8-26-2013 9_58_55 AM

  Puppy Available

Updates have not been as frequent as they should, but we have been very busy with puppies and a new human baby. The Rhyme litter (Carter X Hazel) was born 6/4/13. We had six puppies, but lost one at four weeks. Here are the surviving five at six weeks old (L to R: Langston, Dylan, Maya, Emily, and Whitman).

Emily is staying here at Kalwa, and three of the other four puppies have gone to their new homes. Due to a couple of potential homes falling through, Langston (black and white male) is still available. Conformationally, he is the pick male puppy from this litter, and we would love to see him in a home where he would be shown. Consequently, we are looking for either a home looking for a show dog, or alternatively, a local pet home that would be willing to keep him intact and allow me to show him (preferably in the Salt Lake area, but a bit farther away would be acceptable if the new owners are willing to travel to Salt Lake for shows). If you are interested, please let me know. Langston is pictured below at eight weeks.

New Champion and Puppies on the Way

  New Champion and Puppies on the Way!

We have some big announcements here at Kalwa. First, we are expecting puppies! Carter (GCH U-CH Kalwa's Incense and Peppermints RN) has been bred to Hazel (CH U-CH Kalwa's Elements in Harmony) and puppies are due around June 6, 2013. More info about both parents and our planned litter can be found on our website at http://www.kalwaspringers.com. If you are interested in a puppy, please let us know; we are taking the names of interested people now.

And, in other news, we want to announce that Tucker is now CH U-CH Kalwa's Sweet Emotion. Tucker came for a visit to Utah and during his six weeks here he finished both his UKC and AKC championships. He also sired a litter of puppies, due mid-May. For more info about available puppies from that litter, please contact Christina Thomas at chris512ut@comcast.net.

We are looking forward to a couple more shows this year, then raising puppies and a human baby that is due in August 2013. We'll be taking a break from the show ring the , but will be back out next year, hopefully with some new dogs to show.

Updates

Time for a few updates: Sasha has found a new home and is doing very well with her new family. We are having a 4-year-old male returned within the next few weeks, however. Check back for more info about him, as he will be available to the right home as soon as we figure out exactly what type of home will be best for him. We also have made some changes to breeding plans, namely postponing our planned breedings for another heat cycle. So, the current plan is to breed Hazel to Carter (pending health clearances) on Hazel's next season, which will be around March 2013. For a variety of reasons, including Hazel's short heat cycles, we weren't able to get all her health clearances done in time to breed her on her current season. More info will be available as these plans become finalized. Plans to breed Georgia in 2013 are also in the works. We have had a break from shows for a couple months, and probably won't be out again until next spring, when we'll be back to trying to get that second major for Georgia and Tucker. Hopefully they will both finish soon! In the meantime, the dogs are enjoying hanging out at home and playing in the snow. Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy the holiday season, everyone!

Available Dog

We have a lovely, almost two-year-old liver and white bitch looking for a new home. Sasha (Kalwa\'s Elements of Style) is a littermate to Hazel and Sterling, from our Andy-Kali litter in August 2010. We kept both Hazel and Sasha to see how they would grow up. While Sasha is a pretty girl, she hasn\'t quite lived up to her potential in the show ring compared to her sister, and we feel now that she would be better off as a pampered pet. She has also had a few issues picking fights with other female dogs, which is a concern in a potential breeding prospect, so we have decided to spay her and place her as a pet. She will need to go to a home without other female dogs. She gets along fine with male dogs, and she is an absolute sweetheart with people of all ages. She is housebroken, up-to-date on vaccinations, healthy, and has basic obedience training. She would make a great performance dog for someone interested in obedience or agility, and she would probably also be a good therapy dog. She is very loving, relatively low energy for a Springer, and very mellow in the house. I have included a couple pictures of her below, and will try to post more soon. If you are interested in a sweet, smart, well-behaved companion who is still quite young but past the troublesome puppy stage, please contact me at kalwaspringers@gmail.com for more information.

Breeding Plans

Our breeding plans have been up in the air a bit and have changed somewhat over the last few months, as I waited to see if Georgia would finish her championship soon or not. Since she is still looking for that last major, we are going to hold off on breeding her for a bit and move on to our next planned litter. So, I am pleased to announce that Hazel (AKC and UKC Ch Kalwa's Elements in Harmony) will be bred to Carter (AKC GCh/UKC Ch Kalwa's Incense and Peppermints RN) on her next season. This breeding will take place fall 2012, with puppies expected around December or January. If you are interested in more information about this breeding, please contact me at kalwaspringers@gmail.com. This particularly breeding has been in the planning stages since I started breeding Springers 8 years ago, and I am very excited to see what we will get. It's been almost two years since we had puppies at Kalwa, so we are definitely in need of a puppy fix and are looking forward to this litter!

Updates, Including New Champions!

