Snowy life in PA~Handsome Samson

Samson is all ready for his first Christmas

Samson loves to catch a few snow flakes!

Samson and Lily on their snow adventure!

Hello everyone! My name is Kira Shenk and the new Mom of Seastar's Handsome Samson, previously known as "Barney".

Samson is loving life:-) Samson discovered his new love, snow. Samson has now enjoyed his first and second snow. The second snow fall was over a foot of snow, he had an absolute field day! He loves nothing more than to play in the snow and eat it. He also loved playing in the snow with his sister Lily. I am very excited as it is Samson's first Christmas, he has many presents this year:-) Thank you Jane and Laurie for the best Christmas present I could have ever asked for as I get to spend the holiday with the best little puppy ever!
Merry Christmas and Happy New year to everyone! I hope all of the families of Samson's brothers and sisters are having a great holiday season and are having a lot of fun with their puppy:-)

House of Two Tollers

Hello, All. We are the Youngs in California and the new family of Seastar's Queen Charlotte, previously known as "Wilma." Charlotte has made her peace with the older Toller here, Hyflyer's Madeleine, and is thoroughly enjoying her first snow. We hope that all of you are having as much fun with your puppies as we are having here in the mountains with ours.

Charlotte very much prefers to be outside in the snow, and will chase snowballs until our hands freeze!

Thank you Jane and Laurie for a such beautiful, playful and smart little addition to our family.

Kelty is a New Champion

Seastar's Dark 'n Stormy Kelty Fife finished his Championship in Providence with a specatular 5 point major going over two top five male specials and two top female specials from the Bred-By class under judge Edletraud Laurin. The next day judge Doug Johnson pulled him to the front as well commenting that the first 3 dogs were to die for placing Kelty in the same class as two of the top five Tollers this year. We were so very pleased as Kelty is only 1 1/2 years old. He looked marvelous.

Yet more photos of Fundy ............

Too tired to make it back from the beach to the car!




Fundy and a washed-up lobster buoy

Sunrise!

Thanks for the wakeup call at sun-up!

Tired spoiled girl!

Riding a wave!

Ya ready???

Can you say Nor' Easter???

Sleepy girl!

That's all for now ..... would love to see some pictures of Fundy's siblings, and the Cocktail and Flintstone litter pups.

Thanks,

Jan and Janet

Here are a few more of the Fundster at the beach ... she was in her glory!

Fundy at the beach

New Fundy photos ... Fall 2009

Here are a few recent photos of the Fundy-dog ... looking pretty, waiting for a stick to retrieve, playing on the leafy trails, and swimming with her new pal in the mucky brook.

Tail Waggin Tutors

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091101/LIFE/911010339

Sadie and I have finally begun to put the Therapy Dog Certification Program to work with the Tail Waggin Tutors Program at the Southworth Library in South Dartmouth.

Check out the link to this wonderful, heart warming program. It really does make you feel great when your dog has such a positive impact on the lives of others.

Nelia is a model

Hi All,

Thought I should pass on the fun fact that Nelia is the model for the 2010 Backyard Classic. It helps that Katy Ryan the designer of the logo is Nelia's biggest fan. They are selling some totally awesome stuff that will be ready for the holidays. Needless to say I'll be buying a few things ;-) Also on the website the picture to the left of the logo is Nelia. Here is the link for the stuff

http://shop.thebackyardclassic.com/

Enjoy your shopping.

Wags,

Sara & Nelia (Seastars Serandipity 4 Duckpin RN) - Sadie x Reid

Beautiful Fundy

Recent pictures of Fundy (Gracie x Clipper) during her fall beach vacation. She just loves the beach and swimming. Isn't she pretty??

Gracie Playing with her pups

Short video of Gracie playing with her 3 week old puppies. Pups are from the Flintstones litter (Gracie x Colin). Lots of fun to watch, she is a GREAT Mom.

Debbie Peeks in on the pups

Debbie came to visit yesterday and Gracie loved all the attention. To help Gracie settle in at night and sleep (she can only sleep in a crate), Jane constructed a 'tent' above the whelping box. For now Gracie has all the privacy she wants in her little home.

Cocktails to Go

Lauren and Jim will be sending the cocktail litter home this weekend thus the phrase "Cocktails to Go". The puppies new owners will be coming to get their new family members over Labor Day. We are very pleased with the litter and hope that some of the girls will make their show debut at the New England Sporting Dog Shows March 2010. Lauren and Jim did a fantastic job raising the litter and I am sure it will seem a bit lonely without the puppies. But we know that Dasher will keep the tradition of muddy paws in the house and Zoey will have him to keep her company.

Welcome: The Flintstones Litter

Saturday August 29, 2009 -- Gracie whelped 7 beautiful puppies. 5 boys and 2 girls. This is our Flintstones litter, with pups in birth order: Fred, Barney, Bamm Bamm, Betty, Dino, Wilma and The Great Gazoo (Gazoo).

They are all healthy and doing well - weighing in between 12 oz and 14.5 oz. The girls have big beautiful blazes and all pups with 4 white feet, chests and little tail tips.

