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 6th 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 2nd 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.