking their dogs, no water on the bike for the dogs, in weather that was making me sweat at a fast walk, let alone if I was forced to trot.I made sure to thank the one walker I saw who had this neat vest contraption on her great dane that carried her dog's water. She agreed with me about the stupidity of people. A very sweet small dane and I really need to find that vest, as I told the dogs they should be carrying their own water instead of me LOL

If you're going to walk with dogs in the summer, you need to take LOTS of water, I carried quite a few lbs on my shoulders, to make sure they were covered.

Lots of wonderful compliments on my girls, even by people who didn't slow down, but were nice enough to tell me how beautiful they were. I'm so glad I didn't wear my headset like I normally do. I wear it to walk in beat with the fast music I have labeled just for our walks, but it was a very nice experience

I had hoped to make it a longer hike, but I am not in shape and my bad knee started aching, thankfully it was just an ache, not a throb. It has been amazingly good recently, and so I took the walk without the brace .. well, I also didnt' want to deal with the disgusting feeling of sweaty knee under that brace! It also was getting a bit too humid. Next time, we'll get up earlier and go, as the girls seemed to enjoy. .we may go back tomorrow(Well, Secret & I, and someone else :)) depending on how I feel. By the time it was all said and done, we hiked 7 miles, not bad, heart rate monitor says that's 1200 calories!

Got about a mile from the car, it started sprinkling, had a small training session with the lady with the dachshund. Her 11 yr old male was the one in the stroller and being good, the younger one was on leash barking, snarling and lunging at my zoi, who were ignoring him. She picked him up and was soothing him, so I gave her some hints on what to do and not to(which includes picking him up and helping his napolean complex). Hopefully it'll help the next time he sees big dogs


So all and all, a nice morning, went shopping at petsmart, picked up some new beds which were already on sale, then I got an additional 15% off, then came home and took a nap :)

Scary, scary information on HSUS

http://www.humanewatch.org/HSUSad_NYT.pdf

idiots

Sometimes I really have no respect for the human race.

I got contacted last month from a local, who had just had a Shefaro dog drop dead on him. . .yeah, felt bad for them, and glad they didn't want to go back to the breeder. .this is a BAD breeder and is dumping dogs in the awful rescue out in California.

Anyway, he has cats. . ok, gave him advise, Bonnie introduced him to the one cat safe Borzoi she has, talked to him about my litter. . .he went on to talk to another kennel which doesn't have anything available. . problem was, they wanted cat safe as well as a Borzoi who when they stood on their hind legs, could look the husband in the
face. (Um, why?)

Anyway. . .this guy went and bought an adult borzoi, from a breeder who doesn't socialize with cats, who is too far away to 'borrow' the dog for a day or two to see if it gets along. . .a breeder that when he asked all three of us, we told him stay away, and gave him reasons why. The fact this breeder went and sold a dog with an unknown
attitude towards cats to a home with cats, just ranks them further up on the totem pole as irresponsible.

Then this guy goes and emails me and says they're getting along FABULOUS. . .

it's an accident waiting to happen.

I don't care if he didn't get one of my puppies, I in fact am referring people to other breeders, as I do not have enough pups to go around! What I care about is this cat may end up dead, because of clueless people and uncaring breeders.

i sent him an email back and told him to PLEASE not trust this dog for a long time. . and sent him a link to my cat training article (www.mielikkishunt.com/cattraining.htm or it may be cattraining.html. . ), but I doubt he'll read it. .

Those who've never dealt with rescue, have no clue about this, but older/adopted dogs in a new situation go into a 'honey moon' period. ..where they are perfect, until they feel safe, when they start testing you. This dog could very well be overwhelmed since he probably was never off the breeder's property before he moved into this home. . and it's after that honeymoon period is over that you can end up with disaster, including death of a cat. . .

