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Warning: I asked mom to write a bit on how we got into dogs. I had no idea she would start when she and dad GOT MARRIED! Yikes.... Historical Information
One day while meeting with a group of friends Keith was attracted to a mixed breed dog named "Moses". The girl who owned "Moses" was planning to go back to medical school so Keith told her he would really like to have her dog. Thus Moses came to live with us. He was a beautiful dog--a real mixture--Golden,Collie, German Shepherd, and likely St. Bernard too. When our first daughter, April, was born Moses became her pal. When she was two she loved to throw these huge bones for Moses to fetch. He was always a gentle companion. At this time we lived on a large farmyard in southern Alberta with a post fence surrounding the property. Moses loved to jump over this fence. Knowing nothing about "proper dog breeding" we had no idea what hip displasia was. We were soon to find out. One day while Moses was sailing over this fence he pulled his hip out of his socket. Keith was really attached to Moses and was totally devastated. We immediately loaded Moses up and took him into the best hospital in Calgary. There the surgeon told Keith that the hip could be repaired, but it would not necessarily bring lasting results. The cost was over $800.00. That was money we didn't have. Keith was determined to help Moses so we borrowed the money from an uncle and had the operation performed. Moses came home in the white of winter. Every morning Keith carried him way out to the garden so he could do his job and then brought him back into the house where he spent the rest of the day convalescng. That spring found Moses back bounding around the yard chasing gophers and playing with April, but that fence just was too much fun. One day as he was going over it happened again. This time Keith was faced with the reality that he would have to put his dear friend "Moses" down. That day we lost a very dear friend and companion. We still love to look at old slides and snapshots of this dog. He brought much happiness to our family. Moses the Second
Well, now our animal family was down to one tabby cat, but our people family had added daughter Heidi. While growing up on a farm my family had an old collie named Buster. Because of this I had always loved the breed. I began begging Keith to get us a collie puppy. Taking things into my own hands I began looking in the paper for puppy ads. (We still knew nothing about the world of dog breeders). One night I was very excited as that day I had found an ad for a collie puppy nearby. The breeder did actually show her collies and this puppy had been saved to be a show dog, but the future buyers had decided they didn't want him. This was absolutely great because secretly I had always had an interest in showing dogs, and I thought to myself --maybe, just maybe I could show this puppy. Besides I thought the difference between a show dog and a pet dog had to be the markings and I definitely wanted a collie with perfect markings. Keith reluctantly drove us all down to the lady's house and we found the cutest collie puppy. The next morning I had two babies to take care of--Heidi and our new "Moses the Second". Determined that he would learn to do his job like his predecessor way out back in the tall grass I carried Heidi in one arm and Moses in the other outside several times a day. Moses grew up to be a beautiful collie, but my showing career had not progressed very far. I was able to buy a book about dog training and I really enjoyed brushing Moses' beautiful coat, but I really still knew nothing about dog shows and with two little girls demanding my attention full time I was not very likely to learn. On becoming a toddler Heidi developed a real bond with Moses and she used to help me brush him. During Heidi's preschool years I decided to return to my career as a teacher so Heidi became Moses' daytime companion. I again had a little contact with the dog show world. All of the grade one classes at the school where I was teaching were concentrating on a Language Arts theme about pets. Searching the community I found a lady who did obedience with her toy poodles. She consented to come to my classroom and demonstrated how to give a poodle a bath and then she delighted us with demonstrations of obedience exercises. Her key actor was a champion toy poodle in show coat. This again piqued my interest in finding out more about showing dogs, but the timing wasn't right. A few years later our beautiful Moses was hit by a truck and we again were dogless. We had been living in town in Didsbury, but we were going to move back to southern Alberta to our family farm so we promised the girls they could get a dog when we were settled.
