User Profile

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



Click on her picture to go to her Webshots page.

Bella (Tollwest's Spice of Broadway CD, RE, CARO RA-MCL, CGN) was born on March 25, 2007 in Calgary, Alberta. She was bred by Lisa Porter of Tollwest Kennels and was sold to me by Cathy and RaeAnn DeBruyne of Broadway Tollers. 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: keepsakenick.




Bella's pedigree can be found here: http://toller-l.org/tollerdata/pedigree.asp?ID=20972. Her sire is the incredibly handsome Maverick (AKC BIS, BISS, Am, Can, NSDTRC-US CH Fionavar Javahill Topgun Am/Can CD, WC, VC, Can ROM, Am ROMX) of Javahill Tollers, and her dam is Curry (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 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, the Ontario Toller Club, and the Peterborough and District Obedience Club, and have entered formal obedience and rally obedience trials. We're also working on retrieving, with the hope of getting a Working Certificate someday, and have started agility training. Bella has too much white on her forelegs to do really well in the conformation ring, but we're giving it a shot anyway. To date, Bella has five points towards her Canadian Championship.

I'm the Shows & Trials "committee" for the Ontario Toller Club, and I'm also its Rally Mentor. Bella and I have entered both CKC and CARO rally trials, so I'm familiar with the rules and exercises of both. If you have any questions about rally obedience, please ask!


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. :-)

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