It has been sooo long since I sat down and typed out a little bit of what has been going around the kennel. Big lapse of time but here are a few things we wanted to mention and few folks we wanted to thank:

First of all I meant to post a big THANK YOU to Dr. Whitson and his gracious wife months ago.   They were wonderful enough to come out here on a Saturday (their day off) and do all of our yearly rabies shots for us at a wonderful rate.  Thank you so much for your time and your committment to your profession.  Dr. Whitson is absolutely wonderful with a great bedside manner and I hope to be doing quite a bit more business with him in the future.  Hard to find a vet that wants to be called by his first name.  He is a very friendly, knowledgeable, and down to earth man.

Our dogs did well at their yearly CERF testing at Animal Opthalmology Clinic in Dallas.   It took 4 trips, total of 20 hours of drive time, to get everyone tested.  Sadly Natasha, our agouti girl did not pass her exam.  She was the only one that didn't pass but we have found her a wonderful pet home to live out her life.  She has a great family and another husky to live with.  She was diagnosed with a small corneal dystrophy to her left eye which will not lead to blindness.  She has never had a litter of pups so their will be no puppies out there that could have inherited it.  So good to know that we are helping to keep inherited eye disease numbers down in the breed by doing our part.  Kudos to the staff at Animal Ophthalmology, they are always wonderful to work with, very friendly with us and all of our four legged pack mates!!  Couldn't ask for better service or personalities!!

Derby has blown out her coat for the year, so we are currently taking a break from the show ring.  We currently have 5 Grand Championship points on her.  I had hoped to start showing Chili, our red/white girl out of a Canadian Champion Sire, but she is on the small side of the standard, and just doesn't have the reach that she needs to show.  She will become my oldest daughters pet.  As soon as Derby has her undercoat back in then we will be out showing again.  In the mean time, we have kept back two of Pirate and Loki's babies as future show prospects.  Allie, my oldest daughter, is now competing in JR showmanship, and she wanted her very own Sib puppy to train and show.  Mick will be hers to get ready for the show ring.  The female from the litter, Tequila, will also be in training for show and I hope to get both of them ready in order to show them in the puppy class this Fall.  Wish us luck with our two new show prospects!!!  I hope they do well:D.

We have one more addition that will be coming to us this Fall from MN and then I think we will be taking a break from adding any additional huskies to the pack.  We have gotten to the point where all of our dogs are wonderful specimens and we are going to be retaining from the inside now. 

We had a successful weekend at the AKC dog show held at Market  Hall in Dallas.  Derby took BOB for a major on Saturday the 10th and BOS on Sunday the 11th.  We are extremely proud of her.  It is such a pleasure to show this beautiful girl.  I am looking forward to our next show in January!!

We are super excited to announce our newest arrivals to our pack.  I have been looking to add a few additional strong show quality males to our breeding/show program for quite some time and I was just ecstatic when I was given the opportunity to bring in both Pirate and Pharaoh.  We just brought the boys home two nights ago and they went in for their vet visit today.  Both the boys are blowing their coat heavily right now but I hope to have their coats up to shape in order to show them in a few months.  Pirate has a major and a few minor wins and Pharaoh has some minor wins.  I hope to finish Pirate out to his championship first and then work with Pharaoh next.  I am just very excited to have both the boys here and to be given the opportunity to work with them in the ring.  They both bring remarkable top notch bloodlines that will ensure our kennel continues to be a top producer of quality Siberians.  Look for Pirate in the ring soon and wish us luck showing this beautiful boy!!   

I had a long  busy day today but a very happy one.  Our newest four legged family member arrived today at DFW airport from California.  Derby did wonderful with her flight and her ride home.  She was a little unsure once arriving to the house and a little shy with the kids but this is to be expected with any move.  I am sure in a few days time after she gets acclimated to us and her surroundings, that she will figure out that we are a very fun, loving family!!  We are soooo excited to have this amazing girl here with us and I can't thank Jennifer enough for allowing us the opportunity to bring her into our lives.  Derby is in the process of blowing her coat right now, so I don't know if her coat will be up to standard enough to show her next month at the Canton AKC show or not, but once her coat does come back in, then we will be hitting the show ring a lot in hopes of obtaining her Grand Championship.  Thank you Jennifer for this amazing girl.  She is wonderful and we are thrilled to have her as part of the family!!

Derby is the last of four girls that we have purchased out of state within the last two months.  Our Briar, Porsche, and Chili all came to us from Minnesota in July.  We are very happy with all the girls and expect great things out of them in the future!!  Chili will be debuting in the show ring in November once she has her six month birthday so wish her luck!!:D

We had our AKC inspection yesterday.   We passed our inspection with flying colors with 100% complience and not a single deficit or short coming found.  We are always super excited to hear this.  Our inspector just loved the dogs large size areas that they have to run in and he thought the huskies were beautiful.  He was also happy to see the automatic watering system that we are currently getting installed.  AKC is the only dog registry in the United States that inspects the kennels that are registered with them.  They want to make sure that kennels that produce AKC registered dogs are well run, clean and compliant with regulations.  

A little update on the huskies.   We took six of our Siberians in yesterday for their appointment with our veterinary ophthalmologist to get their CERF testing done for the year.  All six of huskies rode well on the trip and made great co pilots.  Destiny, Nikita, Star, Zala, Esme and Athena all passed their CERF test for the year with flying colors!  Not only did we get compliments on their healthy eyes, but on their overall gorgeous good looks too!  So far this year we have had eleven of our huskies tested and everyone has passed!  YEAH...Always feels good to get a great report card!  For those of you who are not familiar with a CERF test I will explain.  It is a comprehensive test done on the dogs eyes by the Veterinary Ophthalmoligst to rule out any disorders in the dogs eye.  What we are looking for is to make sure that none of our Siberians have any genetically caused eye disorders.  Siberians are prone to three different types of genetic eye disorders: juvenile cataracts, PRA and corneal dystrophy.  Only dogs that are found clear of all three disorders every year should be used for breeding.  That is why it is so important to make sure you purchase a puppy from a responsible breeder who has this testing done yearly.  Having a sire and dam to a litter that are CERF clear helps reduce the risk of their puppies ever developing a genetic eye disorder.  Genetic eye disorders are one of the most common genetic problems found in the Siberian, so make sure your puppy comes from a breeder who has this testing done yearly on all of their breeding sires and dams.

My Belle's babies are beautiful !  Puppy selection is in process and the first pick family for male and female from this litter will give us their decisions by Sunday.  So look for availabilty soon on the rest of the litter.