This just drives me NUTS. How IRRESPONSIBLE of the breeder to sell to a clueless person who's never integrated an adult dog into a household with a cat, how IRRESPONSIBLE of the owner to bring a dog who's not been raised with cats into a household with cats. .

ARGH, this drives me nuts. .but quite a few people don't consider cats as pets like they do dogs. .hold them in less regard. . doesn't make me any happier. . .my cats were here first, the dogs will respect them, PERIOD. . .I have two dogs now that if I am ever in a situation where I can't keep them away from cats, they would have to be placed. . . they are not cat safe. . . the rest are wonderful with them. IN fact, three of the four cats took Gossip's raw marrow bone away from her last week LOL. . .

But ya know what, even with the girls, I don't trust them 100%. .accidents can and do happen, and the cat will be on the losing end. . .Borzoi are bigger, faster. .. and lethal to a cat. . And I would never make a house pet a dog who hadn't been cat trained. . Heck, I won't place an adult dog in a home with small animals without making
sure they ignore the cats in MY house. If they don't ignore the cats, they don't get place in that home, period.

OMG, this drives me NUTS

And this alone shows me this guy wasn't good enough to be a home for one of my puppies. .someone who'd put his wants over the well being of other critters in his household is not, IMHO, a good home.

Communication

Communication

Bah, it can get so frustrating when people don't communicate.

Cleaned up my schedule, got coverage for my Saturday job, all in preparation for an out of town event. Have a half day that Friday, which gave me plenty of traveling time(reason I don't do longer than 5 hr trips alone), everything was set, except nobody had heard from the Secretary. And there was a good number of breed people planning on going. So, dropped a note to the sec asking for the premium and get told Oh, we cancelled it, not sure why it's still on the calendar.

HELLO?!?! Why was there not a public announcement. Nobody I'd been conversing with had any idea it was cancelled. To say there are pissed off people is an understatement.

Oh well, already making backup plans, it's just frustrating!

reason 101 that I hate the medical profession

OK, so I got an appointment with an asthma specialist(YEAH!) maybe we can get on a treatment that I can be more active(PLEASE). The weight gain began shortly after the asthma did, because of the inability to do a lot of long hard cardiovascular good type excercise. . .if we can that under control, it should make it easier to lose this damn weight.

Anyway, have to get a chest xray before my appointment. American Radiologist is a drop in type place for xrays. . .rearranged my schedule, came into work early so I could leave early. .head out there, wait 30 mins, to find out sorry, can't take a chest xray, that part of the machine is broke.

And THIS is why they should take appointments. . .it was still broke as of yesterday. . .if it's still broke Monday morning, I will have to drive even further, in rush hour traffic, to get this done.

I am so frustrated.

Watch my luck tho, I'll get to Dr Randall's, and he'll refer me to an allergist lOL> If I can keep the congestion at bay, I don't have as much problem with the breathing. . .joy oh joy

Stupid dog owners & Vet visits

Took Umbra & Pandora in for checkups last night, Umbra needs his teeth cleaned and his rabies shot updated. . Pandora needed a CBC, I'm afraid she's got one of the three geriatric cat baddies(CRF, Diabetes or Thyroid problems)

Dr E gave Umbra a nice, very thorough checkthrough, and gave him a thumbs up in health except for those icky teeth. .heart, lungs & eyes all look good, and he manipulated every bit and piece of him looking for lumps and bumps and pains. . nothing. . We did find a fleshy tumour in his jaw :( And now I sit and wait in trepidation worrying about that until his teeth get done.

Pandora's lost over 2 lbs since January. Now it could be the 45 lbs of bratcats aren't letting her be in peace long enough to eat, but at almost 14.5, I worry. . when you're worried, never come home after a visit to the vet and search the internet, all it does is scare you shitless. . .I was upset last night thinking this was the end, even BEFORE the CBC came back. Why? Because Diabetes seems to be a hard ass disease to handle, Thyroid is not as easy as it is with dogs. CRF i've dealt with, those others seem scarier, which is sad.

