Danza Dogs

Whoopie and Max's puppies arrive

2011-04-14T18:22:00.000-07:00

Whoopie (CH Amor's Hip Hop by Danza) and Max's (CH Danza's Maxwell Smart) puppies arrived today. The first one to arrive showed up about 7:15 this morning and the last one arrived at about 3:30 this afternoon. There are 5 girls and 4 boys.

You can see them on my puppy cam at Havanese puppy cam

Star's first agility photos

2010-04-01T10:23:00.000-07:00

Tequila's puppies

2010-03-11T21:55:00.000-08:00

Meet Thelma & Louise, Tequila's two puppies. Thelma is a black & tan, and Louise is a black Irish pied. They have opened their eyes and have started toddling around. Mom is letting the girls visit with the other dogs and the puppies have started trying to play with the rest of the girls. The love to toddle around the den visiting with everyone. Bear isn't too sure he likes the puppies, because they try to nurse on him, which he emphatically doesn't like!

This is Louise, and here's Thelma:

Tequila has two girls

2010-02-11T15:43:00.000-08:00

Last night Tequila gave birth to two adorable baby girls. One is a black irish pied and the other is black & tan. She was showing signs of giving birth yesterday, so we brought her to the office so I could supervise her.

She did fine during the day, jumping up on the back of the couch to supervise the neighborhood and scare off any dogs that might walk by.

When we went home last night she was still full of energy and, except for having milk, no signs of puppies coming. Finally, at about 10 pm, she popped out 2 puppies quickly and was done!

I'll try to get some photos posted soon.

AKC Agility for the first time

2010-02-08T11:39:00.000-08:00

This weekend Star competed in her first AKC agility trial, the Greater Portland Doberman Pinscher club sponsored it at the Clark County Fairgrounds in Ridgefield, WA. (Star is the puppy at the top of my blog - she's grown a bit since then!)

Our first class was the FAST class. I made a plan, but Star wasn't completely on board with my plan. She refused a couple of obstacles, then my timing (and addition!) got out of sync (I was supposed to get 50 points) She did the gamble correctly, so we had 33 of the 50 points needed. She then got the tire, so there was 10 more points. She refused a jump I had planned and ran out of time....we ended up just one point short! Oh well, we'll do better next time.

Shortly thereafter, and much to my amazement, she qualified on her first Jumpers with Weaves (JWW) run!!! I had been worrying about how she would handle the weave poles, since she has a tendency to not make it around all of them (even though novice dogs only have to do 6). She did great!!! And we had a decent time.

When it came time later in the day for the Standard class, she had a lot more trouble. She has never seen a proper broad jump until the ring. She was a bit surprised by it (painted a garish purple and white). I could not get her to go over it, so we went around it and finished the rest of the run. Again she did a great job with her weaves!. It was long day for her and she slept well that night.

On Sunday, we again started with JWW. I wasn't particularly happy with her run, although she again did her weaves well! I didn't think we had qualified, because I though time ran out before her finish. Later I checked and what a surprise, she qualified again!!!!

Star's standard run was the 2nd to last run of any dog that day and she was tired. She made her first 3 obstacles and then decided not to jump the 4th jump. O.k. on to the dreaded broad jump. She started to go around, then stopped and sniffed it. Apparently it smelled fine, because she posed behind it, I got in front and she jumped it. Yeah Star!!!! That was our win for the Standard, because after that it fell apart completely. I think the judge was ready to go home. When our time ran out, we still had a number of obstacles, but she whistled us off the course. I tried to send her through the tunnel for the finish, but she missed that and appeared happy to head home.

We took our 5th wheel up to the fairgrounds so we didn't have to run back and forth (and so I didn't have to get up quite so early for those early runs!). When we parked, the ground was o.k., although there were wet areas all around. Later than night, the area outside the trailer turned into a muddy mess (and I had thrown away our worn out mats last fall). I had to run and buy a mat, in an attempt to keep things at least a bit clean. No such luck, the dogs and the rig were covered with mud.