Congrats to proud parents: Gracie and Colin

Gracie - 2 Weeks to Go

This is Gracie - 2 weeks before her due date. She was bred to Colin (CH Westerlea's Bold Venture) at the end of June. She is getting big, slowing down and her belly fur is falling out. She does enjoying swimming to cool her down during the hot August days.

The Cocktail Litter: 2 Weeks Old

New Canine Candystripers

Left to right: Hope, Magic and Sadie

Hope and Magic yapping about their new titles while Sadie wonders "Did I really produce these 2 Jokers?".

All kidding aside, Jane qualified each dog with a TDI Certificate, enabling them, to work safely with people who have special needs, such as the developmentally or physically disabled.

To earn this advanced certificate, dogs must first possess their American Kennel Club (AKC) Canine Good Citizen certification which is the basis for the more advanced TDI certification test that allows dogs to become Therapy Dogs. Following Therapy Dog training, dogs take an exam administered by a certified TDI evaluator, where, upon successfully passing this test, the dog will receive their Therapy Dog certification.

Hope, Magic and Sadie are now qualified with TDI for Therapy Dog work. CONGRATS.

The Cocktail Litter: 13 Days Old

Left to right - Saki, Gibson, Margarita, Martini, Cosmo
Pups from Zoey x Riggs. Pictured here just shy of 2 weeks old -- the boy Gibson is second from the left - he's already over 3 lbs. Their eyes are starting to open and they like to army crawl around the whelping box. Zoey is a fantastic Mom and Dasher looks in on them too. What nice bunch of pups.

Seastar Spring 09 Field Achievements

From left to right people: Laurie, Jane, Lauren and Jim.
From left to right dogs: Gracie, Hope, Zoey and Dasher
Other: Decoys standing and sitting

This spring, Seastar participated in local Hunting Retriever Club field tests and we are proud to announce that Gracie, Zoey and Dasher all earned legs towards their Started titles.

Hope earned her SHR title in an amazing 4 for 4 tests! Way to go Hope. So fun to watch her leap into the water to get her duck.

Tests were challenging but fair. The weather held and was decent and the Seastar family enjoyed the days out in the field. The dogs loved the excitement of getting their birds.

Last post for the day ... even more Fundy pics

Chewing on driftwood!

Looking pretty at New River Beach

Mucking around at low tide

Very tired wet rat!

All done!!

Jan, Janet and Fundy!

More Fundy photos from Canada

Who taught you to carry a stick?!

That's better!

Swimming!

Searching for baby brook trout!

Fundy's Canada trip ... more pictures

Fundy scrambling on the rocks on the beach at low tide

Waiting for the tide and wind to blow her stick to shore! This was before she learned to swim!

Resting (yes, on the furniture!) after a busy day at the beach!

Fundy looking very tiny on the big beach at low tide... I think she was eating God knows what (some mussel shells or animal bone??) while I wasn't looking!

more to follow

Jasmine's Puppy Group 4

On Sunday, June 28 Seastar's Northern Jasmine, handled by Debbie Smith took a puppy group four placement from the Sporting Puppy group at the Wampanoag Kennel Club show held in Wrentham, Ma.

Fundy's first trip to Canada

Fundy on a rock below the falls

First time in over her head ... note the unretrieved stick in the water beyond her!

Boy, she sure looks like her Momma Gracie!

Fundy and her favorite playground ball!

Hi all,

Here are a few pics of Fundy's first trip to Janet's family's place in New Brunswick ... she had a BLAST!! Lots of room to chase balls, run in the field, poke her nose in the creek, swim on the rocky beach, and rest in the cool seaweed. Went swimming/retrieving (over her head!) for the first time ... it took me in my waders to lure her out there, but once she knew she could do it ... she loved it!

Our best and congrats to all the show winners in the prior posts ... Jasmine, Lilly and Kelty ... they are all so beautiful!

Keep the posts coming ... we love to see and hear about Fundy's brother and sisters!

Jan and Janet

more pics to follow

Lilly Awarded Best of Breed

CH Seastar's Northern Lilly took the breed at the Middlesex County Kennel Club show with a very nice lineup of 15 Tollers including 6 very nice specials. Melissa Smith did a fabulous job of presenting her to the judge and their teamwork is awesome. We are very lucky to have the Smith girls on the Seastar team. This second BOB win has launched Lilly back to the Top 10 list.

Jasmine is a New Champion

Seastar's Northern Jasmine finished her Championship from the puppy class with her fourth major and all best of winners awards at the Topsfield shows with Deb Smith at the end of the lead. This great little Toller has won over noted specials all ready taking Best of Breed awards too! All at the age of 10 months. She's smokin'

Kelty's First Major

Seastar's Dark 'N Stormy Kelty Fife earned his first major from the puppy class over a nice line up of BBE and Open Dogs at the North Shore Kennel Club in Topsfield with Stephen Owens handling the young boy. They make a handsome team and we are proud of Kelty's accomplishments at such a young age. Thanks to Michele and Ed McGrath for cobreeding Kelty and the rest of the Rock Starz litter. Kelty is exactly what we had hoped for in a Toller. Beauty, brains and biddable.