Wow, so where do I even start? It's been a whirlwind last three months. Like most summers, we planned to attend the specialty shows and club meetings in Slovakia, possibly Czech Republic. Instead, we ended up attending the specialties in both Slovakia and the Czech Republic, but also Poland, and then also over to Brnenka shows at the World Dog Show, and 3 FCI International Dog show weekends in Slovakia as a cherry on top. This year we took along Esper as we had done two summers ago, and she was rated V-excellent at all five specialties, as well as placing 3x. Specialties (ie., single breed shows) are always the most meaningful to me, providing very strong breed competition and an opportunity to see the best of what other breeders are producing. Sometimes Esper was feeling more like clowning around, but overall she showed wonderfully and ended our trip with a Best of Breed and a Grand Prix National Slovak Breed 3, finishing her FCI Championship - Slovakia. We are just over the moon!
We set off for Europe at the end of July with some COVID-related loops to jump through, but nothing major. First stop - the Slovak Club Specialties and Bonitation in Dolny Kubin, Slovakia. This meeting is honestly one of the highlights of our summers, where you can see many dogs from some of the best litters and kennels in Europe. We always enjoy great organization on part of the club with really friendly folks. For the last several years there has been really great turnout from across Europe, almost always owner-handled. Esper did well at the specialties and the day after we entered her in the bonitation evaluation, a mandatory exam for breeding CSV in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
It wasn't all work and no play though, of course! We also took our time to drive around northern Italy and up through Germany visiting friends and kennels (and the beach! and restaurants!) By the end of August we made our way over to the V. Polish National CAC Specialty for CSV. I won't go through a boring re-collection of all the shows and specialties (you can read about that on our FB if you're curious). I'll just mention that we participated in and successfully completed the KCHCSVSR organized SVP-1 40 kilometer breed exam for CSV. Esper has now met not only the breeding requirements of the US national club but also of the Slovak club. It's a nice accomplishment for us to know that we have striven to measure our dogs against the standards of club of the country of origin, and that they have met that standard.
We rode the trains to a bunch of places, visited so many great restaurants across Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Slovakia.. visited the vineyards in Vienna proper.. shopped some crazy dog supply shops and really just had an awesome time. We had such a great time visiting all of our friends and we really owe our entire experience to them.
Oh - and one last thing. We're crossing our fingers for Christmas puppies! We selected an amazing stud in Europe and we are waiting for confirmation of Esper's pregnancy. For that reason we are skipping the AKC Open Shows in November with her, but Syrak, Belias, and Ashira will be at the Arizona set if anyone is interested in meeting our dogs 🙂