Texangals

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...

 Ahhhh, COVID time. The spring and summer that basically never was. We didn't completely rest on our laurels, though: we had a litter of puppies, grabbed a couple of trick dog titles, and just this past weekend, we attended our first show since March and brought home a couple of landmarks. First, let's talk about the puppies: Cooper, Aston, and Robin were born on April Fool's Day to our foundation bitch, Bonnie, and the number one OH TMT in the country, Bentley. There are a couple of other posts about this, so I won't dwell on it too long: suffice to say, Robin (now called Kyro Jett on Instagram) has gone up to his outdoorsy family in Minnesota where he spends a lot of time in a lifejacket on a boat!; Aston (now called Rudy) is the apple of his owners' eyes in the Oklahoma City area; and Cooper (unofficially nicknamed Dennis the Menace) has gone to live with his grandsire's breeder in Kentucky where he helpfully inspects fences to let Barbie know where there are...

Introducing our "Bizarre" litter: Rohan, Trish, Lisa-Lisa, and Suzi Q, named after our family's favorite anime show, Jo-Jo's Bizarre Adventure. Our 3-ounce diddy Lisa-Lisa alongside Rohan and Suzi Q Like most popular culture, particularly films or comic-type stories, we had a lot more boys' names lined up than girls, but are thrilled to pieces that we have 3 girls and one boy from the breadth we get from the stud dog's line and its St Lazar influence. The puppies arrived in the early hours of Sunday, at least four days earlier than expected, but being (mostly) larger than any of the mama's previous pups, we're assuming she had ovulated earlier in the week than we'd thought, and probably just caught the end of her fertile period when we bred her the day of her progesterone test. Phew! That was a close call, then! Mama and babies are doing well, but the up-shot of this is that I'll be having puppies looking for homes in about 8 weeks...

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!

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...

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...

Coco, the Christmas present, arrives at her Furrever Home! For those of you who have been tracking the fate of this little puppy since she first entered the world at a mere 2 ounces, her journey has come to a wonderful and loving end: she has gone home to my friend's mother who lives a mere ten miles from me! Surprise! You got a puppy from Santa!!! No, I am not just trying to keep an eye on her! We're expecting great things from our little bundle of clever smartness when she enters Good Citizen training. Judging from her being the first to potty train - at 6 weeks! - I think it will be an easy road to success!! You've come a long way, Baby!  Did you spot Coco's head under her mother's eye on the bottom right???

Meet Justina from Minnesota. Last month, her beloved miniature pinscher of 14 years passed suddenly, and she searched and searched online for a little girl puppy to try to fill the hole in her heart. Justina's Soul Mate Within a few hours of my appeal to online homeschooling moms who pray for people's prayer requests, Justina was contacting me about Dennis. I knew this was the one. We were bandying ideas back and forth, feeling each other out, when her Facebook feed turned up a neighbor who wanted one of the puppies, too, so Tim was now spoken for. It was just a few days later when Justina arrived in Central Texas on a Delta flight to pick up both Dennis and Tim. A Fabulous Threesome! Little could I guess that Justina would bond so much with Tim over night that she talked the neighbor out of keeping him, and has now adopted both puppies into her family's lives. Cuddling Dennis would put anyone to sleep! Don't forget Auntie Bailey, th...

After lots of video and lots of long phone conversations, after bribing my young teenager to splice film and photos into a montage, after changing my mind one way and then another, it is finally time to announce the puppy that we're going to keep with us at Texangals: Meet Zoot. Zoot was our first born. She has always been the confident one, and when it comes to moving on the lead, she's happy to move ahead of me instead of being tugged along like her mama! There are times when I see her in the grass outside that I'm reminded of our little boy puppy, Ozzie, who died last year, but she's got more balance to her than I remembered of him. Even from a young age, she impressed me with her commanding presence. What I like about her, too, is how she's so comfortable in the group or alone, such as here when she's showing off her new sweater made out of fluffy socks (she's in the bright green).               Of...

We have puppies! Our lovely English Toy Terrier, Bonnie, delivered four puppies on August 31st, about four days before we were expecting them (thus ruining a romantic weekend for hubby and me, but we've been given a raincheck by the cottages so we'll get there eventually!). Shhh ... tired mama. The children have always intended to use Monty Python and the Holy Grail names for the puppies, so first one out was immediately called Zoot. Bonnie was quite restless and seeming to try to get comfy to nurse, but NO! She was actually contracting to deliver a teeny, tiny little thing we called Coco. The third was called Dennis, even though she is a girl, and finally, we were blessed with Tim. Dennis, Zoot, and Tim with the kids - (Coco was sleeping) Bonnie turned out to be a great mom, but we were worried about little Coco. The others were born at 4 1/2 ounces or around 130 grams, but Coco was only 2 ounces and 60 grams. We think perhaps she was Zoot's twin, sharing...