Path of Innocence
By now Heidi was eight years old, April was ten, and new baby brother Paul had just been born. For the first year back on the farm the girls were content to each get new kittens--Licorice and Spooky. Of couse we still had our original "old kitty". Heidi, however, was not going to let us forget out promise to again get a dog. April got books from the library and the girls discovered there was a smaller version of the collie known as a Shetland Sheep dog. This was the breed Heidi decided she wanted. Again I looked in the paper, as this was the only way I knew to find a dog. What were reputable breeders, etc.--I had no idea. The girls, baby Paul, and I headed into Calgary to a lady's home to see a litter of Shelties. The important thing to me in picking a puppy was its looks. I wanted a puppy with those perfect markings. This lady owned both the stud and dam of these puppies and this puppy would again even be registered. We were taken as soon as we saw those three puppies romping out in the yard. Heidi was attracted to the runt of the litter, but the lady thought one of the other males would be a better temperament. Well, I had scrimped and saved to get this puppy so after exchanging $350.00 we headed home with the little guy. We were going to name the puppy Moses III, but decided that was going too far... So for days we tried to think of really original names and finally decided "Princie" was a very unique dog name (now we know how common it is :-) !!!) .So this wee puppy became Rosebell's Sweet Caramel Prince. Now that Heidi had a dog, April wanted one too. By this time I had no more money left so April agreed to take an older dog. Again we turned to the only source we knew--the paper--and found "Maggie" a German Shepherd. This took quite a bit of bravery on my part as when I was a young girl a German Shepherd had chased me and my heartbeat always sped up when I saw anything remotely resembling the breed. Maggie loved our large yard and kept all the gophers under control, enlarging their "gopher castles". She was also fond of porcupines and skunks. Well, now that wehad two dogs I decided that the girls needed to take their dogs to dog obedience classes so they could learn to manage them. In rural communities all kinds of craft classes are advertised each fall and spring to keep farm women busy (as if they need help) so I decided to check the rural classes for anything to do with dogs. I discovered that Ruth Lowe, a pomeranian breeder, was teaching an obedience class so each week we loaded up dogs, girls, and Paul and drove down the winding hill into Drumheller. Ruth was just great with the girls and Maggie and Princie were doing a good job too. One night at the end of class Ruth remarked that Princie was such a pretty Sheltie perhaps Heidi should consider showing him in conformation. Conformation--what was that? Then Ruth told us that Princie didn't even have "prick ears", but his ears were naturally tipped. We were beginning to enter the magical world of dog showing and we were being slowly iniatiated in dog jargon. Up to this point I really couldn't say the word "pee" without cringing and "bitch" was definitely out of the question. Ruth had bred and shown shelties herself originally so she told us she would trim Princie's ears for us and help Heidi. She also told us about the Alberta Kennel Club Show coming up in Calgary and she supplied us with a premium list and helped us fill it out. Well, why not, I thought. Wasn't this something I had always wanted to do? Keith was game, so in the deathly cold month of January every Sunday, we would load up Heidi,Princie, a crate, a homemade grooming table, brushes and spray bottle,Paul, and April, and sandwiches for everybody and head into Calgary to what was called a Sanction Match On arriving we naiivly would unload our grooming table and carry all our supplies into the show building. There I brushed Princie and readied him for the ring (EVEN chalking him for his "big debut" while Heidi watched what was going on. The folks there were very helpful, and humoured us by explaining all these foreign words to us like--specials, classes, stacking etc. Keith and I were of course extremely proud parents as we watched and encouraged Heidi in the show ring. We treasured those first paper ribbons. We were sure we had a very good sheltie too, when Heidi got to go into group. (Of course there were no other shelties at the sanction match, but what did we know!) During this time April had been studying the dog books some more at the library, and had become enamored with the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. I thought the name sounded pretty impressive too. On about the second Sunday at the Sanction Match imagine our surprise when we saw a lady hustling into the ring with one of these Cavalier King Charles Spaniel dogs tucked under her arm. I nabbed her and explained to her that I had a daughter interested in the breed. She gave me her address and luckily it was very close to the place where the girls took music lessons each week in Calgary. So when it came time for April's violin lesson, and Heidi's cello lesson we made arrangements to stop at Gail Chapman's house. This was a very enlightening experience. Gail took us further into the world of dog showing and showed the girls how to stack up her "Lizzie" and how she was teaching her to bait. She also introduced us to her English Springer Spaniels. Gail had a real interest in Junior Handlers and offered to give the girls some lessons. So for the next few weeks we stopped at Gail's house and she began showing April and Heidi how to do triangles, how to roll up a lead etc. I supervised toddler Paul while this was going on. Meanwhile the date for the AKC show was drawing near and true to her word Ruth Lowe helped to prepare us as much as possible for "dog showing".
