Stop Me If You Can

Baur takes Best In Match first time out!

Baur, a ten month old fawn male puppy, brother to our Glen who is now in Sweden went to a puppy match this evening, and took Best in Match his very first time in a show ring.

When Dreams Come True

WHEN DREAMS COME TRUE

by Phil and Jane Gray

BISS CH WIEDANES A GALA AT OWLWATCH CGC was whelped two days before the terrible attack on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. She was one of nine puppies born to Ch Midnite Run-Wiedanes Tatum, and was sired by our Ch Owlwatch Good Time Charlie CGC. After examining the litter, by previous arrangement with her breeders, Jill and Jerry Wiechens, we decided to take a puppy in lieu of a stud fee, and Gala came to live with us at Owlwatch.

After showing a lot of promise as a puppy, Gala truly burst onto the show scene shortly after her first birthday picking up back to back major wins at the Lakeshore Great Dane Club specialty show, and the Stone City Kennel Club the week before the 2002 GDCA National Specialty. Gala let us know that her previous wins were not a fluke, by being awarded the National's "Best Junior in Futurity" just nine days later.

That Futurity win was extremely rewarding and exciting for us and her breeders, but would prove to be merely a prelude to one of the most exciting weeks we have experienced since we started showing Great Danes in the late sixties.

After her showing in the Futurity, there were rumblings of speculation that Gala was just getting started. That she went on to win the extremely competitive Twelve to Eighteen month class over thirty plus beautiful bitches only added to that speculation. In addition, the fact that so many friends and acquaintances kept telling us they thought that she had an extremely good chance at Winners Bitch, did not serve to quiet the feeling of anxiety that was building within us.

Because of all the speculation concerning Gala, we really weren't overly concerned or excited when a dog that we had bred won the open fawn class, but when he was chosen Winners Dog, that was something so totally unexpected and out of the blue, we were stunned.

Realistically, I don't think that anyone goes to a National Specialty expecting to win. We always go with the hopes that our dogs will show well, be competitive, and make a good impression on fellow exhibitors and the judges as well. Having just seen a dog that we had bred chosen Winners Dog, how could we possibly have any hope of seeing our Gala chosen Winners Bitch as well?

When Gala was chosen Winners Bitch and eventually Best of Winners, it was as if we were living in a dream. No breeder or exhibitor could ever expect to have this happen in real life; but it did! It just goes to show that sometimes dreams do come true, and Gala was – and continues to be – a big part of our dream.

— Phil and Jane Gray

Owlwatch Great Danes and Whippets