Watch the Eli-Penny babies grow up...
This litter of two girls and a boy (born 8 July 1997) was as close as we could come to a repeat of the breeding that produced two of our favorite bitches, Ellie and Janey (CH Foxglove Ashburton Elegy and CH Foxglove Ashburton Ingenue).
- SIRE:
- CH Sunnybrook's Heritage Spirit, ROM
- Am./Can. CH Alfenloch Ryan O'Neil, ROM
- Can. CH Alfenloch Brooke Shields ("Heritage Spirit")
- Am/Can./Jap. CH Alfenloch Whirlwind, ROM
- CH Sunnybrook's Heritage Spirit, ROM
- Am./Can. CH Alfenloch Tatum O'Neil
- Can. CH Alfenloch Brooke Shields ("Heritage Spirit")
- Can. CH Bonnyville Fairfax Nighthawk ("Eli")
- CH Sunnybrook's Heritage Spirit, ROM
- Am./Can. CH Alfenloch Ryan O'Neil, ROM
- Can. CH Alfenloch Brooke Shields ("Heritage Spirit")
- Bonnyville Forever A Diamond
- Am./Can. CH Tantera Dayspring Crescendo
- Bonnyville's Sweet N' Sassy
- Grandhill Irresistable ("Ryan O'Neil")
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- DAM:
- CH Benayr Here Comes Trouble, CD, ROM
- CH Fourwinds Light The Way, ROM
- CH Fourwinds Go For the Gold, ROM
- CH Trelane Bold Image
- CH Simmore Something Special
- Trelane Woodwyn Imagine That
- Trelane Woodwyn Sarah Ann
- BISS CH Malpsh Penny Serenade ("Penny")
- CH Sunnybrook's Heritage Spirit, ROM
- CH Cameo Farms Justinuff Spirit
- Cameo Farms Justinuff
- CH Malpsh The Magic Is Back
- CH Sunnybrook's Heritage Spirit, ROM
- CH Westwood's Malpsh Cherry Flan
- CH Mainstay Sugar Babe
Five Days
From left: #1 (bitch), #2 (bitch), #3 (male)
Litter Evaluation (Eleven weeks --9/22/97)
Every time we've bred "Penny," BISS CH Malpsh Penny Serenade, we've done so with two very specific goals in mind. Our first goal is always to improve head detail. Penny has the lean head and sweet expression that many breeder-judges love (two specialty majors; three specialty BOBs) but we see lots of room for improvement. Unfortunately, when a head is that lean, it seems that one tends to lose other aspects of head detail -- smooth out the sides of the head, you'll also fill in the stop, for example. With a longer, leaner head, one also tends to lose the squared-off, well-defined underjaw; it also seems more likely that planes will be slightly off-parallel with this type of head. All this is true of Penny. So we try to find a sound stud dog who has the head detail she lacks and the pedigree we want. We've found that we can safely breed her to a dog some might consider "heavy-headed" without getting big, clunky heads in the puppies. In all four litters she's had -- including this one -- we've managed to get moderate heads with improved stop, planes and underjaw, while keeping Mom's lean, smooth backskull.
We also try to pay attention to rears when we choose a stud dog for Penny. At a trot, shelties should single-track (legs converge toward an imaginary center line) both front and rear. When you see a dog coming or going at a trot, the legs should resemble a "V." Penny single-tracks both front and rear, but when she goes away, the "V" formed by her back legs is a narrower "V" than one might like. Ideally, we would like to see a wider "V" on her puppies; however, we've had mixed success achieving that goal with past breedings. We are, however, thrilled with the rears on every puppy in this litter. All single-track, and all have wider rears than Mom.
Both Penny and Eli have very good fronts (see About the Front Assembly), and we are very happy with the fronts on all three of these puppies. They have very good layback, long enough upper arms [length of upper arm should equal length of the shoulder blade], and a fair amount of prosternum out in front [when going over a dog, try putting a finger directly across his front from the ball and socket joint at the shoulder point; you should hit something before you reach the other shoulder point, and that's the prosternum]. They also have a good amount of chest -- in other words, when you poke a finger under the dog at one elbow, headed in the direction of the other elbow, you hit something!
Incidentally, all three of these puppies have tails that reach the hock or beyond -- not necessarily a given with this particular pedigree!down.
Individual evaluations/photos (UPDATED 8/12/98)
In an effort to cut download time, each puppy now has his or her own page. Click on individual puppies in the list below to go to those pages, or simply start with Number One and go through the litter in order:
- Puppy Number One (bitch) -- evaluation updated 08/12/98
- Puppy Number Two (bitch) -- evaluation and photos updated 08/12/98
- Puppy Number Three (male) -- evaluation and photos updated 08/12/98