Posts filed under ‘Mingus’
Minehead: officially above water once again.
Last summer’s Minehead Open show was notable principally for the torrential rain and subsequent flooding that swept the show-ground, marquees and show rings. As vehicles were towed out of the showground one-by-one by a convoy of tractors, we assumed the entire area would probably sink, Atlantis-like, beneath the ever deepening sea of mud and water.
But no. Twelve months later the scene was very different and watched over by the magnificent Dunster Castle we dog-folks enjoyed what in the words of the song proved to be a: “Bright (bright) Bright (bright) sunshine-y daa-a-aay.”
Both of our beasts were out in action today. Mingus, though, was by no means at his best in a 10-strong NSC Graduate class, and, for the first time, failed to get placed, which was not a great surprise.
Phoenix, on the other hand, showed really nicely and was rewarded with 1st NSC Open and then Best NSC Gundog. She was also pulled-out & short-listed for Best Gundog in Show, for only the second time in her show career. Sterling work from Team Belatarr….
Steely focus from Phoenix & handler in the Gundog Group challenge, whilst fuzz-headed aliens noisily erect their chairs approx. two feet away.
This extra ring-time also allowed us to park Junior back in the “Belatarr Touring Motorhome”, enabling one of our crack-team of in-house photographers to nip back and take some pics of Phoenix in action.
One of our team principles also entered into a lively debate with our good friend Sam from Farlap Photography about the merits of using a remote-control device to correct future Belatarr handler errors. A bit like flying a model plane or performing key-hole surgery perhaps?
Further Weekend Antics…
After spending all of Saturday at a hot, crowded urban dog show, we thought it only fitting to head out to the beach – in this case Crow Point at Braunton Burrows – for some doggy (and human) down-time…
Mingus tries for lift-off using his newly retro-fitted "Helicopter Ears."
After combining forces to dig a huge sand-pit comes a rare moment of stillness.
Phoenix: sandy + wet = happy!
Mirror Phoenix.
Adam commands Phoenix with the power of his Blackberry...
Mingus shows that he can do sandy & wet just as well as Phoenix.
Adam teaches the dogs a new trick...
Weekend Antics…
Yesterday saw Mingus’ 2nd show – the Exeter & County Canine Soc Open. By the time the HWV classes came around the originally promisingly-cool-and-cloudy weather had given way to baking hot sun, which was less than ideal.
Judge & HWV owner Lesley Trow attracted a large entry of Wires, of which Mingus was the youngest. Despite the odds apparently being stacked well against him Mingus was awarded 1st Open, Best Puppy, and Best of Breed once again, which was pretty awesome going!
The, err, rather minimal judges critique read:
“Good coat, good straight front and feet. Best of Breed. Best Puppy in Breed.“
Hot dog Mingus.
The very large Gundog Group took the best part of 45 mins to judge, which, (coming on top of three visits to the breed ring) added up to a long time for Mingus to be out in such a hot ring, alleviated a little by lots of sprays of water. The Puppy Group, and more hot ring-time followed but Mingus kept himself together and performed admirably… then things started to get a little odd.
Mingus was chosen for Puppy Group 2 – which was an incredible result – but due to some ermmm…confusion, and ummmm… argy bargy in the ring he got recorded as Puppy Group 4 instead – much to Tim’s considerable bewilderment/frustration….which unfortunately kind-of put the dampener on what should have been (and which by any standards still was) a really great result…but so it was.
So, two shows and two Best of Breeds at 6 months old – couldn’t be a better start in the ring for our li’l lad!
“Pretty Good for his 1st Show!”
So yesterday, along with tens of thousands of others, we ventured West to the Royal Cornwall Show for what was to be Mingus’ first ever show.
The day was extremely hot and the showground literally jammed with people, many of whom (seemingly) wanted to stop us and ask what breed Mingus was or to comment on his “adorable face” etc. This was a benched show, and lots of other gundog exhibitors had placed signs above their dogs saying: “Please don’t talk to or touch the dogs as they are hot and grumpy and might chew your arm off” (and variants thereof) but Mingus was happy to see and be seen by everyone, taking the scale of the event in his stride.
As we’ve previously established, Mingus really doesn’t like the heat at all. It’s not that he gets grumpy or bothered, more that he turns into a floppy-ball-of-panting-lollop, so we were keen to keep him in the relative cool of his benching marquee for as much time as possible and then zip him straight to the ring when the class time arrived. It took Tim the best part of 6 months to figure out exactly how best to prepare Phoenix for the ring, (and even then things don’t always go according to plan – see Crufts 2010!) so this was the first time for him to learn about Mingus’ ring-time foibles. As it was he moved really nicely (as commented on by many who were impressed by how fluid he was for one so young) and stood well too, happy to be examined by the judge, which was a big relief.
We were delighted to be awarded 1st in HWV Open and then take both Best Puppy in Breed and Best of Breed. The judge really seemed to like him quite a bit, so we were hopeful that she might still like him when the time came for the Gundog Groups. Trouble was that time turned out to be more than 6 hours later on, by which time Mingus was getting a tad frustrated by not being able to run around and “do-fun-stuff”.
Despite keeping him cool and rested the heat took it’s toll too, so in the Puppy Group (we skipped the adult Group in the hope of keeping Mingus fresh for the Puppy Challenge) he was less than keen to “perform”. At just 6 months Mingus was by far the youngest of the 10 puppies in the group, and still managed to move very well (again, attracting lots of positive comments) but definitely didn’t give his best when stacked, when he decided it might be good to start leaning backward or forwards or sideways….
