The Ertle Family
It all started with Dan's desire for a Saint Bernard. Unfortunately at the time we lived in a very small house with only 3 bedrooms and 3 young children. We decided it would be best to wait. When we bought our current house, we got Annabelle as a birthday gift for Dan. She would be the begining of our obsession with the breed. It is true; you can't have just one!!!!!!
We did a little more research into the breed for our next Saint and began looking to breeders with show quality dogs. We ended up going with a breeder from Holland ( V. Droevestein's Kennel) who had a litter of pups with the grandfather being Berngarden's Ragtime. Jack arrived in our home in January of '06. Rachel started working with him in handling classes and he made his debut in the ring at the Canine Learning Experience in the Lehigh Valley. Rachel began showing Jack in Junior showmanship when he turned 8 months old. She did well, but was told most often by the judges and a handling teacher that she should get a smaller dog. Rachel was discouraged but did not give up thanks to Laura Flannery. She convinced Rachel to keep going, that it would be worth it in the long run. Laura taught Rachel many things and told her of a Junior Handling class that would help her also. (Thank you Kathy Schwabe)
In late summer of '06 we heard of a breeder who was looking to place a Champion in a Juniors home. We contacted Carolyn New of New Sage Saint Bernards and told her about Rachel and her experience with Juniors. In September, we welcomed CH New Sage Guinevere V Knight ( Kitty) into our home as Rachel's Junior partner and new best friend. They worked great together and began to win in Juniors. This sparked Rachel's desire to not only show in the Juniors ring but also in the breed ring. At the same time, Matt, being tired of just going along to shows, decided to attempt Junior handling also. Matt took over with Jack and began in Novice Senior.
In the Spring of '07, we attended the Salt City Cluster in Syracuse, NY. Rachel and Matt had an amazing weekend of showing. Rachel was 1st in Open Junior all 3 days she showed, complete with a Best Junior on the 2nd day. Matt was also 1st in his class the same day. Matt showed Jack in breed and took RWD. The last day, Rachel was asked if she would like to show a class bitch. She was so excited and took WB for a 4pt major. The owner was Earl Johnson and the bitch was Jericho's Starlee. Earl had seen Rachel show all weekend and was impressed with her ease to work with Kitty and her ability to handle. He invited us back to his kennel and showed us a promising young pup he had. He and his wife Brook agreed to a co-ownership for Rachel to have a dog to show in the breed ring. Welcome to Lil' Jon's My Fair Lady (Shayla). While we were there, we also bought a male pup that was a half brother to Shayla, Welcome Lil' Jon's Real McCoy (Shamus).
So here we are now with 5 saints, and loving every minute of it. Matt is begining to train with the dogs for Rally. Kitty has earned her CGC in September.
We have attended our first National this year and we had such a wonderful time. We enjoyed meeting so many new people and seeing such beautiful dogs!!!!!! See our results on the National page. We are looking forward to next year!!!!
New Sage Odyssey to North Pointe (Cooper AKA "Qewpie") has joined our crew and makes that saint #6. She is Kitty's daughter from her litter in '06 sired by Loramar's Admiral New Sage Stoan.
We had our first experience at Wetminster this year and had a wonderful time. So many of our friends came to watch Rachel. We also got to meet Christopher Cho from CA who is another junior with a Saint.
Update 2/09
Here we are a year later, still active in Saints, but Miss Rachel has decided she loves handling so much that she is now learning more about other breeds. She has now learned about and shown breeds such as Chihuahuas, Frenchies, Ibizan Hounds, English cockers, Bullmastiffs, Brittanys, Siberians, Samoyeds, Shiba Inu ,Black Russian terriers, and many others. She has had the opportunity to learn from many people in their respective breeds and is now also working with some professional handlers to learn even more. We look forward to each new experience Rachel brings our way.