We picked Krista out based on two puppy videos done at 7 and 8 weeks. She was from a very nice litter and six of the nine puppies ended up finishing with one other was very close before being hit by a car and unable to be shown any longer. We drove to Denver and picked her up at 3 months of age, she took the alpha position from my male, Justin, before she was even in the car. Krista was a natural show dog, having never been to a handling class we walked away with BOB over a large sammy puppy entry and Group 3 at her first match. From there on out she rarely walked away with less than a Group 1 and took several best in matches including two at Specialty matches held by the Arizona club. Krista's, being a larger bitch (almost 22") and normally showed like a dream, her first show at just over six months we put her right into open. Of course, it happened to be a major, but she walked in, moved fabulously, and was moved up to first. Then the nervousness set in and Krista started bouncing around the ring and we managed to get ourselves moved back to third place. This was the last show in the area for the year, but her breeder took her to the SCLA specialty along with several of her brothers and sisters at the beginning of '93. The whole litter did exceptionally well and she took third to two of her sisters, one of which took Best in Sweeps a five point major. For the spring show season Krista was out of coat. She started getting her hair back right when it got too hot for shows in Arizona so at 14 months we decided to send her to Texas with a friend of mine since I knew she'd blow coat again right before the fall season. She walked away with two majors in four days!! At 17 months she took best of opposite sex in sweeps at the Arizona specialty, but wasn't in full coat yet. She took reserve at 80% of the shows that fall but we couldn't quite seem to get any more points. Then in January we were off to SCLA again and at 20 months she took a very large (40-50 bitches) 5 point major, BOW, and BOS over some very nice group placing bitch specials. We placed the rest of the weekend and proceeded to bloat coat yet again. It was getting very frustrating because she just seemed to be on a cycle that was the exact opposite of the show seasons in the area!! In June she was off to her breeder in Denver for the Denver specialty. Krista had turned two just 3 weeks early and took her fourth major by taking BOW at the specialty. We started working Krista in obedience just before she turned a year old. She proved a natural at that also. After only one eight week obedience session with Craig (a complete novice at obedience work), her instructor told us to skip right to the "pre-novice" class to begin fine tuning for competition. She entered her first show in obedience at the Denver specialty but decided to potty in the ring. With her championship out of the way and OFA done it was now time to think about breeding her. We decided on Ch. Southern Mist's Head'n for a Hearbreak, a beautiful Gabby son who we felt complimented her to a tee. Krista, being her typical "I'll do things on my own schedule" self was late coming into season and then went out of season when we shipped her. Luckily Theresa was able to hold on to her for a few weeks and she came right back in. In the mean time there were a couple of local shows and Theresa taught obedience so we decided to enter her. She took a 191-1/2 the first day and a 170-1/2 the second day getting her first two obedience legs. She whelped her first litter of 3 girls and 2 boys on February 7, 1995, just shy of her third birthday. She had a very easy labor and we almost had a puppy in the bathroom. She had just had a puppy 30 second ago so I figured it was safe to leave the puppy with Craig to clean up, weigh, and get a colored ribbon on while I took a potty break myself. I took her with me otherwise he wouldn't get anyware trying to keep her away from the puppy for two minutes and no sooner had I walked in she had a puppy half way out. Her whole labor was like that, contractions started and she had a puppy seconds to minutes later. She proved to be one of the best mothers I've ever seen. She would gently step in her whelping box and proceed to count every puppy with her nose pushing them all into the center before carefully sliding herself down the walls so she'd push any puppy that might have wiggled under her harmlessly out of the way rather than laying on it. She would allow people to pick up and play with her babies (just as long as they didn't want to leave the room) but she wouldn't allow another dog anywhere within her sight. Finally at 8 weeks we had to force her to stop nursing them, I thing she would have continued until they were adults!! We kept a male and co-ownership on the second pick bitch. In her second litter to Ch. Image's the Barrister she gave us six boys and three girls. This litter wasn't as nice as the first and of course, since we wanted a girl it just happened that the first several picks of the litter were all males. We did keep a bitch who was pointed when I placed her, but I felt since I hadn't improved (or even maintained) on Krista's quality this time, that I'd place her and keep something from a repeat breeding of the first litter. The third litter I bred and whelped on my own. Krista gave me four girls and four boys and unfortunately had to have a c-section (interesting note, she received raspberry leaves during her pregnancy the first two litter but didn't on the third one. Coincidence?? Or does it really make a difference??) I was pulling my hair out trying to decide between two bitches out of this litter. Everyone agreed on the ranking on the boys, but these two girls were both exceptionally nice. They were almost 12 weeks before I made a final decision and let the other girl go to her owners. Krista's oldest puppies just turned four and her youngest are a year. To date, four of her puppies have received their championships and several others are pointed. Krista is also the grandmother of several very young pointed grandkids.

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