Profile

This is a journal about Bella, my Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever.

(http://community.webshots.com/user/KCsqrd)

Click on her picture to go to her Webshots page.

Bella (Tollwest's Spice of Broadway JH WC CD RE CGN, CARO RA-MCL, Am WC) was born on March 25, 2007 in Calgary, Alberta. She was bred by Lisa Porter of Tollwest Kennels (http://www.tollwest.com) and was sold to me by Cathy and RaeAnn DeBruyne of Broadway Tollers (http://broadwaytollers.com). Bella came to live with me in Peterborough, Ontario, on December 24, 2007 (Merry Christmas to me!).

Bella's "brother" Nick also has a LiveJournal: (http://keepsakenick.livejournal.com/profile)keepsakenick (http://keepsakenick.livejournal.com/).


(http://www.TickerFactory.com/)

Bella's pedigree can be found here: http://toller-l.org/tollerdata/pedigree.asp?ID=20972 (http://toller-l.org/tollerdata/pedigree.asp?ID=20972). Her sire is the incredibly handsome Maverick (http://web.ncf.ca/aj340/visitors/maverick.html) (AKC BIS, BISS, Am, Can, NSDTRC-US CH Fionavar Javahill Topgun Am/Can CD, WC, VC, Can ROM, Am ROMX) of Javahill Tollers (http://DuckToller.com), and her dam is Curry (http://www.tollwest.com/curry.html) (Can CH Broadway Tollwest Curry CGN). She got some good genes from those two! Bella's baby pictures can be found in Tollwest's Spice Litter (http://community.webshots.com/user/tollwestspice) album. Bella's litter name was "Boots," for obvious reasons.

Bella is my first Toller and first purebred dog. She's an absolutely delightful girl: she's intelligent, impossibly good-natured, naturally well-behaved and obedient, always up for some fun but calm in the house, and very pretty. At a little over one year of age, Bella measured 20" and weighed 39 pounds, which makes her rather tall for a female. She loves playing with other dogs, and she doesn't have an aggressive bone in her body. We're members of the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever Club of Canada (http://www.toller.ca/), the Ontario Toller Club (http://www.tollers.on.ca/), and the Peterborough and District Obedience Club (http://www.padoc.ca/), and have entered formal obedience and rally obedience trials. Bella has high white on her forelegs, which made her a hard sell in the show ring, but we managed to find enough judges who could see past the extra white for her to earn her Canadian championship.


Milestones
CKC Rally Novice
Bella and I got our first CKC Rally Novice leg at a trial in Peterborough on May 4, 2008, with a score of 99/100! We tied for first place but had a slower time than the other dog, so we came in second. We got our second and third Rally Novice legs at trials in Orono on June 14 & 15, 2008. Our Saturday score was 95/100 (fifth in class), and we won our Sunday class with a perfect score of 100!!! Bella is now Tollwest's Spice of Broadway RN. CKC Rally is a relatively new dogsport (the first trials were held in 2007), and Bella is the 13th Toller in Canada to earn this title.

CKC Rally Advanced
Bella and I earned all three CKC Rally Advanced legs (the first two in the pouring rain) at trials in Pefferlaw on August 9 & 10, 2008. Our scores were 88 (fifth in class), 94 (fourth in class), and a perfect 100! We won High in Class on our third leg. Bella also passed her Canine Good Neighbour test on the afternoon of August 10. Bella is now Tollwest's Spice of Broadway RA CGN and is the third Toller in Canada to hold the CKC RA title.

CARO Rally Novice-Magna Cum Laude
Bella and I earned all three CARO Rally Novice legs at trials in Peterborough on September 8, 2008. Our scores were 195 (third place), a perfect 200 (first place), and 197 (fourth place), which were high enough for the Magna Cum Laude designation. Bella is now Tollwest's Spice of Broadway RA, CARO RN-MCL, CGN.

CKC Rally Excellent
Bella and I entered four CKC Rally Excellent trials in Bowmanville on October 5, 2008. The indoor facility where the trials were held was quite warm, and Bella was kind of sluggish as a result. Still, we got all three qualifying legs, plus a spare, with scores of 95 (HIC), 92 (second place), 88 (second place), and 94 (HIC). Bella is now Tollwest's Spice of Broadway RE, CARO RN-MCL, CGN. Bella is the FIRST Toller ever to receive the CKC RE title! :-)

Novice Obedience
Bella and I earned our CD title at four trials in Gravenhurst on October 25 & 26, 2008. Our three title scores were 189.5 (second place in a class of six), 189.5 (third place in a class of seven), and 189.5 (High in Class in a class of seven). At least we were consistent! We broke the 190-point glass ceiling on our insurance leg (when Bella's handler finally stopped making mistakes) with a score of 193 (second place in a class of six). Bella is now Tollwest's Spice of Broadway CD, RE, CARO RN-MCL, CGN.

This marked the end of the trial season for 2008. It was a good year for Bella: after completing our first obedience course in March 2008, we earned six titles in six months, with three perfect rally scores and five High in Class placements, all by the time she was just 19 months old. Such a good girl. :-)

CARO RA-MCL
Bella and I entered three CARO trials in Cumberland on March 14, 2009. She qualified in all three trials with scores of 191, 192, and 193 (at least we got a little better each time). We entered two more trials in Bowmanville on April 18, 2009. Bella didn't have her best round ever in the first trial, but still managed to win it with a score of 185 (I actually thought we'd been disqualified!). She got a score of 197 in her second trial that day. I thought we'd earned the RA-CL title because of the one low score, but the certificate said RA-MCL when it came in the mail. :-)

CKC Championship
Showing a Toller with very high white on their forelegs is an uphill battle at the best of times. Consequently, Bella donated lots of points to other dogs at a lot of shows, and her wins tended to happen at local shows with small entries. Bella finished her championship at the Coniston shows on March 26, 27, and 28, 2010. The highlight of the weekend was when she took BOB over "brother" Nick and a group-placing Special!! You could have knocked me over with a feather.

(http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2143694270102796980IfgMzH)

(http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2315058210102796980aTcUGL)

American WC
Bella, Nick, and I travelled to the 2010 Back Yard Classic in Illinois. Both were entered in the Working Certificate test and both passed! Bella was very distracted during the tolling part of the test, but she aced her land and water marks.

(http://pics.livejournal.com/spiceofbroadway/pic/00007ygc/)

Junior Hunter
Bella was entered in her first Junior Hunter test hosted by the Mountain Valley Retriever Training Club at the Christie Lake Conservation area on Sunday, June 20, 2010. Despite the fact that we haven't practiced many marks in cover, Bella was terrific! She returned both land marks very nicely to heel position, found a 92-yard land mark in cover with very little hunting, and didn't bank run at all on her water marks.

Bella was entered in her second JH test hosted by the Chesapeake Bay Retriever Club of Canada in Brighton on Saturday, July 10, 2010. It was a tremendously hot day, and Bella looked like a wilted daisy on her land marks. She got the job done without any trouble, if a little more slowly than usual, and then picked up both hard-to-see water marks with no trouble. Bella now has two legs towards her Junior Hunter title.

Canadian WC
Bella was entered in a Canadian Working Certificate test hosted by the Eastern Ontario Labrador Breeders' Association in Brighton on Sunday, July 18, 2010. It was still very hot and the ponds were even sludgier than the week before, but she still did a good job of all four marks and earned her title. The best part is that this was the last title Bella needed to qualify for her Dobirstein Award!!! The Dobirstein is awarded by the Canadian Toller Club to Tollers who have earned their show championship, Companion Dog obedience title, and Working Certificate. I'm very proud of my girl. :-)