Texangals

  Zoot is from the very first litter I ever bred at Texangals, the Monty Python and the Holy Grail Litter, and coming off the back of a wonderful set of five potential show puppies, I have really high hopes for the quality of her litter with Robbie. I bred Robbie, too: he was the gentle and sweet boy from the "Bizarre Adventure" litter from 2019 (Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure is an anime that I'm particularly fond of, and Robbie's registered name comes from one of the characters on it). He is owned by Tonda Curry and Terry Fehrman from the Canton area of Texas. Rohan Kishibe, aka "Heaven's Door" Both Zoot and Robbie have pedigrees that are heavily influenced by their English roots, with a generous helping of Maggical/Rosewood and a splash of St Lazar. They're also a couple of lovely, portable, compact 10-pounders, and talk about athleticism, Zoot has always shown that she was born with springs in her legs, jumping over 32-inch x-pens from a standstil...

Well, apologies for posting after only a fair few months to say that Zoot's puppies have come and mostly gone (we kept one of them), and in the meantime, Katie has been in the show ring a few times and picked up some points which we're really happy about given that she's only just 7 months even now. To be honest, I'm way more current on the Instagram page that you see by clicking here: TexangalsTMTs In a couple of weeks' time, we'll be hitting the northbound highway for the Manchester Terrier national specialty in Kalamazoo. Katie will show in bred-by, whereas Zoot's keeper, Diego, will still be too young for anything but Beginner Puppy. I've decided to take along Granny Bonnie for a couple of fun classes like Brood Bitch and Brace, just because I'm not sure when there will next be two of Bonnie's puppy in the ring at the same show. This year, it will be Trish, co-owned with Jerri Gillean of Go West Performance Manchesters (Washington state), and...

 

The tension was so palpable at the Humble show in Texas over the weekend of the 7th and 8th of October where I had entered Bonnie, Zoot, Trish, and took Lisa along with us for her owner. Zoot, entered in Open Bitch, has been knocking on the door of her last major for ages, but on the Sunday, she finally did it. Not only did she win the WB major, she went back into the challenge round and beat the Specials for BOV, too! I was only Zoot's 2nd time to be piloted by a handler, a need arising from my having entered 4 bitches and being all on my own. Thanks to Barbara Wood for her help with the little ones while I swapped between Trish and Bonnie. Texangals Zoot Just Zoot is from the very first litter we ever bred at Texangals, and the first of Bonnie's offspring to achieve her champion status.

While we've all been staying home and sheltering because of Covid-19, we have taken advantage of the AKC's offer to video our dogs doing tricks, submitting them to evaluators online, and qualifying for Trick Dog titles. Today, we got official notice that Bonnie and Trish have both received their TKN titles, meaning Trick Dog Novice. Bonnie, being a champion already, had to do only five tricks, but Trish as a 7-mos old puppy and not yet a champion, had to perform 10 tricks. Their entry videos that their owner/handler junior, Joey, edited and submitted are on our Texangals youtube channel: I'll link to them at the bottom. So without further ado, I now give you: CH Bluebonnet Dreaming Spires at Texangals TKN Texangals Trish Spicy Lady TKN Bonnie's video:  https://youtu.be/H6IWvGwPKSU Trish's video:  https://youtu.be/gzDy05GBfK8

Bonnie in the Buttercups We're expecting puppies at the end of this month at Texangals in Central Texas. The dam is "Bonnie" (Ch Bluebonnet Dreaming Spires at Texangals), currently #13 TMT in the country, and the sire is "Bentley" (GCH CH Dream Maker's One Sweet Ride At Jhen TKN) who is #7 in breed and #1 in TMT Owner Handler. Bentley  Bonnie with her Boy in Junior Showmanship Bonnie is a 3/4 English bitch imported in 2016 who goes back to Amalek lines with Maggical/Rosewood TMT. Bentley also goes back to the English Reeberrich kennel via Velvet Firefly where his lines connect up with Bonnie's. For those of you who don't really care about lineage, the bottom line is that they're very well bred, they are bred with a number of international influences, and as far as temperament, get along well with other dogs, other types of dogs, and children. A number of dogs in Bonnie's line back in England are Pets as Therapy dogs, visit...

In mid-December every year, one of the biggest dog shows in the country takes place in Orlando. It's called the Royal Canin show, but even though it's only a weekend show, the whole week before is full of smaller shows at the same venue, including the Manchester Terrier specialty where large numbers of our breed turned up. The event is tiring and requires some stamina, but we also enjoy ourselves at night, going to restaurants or bars or even doughnut shops at 10:30 pm! I do wish we'd come away with more ribbons than the 2nd and 2 x 4ths, but it was an event not to be missed, a chance to meet people you've only ever heard of or seen on Facebook, and to see a large number of dogs to compare toplines, movement, head shapes, and all kinds of things that are hard to appreciate until you see a big group of them, side by side. The weather in Florida in December is a lovely change from dreary, cold winter, though there was more than once than I got caught i...

The Bizarre adventure has entered a new phase: all our puppies are now with their new owners and going onto their new pathways. Rohan and Lisa Lisa have gone to show homes, and look for their debuts in February 2020. Suzy Q has gone to a homeschooling family in South Texas, where the big plan is for her to be the daddy's roadie - that is, if he can prise her from the little missy who has attached her to her lap at all times! Suzy's first moment as a barn dog Lisa, the taco bed, and her new sweater Rohan with Tonda And Trish? We've kept Texangals Trish Spicy Lady for ourselves, with my son "Busy Timmy" as her co-owner and future owner handler. He piloted Trish's mama to her championship last year, so we know he's up for the job! Stay tuned for more puppies in the future: we will probably be breeding our 2-year-old show dog, Zoot, in the early part of 2020, and may try for one more litter from Bonnie before we retire her.