Now to wait. . .::SIGH::

As I was waiting to check out(I love Dr E, I always get out of there for far less than I expect LOL), this idiot comes in with a male Golden, off lead, who charges Umbra. . who I have sitting quietly next to me, in the corner by the desk, not a lot of room between the desk and the window. . .The owner's yelling at Chester to come(WTF is your leash DUDE?!?!), and I step around as he lunges at Umbra and give the huge growl that Bonnie's taught me, the dog stopped and looked at me strange, the owner gave me a dirty look(yeah, dude, well, it'd've been dirtier if my large, cornered unaltered male had put a hole in your damn dog!)

as I pull out money to pay, he leaves the exam room to get his other dogs, and damned if that damn dog Chester didn't do it again. . .

All I gotta say is Kudos to Umbra. .I'd've nailed the little puckerhead. . .But he was a good boy, just leaned into Mom instead of doing what I wouldn't've blamed him to, flipping that little idiot of a dog adn telling him off

The showring. . what is going on

I've been in the dog show thing since 94 (Showed bassets for someone I knew), in Borzoi 'officially' (IOW owning them, was helping with rescue before then) since this time in 95. And each year, I get more and more jaded

I've been to hundreds of shows by now, as a spectator and a participant. I have seen at least one dog (or bitch as the case may be), from every bloodline out there that I think was lovely, may not want it for whatever reason(health, temperament, breeder's a loon) in my own yard, but that I can admire, but I am aghast at what I'm seeing finished. In many cases it's not the quality of the dog who matters, it seems to be who's on the end of the leash. it's either that, or too many judges are absolutely totally CLUELESS at what is proper movement or what makes a good borzoi.

1) I can NOT count the number of times I have seen dogs who were lame or unsound be put up for points or for BOB. These are dogs with a noticable bob to their head in time to one foot coming down, an obvious indicator the dog is lame. Or dogs if you watch, you can see they have a funny short stride in the front, but lots of drive in the rear. (And to the tune of "wow, look at that sidegait", you want to turn around and ask if you are you looking at the same dog). These dogs still have the head bob, just not to the extreme a lame dog has. Can the eye on most humans not process the movement front and aft on a moving object and that's why these things aren't seen? Doubt me? Pick up the 2004 Nat's DVD, I counted at least three AOM who were lame, including a youngish Veteran who shouldn't've made it out of his class.

A borzoi should float, effortlessly. There should be IMHO, no interruption in that movement, nothing to jar you as you watch it move. It's poetry in motion, well in trotting motion, true poetry is a borzoi at full gallop. Why do judges keep putting up badly moving dogs?

2)Extreme Reach & drive , or IMHO, the illusion of Extreme Reach & drive.

Although not built along the lines of a dog, anyone who's studied what makes a good performance horse knows that the front has to be set under the horse. The same holds true for a good Borzoi. One of the problem we're seeing in the ring is fronts set forward, under the neck, and on the move, they give the illusion of lots of reach as they can move further forward due to being set too far forward. But the problem is, it's incorrect. Those dogs can't hold up on the field. But hey, it looks flashy and it gets reward in the ring. . why put up the best moving dog regardless of proper structure? IMHO, should be putting up the best moving of the better built dogs. . .look at who's properly built, and pick the best moving from there. .or else we're just going to end up like the crippled American show GSD.

Renelty i'm seeing the other extreme, dogs with fronts too far under them and stick straight in the rear, no bend of stifle, a rear so lacking in angles it makes you hurt. .ack. . .fronts should come down beneath the apex of the shoulder.

Just boggles my mind . .most of the instances I've seen I've not had a horse in the race to speak of LOl so you can not blame it on sour grapes. . .I was just a bystander going WTF?

I just don't understand

Feral kitties

Sometimes I really hate people.

Why the hell do you get a cat if you're going to kick it outside?

Why the hell don't you at least SPAY or Neuter the poor thing?

