After she finished, we were looking for a good stud for her for a while and it was a very difficult job.
Making a long story short, in the early October, I took her to Canada to breed. It was my first trip there.

I always think I am fortunate. Since I have friends in Toronto, Leanne and I could stay my friends' home for a while. If they were not there, our trip to Canada might have been difficult. They have two SPs, Nana and Sky. (Both are spayed and neutered.) Nana is a little funny girl and Sky is a big gentleman.

While visiting Canada, I went to see Canadian obedience trials and even visited Niagara Falls too. Though it was a very short trip, I really enjoyed it very much.

Leanne was to have some puppies in the early December but in November, I've found that she had nothing. This fact really let me down. Since it is impossible (I'm very sure on this point) to find the good stud who has passed genetic tests here in Japan, I need to think of taking her back to Canada to breed next time.

Leanne is now doing very fine. I was amazed that she remembered so many things despite the long 6 month blank. She remembers almost all the obedience lessons and tricks I taught her. What she most amazed me was that she remembers how to retrieve a fax sheet. I really thought she is a genius when she reacted the fax call and went straight to the machine without my command.
Now she is working as a fax retriever again at my office. She's a hard worker.

While Leanne was not with me, I didn't go to dog shows that much. But I visited shows sometimes and enjoyed watching pretty dogs in the rings.
One day I helped my friend showing her SP bitch. It was very exciting. I really like dog shows and I always enjoy doing some jobs there.
The photo on right is my friend's bitch, Yum. I did the head set-up but all this style was cut by my friend, not me. I just can't do English Saddle even on Toys! <g>

However, we still have very few Standards in any shows. At big shows like FCI International Dog Shows, where we usually have over 1,000 dogs, there are always more pet Standards _outside_ the ring. The number of SPs registered at JKC is increasing in these years (in 2003, it goes up over 400/year at last.) still we don't have many good show SPs in the ring. It's sad.
One day, I went to see the Poodle Specialty held in Tokyo. There were over 100 Toys and 4 Minis but NO Standards. There were some real good Toys but to me, Poodle Specialty without Standard is just boring. I think I need to go to PCA again to see many pretty SPs someday.

Excuse me for expressing my anger here a bit.
One person has been breeding his very young bitch at every heat from her first one without a halt. This bitch is only 4 years old and she is going to have her 7th litter soon. Is this the right thing to do to our beloved Standard Poodle? There are bunch of stupid people around him too. They are very pleased with buying a puppy from him and to my surprise, they respect him as a good breeder. I want to say; "YOU ARE ALL DAMNED FOOL!"