Brags & News

April 25-27, 2008

Christi, Katie and Keturah Rice all loaded up and attended a UKC show weekend at the MSAPBTC in McComb, MS.  They came home with Katie and Player taking 3 RESERVE BEST IN SHOW wins, 2 Gun Dog GROUP 1st's and thereby finishing a new UKC Champion.  Christi and Skeet took 3 Reserve Winner's Dog wins, 2 Best of Winner's wins and one Best of Breed and Gun Dog Group 1 win over the dynamic duo of Katie and Player and also finished Skeet's UKC Championship.  Keturah did a lovely job of handling Elf to 6 Winner's Female wins while Dine took Christi for several trips around the ring, earning 6 Best Jr. Novice Puppy in Breed wins.  Of course she was the only puppy in the breed there, and was only entered for fun... let's just say that she got her money's worth! :-)   

April 15, 2008

Elf passes her Canine Good Citizen test and earns her CGC! 

January 17, 2008

The most wonderful news!!!  Player will become a permanent member of our household! 

December 16, 2007

Katie Kirby handles Ch. Struan's Heartbreaker at KD's, RN ("Player") for another Best of Breed win over the adults.  They are truly a hard team to beat!

December 15, 2007

Katie Kirby handles Ch. Struan's Heartbreaker at KD's, RN ("Player") for another Best of Breed win and a Group showing! 

December 14, 2007

Katie Kirby handles Danbury's Evenstar at Keepsake, CDX, RE ("Elf") to a Winners Bitch win, then on to Ch. Struan's Heartbreaker at KD's, RN ("Player") for a Best of Breed win!  Christi steps in for Katie to take Best of Winners with Elf for a point!  Katie and Player went on to make their Group Ring debut.  Though they didn't take a Group placement, there wasn't a dry eye in the house.  What a team!!!

October, 2007

Christi Kirby and Danbury's Evenstar at Keepsake, CDX, RE ("Elf") are awarded the Evelyn Williams Award from the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever Club (USA)!  For more information on the award, see: 

http://www.nsdtrc-usa.org/trophies&awards.htm

August 19, 2007

Christi and Keturah Rice go to the shows with  Keepsake's Moonbeams over KD's ("Beamer") and get the final point for Beamer's new Champion Title!  Christi also handles Kare's Shoot to Thrill ("Skeet") for a Best of Breed win, giving him another point as well!

August 18, 2007

Christi and Keturah Rice go to the shows with  Keepsake's Moonbeams over KD's ("Beamer") to take another point toward their championship!

April 28, 2007

Keepsake's Moonbeams over KD's ("Beamer") has been leased for a litter. 

April 28, 2007

Christi and Katie made the tiring trip to Montgomery, AL for the Toller Supported Entry and boy what a great weekend we had!  Young 5 yr old Katie handled Ch. Struan's Heartbreaker at KD's, RN ("Player") to a Best Opposite win!!!  Mom cried with joy!  I think there might be a new photo gallery for this one! ;-)  

April 27, 2007

Sad news in the household... Elf will not be having puppies from her breeding to Trip.  Those are the breaks, I guess.  We dust ourselves off and go on, as much as we would have liked to have that litter, our dogs are first and foremost pets and members of our household.  We still have a very healthy Elf so we don't have much room to complain! 

April 7, 2007

We made a flying trip to Birmingham, AL to meet with Laura Smith of Keepsake Tollers to return the grand ole man who shared our home for a bit (Trip).  While there, she shoved Christi in the ring with Luna again and they walked away with WB/BOS for a 4 point major win!  WOW!  The grapevine has it that Luna won again the next day to finish her championship.  Congratulations to Laura and Luna.

March 26, 2007

Trip was bred to Elf!  We will know shortly if we are expecting....  See the Upcoming Breedings page for more details as we know them.

February 11, 2007

Tradewinds Long Trip is HERE!  See our upcoming breedings page for more details, but this is Elf's intended.  Such a grand old man... we feel privileged to have him here in our home until the time comes.