Watch out for Humane Society of the United States Fundraising

2010-01-31T10:15:00.001-08:00

Take a look at what the Center for Consumer Freedom is saying about the HSUS's latest fundraising scam:

Consumer Group: HSUS Must Return Donations after Misleading Haiti Fundraising

Humane Society Of The United States Has A History Of Deceptive Pitches
Washington, DC - The Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) is calling on the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) to return all the funds it has raised under the pretense of "saving" animals in the wake of Haiti's devastating earthquake. A disaster relief expert working with Humane Society International (HSUS's global arm) reports that there are no animal issues resulting from the earthquake and that no actions can be taken to help animals there. This follows a thorough assessment of the situation in Haiti.
HSUS continues to raise funds for "emergency" donations, claiming Tuesday that "Humane Society International' s team on the ground in Haiti continues its work of helping animals in distress."
David Martosko, Director of Research at the Center for Consumer Freedom released the following statement on HSUS's deceptive fundraising:

Raising money to help nonexistent animals is the lowest kind of fundraising scam. Sadly, it's just the latest in a string of phony HSUS fundraising schemes.
In 2007 HSUS raised money with the false promise that it would be used to "care for the dogs seized in the Michael Vick case." The New York Times later reported that HSUS was not caring for the animals at all, and HSUS president Wayne Pacelle said his group is recommending that government officials "put down" (kill) all the dogs, many of which were later saved by other organizations.
HSUS also raised a reported $34 million in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, funds that were supposed to help reunite lost pets with their owners. But an investigation by WSB-TV in Atlanta found that less than $7 million of this money could be publicly accounted for.
In the name of transparency, HSUS should cease its Haiti fundraising immediately, or redirect 100 percent of the proceeds to the American Red Cross.

The Center for Consumer Freedom is a nonprofit coalition supported by restaurants, food companies, and consumers, working together to promote personal responsibility and protect consumer choices.

For media comment, contact our media department at 202-463-7112 ext. 115

Golden Gate Kennel Club

2010-01-31T08:38:00.000-08:00

Sasha and I are in San Francisco this weekend for the Golden Gate Kennel Club benched show. Yesterday was a very long day, but we got to meet a lot of nice folks interested in Havanese. Sasha took best Bred by Exhibitor and had a chance to show in the big arena in the toy group. She showed well, but did not place in the group.

Sasha met lots of new people and was a wonderful ambassador for the breed. She particularly loved meeting all the kids. Even when I wasn't holding her, she was pressed up against the front of her bed, trying to attract the attention of all the kids walking by.

Today we're going to enjoy San Francisco and visit the city. We decided that 2 days of being benched was just too much for the dogs, they are really exhausted! Time for them to have some fun.

Rose City Classic Show Schedule

2010-01-13T15:48:00.001-08:00

The Rose City Classic Dog show is next week. The show schedule has been posted.

Havanese show times are:

Thursday (1/21) Ring 16 at 12:45 pm after 22 dogs, so we will start at about 1:30 pm
Friday (1/22) Ring 4 at 12:55 pm after 2 dogs, so 1:00 pm
Saturday (1/23) Ring 15 at 2:30 pm straight into the ring
Sunday (1/24) Ring 15 at 1:10 pm after 21 dogs, so we will start at about 1:55 pm

This is the biggest dog show locally, with over 3,000 dogs shown each day. It is held at the Portland Expo Center on Marine Drive. Animal Planet will be filming the dog show and will film the groups and best in show on Saturday evening.

Along with conformation, this show also includes agility trials, obedience and rally trials.

Teacup Dog Agility Trial Jan 9, 2010

2010-01-12T23:22:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I took Star and Michelle to their first agility trial. My Dog's Gym in Salem was the site for the trial. It was our first time to see the scaled down equipment that is used for the teacup dogs (under 17" tall at the withers). The teeter and dog walk were much narrower than the equipment used in the other agility venues.

At the workshop, we did two games, Star managed to get a qualifying score in both of the practice games. Michelle did a fine job of entertaining the audience, but no qualifying scores. She decided she didn't really like how narrow the dog walk and teeter were, so she spent the rest of the day avoiding them.

Michelle had a ton of fun, though and brought lots of laughs to everyone. She completely forgot that sit and stay were skills she (sort of) knows. Instead, I had to hold her before the start while she stood on two legs jumping around.

After the workshop, there was a trial with on standard run and one game. I am so proud of Star, she qualified in her very first trial!!! She took second in the novice 8" class, which was the largest class at the trial. The dog that beat her in the class was faster, but didn't manage to get a qualifying leg.

New Blog and Website

2009-11-23T13:26:00.000-08:00

I decided to create a blog to keep things updated about our dogs. Over the weekend I finally completed a total revision of the Danza Havanese website. Adding a blog will make it easier to post quick information about our dogs and puppies. I also plan to post updated information about local dog events, including handling and agility classes, shows and meetings.