It's been a long time since I posted, but I figured it was past time to provide some updates on what the Kalwa Springers have been up to. We took several months off from showing after the New Mexico shows in November, and didn't really get back into the ring until March, when we hit the Scottsdale, AZ shows with Georgia, hoping for that last major. She didn't win, unfortunately. Our next shows were in South Jordan, Utah May 5-8. At these shows, Georgia was reserve one day and Tucker placed well in his classes, but neither of them got that final major. They are both still looking, as we haven't been able to get majors at any of the shows we've been to since then. The big winner of the weekend in South Jordan was Carter, who was select dog both Saturday and Sunday for two more grand champion majors, which left him needing just one point to finish his grand championship. We hit the show ring again in Logan, UT on May 19-20. Sterling was entered for those shows, after not being in it he ring since last September. He showed well, but didn't win anything. Hazel was WB/BOS both days for two more points, and Carter was select dog on Saturday for two points, finishing his grand champion title! He's the first Kalwa grand champion. He finished with six majors, and completely breeder-owner-handled. May and June are busy show months around here, so we were entered again for four days of shows in Blackfoot, ID June 14-17. Sterling and Hazel were the dogs entered,a nd Sterling was the big winner of the weekend, going WD all four days and BOW twice for a total of 4 points over the weekend. Hazel was WB/BOW/BOS on the final day for a point, leaving her needing just two points to finish. The following weekend we were on the road again headed for shows in Great Falls, MT. There, Hazel was WB/BOS on Saturday, as well as best bred-by exhibitor, going on to a second in the bred-by sporting group. Then on Sunday Hazel was WB/BOW/BOS for two more points to finish her AKC championship! She Wis the first from her litter to finish, and the first champion for her dam, Kali, although Kali has 4 more kids getting close to finishing. After Hazel's big finish, we headed to Missoula, MT for two more days of shows. We kept Hazel in the classes to hold a point, as there wouldn't have been any available in either sex without her. The first day, Sterling was WD and Hazel was WB/BOW/BOS for anoth point., and on the last day Sterling was WD/BOW for another point, and Hazel was again WB/BOS, bringing her point total up to 17. Sterling is up to seven points, now. We're still on the major hunt for Georgia and her brother Tucker, who both just need a major to finish, but it wil probably be September before we get to another show. In the meanwhile, Faith is back in the ring on the east coast, where she was WB/BOW in Ashtabula, OH on July 13 for her first major! She was also WB the next day for another point. She is now up to 11 points, one major. Congratulations to her owner, Nancy Stephens! Thst's all the show news for now. During our summer break the dogs are getting shaggy and having fun. We're looking forward to hitting the ring again this fall, and hopefully getting those champion titles for Georgia and Tucker soon!

Excitement in New Mexico

The first weekend in November we headed down to Rio Rancho, NM for the Sporting Dog Fanciers of New Mexico specialty show. As mentioned previously, Georgia just needs a major to finish, and we were hoping she would get that last major at these shows. We entered Sasha and Hazel as well, largely because we needed them to make sure we had enough bitches to make a major. Carter was entered because we're trying to get those last few grand championship points for him, but we ended up leaving him home.

We've been to these shows before, and the weather at the beginning of November in New Mexico is usually fairly pleasant. Not so this year, though. The forecast was for cold, rain, and wind. Saturday morning was chilly and windy, but no rain yet when we headed to the show site at 7 am. Grooming at these shows is outdoors without power, so we brought the EZ Up tent for cover. As we were getting the tent set up, the wind was a concern, but the threat of rain made it necessary. Just as we got the first dog on the grooming table the rain started and the wind picked up, though. it quickly became apparent that the tent wasn't going to stay up, so we had to break it down, as the hailstorm started. They ended up delaying the start time of the show for an hour and a half, while we took the top off the tent, tried to secure loose items, and got the dogs back into the car in a hailstorm. Then we spent the next few hours huddled in the van, trying to dry off wet clothes and do what grooming we could on the dogs from inside the van.

The rain cleared up after a couple hours but it was still very cold, with winds of up to 40 mph, when the show finally started. Definitely not the nicest weather to show in, but it turned out to be a good thing that we stuck it out. Sasha and Hazel were entered in the 12-15 month class, with Georgia in bred-by. Hazel was first and Sasha second in their class. Georgia won bred-by, so was only one step away from the win she needed. However, a big surprise came in the winners class when Hazel went winners bitch for her second major, And an even bigger surprise came when Sasha went reserve. I was disappointed Georgia didn't win, but couldn't really complain. Especially when Hazel also went best opposite over two specials, making it a 4-point major and bringing her point total to 10 points, both majors at 15 months old.

Sunday's weather was chilly, but sunny and not too windy. Results were the same in 12-15, but Georgia was third in bred-by, ending her hopes of finishing that weekend. Hazel ended up going reserve, but no points that day. So Georgia is still on the hunt for that second major. Not sure when she'll be able to get it. Shows are probably on hold at least until after the first of the year now, as we get into the holidays and have weather considerations and family obligations.

Breeding plans are unfortunately affected by our show results. I want to finish Georgia before breeding her, as the time to get her back into shape after a litter to get that last major would be considerable. She is due in season again in January and I would have bred her then if she had finished before, but now it will probably have to wait until the season after that. So it looks like our next litter will not be until fall

In other show news, the same weekend we were in New Mexico, Faith was entered at the ESSFTA supported entry in Fort Wayne, IN, where she was BOS in sweeps on Sunday. What a great win! And to round out the good news from the weekend, I also learned that Mali (Kalwa's Keeper of the Flame), who lives in Georgia, has earned her NA title and has one leg toward her NAJ. She is the first Kalwa springer to earn an agility title, and we're very proud of Mali and her owner, Marilyn Davey. What a great weekend all around for the Kalwa crew across the country!