The first thing to remember is that Ariel is my little dog.  She loves me and I love her.  So with much thought, we have decided to offer her to someone as a loving companion and started gun dog.  She is very sweet, small for a griffon, but is intense when hunting.  She will hold point all day and retrieves like no ones business.  She has even retrieved rocks out of the pond.  All you can see is her little tail at the top  of the water as she goes under to get them. 

She has a great coat and is the easiest to groom of all our dogs.  She is about 20 inches at the withers and weighs about 42 pounds.  She is quick and agile.  And cute as a button.

We are offering her for several reasons.  This past fall, when it was found that she would not pass her hip exam with the OFA, we decided to remove her from the breeding program.  Then for my recent health issues and the fact that I think she deserves her own home without so many fuzzy faced companions that we came to our decision.  And that decision is to find her a very good home that she can call her own.  Her diagnosis with the OFA was mildly dysplastic in one hip.  There was some arthritis in the one hip, but she will probably never exhibit any signs of this.  She is very athletic, and has no other known health problems. 

She will be the kind of dog, that will be happy doing whatever her new companions want to do.  She does love to hunt and would do so at any opportunity, but she is just as happy with playing with the toys in the living room. 

If you are interested in her, please let us know.  And we will discuss placing her.

This year the national specialty was held in Hot Springs, Arkansas.  We had looked forward to this all year.  It is a great time to renew old friendships, make new ones and to see everyones great dogs.  This is the view that greeted us at the hunt test that first morning.

The first two days of the specialty were taken up with hunt tests on Wednesday and Thursday.  Ariel passed both days to earn two legs of her Junior Hunter title.  Sweet Pea passed only once on Thursday for one leg of her Junior Hunter.  Bear Hug Baron Orion, Orion, also passed one leg for his Junior Hunter on Thursday.  This is a picture of Ariela and I in the field on Thursday.

This is Sweet Pea doing her imitation of a lap dog at the hunt test.

This is Orion with Bonnie and Roland at the hunt test.

This is me with Sweet Pea and Ariel and some of their new hunt test ribbons.

On Friday we got busy with the shows.  Friday evening we had the AWPGA Independent Specialty.  And we are proud to report that Sweet Pea did us proud.  She went Best of Opposite Sex in the Sweepstakes and then went on to win an Award of Merit in the specialty show.  This is her show shot.  What is most impressive, is that Sweet Pea did this at 9 months of age.  Like her dad, she turns it on in the show ring, and when outside, she is all about having fun.  She can find more ways to entertain herself and anyone around her than any dog we have ever had.

This is immediately after the show resting in my lap again.

This is Sweet Pea with Marsha. 

On Saturday both Sweet Pea and Rugby made the final cut of 6 dogs, and Sweet Pea almost won Best of Opposite Sex.  On Sunday we did not enter, because we had planned on leaving early to get home.  That plan got changed so we went to the show to cheer on our friends and to enjoy being with them one more day.  I had planned on taking more pictures of everyones dogs, but somehow we ended up being too busy to remember the camera.  But when it was all done, we had a great time, and appreciate the effort that was made to make such an excellent for so many people.

We have added a new gallery.  If you get the chance take a look in the Doggie Fun Zone gallery.  Rugby and Ariel got to run this at the Nashville Cluster this past spring.  They both loved it and had to uphold the Griffon honor against all of those sighthounds.