Glory.... DCh DM Jolie Noir

Glory is one of the Flag Day Litter and she was the last puppy born on 14 June 2007.  We tried to keep all the names flag related and hers is, sorta...  well....  not really.

Because of her color, black, actual flag names were somewhat limited to those on a Pirate Flag theme.  (I must say that I wanted to call her "Old Glory".)  Anyway, some of the known pirate flags were Jolly Roger....  Not good because she's definitely not a "Roger".  Jolly Rogue - Nope...  no "rogues" in this litter and, besides, who ever heard of calling a girl a "rogue"?  There were red pirate flags as well as black pirate flags (who knew?) and Betsey, her co-owner, suggested "Jolie Rouge" because that's what the French called the red pirate flag...  uhm...  she's black, not red.  And, come to find out, Jolie Rouge is the root for Jolly Roger.  Back there again....  Sheesh!  Talk about frustrating!  So, we came up with "Jolie Noire".  Ya know, naming puppies shouldn't be this hard!

Glory was never claimed by her co-owner, so she permanently resides here in New Mexico with her two brothers.  She regularly beats up on them here at the house.  She rules the boys and shows her dam, Abbey, proper respect. Like her Aunties Jib & Javelin, she's another busy body who is always into something!

Best Opposite Photo, Coronado KC

We think Glory is stunning!  She is an AKC dual champion. She finished her breed ring title by going Best of Opposite Sex over finished champions!  That win took place at the Coronado Kennel Club shows in Rio Rancho, NM under noted judge Dr. Edna K. "Midge" Martin.  Dr. Martin gave Glory's sire a major win in Lubbock, TX several years back so I was hoping that she's like her as she resembles Dash.  Dr. Martin's comment on handing me the ribbon, "Finally! A bitch with the proper topline."  I thanked her and she told me, "Don't thank me.  Thank the bitch."  Yes ma'am!

Prior to finishing her lure coursing title, Glory was major pointed in AKC lure coursing and has 8 points, including a 5 point major by going Best of Breed over the field champions.  Hmmm...  I'm sensing a pattern here.  She beats up on her brothers & she beats up on champions?   The girl is an Amazon, an Amazon that is very fleet of foot.  One of her lure coursing wins was at age 14 months when she finished first in the Open stakes at the GCA Western Specialty lure course in 2008.  She tired, however, and did not win breed.  If she had, she would have retired the GCA Western's lure coursing trophy as she would have been my 3rd winner as an owner. Our other two winners with legs on that trophy were BJ and Jiblet.

In Glory's first attempt at ASFA lure coursing, she got points when she finished 2nd to her littermate, Banner, on Saturday.  In that effort, she qualified for the Region 3 Regional and garnered 18 points towards her field championship.  She has since finished her ASFA FCh title.  We also tried oval (NOTRA) racing and she did get a JOR.  However, that toe is keeping her from competing further in NOTRA and in any other running events. So sad...

Glory has been open field coursing and she's pointed with AK's.  She showed great promise as a hunting bitch but that toe injury has, as of now, effectively ended her running days. At least, until after she finishes her AKC Grand Championship. 

In May 2012, Glory was entered one day & one day only in the Rio Grande Cluster.  We pulled her out of retirement to show to Dr. Edna K. Martin.  Dr. Martin awarded her Best of Breed over other champions of record for a 5 point major towards her Grand Championship.  To get a GCh, a dog needs to have 3 major wins (3 points or more) over champions of record and a total of 25 points.  Well, since Glory took that major win, we've brought her out of retirement to show.  In October 2012, we entered her two of the four days of the Los Lunas cluster.  She took two, 3-point majors on the days she was entered.  That gives her the required 3 majors and a total of 11 points towards that GCh.  Not too shabby...  Three majors in Three Days under Three judges....  The hard work is done, now she only needs to point out.

