Katie 

Grainne's Pirate at Kirkmarsh
(Bentley)

sire  Am Ch Dreadlocks Irish upon a star x  Dam   Am Ch Realta Grace under Fire

Date of birth 21/08/05
 

Pedigree of Grainne's Pirate at Kirkmarsh

 Hips – 6/4, total 10
Elbows - 0/0
Eyes - Clear (23 November 2009)
US import

From New Years Eve, it seemed to take forever to get to the 21^st of July.

We would like to say an enormous THANKYOU to Larry and Ginny Spencer who bred Bentley, they have put such a lot of time into the litter from the start, and Ginny has been an excellent correspondent through out. We have received loads of emails and pictures of Bentley, and we thought that he was a very good-looking dog.

Ginny was sending Bentleys brother Tibbot to Just Ducky Training Academy for gundogs, run by Pam Kadlac, in the kindergarten class for a month, we were asked if we would like to send Bentley too, so we thought this would be a good idea, it would give him something to think about, and it would mean that he would be living some where else for a while, which would be good experience for him, as later on he would be making a big move over to England, leaving his secure home that he has known since birth.

Bentley trying some agility

The day finally came for the arrival of Bentley, and his breeder Ginny Spencer. We were already at Chillington Hall with our caravan and so were Louise Bailey, Pauline and Ian Probert. Melvyn and I set off Friday to Heathrow Airport, leaving Pauline, Ian and Louise looking after our other dogs for the day. Ginny’s plane landed at 9.30 am, and we were waiting at the arrivals door and it was not long before Ginny came through, it was really good to meet this intelligent well travelled Lady, after all those emails, and I can tell you now we were not disappointed. We did not get to meet Bentley until 4.30 pm that afternoon, It took a long time for him to go through the DEFRA vet and the paper work. But when we saw him, we could not believe our eyes, he looked magnificent and we knew that we had got a lot more dog than we could ever imagine. When we had him out for a walk, he was just taking every thing in his stride, and even then you could tell that his temperament was first class, such a lovable boy.

Ginny and Bentley were the stars at our working weekend, and quite a few IWS owners came just to meet them, so it was a busy weekend for every one, but Bentley coped with it all very well, even when we moved down to Salisbury, to stay there for the CLA.

We took Ginny to the airport to catch her plane back to the USA on the 1^st of August, we were very sad to see her go, as she had become one of our group, and had fitted in with every thing that we did, and also shared her extensive knowledge of the IWS with us. We are hoping that when she and Larry visit Ireland in 2007 they will come and see us and of course Bentley.

Since coming home, these last few months have been great, Bentley and the rest of our girls get on very well, and its just like we have had him forever, at the moment we are doing a little bit of agility with him, so we can get a good bonding with him, and also we can work in doors while the dark nights are upon us.

Now we have just got our first Christmas present from Bentley, his Hip and Elbow scores. Hips 6 – 4 = 10.      Elbows 0 – 0. What more can we wish for.