New Champion

We have a new champion today. "Bob" or more formally, Starbuck Torbay Spellbound won his final point today. His owner Jo was on hand to see the victory and I am sure that between her and her friend Janet they have lots of great pictures of the day.

"New Champion" Bob and his owner , Jo exploring in the Puget Sound area, with the olympic range in the background.

A long Weekend

We went to Denmark! We arrived on Friday at about 2pm and collected our rental car and drove about 60km west of Denmark to where we were to stay the night. The weather was right around freezing, gray and VERY windy (which made it feel even colder) but dry.
The Bromølle Kro where we were staying was built at this location in 1198, and although it has undergone modernization in the years since then, some of the original beams can still be seen. We had a wonderful meal here on Friday night with friends Pia, Knud, Anne & Miikka. After a good nights sleep we left Saturday morning to go to the January Awards Party and show of the Danish Beagle Club, held just a few miles away..
The tables were set up around the ring and lunch and dinner were served amidst the judging – it did make for a very long day. The show had an entry of 99 and the judge was Manuel Borges, from Portugal. Full results. Several dogs we had sent to Denmark over the years did quite well with Starbuck Torbay Talbot Hill Grand Cru being 3rd best dog in show. We had made this trip to evaluate some puppies and 2 of them came home with us – Susan & Thomas. They are just 7 months old and will not be shown until they have grown up a bit, I will update our webpage soon with details on them, but they are by Danish & American Champion Starbuck Torbay About Face out of Danish Champion Gold Line Romantic Issue.

We flew home from Copenhagen on Sunday and stayed overnight in Seattle with our friend Carrie and drove home today. The youngsters handled the whole trip marvelously and came out of their crates at the airport tails wagging.

What an Exciting weekend!

On Saturday Herbie shown by David (bred by Carrie) won Best in Show and became the first red/white male in the history of the breed to win a BIS...then he surprised us all by winning BIS again today - making it Back to Back Best in Shows - definitely a first, no other Red/White beagle has won 2 Best in Shows before in the USA.

Unfortunately neither Carrie nor I were at the shows to witness this historic event - where were we...well we had gone to a Rick Steves day of lectures about travel to Spain, Portugal, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovinia, Slovakia, Poland, England and then we attended his slide show and talk on his recent visit to Iran which was really interesting.

Rainy Day

An unusually rainy day in Summer, was the recipe for yesterday's dog show. Forecast was for rain by noon, but it held off until 2pm. Very small entry of Beagles (4) Bob was Winners dog (for 1 point, now has 13) and Herbie was BOV. By the time the group came around, the rain was pouring down, fortunately there was good tenting, but everyone was still wet. Good day though, Herbie won the group. See Carrie' blog for some more details.

Its now another day for packing, as we leave for Europe tomorrow. Bruges, Copenhagen and Brussels are on the agenda. I am judging a Newfoundland Specialty in Vordingborg, just South of Copenhagen. I am sure that we may also see some beagles, when we visit some dog friends.