Trauma and Triumph - Our First Dog Show
Well, we loaded up our wooden grooming table (I had taken one of the tables Keith had built for the girls to have dolly tea parties on and added tall 2X2 legs to it) , our chalk, and spray bottles--all necessary for Princie's scant coat and made our way to the Big Four Building at the exhibition grounds in Calgary. When we arrived we were put into extreme shock. Nothing could have prepared us for this experience. Timidly we searched for a corner to put our antiquated grooming table and I began hurridly brushing Princie. We had arrived none to early for our class. How fortunate that we happened to bench near a real sheltie breeder who eyed us warily and then approached us in a helpful manner. "What a lovely puppy," she ooed, "but, too bad his ears are trimmed so awfully. I would help you,but there really isn't any time before he goes into the ring." ( Ruth had done a very lovely job on Princie's ears but this breeder liked more extreme trimming.) With this vote of confidence my hands began shaking so badly I could hardly hold the brush. Well, away Heidi and Princie went, getting 2nd in class. The second time in the ring he got first in his class. This gave us enough adrenalin to keep us going for quite a while. On Sunday Heidi entered a very large class of novice Junior Handlers and she came away with a 3rd place ribbon. At the next show Princie actually got 4 points. My nerves were starting to calm down a bit and we tried very hard to look like "normal" exhibitors. In the obedience world Heidi and Princie completed his CD in three shows. At home Heidi took wool and cut and tied it into a whole series of "mop dogs." These wooly dogs had wool leashes attached to them and Heidi had all sorts of little dog shows around the dining room showing these wool creatures to imaginary judges. Their movement was absolutely floating. (Heidi note: THEY WERE A BREED - they came in 3 sizes too. The CKC just hasn't picked it up yet!) There were corded, and frizzy coats with top knots. The breed standard stated that they should be judged only on their fronts as you couldn't always tell their front or back apart. They had problems in the breed as well. Sometimes they would spin around. Particolours were not allowed, or if present the different colours of wool had to be equallyspread throughout the coat. Heidi reassures me that she had only the top dogs in her line--they were BIS winners. All were Canadian and American champions as well. We have a few stored downstairs in bins if anyone is interested in continuing the line
Born to Scissor
Having an older sister was definitely to Heidi's advantage. She was able to see her big sister do all kinds of exciting things like cut, cut, cut with scissors. Heidi early had a fascination for scissons and curly coats. When Heidi was two we decided to adopt two orphan lambs--Timothy and Floppy, appropriately named after the sheep in a favourite story book. Trajically Floppy became sick after eating our garden vegetables and Heidi and I brought the little lamb into our house. We bathed him in our family tub, wrapped him up in a fluffy towel and gently blew his coat dry with our hair dryer. This definitely made another big impression on Heidi's growing mind. A few years later she decided to scissor the coat on the toy lamb I had painstakingly sewed for her. It received a very nice smooth trim. Heidi's dolls also received haircuts. She thought they looked rather nice when she was done. Heidi was always begging to cut my hair as well, but I don't think so. Now that Heidi had entered the world of dog showing she was constantly drawn to the handler's setups where the poodles were being groomed. Heidi would stand for hours watching Carol Graham scissor a gorgeous standard poodle (Ch. Averina's Anastacia). She was always over at the ring when Susan Hilman was flying around with one of her fabulous black dogs (Banner and Mark). Finally Heidi announced her dream to her family. Could she please have a poodle to show -- a black one please? Our First Poodle