Nevertheless, the judge pulled Mingus out for her short-list of 5, although he wasn’t awarded one of the 4 Group places…so he was judged 5th out of 10 Best Gundog Puppies in Breed. The judge shook Tim’s hand, grinned and said “Pretty good for his first show!” and we can’t say better than that really.
The 13 hour show day ended with a joyous romp in the foothills and streams of Cornwall’s Rough Tor, when Mingus could finally let off some steam and much fun was had by all.
Once More Unto the Beach…
“Experts” tell us that today may be the last scorching hot day for the foreseeable, so the only possibly course of action was clear: head to the beach!
The scene of today's adventures - at Northam with the golden sand of Braunton Beach in the distance.
Mingus head shot.
Mingus sneaks up on some fast-moving seaweed.
Mingus self-stacking (sort of).
and Phoenix nearly manages the same trick.
Follow the leader.
The big boing!
Hungarian Wirehaired Sea Otter?
Mingus at 6 Months.
Woh – it’s very hot today…Being a winter baby Phoenix has never liked the heat much and Mingus turns out to like it even less. Just 15 mins or so of training in the full-on sun had him looking decidedly hot and uncomfortable when we took this rather-too-bright-and-high-contrast stacked pic. Luckily a swift dip in the river sorted things out in no time.
Please excuse the rather dramatic colour shifts in these pics – our little camera doesn’t cope well with the red/green combination such as Mingus in a bright green and yellow flower meadow. The camera decided to make him brown in 4 of these shots but he’s actually a deep glowing copper. Think we’ll be trying a different background for any 7-month-old shots…
River beds, Jazz names and Birmingham.
Mingus: pausing briefly before investigating another exciting dead thing (today's, rather randomly, was a mole).
First off, Mingus’ lovely mum, Anora (Starshot English Miss for Morehay) won another Championship Show Best of Breed at the National Dog Show in Birmingham last Sunday, against some very stiff competition from some very fine dogs.
The judges lovely critique read:
“At three years old she is mature and of excellent breed type. So well proportioned all thorough. Pleasing feminine head, excellent angulation both front and rear giving free sound movement where she excelled. It was a pleasure to watch her striding around the ring with reach and drive. Best Bitch. Best of Breed.”
Unfortunately we weren’t at the show, but if we had been we’d have been hopping up and down with excitement….which is pretty much what we did anyway on hearing the news. We’re absolutely thrilled for Anora, Jacqui & handler Emma.
Mingus stands to attention on hearing news of mum's latest big win.
Down here in Devon we’re in the midst of an almost-drought. Bits and bobs of rain have come to nothing, and the river has virtually disappeared altogether, exposing the slate river bed with just a small funnel of water off to one side.
Phoenix picks her way across what's left of our river.
Mingus continues to develop rapidly. He seems to have pretty much settled into his shape and proportions now and looks like an almost exact blend of each of his parents, which is just fine with us!
Mingus on point.
When we chose his name we (mistakenly, as it turns out!) thought that:
1) Charlie Mingus was pretty much a household name
and
2) That our favourite hippy chick musician Joni Mitchell‘s Jazz influenced 70’s album “Mingus” was almost as well known….
Instead out we find ourselves explaining anywhere between 1 and 100 times every day what our boy is called and why.
In the reeds.
Still, we’ve recently learned that we’re in good company. Danish supermodel Helena Christensen‘s son is also named Mingus, as are a select handful of other online dogs around the world, including a Vizsla. There’s even a highly successful Beagle and Foxhound breeder & show judge in Australia who’s kennel name is Mingus. On that basis we’re pretty sure that by this time next year everyone will want to be called Mingus….possibly.
Venturing forth with a captive stick.
Toothsome.
A Mingus in the grass is worth two in the hedge.
Like most dogs Mingus has always enjoyed a good old chew, but now, as his final adult teeth come through, he’s become possessed with the need to fill 95% of his waking time with chewing.
So, much like Phoenix before him, Mingus has now got into the habit of bringing a bone along with him for his walks, but is never too busy with that to pass up the chance to chew, and preferably run around with, something more interesting… leading to some ambitious projects:
Now that's what I call a log.
The Ever Changing Mingus.
When we first met (and show stacked!) Mingus at the tender age of 4 weeks he was very compact and stocky, beautifully and correctly proportioned. At around 3 months he looked very long-bodied and short in height, no longer stocky at all. By 4 months he suddenly looked very tall and giraffe-like, neither compact nor stocky. Then, at 5 months, everything started to come back together again, but he was all frame and no body. Now, at 5 and a bit months, he is once again starting to look compact and stocky as he gradually fills out – such are the ways of puppy growth – so we just wait for those deep ribs to spring to complete the picture.
Mingus surveys his kingdom.
This week at ringcraft everyone commented on how big he’d gotten and for the first time he was a fair bit taller than the adult female English Setter there. Judging by his knuckles he’s certainly going to finish larger than both of his parents, but still be moderate in size…which is just what we were hoping for.
A while back, whilst trotting around and investigating the pond, Mingus found himself on the opposite side of the water to us. Rather than trot back the way he’d come he simply plunged into the water and swam directly across to us (the pond is 6 foot deep and 150 foot long…) He’d never previously gone more than about ankle deep in water, so it came as something of a surprise to us – as well as to him – that he could indeed swim so well. On arriving at the other side he looked enormously pleased with himself and has been pretty keen to get wet in the pond and the river ever since.
The mysteries of the deep.
Mingus at 5 Months.
Mingus' 5 Month Stack.
Looking down the valley.
Sofa Yoga.
Fun for all the family.
Isn't everyone wearing their ears like this in 2010?
Clearly an exhausting business.
Belatarr Hungarian Wirehaired Vizsla. 