I know the suspense is killing you

You haven't been able to eat, sleep, or work while waiting for me to blog about the new addition here. You've been hitting refresh every couple of minutes, hoping that I'd sneakily updated while you were pouring a fresh cup of coffee. Not quite? Close though, right? 

Here he is. 

Ben

Now that Kate's well on her way, training wise, I've been doing a bit of window shopping - looking for the next dog. I had pretty much decided that it would be another dog that I could start myself, and it was just a matter of finding the right one. 

We stopped at Randy Dye's to work dogs on the way down to the trials and gee, there was Ben.  Now I've had my eye on Ben for a while and had been hinting nicely since June that Randy should part with him. Hinting nicely wasn't working so finally I took Randy behind the barn and thumb wrestled him till he gave in. Watching a grown man cry isn't pretty, but all's fair in love and war. 

A quick check with Travis THIT (trial husband in training). "Hey, how about adding a 5 month old pup to our Holiday of Dog Trialling".  That should have been enough to cause any normal man to run screaming to the nearest electronics store for...for ANYTHING, but strangely enough he stayed put so off we went - new pup in tow. 

Here's the scoop on Ben. 

He's out of George Stambulic's Kate. Kate was last year's Alberta Stock Dog Association Open Trial Champion and she's out of Scott Glen's Pleat (2004 USBCHA Champion, plus a whole pile more) and George's Gyp who was the 2006 USBCHA Rookie of  the Year. 

 

Kate stopping a collared ewe in Maple Creek. Of course I had planned to take nice shots of her, but by now you should know what I'm like about taking pictures at trials. 

Ben is by Scott Glen's Don. Don - 2009 Canadian and USBCHA Nursery Champion and 2010 Bluegrass Classic Reserve Champion. Don is out of Eileen Steinman's Star (handled by Alasdair MacRae) - 2 time USBCHA Champion and by Eileenn Steinman's Don. 

A great shot of Don and Scott...which I stole off Scott and Jenny's website. 

And that's the scoop on Ben's pedigree. Not too shabby at all.

Prepare yourself for months of cute puppy blog entries.