It was so good to get out this weekend with the dogs and not be hundreds of miles away at a show. March in Texas means bluebonnets, so obviously, I had to get our foundation mama, Bonnie, out there for her annual photo: her official name is "Bluebonnet Dreaming Spires", after all! Then she started running through the butterweed. Zoot and Ted had a terrific time when chasing each other at the local lake, prompting people to come over to us and ask if they were Italian greyhounds!

It felt like the treadmill was on high speed, but the ultimate reward was worth it! Chilling after a crazy month The month of March saw my son and me traveling from dog show to dog show, all of which were more than 2 1/2 hours from our home so we stayed in Air BnBs rather than waking at 4 am and trying to get the girls to the ring in some kind of decent frame of mind. The long and the short of it was that all three of our girls - Bonnie, Zoot, and Ted - were picked as top bitches at some point during the month, gaining points and majors, and ultimately, we FINISHED the championship for Bonnie at Navasota! Bonnie, the new champion Ted gets her first points while still a puppy Zoot gets a major We're so excited that Bonnie can now retire and focus on having babies while her daughters, Zoot and Ted, can continue their campaigns for champion status. If you want one of Bonnie's future babies, be sure to fill in a puppy application and get into o...

I'm absolutely shocked to see that my foundation bitch, "Bonnie", is currently ranked 19th in the country in Toy Manchesters. We were hoping to "finish" her in the next few shows and retire her, but now we are re-thinking that plan: wouldn't it be great to build on this success and actually get INVITED to a show?? This may "pause" our plans to breed her till the next season so she can attend any show that she might get invited to, but I think it's worth it to plunge ahead while we have a start on it already. In the meantime, we are scouring the country from north/south/east/west for the best mate for her when we next prepare for a litter. It's so hard: so many nice dogs around, but we want to get the best breeding lines, best body type, best temperament, most genetically sound, and ... closest geographically??? ... dog we can find, and sometimes, all those competing details are hard to line up just right. Especially the geogra...

The past six months or so has seen a resurgence of interest in the breed in the great state of Texas. Whereas I spent most of the early part of 2017 on my own in the show ring, we've seen as many as nine at a single show, and more puppies are coming of age every month. I really should make an effort at the next one to photograph us all together. The top moment so far has been my foundation bitch's second "major" at the recent Austin area show. This means that she has jumped a big hurdle on her way to a championship. As of writing this, she needs five more points, and hopefully, with Navasota, Crosby, Kerrville, Rosenberg, and possibly a one-day appearance at Ft Worth, I think the likelihood of her success is pretty high. Bonnie and Zoot celebrate Winner and Runner-Up at Austin One of the best parts of having more people at the shows is the community we're building up: everyone is friendly and supportive, and we're making the effort to populate th...

Where has the time gone? My little hands-ful of black-and-tan are now arms-ful!! We have been hitting the dog shows in Texas and finding it very useful to have three female dogs to enter, needing only one more girlie to come along and make a major. Bill and Ted's mama won one of these in Tyler, but the big news was when Ted took Toy Group 1 in Beginner Puppy in one of the Belton shows. Our next appearance will be at the Nolan River club's show in Glen Rose on 5th and 6th of January. It would be lovely to see some "fans" to turn up and talk TMT!

Wednesday was a rough day ... my mama whelped, first losing one that hadn't quite closed up its skull (stillborn, thank goodness), and then two more straightforward, head-first, wiggly-body squeakers, and me with my excitement and trepidation, getting all their sexes wrong! My kids thought we'd got two boys long enough to name them Bill and Ted, and now for love nor money, they will not budge on the names even after we discovered that one of them was a girl. So, please meet Bill and "Theodora" or Ted: They're bigger by nearly about 30 g (1 oz) than any of our babies from last year, and over the first five days, they've been gaining at nearly an ounce a day! We are very relieved that both puppies have show homes ready for them, but there are never any guarantees in this kind of situation, so should you want a Toy Manchester puppy, please get in touch to fill out a puppy form. Just in case. The mama has been as good as gold as usual, ...

So now it's got to May and I haven't been posting in a long time. I don't know why not ... so much has been going on! The first thing that I want to show off is my new doggy buggy. It's a Gen7 Regal Plus that I bought to replace my old purple one after its zippers broke. This one is definitely better made: the zippers are silky smooth, the fabric of a higher quality, the frame more sturdy, and the wheels roll like they're on glass. I can't recommend it enough. The other thing we've been doing is taking Zoot to dog shows around central Texas. The highlight so far was winning OH Group 4 at Navasota back in March. In the meantime, we've had the most awesome time in catching up again with little sister, Coco AKA "Sophie Mae". She's no match for the speedy long legs of "Zooty-Pie", but they do nothing but non-stop play when they get together. And now for our biggest news: as I write this, I am on puppy watch for ...

With Christmas looming, what do I do? Drive 1100 miles from Texas to Florida of course! Come and read my debrief of the AKC National Dog Show in Orlando. Road Trip Puppy! Orlando sees the annual pilgrimage of doggy people for the AKC National Championship dog show. I went along to a) socialize Zoot for road trips, motels, and the dog show atmosphere, b) to meet a lot of the main players in the Manchester Terrier (both Toy and Standard, and agility!) scene, and c) volunteer on the Meet the Breeds stand. I was very heartened that Zoot was a good traveller. She slept a lot in the car, chewed on her bones, discovered the taste for a big chunk of natural low-salt beef jerky. At the show, she took it all in without being nervous. In the motel rooms, she had quite a good time in whizzing around the rooms with her toys, and best of all, didn't bark whenever there was a bump, a noise, or someone talking in the motel rooms. Meeting the breeders and show people was my high...