Page One Testimonials

Hi Dawna,

just wanted to let you know how the first week with Rigel is going.

The trip back was long but he is super in the car, only a little whining and

not one accident (of course we had to stop every hour for him). He is

veteran car rider now which is a good thing since has come to my office with

me all this week and anywhere else we go. Axel is warming up to him slowly.

I can not believe how smart he is. I would say he is 80% house broken

already. I think he has had 2 accidents in the house all together. He

accepted his crate with little effort on our part, he is sleeping in it next

to my desk with the door open as I type . He already knows his name and

comes when called. Not bad for 5 days!!! I am really impressed.

I took him to meet the neighbor (Brett) across the street the day after we

got back (the one that trains hunting dogs) and the first thing he did was

grab a bumper as big as him and drug it over to Brett. Brett was impressed

with him and brought some feathers over for him to play with, which he

loves.

Anyway just thought I would say hi and drop you a line now and then. Thanks

again and it was a pleasure meeting you.

Gary and Persephone

Dawna,

I am sorry that I haven't sent you the photos of Chelsea. They are on our desktop; I am able to access them, but I cannot send them. I am trying to sort this out and will send photos soon, hopefully. Chelsea is sleeping on the couch next to us as we sit here and watch TV. She is such a great dog. She is very mellow; you can almost see her just sitting there evaluating her surroundings. I am very impressed with how smart she is and how quickly she learns things. Literally, you show her something one time and she just gets it. I have been hunting with her once... no pheasants, but she found a couple of chukkar, (accidentally and they were flushed). I have been doing some sessions with a good trainer in the area. We have worked on simple dummy fetching and recently scent drags. She was amazing with that. She found all of the toughest drags even downwind, and retreived them. I am taking it very slow and patient with her, but she is really progressing. The trainer that I am working with is really amazed at how low key she is, yet when you start working with her how intellectual and engaged she is. Its been really fun. After hearing about her dad, and how smart he is, I am thinking that has been passed on to her. She is truly a fun dog. I will send some photos as soon as I can figure out how to send them.

Hi to all in Carter!

Chris and Thea Stinnett

Hey Dawna,

A super-sized project just wrapped up for me so I am now taking time to say how very much we love Hoot...more and more each day, if that is possible. She is an amazing little being (18.4 pounds, by the way :-)

I think of you and your kids every day, many times, and thank you so much for bringing this little blue bullet into our lives.

Hoot loves the stream that flows through our place. It's quite shallow for the most part but she is fearless in crossing it or in breaking through the ice. We walk usually about 3 times a day and our longest is maybe one mile but for Hoot, probably farther as her little nose takes her on all sorts of zigs and zags.

Brete refers to her tail as her thermometer. When she gets cold, the hairs on the end of her tail stand up and she looks like she has a little paint brush on her rear. Also, she does have the cutest little butt and knobbiest knees (her front legs, according to Brete,are like Popeye's arms).

We dearly love her ~ I want you to know she is in good hands and could not be more cared for.

Stay in touch.

Marie 10/13/2009 12 Weeks Old

Hi Dawna,

I think about you and thank you and your family every day for the joy little Hoot is bringing to our lives. She is an amazing girl ~ very bright, quite lively (I also give thanks for our 8 year old Golden Retriever, Morgan, who takes up some of the energy that Hoot has) and, when tired, the best little snuggle bunny I could ask for. Hoot has won our hearts. She is so used to being handled and I know that is due to you and your kids. I love watching her progress each day. She has always asked to go outside to poop and today, for the first time, asked to go out to piddle. Hoot knows "sit" and is learning "come" as well as her name. What a big, foreign world it is that we ask these pups to come in to. She reads everything with her nose and her beautiful eyes. Oh, I am so in love with her. What a blessing in my life.

I would call and keep you on the phone all day just talking about her but hopefully you can imagine what it is like for me.

xox, Marie

Hi Dawna,

Well, Max got a prize III at his test on the 26th. We were a bit disappointed with his search, but were super happy with his track and water which he received 4’s for both! Unfortunately in the search we were half way out in the field searching when someone came running out to tell us that they forgot to plant the birds. So we had to stop and hide Max in some coverage while they planted birds and after that he completely lost his concentration(I don’t think the 90degree weather helped), he got 2’s for both the point and search. It really wasn’t his day….after the search they went directly into the track and because the pheasant only went 15 yards he had to wait for all the other dogs to finish and then do another one. However he was excellent!!! He took to the water beautifully (I think the 90degree weather helped!)!! I wish the search went as well as the rest but were still proud of him. Most of the disappointment comes from knowing how amazing he usually is in the field and the judges didn’t get to see it. We are going to retest this fall because we know he can do a lot better. Hopefully they remember to plant the birds ;)

If you have any questions or suggestions feel free to let us know. We’ll keep you up to date with Max and when he’ll test next. Within the next week or so I’m hoping to upload some awesome pics of Max on point. He’s such a beautiful dog….we get compliments wherever we go, especially from other weim owners! Thanks again for such a great dog!!!! He’s such a part of the family, my son Noah introduces Max as his brother!

Hope all is well, take care,

Tara

Dawna,

Thank you very much for forwarding the photos of Cleo when she was a pup! So cute!!