With that announcement out I began making phone calls all over the United States and Canada trying to find a breeder who would sell something really good to my 10 year old daughter, for a Chrismas present. I talked to many well known poodle breeders and my phone bill showed it :-(. Finally I spoke to Susan Burge, Gadabout Kennels, in Ohio. Susan, herself, had started into poodles when she was a young girl too, so she was willing to send us a black female puppy. She very generously made a wonderful video so we could choose which puppy we wanted. In the meantime I had also talked to Doris Seelig, Birchcourt Kennels, in Vancouver, British Columbia. She had a very sound six month old white male puppy she would let us have. So I thought--well, I would like a dog for myself to do obedience with so why not get both of them? Doris agreed to sell me Nicky and he arrived in the spring of 1990. Hot off the plane we took him to a sanction match and he did very well. Wendy Bessimer, a Springer breeder and handler, had agreed tohelp us do up his top knot at the first show. After combing the Calgary area for a groomer who knew how to use a 40 blade we became acquainted with Kathy D'Amour. Kathy was absolutely wonderful with Heidi. Whenever Nicky was entered in a show we would drive him into Calgary where Kathy would scissor him with Heidi sitting watching all day at her grooming salon. Kathy explained to Heidi how to do top knots and by the spring Red Deer Show, Kathy watched Heidi put up her first top knot. (Heidi note: Mother wrote the directions out - which nobody USED. I took them out of the grooming box a few years later when she thought I could now do a topknot ;-) That spring in May, Heidi and Nicky got their first Best Puppy in Show at the Ft McMurray Show. When Nicky was finished (Ch.Birchcourt's Sea Horse Nickers C.D.) Heidi began scissoring Nicky with Kathy watching. Kathy also allowed Heidi to come into her grooming shop one day and practice doing feet on all the dogs that came into the shop that day. Kathy is the best grooming teacher. While we were showing Nicky, the new black puppy arrived fromOhio--(future Ch.)Gadabout's Ribbons and Roses "Sophie". Heidi was now busy grooming and showing Nicky and Sophie and her dream was starting. Having finished a championship on both Nicky and Sophie we now approached Doris Seelig for a female puppy. Doris chose a lovely puppy she called Rosebud for us. "Rosey" was so full of life when she came to our house in 1991. We had lots of interesting adventures showing her. One Saturday night we had a terrific lightning storm that wiped out our transformer pole and our electricity. The girls and I were up at 4:30 the next morning to drive into Calgary, but showers were impossible without the power. So the girls headed up to the farm shop a mile away and showered there, stepping gingerly between the oil spills and grease to get dried. Rosey got Best of Winners at the Poodle Specialty that day so it was all worth it. Ch. Birchcourt's Prairie Rosebell became the foundation bitch for our white poodles. So dog by dog we kept adding to our kennel, hoping Keith wouldn't notice ;-). Now how many poodles do we own--by keeping them all white people tend to lose track. Keith just refers to Heidi as "Little Bo Peep with her Flock of Sheep" ;-). Our Thanks to People Who Have Helped Us
There are so many people we need to thank for helping us learn about dogs. Some of you even taught us about dogs without directly knowing us. We thank all of you. First we want to thank Doris Seelig and Susan Burge who believed in a ten year old girl and her dream to show poodles. Thanks to Ruth Lowe (Pandalowe Kennels) who "got us hooked". Then we must thank Kathy D'Amour who taught Heidi the basics of scissoring. Others who helped Heidi learn how to groom were Doris Seelig --who explained all about the tuckup, as well as scissoring a poodle to look like fruit, and how to scissor pet top knots, Maxine Keith--who explained about how NOT to have bell bottoms on poodles, Joanne Noffsinger--who volunteered to help Heidi scissor Rosey and helped her to understand where to put rosettes, Elaine Mitchell--who taught a grooming seminar where Heidi learned HOW TO BRUSH and how to do great top knots, Shaunna Bernardin--for giving Heidi tips on lines,and for competing against us in the ring and forcing Heidi to strive for excellence, and all the other poodle breeders who have written outstanding articles on poodle grooming. Gail Chapman is also important on our list for giving Heidi the grounding in Junior Handling and lending us Toby--the best Jr.Handling dog a girl could have. We must also thank all of our friends who have supported us, Gail Chapman and Ruth Lowe, who helped us with our first whelping.\ Many thanks to each of the stud dog owners; Dorothy Cangston, Debbie Keith, Pat and Pippy Guilfoyle, Doris Seelig, and Mary Woodward, who have allowed us to use their superb stud dogs to enhance and complement the qualities in our "girls". Thank you for all the excellent advice and the additions to our line the "boys" made. We also must thank all the judges who have been so generous in their praise of our dogs and have encouraged a young girl to go beyond her first dream. Thank you to the Poodles (and Princie) for all their love
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