We've got a mama kitten and five babies on the property. . .right next to the borzoi yards. .the mama has been smart enough to not get into the dog yards, but babies are curious and toddle where they shouldn't, so I spent yesterday driving all over to find a place that has a humane cat trap. I know there are borzoi people who think oh well if the cat gets in the yard, but if I had to pick up a 3-4 wk old kitten body I'd be devastated. . finally found a trap, and mama and three of the wee tykes were caught in it in less than an hour, having problems catching the other two babies who run when they see me coming. .poor babies. ..

Found a program to take the babies and Bonnie's going to spay the mama and let her be the barn cat. . .but even if we'd had to take them to the shelter and they were put down, it's much more humane than any other way they could die out here, from fox, to hawk, to dogs, to poison, to car. . .
It just sickens me that people can't take care of their animals. . the little teenager that's been helping out has a father who got two cats to make her and her brother feel more at home when they're visiting him, yet he has them locked in a shed. .WTF?

Saturday morning rant

Why the HELL do some people have kids?

This following story just goes again to prove my philosophy there should be mandatory BC until people are 25. If at 35, they pass an IQ test, a common sense test and a psych eval, THEN they can procreate, otherwise, noway no how. . .

I haven't had kids, knew that I'd be the one totally completely in charge of them because of how idiot did not take care of his parrot & puppy, and sorry, that's not fair. . other problem is, I like good kids, I don't deal well with obnoxious kids, if I could have kids like my almost 21 yr old sis, or the sweet teenager who's going to go racing with me as a copilot/junior handler, I'd've had 2-3, but I have no doubt they'd've ended up like the Spawn of Satan. Why? IF it's not for bad luck, I'd have no luck LOL

Warning, details in this story are HORRID.
http://www.newson6.com/Global/story.asp?S=8788990&Call=Email&Format=HTML

what kind of freaking MORON leave a baby unsupervised with a puppy?

What kind of freaking MORON leaves an 8 wk old baby boy in a swing unsupervised for 2 hours?

What kind of freaking MORON then goes to sleep?

WHY the hell does someone who's taken off juvenile probably for drug charges still have a child with them?

This just boggles my damn mind. ..that poor baby, not his fault mother nature gave him a stupid box of rocks mother. . .and that poor puppy. . .

the people of the fairytale world

Some people drive me nuts.

THere's a lady in Borzoi, who is otherwise a very sweet lady, whom I LIKE, but she insists on things that are dangerous for the breed as a whole. She thinks all Borzoi can be trained to live in peace & harmony, intermingling with goats, and chicks, and
cats, all outdoors, because her small family of Zoi do. .and it's a load of horse crap.

We have a situation right now where two Borzoi got out of the owner's yard and killed two neighbourhood dogs, in two different escapes. Beyond this info, all we have is speculation. And this person pipes up that it's because of improper socialization that these dogs did this, that if they'd been properly socialized, they'd've never killed these dogs.

Bull crap.

And the fact she keeps pipping up with this is scary, some ignorant novice who doesn't know anybetter is going to trust her, and have a dead animal.

I socialized the hell out of my dogs. Gossip is more than cat safe, that cat can beat the crap out of her and she lets him, he steals her bones and food from her, and she lets him. But I wouldn't trust her further than I could throw her 70 lb hairy butt if he was outside and bolted on her. Nope, no way no how. You can not train instincts away. Nor would I trust her not to chase after Uncle Laser if she was loose with that Basenji and he bolted from her(he's not likely to, he's likely to bolt at her and she'd roll over submissively LOL)

Obie was great with cats, even when Cleo was sick, he was great with her, but when that white cat the week before he died appeared on our porch and bolted, he bolted after it. .instincts kicked in. If he'd caught her, I'd've been mortified, but I wouldn't've blamed him, I would've blamed the idiot owner who allowed her cat to wander the neighborhood.