February 11, 2007

Skeet retrieves real birds and gets exposure to gun fire!  We're happy to say that he loved both.  He had seen the bird on one other occasion, but it was at home.  You never know how they are going to do until you take them to the field in a strange place and see what you get.  I'm happy to say that his first exposure to gunfire was no big deal and that he remembered the birds from his one other exposure.  He not only remembered them, he went NUTS for them!  Also of note was that we were able to set up his first "re-entry" retrieve, where he crosses water, onto land to get the bumper, and then has get back in the water to return to the handler.  This boy is turning out to be soooo much fun!  See his page for photos.

February 4, 2007

Well, it goes without saying that since Katie did such a lovely job in the match that we let her show her Elfie in the real show the next day! :-)  She did it in style, charming the judge, the other exhibitors and the crowd, walking away with a Reserve win!  (Of course there were only two girls entered, but still!! <G>)  The judge was fantastic with Katie and made a special effort for us to get this photo.  I can't say enough about the photographer at these shows as well.  He is Luke Allen and can be reached at info@lukeallenphoto.com .  His contribution to our weekend was just the cherry on top!   Click on the photo for a larger version.

February 4, 2007

Luna does it again!  This time she showed her way to WB/BOW/BOB with Christi as her handler.  Congratulations Luna!  Click on the photo for a larger version!

February 3, 2007

Our daughter Katie (5 yrs old) did a spectacular job in the Jr Show ring at Pine Bluff, AR.  She was the only "underage" exhibitor (to my knowledge) and was showing a young male Keeshond belonging to her Grandmother.  She had never seen this dog prior to taking him in the ring.  Not only did she make everyone proud by doing a great job of controlling a strange dog, she won 4th out of 6!  I see a great little dog handler in our future!! 

February 3, 2007

We "borrowed" Luna from Laura Smith of Keepsake Tollers for a weekend of shows.  Not only was she a fun girl to take with us, she also came back with her first two points!  Luna took WB the first day, helping my best friend Keturah make her show ring debut in a grand fashion.  Congratulations Luna and Keturah! 

November 12, 2006

Elf qualifies in Open under Judge Kenneth Buxton to finish her CDX title with a 2nd place win!  This makes the 5th title finished on the Tollers this year!

October 29, 2006

Elf qualifies in Open under Judge Franklin Saling for her 2nd CDX leg with a 3rd place win as well!

October 29, 2006

Billie qualifies in Novice under Judge William Parrill for her 4th CD leg with a 3rd place win as well as winning the Highest Scoring Breed Champion of Record trophy as well!  Way to go Billie!

October 28, 2006

Elf wins the Open class under Judge Don Young for her 1st CDX leg!

October 28, 2006

Billie qualifies in Novice under Judge Don Young to finish her CD title with 3rd place and the Highest Scoring Breed Champion of Record trophy!

October 14, 2006

Our 4 year old daughter Katie shows in her very first match show, winning Best Junior Handler in Match.  If that wasn't good enough, she also showed a Pug (Lola-- courtesy of Michele and Robbie Bearden) to a BOB win, then went on to show her against seasoned adult handlers in the group to take a TOY GROUP 1 win!  She also showed our Toller, Elf, for the first time and did rather well, winning BOB and a SPORTING GROUP 1!  Momma is proud, or could you tell? :-)

August 27, 2006

Billie qualifies in Novice under Judge John Mett for her 2nd CD leg with a 4th place win!

August 26, 2006

Billie qualifies in Novice under Judge Virginia Kinion for her 1st CD leg with a 4th place win!

July 7, 2006

Elf qualifies in Novice under Judge Howard Glatstein to finish her CD!

May 14, 2006

Billie moves up a class and qualifies for her 1st Rally Advanced leg under Judge David Haddock.

May 14, 2006

Elf qualifies in Novice under Judge Stephen Piccuolo for her 2nd CD leg!

May 13, 2006

Billie qualifies in Rally Novice under Judge Stephen Piccuolo to finish her RN title!! Yea Billie!!

May 13, 2006

Elf qualifies in Novice for her 1st CD leg under Judge Barry Roland with a 3rd place win as well!

March 5, 2006

Elf qualifies in Rally Advanced and Rally Excellent, taking 2nd place in both classes for her 1st RAE leg!

March 5, 2006

Billie qualifies in Rally Novice with a 3rd place win for her 2nd RN leg.

March 4, 2006

Elf qualifies in Rally Excellent with 1st place to finish her RE title!

March 4, 2006

Billie qualifies in Rally Novice with a 3rd place win for her 1st RN leg!