AKC Page for DC DM Jolie Noir FCh JOR aka Glory

We are thinking about heading to the Eukanuba National Championship, which is being held this year in mid-December in Orlando, Florida, to see if we can pick up more points and another major towards that Grand.  It would be nice.  Out of a total of 11 puppies, 5 of them have been Eukanuba invitees with several of them being invited more than once.  We are very proud of our record and of our dogs.

Glory in continuing in the footsteps of her predecessors and she's doing it with class & style!  Beauty & function go paw in paw....

Slate

DM Snow's Legacy on the Wind  

Wayne & Slate - Best Buds

Slate was owned by and lived with Kathy & Wayne Johnson in Michigan.  Kathy is also known by her business, Feathered Gems Jewelry.

When Kathy found out that I was breeding Feather, she really wanted one of the puppies.  You see, Kathy owned his granddam, Snow (Ch El-Aur Fair Deal FCh) and his cousin, Allegra (El-Aur Dragon Magic JC). You can definitely see the family resemblance.

Slate's registered name was DM Snow's Legacy On The Wind, which was a compromise between Kathy & I.  In sticking with the sailing theme, I wanted to call him "On the Wind".  Kathy wanted to call him, "Snow's Legacy".  As it is, combining the two worked out quite nicely giving him a beautiful and melodic registered name, which also gave credit to his granny, Snow.   And (we later figured this out), if the letters of his call name are rearranged, they spell "Tesla", which was the name of the Johnson's very first greyhound, Greys Gold Rush.

Feather's Litter - Slate on top in the middle

The pups were whelped at the home of Laurel Drew, they lived there for the first 5 weeks of their lives.  I am ever so thankful that they were whelped at Laurel's home because she helped me through the experience of the difficult birth and the c-section and then, when it was discovered that Feather had very little milk, bottle feeding the entire litter of pups!

Slate was a strapping 16 oz puppy when he was born, but he had a very poor suckle. We don't know why as he was a lovely & well developed baby.  There were a couple of times I thought we were going to lose him because he lost weight & became dehydrated. That was when we started bottle feeding.  Even on the bottle, the boy had a poor suckle. We wound up tube feeding him.  Eventually, he got stronger and a couple of weeks later, the entire litter was eating a slurry of meat, baby rice cereal, and goats milk, which was supplemented by the bottle.  He ate quite well and was fine after transitioning to the food. Who knows...

When Slate was a puppy, I convinced a reluctant Kathy to try dog shows.  "Just try it..." I'd cajole her.  Kathy is probably a lot smarter than me as she really doesn't care for the dog show routine. She's definitely saving herself some money that way!  Anyway, She did attend two specialty shows with the boy, one in TX and one in Upstate NY.  In Texas, the boy won his class and somewhere there is a picture of this lovely blue dog with a medallion & blue ribbon. He & Kathy stopped showing when he developed an overbite. In the words of Marty Bradford, "He should finish, but I wouldn't breed him."  We don't know from where the bite problem came.

Slate was very smart.  He had favored toys and he learned to ring bells to go outside. He would wait at the door until given permission to come inside.  One of his favorite things was a gumball treat dispenser that Kathy filled with Cheerios.  She had to take it away because he was getting fat!

According to Kathy, Slate was never really friendly with other dogs.  He wasn't nasty, just didn't want to associate with them. But, at home, he was never anything but sweet. When she brought home the 13 weeks old puppy, Jack (UKC Ch DM Union Jack FCh) he was very good with the rambunctious puppy.  She said he was much the way with Jack, teaching him the rules of the house, they way cousin Allegra taught him.

Slate has his own webpage, with many of the photos that Kathy took during his life with her.  Sadly, Slate was diagnosed in Nov 2009 with chronic renal failure.  That disease combined with a bad back injury cost him and in late July 2010, he joined his Grandma Snow, Momma Feather, and cousins Allegra & BJ at the Rainbow Bridge.

Slate was one of the Sailing Litter born by emergency c-section on May 26, 2002. Kathy has a larger website with lots of pictures of his entire litter from birth to 10 weeks of age.  You can view it at Feather and 'Cuda's Puppies and you can see the litter's pedigree at Greyhound-Data.