I don't trust my two currents boys with my cats, period, and Umbra grew up with them. He's funny, as he's terrified of small dogs, but would I expect him to not run after one if it bolted from him? Not on your life.

nevermind

Had a nice rant, but ya know what/ The scumbag is NOT worth it. She's no better than the breeder of my first Borzoi, and as such, is NOT worth my energy or time.

She's too chicken to show up at a LGRA event up this way, so it just goes to show you what she's made of:Chickenshit.

Enough, off to do things a lot more fun :)

Rant: Nationals

Warning, another rant

GOOD FUCKING LORD!!

How dare we QUESTION, COMMENT, and or COMPLAIN about something the almight BCOA and their board do.

Give me a fucking break.

Next year's National's has RIDICULOUS hotel rates. $137.00 for up to three dogs, $187.00 for four dogs. When we comment that this is getting a bit too much for the normal Joe to spend ) ($1233.00 for 9 days or 1683.00 if you want to stay all week, yes, you can split with a friend, but have no more than 4 dogs!). And that's just the HOTEL, not food, travel, rental, whatever, we get this OMG, how dare we attitude. Nowhere were the comments directed at the people putting it on(I personally said it's not against them), it's against the cost of things

What's funny is, the cost of the Nationals has been a gripe for years now, but when someone came up with an idea (hold the show at a fairgrounds and everyone hotel where possible) there was so much animosity towards the idea.

These richer than the normal person can't seem to get it thru their head that the normal person, the backbone of the dog world, can not afford to toss away money like this, especially if they ahve family(I don't have a family, but even i have a problem choking down this price). If it continues, it is goign to become the elitist, only those with more money than brains or local folks who go. . well, that's one way to make the Nat'ls smaller so it won't take as long.

I really want to go, tho I don't expect to do anything under Bengston, I haven't been to an entire nationals since what, 2004. I hope to have Grins ready for the Triathalon, show my peanut(Kani), and enjoy myself, but with this type of attitude, why should we bother?

What gets even worse is when people say they're on a 'budget', but they still manage to do these things. Budget does not equate to showing all over the Southwest and paying for a handler to special your dog, nor does it equate to going coursing with 5 dogs(at even the cheapest rates up here that's $180.00 a weekend), that's not living on a budget. .get real people.

What's really stupid is, when some comment finding a hotel elsewhere for cheaper costs, we get told the club may be penalized if they don't 'sell' as many rooms.

Well, they can be penalized for me staying elsewhere, or they can be penalized for me staying home.

Let alone the fact that this place refuses to take phone reservations.

Phooey, if I go, I’m going to see about staying elsewhere for Friday-Monday morn, then the host hotel for the rest of the week, not going to bother staying for MBC, so wont’ have to stay Sunday. Depending on how many dogs we can have, and if we can get Nancy to come up, we can split the “Suite” for 2 or three people.

But GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZ

Finishing a thought**

Raced out to dinner last night, and didn't finish my thought. This is a continuation of a post two posts down.

The reason I SHOULD'VE gone to the cobreeder is when I finally did go to her, she DENIED that she was ever told about a puppy back agreement.

Taught me some valuable lessons
1)contracts, contracts, contracts
2) you can't trust most people.
3) never pick a baby puppy out. I've had crap luck picking any puppy I did not breed.

VENTING

why oh why don't people look up references of people they sell or buy dogs from?

I mean, COME ON. . we're there to help YOU out, to help YOU not get screwed, why do people ignore this?

Case 1) Big name OB(Other breed) person sells a puppy to scumbag Borzoi breeder, then sells her two more, without bothering to check up on her, without bothering to call BCOA or NBRF to find out what kind of person she is. Now it looks seriously like there's been a falling out, why? I'm giong to assume cuz Scumbag bred her barely 1 yr old male OB to her older girl. . .typical of Scumbag Breeder. . .and if Big Name Breeder had asked around, she'd've been TOLD so.

