We contacted Lola Anderson of Watling St. Afghan hounds back in October. We'd seen her stock way back when we first got Joey at the breeder's cup in Maryland, but she's not a "big name" in the breed, doesn't breed very often and hasn't bred anything since the bitch that we'd seen. People know her though and always had nice things to say about her dogs. Her dogs are very primitive looking, very correct all around, good coursers and have phenomenal movement.
We were talking with Maso's breeder of Ibizans and she mentions that Lola lives close to her and had we ever heard of "Watling St." afghans? We told her we remember the bitch from MD and she suggested we just make a contact with her. When we called, we told her that we liked her stock and were wondering if she had a litter planned in the future. She informed us that Luna the mom would be going into heat in about a month's time and then should have a litter in a couple months god willing. The sire is Spencer Ch. Watling Street Starstruck--he finished at 14 mos, with 3 specialty majors, and won the huge puppy class at the nationals and every day on subsequent specialties the following days and Lola was approached to have him be backed by Lou Gerrero and Chris Pinkston. She declined their offer,which she sort of regrets today as he was probably a Best in Show dog. He was OFA'd at 2 yo and was excellent and she re-OFA'd him at 8 yo before the breeding to make sure his hips were still great and he was still excellent. The mom is OFA good, is singled out, has multiple major reserves, and is a very nice bitch, but hated to show, so when she hit 5 yo, Lola decided to go ahead and breed her. We told her exactly what we wanted in a puppy: bitch, small, amazing front, fiesty as shit, possibly patterned, good lure instinct.
This is what we got, a tulip named Soleil :
(50% in Reza turns into a spaz :3)
We met the breeder at a show in Wichita this last weekend to pick up the little smut-face. She's adorable and as you can see, gets along with our guys great. She's got a fabulous conformation so far and we have really high hopes. Selma's flown out to Iowa twice to visit the breeder, 2 days post breeding and when the puppies were 4 weeks. She gave us 2nd pick bitch, but in what we wanted, she was our first pick anyway. I think everyone that took a puppy from that litter got their choice pick.
She's a smart little shit, always looking to get into something. She's also a sweetheart, cuddling up for love, but if you try to get her to sit in your lap in the car, she will wander about and try to get into trouble. After about 15 minutes of struggling, we tossed her in the back with the other 3 dogs (Reza, Joey and Suri (our friends whippet we showed/coursed in Wichita)). After trying to climb over the soft-crate divider wall we set up between the front and back seats for about 20 minutes, She fell right into place and was cuddling up against Reza.
I thought it would jinx us to post an anticipation thread. We almost got an Azawakh puppy in the fall that fell through because the puppy, 3 days before we were supposed to meet the breeder to pick her up, tried to climb out of its expen that was topped and clipped, got its leg caught, broke it and hung for an hour until they got back to find it passed out. The puppy's leg was pinned and its ok, but severe injuries is not something you want in a show/coursing prospect.
More Pictures of the hellion. She's definitely the most troublemaking little puppy we've ever had.
Princess:
At the lure coursing trial on Sat. Her two sisters are in the expen with her.
Reza is the picture for the Table of Contents in this month's Sight and Scent. It's this picture that Lee Gearhart took:
He submitted it totally without my knowledge, and tbh, I'm thrilled with it:
Reza should be on the Posh Pawz website soon modeling one of Candace's collars. I think Russ Pearce submitted the following photo:
As a side note: Reza scored a point this weekend in Chatanooga. The best part is: I was showing her in ripped up jeans, a cowboy hat and boots with plastic bags hanging on my belt and a knife on my hip. I didn't even bother to change for the show and the judge still put her up Best of Winners on Sunday. Too hilarious. I'm going to get pics of that from Katie Belz, one of the beezer chicks, and will post those once I get them.