I've been enjoying her company immensely! She's on her third day now without an accident in the house (pretty surprising to me - but I'm obviously very happy about it). I've taken your advice and swaddled her in a towel on the bed next to me at night. She seems perfectly happy with that arrangement - sleeping through the night for as long as I've been in bed (7-8 hours). Tonight, I'll move her to the kennel - likely be a different story there, but we'll see.

We've been out and about a lot over the past couple of days. Down to the Sportsmans Warehouse, PetSmart, Bridger Feeds and over to a friends house for dinner (they've got two young children). She's doing amazingly well in all those environments - obviously timid with new things, but it doesn't take her long to adjust to the new environment and get comfortable greeting new people. I think socializing a puppy is critically important to ensuring behaviors as an older dog are pleasant. She LOVES sitting in a lap (mine in particular) and staying nice and warm. My friends' daughter will be nine on Friday and Cleo was very happy to sit on her lap on the couch at their house and take all the love Brooklyn could give her. :)

We've been out walking, off-lead, all over my property. Sunday morning, we walked about 3 miles. She loved it and at no time was she much farther than 10-15' from me. Most of the time she was in a 'natural' heel on my left side, nose barely going ahead of my left leg (amazing). She's been enjoying riding in the truck and hasn't had any car sickness or anxiety with it. The only time she gets upset is when she's in her kennel and I walk out of the room for a few minutes. Doesn't like not being able to see me (which is good for this stage of things).

I picked up some Canadie food at Bridger Feeds and have started blending it with the Eagle Pack. She seemed to enjoy the shift. We get up every morning and take the NuVet supplement like a treat - she thinks they're great and scarfs the whole thing down (I break it into four little pieces so it's easer to handle). She's bringing the ball back about half the time when we roll it across the floor and is getting used to entertaining herself with the different toys I keep putting in her kennel. She goes in, brings them out one at a time and plays with them for 30 seconds to a couple of minutes at a time before going back in to grab another. Trying to get her to the point of not having to interact with me 100% of the time.

All in all, I'd say great progress! This may be typical for all of your puppies, but I've not experienced a dog who was so good so early. Stay tuned for photos later.

Thanks again!

Rick

Hey Dawna

I thought I would give you the 1year update on Rigel (the blue weim we picked up from you last November from Gabriella/Durango). Well I just got back in the office from meeting a bird dog trainer for the first time. I have worked with Rigel on my own but I have never trained a bird dog before. I got some help from my neighbor who trains retrievers but nothing for pointers. I starting calling trainers in my area for interviews and explained that I wanted to do the training but I wanted some help in training me. Funny thing is that the 5 trainers I spoke to were all skeptical of training Weims to hunt. They all said weims had basically had the hunt bred out of them and if not then they were usually too aggressive to work with. Their consensus was that 9 out 10 weims they see wouldn’t make good hunting dogs. I took the recommendation from the president of the Colorado Pointers Club and went with his Trainer. Mark Pace http://trainyourgundog.com . He said he would meet me and give me an honest evaluation of Rigel and if I had screwed him up or if he had what it took to train. He hinted that if he would hunt I would probably have to leave him and not train him myself because weims are just difficult from his experience. He did have 18 german shorthairs that he is training and that seems to be the dog of choice here in Colorado with all the other trainers as well.

His first impression was “He is not built like the other weimaraner’s we see” He is lean and tall. I could still tell there was some skepticism. He planted a bird and watched as we hunted it down. Good news is he has the will to hunt and that I have not screwed him up and created any problems. Bad news is I have probably introduced him to too many birds in the wrong way. I have never trained the whoa command before so we are not 100% on that yet, maybe 50%. He took Rigel and showed me a little trick with the e-collar around his waist set at the lowest setting. In 5minutes he was whoaing perfect. Mark said he is better then 95% of the weimaraner’s he has ever seen and that he is definitely a hunter and very smart. He thinks that I have done a good job with him up to this point and that I can bring him along just fine.

He gave me some work to do on the whoaing and we are going to meet in another week or so when we have the whoa down. He is good on birds but is getting a little too close and we need the whoa down to continue. He is a champion retriever though. Bumper or Bird he will bring them back all day, land or water. He even stays until his name is called.

Hunting season is only a month away but I will probably join a private pheasant club this year just to get him plenty of work on birds in a more controlled environment. Rigel is great in the home as well. He can be a little over protective of our yard and there are times that he gets skittish which brings out the bark in him and the hair comes up. The obedience trainer we have worked with says his personality has potential to become aggressive if not controlled but he is very affectionate to our family.

Anyway I just wanted to drop you a quick little note (turned out longer then I thought) and let you know how we are doing. I will send you some pictures when I have some good ones of hunting.

I hope things are going well in Montana. Gary, Persephone, Axel and Rigel Venable

January 2010

Dawna,

I thought I would send a couple of pics from this weekend. Rigel did great! Out of 8 birds shot over the weekend Rigel retrieved 4 of them. Two were shot by others in my group that went down in such heavy cover that we had to bring Rigel in to find them. Two were shot but were runners and he chased them both down with no hesitation and brought them back. Everyone was impressed with him. He had a couple of steady points but no bird, still

learning with the wild birds and they were running. We had 8 guys, 3 golden retrievers, one German Shorthair and one Weim. Birds retrieved or found, 4 for the Weim and "zero" for the others. None of the dogs really found birds it was pretty tough.