Llondel Leonbergers

19/05/2025

Faraday got mail.

05/05/2025

Five years ago, Faraday had her first litter of puppies, our C litter. It was a completely different experience to Tesla's litters, where she took her time and popped out a puppy every hour or two. Faraday was like a machine gun in comparison, averaging about 15 minutes between puppies, just enough time to clean up before the next one appeared, although the closest spacing was 7 minutes. Then it appeared she was finished, I went off to get something to eat and another one appeared.

This was our first pandemic litter, we had travelled to Utah to breed her and arrived home not long before the country went into lockdown.

Happy 5th birthday, C Litter.

21/04/2025

Happy 3rd birthday to our E Litter. Artemis made it to AKC champion, Ludo has a bunch of scent work titles and Mini was second-fast Leonberger in FastCAT last year.

14/04/2025

Monday's result. Subject to AKC confirmation, Faraday now has her Rally Advanced title, three qualifying legs successfully completed this weekend..

13/04/2025

Faraday got her second Rally Advanced leg today. Today it came with a rosette and her best score ever.

It wasn't a promising start, she didn't want to sit at the start point so we did a standing start. The first sign was a halt-down-sit, I stopped, she ignored me and kept walking. Eventually she came back, and we had a sit-down-roll_on_side-sit. Second sign, in the corner of the ring was a 270 degree right turn and she was way more interested in stuff outside the fence. I got her back on track and her brain finally booted up and we managed the rest without incident. When she's paying attention she's good. Getting her to pay attention is the hard part.

13/04/2025

Today was one of those rare times when I turned up at a dog show with three dogs. The van normally has two crates, but the third can be fitted as needed. This time it was Faraday, Kepler and Lucy (one of Faraday's puppies). In the Battle of the Veterans, Kepler (in her first show as a veteran), prevailed, and ended up with BOS and BOBOH. Lucy got WB, thanks to Alexis Honig for handling her. Thanks to Linda Sebastiani for the placements.

Earlier in the day Faraday had her first attempt at Rally Advanced, nervous for me because it was her first time off-leash in the ring and I didn't know if she was going to listen to me or go off and do her own thing. She did get distracted by the dog in the next ring when we were on that side of our ring, and I messed up one sign, but she got her first pass.

Lucy accompanied us to Faraday's rally event, here she is helping with Faraday's meditation in preparation. (Lucy left, Faraday right).

24/03/2025

Eight years ago today I stepped into a show ring for the first time with Faraday (on the left, her sister Elsa on the right). Of course we lost, but we stuck out a very lean first year and we're still here.

16/03/2025

Cassini got his BCAT title this morning. His run times this weekend also mean he's currently the fastest Leo this year, assuming noone else has some good times being processed.

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16/03/2025

There were carrot scraps behind the bush, so that's probably where he consumed his morning carrot.

12/03/2025

Faraday got mail. They must have been processed in parallel because neither mentions the other. Fitting, given that they were achieved within 30 minutes of each other. She also got a GCH Bronze medallion.

03/03/2025

Faraday at the rally workshop yesterday. She had a five-minute slot and we did two runs through the course in about four minutes. The second run, she had to wait until the end to get treats. This event is the first time she's been off-leash in a rally ring, so it was pleasing that she did pay attention to me. There was a patch over in the far right corner from the start where she was distracted by something on the ground, but she wasn't the only dog to be interested in that spot.

18/02/2025

Subject to AKC confirmation, GCHB CH Llondel Angel Of The North RI CA FCAT7 CGC TKN.

Faraday was my first show dog, we first stepped into the ring nearly 8 years ago. After the first year I was wondering if she'd ever get her champion title because she'd accumulated two points, and then she seemed to mature and started winning more often. She got her GCH and then took time out for puppies. She came back to conformation when her sister had puppies and had a good year, although well short of the Bronze title. Then Kepler was diagnosed with cancer and so largely stopped showing, so Faraday got to continue as a veteran. She had some good placements, including a couple of 5-point Selects at Woofstock last year against a strong field. Thanks to those results, she was close to her Bronze title and this weekend she made it across the line, hugely surpassing any expectations I had back when we started.