No Subject

> Were the coats also very different from what we see? (of course they
> probably look a lot different ungroomed!).

I asked quite a few questions on the coat type.  Janet Ingram explained that
she felt it was very correct coat, and she did not see any soft coats all
during our stay.   Once you got used to the ungroomed look, it really became
almost normal--there was certainly no hiding things via the grooming table.


> Were there any particular
> kennel or kennels  whose dogs you thought were wonderful?

Yes, we had the pleasure of visiting 3 kennels during our stay.  One was
totally by chance, as we saw the kennel sign from the road and were busy
taking pictures like total tourists when the owner came out and was extremely
gracious and gave us a tour, and the other 2 kennels were by invitation the
day after the show.  The first one we went to was Madame Nadine Laffitte.  She
was quite wonderful and invited us into her home for a visit and to see her
dogs.  We ended up staying quite a time and she showed us many of her
photographs of past and present dogs.   She currently runs 5 together, 4
bitches and 1 dog.  She used to have 20 dogs running together but ran into
many problems with fighting and streamlined her kennel.  The male that was
there I was sure was going to end up in Janet's suitcase, she loved him so
much.  I will have quite a few pictures of him up on the site, he really was
wonderful. He and his brother (who lives in Belguim and was my favorite) won
their class and it was thought that perhaps either of them might have won the
breed.  As it was the dog from Belguim won our equal of winners dog, and his
brother won reserve winners dog (in our group).
The next kennel we went to visit was in the stunning pyrenees mountains, on
the top of a mountain.  After a much hair-raising ride, we arrived at the
fantastic home of Mr. Benoit Cockenpot.  He was most gracious and invited us
into his home as well.  We walked right into a classic scene--a bitch in a
whelping box right in front of a roaring fire in a huge stone fireplace
nursing 12 pups.  She lifted her head, said hello and went back to her work.
This bitch was a Hartza daughter, and was the size of one of Janet's males.
Really a nice bitch.
We went out to the back area, and met Hartza herself (and I understood why
people talk of her beautiful head) and were able to visit with her.  She had
just had a litter 3 months before, so was out of coat but still beautiful.  We
then went out the back and were greeted again by a picture scene.  Two 2-year
old bitches watching over a flock of goats, whom again I thought were to be
smuggled into Janet's suitcase.  We asked quite a few questions, and were told
that they were no predators in the mountains, but Benoit liked to have the
dogs in with them anyway.  We did notice that one of the bitches did like to
chase the goats but would stop when he corrected her verbally.
He did have a male there as well, who turned out to be part
Canadian/AmericanFrench breeding that was imported from Canada.  He seemed to
me not to be a french-type dog as I had seen that last few days.

Just talking about it really brings back great memories!  We did video our
visits to both kennels, so hopefully one day can get the video on the website
as well so everyone can see.  In the meantime, half the pictures are picked up
and the other by the weekend.  I hope to get them on the site before the
weekend.

Any other questions, please ask, I really do love talking about our visit.
You can also email Janet Ingram to get the technical questions answered!  :)

Joan