Case 2) Breeder breeds to a dog I bred, without coming to me to ask what health problems/structural faults are behind him, has a large litter, and OMG, every single structural fault I could've told them would appear(Dam has the faults, and the sire's dam's line has the same faults) haev shown up in that litter. . .and I could've told them that. .if they'd asked. This same scenario plays on over and over and over. heck, even when you do ask, it sometimes will bite ya in the butt anyway, BTDT, but at least you ASKED!!!

Case 3) Breeder is contacted by a puppy buyer of mine, who speaks highly of me, but do they contact me to ask me about puppy buyer? No. Thankfully, this is a wonderful puppy buyer I'd recommend to the gods if need be, but you just never know.

Case 4) breeder sells a puppy to a buyer out of state, without asking friends if they know this person, or doing a homecheck. Puppy is returned a year later in horrid shape, so underexercised, because puppy'd been living in an itty bitty run, no proper excercise, lots of forced excercise(long walks).

Case 5) Buyer goes and buys a puppy from breeder X. . .without askign for referrals from people who've sold or purchased a dog from breeder, including a friend that had. When given people buyer NEEDS to talk to about the Breeder, refuses to. . .

and the list goes on. . .then there's the people who do ask for referrals and then go and buy the dog anyway, only to come back and go, I'm sorry, you told me so . .. ARGH

And there's the people you DO ask, who say nothing, even tho they know bad things, because they're afraid. Instead of sending you on to someone who CAN give you the truth, they clam up. .

COME ON PEOPLE. It's for the betterment of the dogs and the breed and to encourage new people to come into the breed. if they come in, get hooked up with a scumbag and get hurt, they may leave the breed, and sorry, just look at the recent BCOA letter, we NEED new blood. .

I have had two breeders ask me what's behind my dogs, one when she had an oops between two siblings, not before she bred to their sire, but at least she finally came and asked. And i've had numerous people, after they've been lubed, screwed & tattooed, tell me they wish they'd listened to me in the first place before dealing with a breeder.

And that leads me to the next gripe. Why the HELL do people insist on buying baby puppies as show/performance dogs? Often times before you know if the testicles are there and going to stay, and many times before you even know what the bite is goign to be like. You can't tell what's going to be a performance dog until they're much older, and that is something I've learned from someone who's been doign this since the 70's, so I think her word is pretty much written in stone. And you have no clue on confirmation at this age either, I proved that with Beau, beautiful 8 wk old puppy, developed into a pet quality adult. .

I have bought 4 puppies at a young age, and had ONE turn out. The one I saw in the flesh. Rio was a giant, sweet, pet. PC was a midsized, sweet, pet, and Yanna was a wonderful sweet pet. . .none of them were show quality, none of them were real performance dogs (on plastic, yanna'd chase a squawker, but not plastic), and I bought/picked them all out at a young age(Rio-5-6ish wks, PC at 4 months, Yanna at 4-5 wks). You just can't tell. Oh wait, there was a fifth puppy I picked out, but didn't buy, she grew up to be gorgeous, and missing SIX teeth!!

Youngest I've sold a puppy to a MAYBE show home(they'd show him IF he turned out) was 10 wks, but they had to have that puppy when he was 2 wks old. Unfortunately, he didn't turn out, but did they learn? Nope, they've bought two more young puppies, but they're mainly a pet home will dabbles in performance/showing. . . I knew that unless he was vicious, or tried to bite a human, he wouldn't come back to me.

But most people who want show dogs, don't have room for 'just a pet' (nothing against just a pet, people, I've had a few of those myself, but currently don't have room for one that does nothing but take up space). . .so I don't understand the need to get a puppy as young as possible, I know what fuels the breeders. . .but the buyers just boggle my mind. I don't want my puppies coming back, so I refuse to sell to a for sure show home, they want a puppy younger than I'll let a show pup go, they can go elsewhere.

::SIGH:: it's as frustrating as the people who go to a show only breeder for a performance dog :P