A lovely end to the trialing year for Leevi (Armahani Kunzite Kuutamo RA (AI)) and Nicole at the Geelong Obedience Dog Club's agility trial this weekend, with two JD quallies, both with a 1st place.

Leevi isn't even two years old yet, and has had a true kicker of a year.  He's truly surpassed my expectations, and I'm really looking forward to seeing all he and Nicole have ahead of them in 2019!

This weekend we headed to Portland, to do some showing with some lovely company.

It was generally a good show for the lappies, with classes in group each show, but my star was Tortik (Grand Ch Armahani Heliodorr Halu (AI) RA JC) taking BOB at two of the three shows (the third was to Baby) and converting one of those to Best in Group (Group 1st) under judge Pauline Hartwell.

Congratulations to all the other winners over the weekend.

A big congratulations to Nicole with Leevi (Armahani Kunzite Kuutamo (AI) RA).  After hitting the conformation ring on Friday for a Best of Breed win, and the rally and obedience rings yesterday for some lovely "almost passes", today it was to an agility trial, where he earned his first Jumping Dog quallie, with a 1st place across all height levels!

Beauty, brains and speed all in the one package!

.Our big weekend of the year is over for yet another one, minus Sunbury this year, which I decided to take a break from.

It was an awesome weekend, with a big thanks to Rachael Holloway for coming across and spending it with me again. Always a pleasure, and makes the long drives so much easier (even if we do end up heading to Geelong!!).

First up was our Finnish Lapphund breed specialty show on Saturday (judge: H. Soeborg, Denmark) where the Armahani kids did some really great showing, all placing well in their classes and earning Excellent and CQ gradings. With the exception of poor Baby, who received a serious judge lecture about the state of her waistline - seems cream cheese driven rehab exercises has a down side, even if her muscle build is currently pretty awesome LOL. She did make up for it the next couple of days ;)

Thank you to Nicole Wain and Simone Dillon for doing such an exceptional job with Leevi and Piper, to Nicole Wright for sending Loki down for the day, and to Bianca Ralphs for driving him down.

Our results (from an entry of 62 lappies) were:

Leevi - Armahani Kunzite Kuutamo (AI) RA
- 2nd in Intermediate Dog
- Graded Excellent, CQ

Loki - Ch Armahani Jade Jylha
- 1st in State Bred Dog, State Bred in Show
- Reserve Dog Challenge (ie second placed male)
- Graded Excellent, CQ

Benni - Ch Armahani Heliodorr Hulivili (AI) ET 
- 1st in Aus Bred Dog, Aus Bred in Show
- Graded Excellent, CQ

Tortik - Gr Ch Armahani Heliodorr Halu (AI) RA JC
- 2nd in Open Dog (behind BISS winner)
- Graded Excellent, CQ
- Best in Owner, Breeder, Handler

Piper - Ch Armahani Kunzite Kruunu (AI)
- 2nd in Intermediate Bitch (behind RUBISS winner)
- Graded Excellent, CQ

Baby - Am Ch Ch Calaban's Dirty Dancing RA ET JC (Imp USA)
- 3rd in Open Bitch
- Graded VG

Taija - Ch & Neut Ch Armahani Crystal Cuovgat
- 1st in Neuter Bitch Class, Best Neuter in Show
- Graded Excellent

It was made even more special by watching Helen Green take out BCC and RUBISS with Indie (Ch Lempo Independence Day). It was exceptionally lovely to see Helen do so well and cry those special tears. Indie is a daughter to Benni and a grand-daughter to Louis, so it was a 'kids of Heliodorr" run off for the RUBISS with Benni's daughter Indie and  Tortik's son Loki fighting it out.

Congratulations to Huey Miin Lim and Terri Macdonald on Zeke's BISS.

Sunday was the Victorian Working Dog specialty show, always a huge one in a calendar, with 506 working dogs entered and 32 lappies. Rachael and I just had Tortik, Benni and Baby (aka Fatty!) with us that time who all did great showing sitting in the top four for breed results.

Results (judge C Dunne, Ireland; GS judge A Lundava, Estonia):
- Tortik DCC/BOB, shortlist in show
- Benni RDCC (ie second placed male)
- Baby RBCC (ie second placed female)

It was lovely to see Taylah Debono get the BCC and RuBOB with Keepa (Ch Lempo Keilo) who is a daughter to Tortik and Benni's sister Kajo, so another "kids of Heliodorr") - with congratulations to both her and breeder Mel Scriven).

Meanwhile, back in Albury showing with Nicole at a separate show, Loki took BOB and Best Intermediate in Group.

Then to the Vic Women's show on Monday (lappie entry 24). I'm on the committee for this one, so don't show. But Rachael very kindly took Baby along for me while I was running around like a headless chook. Happily I got to watch breed judging because it was pretty exciting!

Results (judge O Neilson, Canada; GS judge C Dunne, Ireland):
- Benni DCC, BOB, shortlist to final 6 in group
- Baby RBCC (again behind Keepa)

All up a huge and really successful weekend. Well done to all winners over the few days