Zephyr had a beautiful litter of field bred English Springer Spaniels born on New Year's Day - a gorgeous white and black male is available, ready to go the first week of March. We are hoping for a litter with Storm in mid March. That's all we have planned this year.
Puppies from both breedings are $1200. Contact us if interested. We will accept reservation deposits for the Storm litter, after we verify that puppies are on the way.
It has been a painful journey through time as I revisit pedigrees and pictures of so many dogs, now long gone, but after 20 years with the same web server and host, it was time to enter the 21st century with a brand new look! I especially appreciate the mobile device capability.
I am still using the hellfiregundogs.com domain, but it will soon be forwarded to the new one >> MTHELLFIRE.COM.
Maverick, Marv GG and I took a road trip to the Pacific Northwest Sussex Spaniel Club regional specialty in September, and hit the jackpot when Marv went Best in Show (BISS) for both specialties, and Best of Breed for the supported entry! But wait, there is more! Maverick went Best of Opposite Sex (BOSS) to his daughter, and Marv's daughter won all three majors, and Best of Winners (BOW). As a breeder/owner/handler all I can say is, what a day to remember!
GG is the second of the GCH Frank X GCHB Marv puppies to become a champion, Dee Duffy's Skye finished first with 3 large majors in VA. Sister Gwynnie is almost there, with just 3 points to go. Super proud of my Marvy girls.
It was an okay year for the Hellfire pack.
Our Sussex Spaniel Synopsis: Three new Breeder/Owner Champions, one Bred by Exhibitor Medallion, a Grand Champion GCH, a Bronze GCHB, three Barn Hunt Instinct Q's, a Trick Dog Advanced title, and two Top Five boys.
For the Springers: Three of our puppies had field trial and puppy trial wins, one new Field Champion, 4 or 5 earned new Hunt Test titles and another 4 had success in various AKC companion events like agility, obedience, rally and tracking. Oh, and one of our Search and Rescue Springers in Oregon (an Ice X Haley daughter) found an 88 year old woman lost in the forest.
Next year we are sitting out of the show ring (except for Bill, the pekingese) and have a long list of fun events to prepare for!
Some new Zephyr and Speck pictures!
We will probably be rebreeding Zephyr to Blanco again, We will also be breeding Storm, if and when she decides to come into heat again.
A CH/GCH Sussex litter is planned for Spring.
The long awaited Tina X Toby kids were born (via frozen semen breeding) on March 27th. Five boys, 2 girls. Huge puppies! She fooled us into thinking she was having ten, but really it was 7 whoppers. Beautiful puppies, very excited to see them come along.
Things are looking good after the Tina X Toby breeding and we should have puppies toward the end of March! I am most likely going to breed Storm to Toby via TCI as well, maybe over summer...she is notorious for tossing me heat cycle curve balls. I do have a few puppy reservations available.
The 2016 Sussex girls Twinky and Margery are looking good! If they both hold their bites through six months old, I may keep them both, if not I may sell one over summer. Regardless, both are definitely show quality. Happy, happy! We may try for a fall litter, if not then I will have two nice bitches (both with good bites) to breed in 2018. We are really hoping to place a few in working or performance homes!
The list of work projects on my house, both inside and outside, is super long this year so dog events are taking a backseat until summer or later. I have everything from agility and hunt tests, to barn hunt, obedience and conformation to somehow squeeze in. It's one of those kinds of years. We are definitely getting a slow start, but will get out there eventually.
Today was a great day to be a field bred english springer spaniel breeder! In November the dog we bred Storm to this year, a dog who had previously won the Canadian National Championship, won the National Amateur Championship. Today he won the National Open Championship and became NFC NAFC CNFC Blackrivers Tanner. We are so happy for his owner Jeff Miller and of course, our Storm X Tanner puppy owners. The last dog to win a triple National Championship status was NFC 2X NAFC CNFC Saightons Scud - a dog that dominates Maia's pedigree.
But it gets better! The dog I bred Tina to, Macks, a dog I bred out of Navy X Toby, finished the National Open with a Certificate of Merit, CM, honoring him as one of the top 10 dogs in the US this year. We are just so happy for his handler Lynn Miller, who has trained, and believed in Macks for a long time, and over the moon happy for his owner's Gary and Mhari Peschel.
Macks is a full brother to Haley - who we are hoping to breed for the last time in 2017...probably to my dog Ice, since I have yet to get a puppy from him.
Our breeding plans are very fluid and uncertain this year! We will for sure be breeding Storm (not sure to who yet) and are hoping Haley will have a normal heat cycle this year (she didn't last year). If I can make it work, I would like to try and breed Tina to Toby (via frozen semen).
There is a good possibility I will be placing a couple spayed young adults and/or retired girls this year.