CLIENT REFERENCE
Dear Ramona -I hope you and your family have been well. I think I remember that you were about to move when we last corresponded, so I hope you are all settled in by now.
We've been keeping up with your litters on the internet, and Zeke says you need to breed Rocky and Pen again, so he'll have more brothers and sisters! And after this yesterday, I have to say that he may have a good point. :-)
Zeke is still doing well. Several unexpected things came up for our family last year, and Zeke and I never did get to try for his SchH l title last autumn. Now, I think it may have been a blessing in disguise that we had to wait until this weekend to try. Yesterday, at a trial in Hendersonville, under SV Judge Sergio Bogden, Zeke got his SchH l, and Rocky and Pen (and you) would have really been proud. He took High In Trial with a 100 - 96 - 100 = 296. I wish you could have heard all of the nice things the Judge and lot of other folks had to say about him - not just about his performance, but about his temperament, how much he liked to work, etc. I know there was someone there taking photos yesterday, and I'll try to get a few to email to you.
We may try for his SchH ll in August, if we can find a trial not too far away. And we may try for his SchH lll later this autumn if we have enough time. (Our daughter is getting married late this year, and Zeke and I are probably about to lose a lot of our spare time!) The folks at the trial yesterday were trying to get us to commit to getting his SchH lll early enough to enter the Southeastern Regional in late September, but I just don't see us being ready that soon.
Ramona, the old-time schutzhund people are always amazed to hear that we don't have a single dog crate in our house - that Zeke's just a member of the family when he's not working. I want to again thank you for sending us such a special dog!
November 20, 2003
Hi Ramona,
We've had a couple
of nice things occur in the past several days, so I thought I'd drop you
a note. First, we had Zeke's hips, elbows and shoulders x-rayed, and
all six joints look great thus far - no hint of any problems anywhere.
Second, last weekend I put him in the 6 - 9 month puppy class at the USCA Southeast Regional Conformation Championship in Georgia, and he received a VP rating (VP-3). I don't plan to do much in the conformation ring, but thought it would be good for socialization, and good experience for both of us in case we decide later to do a breed survey.
We continue slowly with schutzhund,
mostly drive building and focus work at this point. We are
patiently (sort of) waiting to begin bite work in the months to come,
and not doing much beyond 'platz' and 'aus' in obedience. We continue to
enjoy it.
Hope all is well
with your family.
Rick Daniels
November 23, 2003
Hi Ramona -
VP stands for 'Very Promising' and is the highest
conformation rating a 6-9 month old puppy can receive. I think there
were five of the pups that received a VP, and Zeke placed third. The
German Judge was very complimentary, particularly about his head and
his angulation, both front and back. In fact, the only somewhat
negative thing he said was that we would benefit from more training
for the conformation ring. (The other VP pups were from
conformation/show lines, and trained to gait around the ring with
their heads up. Zeke, on the other hand, spent almost the entire time
with his nose buried in the grass.... tracking. But given that
conformation isn't going to be our 'cup of tea', I can't sat that I
really minded.)
If congratulations are to be had, they are to you, Rocky and Pen - not the two of us. We just showed up with what we've been given.
I hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving!
September 25, 2003
Dear Ramona -
As you know, Zeke is now almost 7 months old, and we
thought you'd like an update on him. We remain thrilled to have him. He
weighed 68 pounds today and continues to get good reports from the vet.
You can see some photos of him taken during the past few weeks, if
you click on New Pictures at his website:
http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/zekedaniels/index.html.
You asked not long ago how he compares
with the other pups in our schutzhund club. It's hard to say, exactly,
because there are no other dogs as young as Zeke. However, the next two
youngest dogs are a 12 month old and 13 month old out of Bastin (2002
USA Champion, 2003 GSD Champion, etc.), who are both bicolors with all
of the drive you'd expect. Every member who has been around Zeke for the
first time has been stunned to learn that he is not also out of Bastin.
The only real clue is that the black in Zeke's coat is a much richer
black. The only other dog in the club with Zeke's intensity is a Sch 3
IPO 3 that has qualified and competed in the Nationals. As I've said
from the beginning, his only real drawback is me.
We aren't really doing much in the way
of formal schutzhund work with him at the club - which is fine with me -
just some agitation work with burlap. He does get to be around the
people and some of their dogs, though, so I take him fairly regularly.
And they seem to really like him, particularly his drive - they usually
refer to him as "the little monster." At home, we're working almost
exclusively on drive building and socialization, but mostly we're just
enjoying him. We'll send you another report in a few months.
I hope things are well with you and your
family. We were happy to see your upcoming litters, particularly the
repeat between Rocky and Pen.
Rick and Peggy Daniels
Asheville, NC