Sophie had been long awaited, as the mating between Ziva and Doyle had been planned since Ziva was a puppy. It is nice to know the back ground of pedigrees, even better knowing the parents on each side of the pedigree. Sophie has on Ziva’s side Bentley and Liz, and on Doyles side Teasel and her mum Sheba, all of which of course are and have been our dogs. Plus the litter was born on Bentleys 6^th birthday.

Sophie as a pup  and left Sophie with Ziva (on left)

With Sophie being born in the August, we were wondering where we could take her to get some socializing with other dogs and people, so in January when she was 5 months old we started ringcraft on a Wednesday night, yes I know we do gundog work but in January we have very little day light, do anything in. Sophie enjoyed it, and it was good for us to bond and work together.

Sophie ringcraft  left  and at a show .

When the nights started getting lighter, we started doing some training with Sophie, and attending the URC, Dukeries and PTA training classes in the puppies, she did very well, and we also went to Dorothy Walls – Duffins to train, with friends and their IWS. Sophie missed both our training weekends, the first one she had Kennel Cough and the second one she had her first season, it was a great shame that she and I missed out on two good weekends.

Sophie training

Due to Sophie having experienced ringcraft, we had decided before we cut her coat off that we would put her in 2 or 3 shows, and she was also entered in a couple of puppy working tests, with all of that flowing hair! The puppy tests came first with the URC, then the Dukeries, Sophie is now 10 months old, and the tests are for AV puppies 6 to 18 months old, so there were tests that we had not even got to training Sophie for then, but what she did know she did very well and we had good comments from the judges I was very pleased about that.

Then came the shows, again in puppies, it was a pity that I could not show her but with my knee so bad I could not run her out, but I was very pleased that my cousin Barbara Dewing came to the rescue, so Sophie could not be in better hands. She was a little worried at the first show East of England, when she had to leave us and go with Barbara, but she let the judge go over her and she stood 4th.  Then it was the IWSA breed Championship show and Sophie got a 2^nd there. The National gundog (and the last) show was next and she got a VHC and did not like the judge, from the moment she entered the ring, she could not take her eyes off the judge, and I knew this did not bode well, but hay we have had a go, it was nice doing something different for a while let alone keeping her very nice coat in good shape for the ring.

Sophie IWSA championship show

Now that I have had a new knee Sophie and I hope to be back in work and looking forward to some picking on the shooting field.