Sadly we lost Ripley in October 2009 after a battle with cancer.  We loved her more than anything and it was devastating to lose her.  Not a day goes by that I don’t think of her and miss her.

 

Introduction

 

Ripley did well in the show ring. She gained her Australian Champion title at the tender age of 12 months and 2 days - to my knowledge, the youngest Dogue to be titled under the current canine council regulations.

She did not obtain her title by simply attending show after show and getting points as the only female there.  She obtained numerous multiple point wins including many 10 and 11 point Best of Breeds and Challenges.

 

From her 8 shows in the Minor Puppy Class; at 6 shows she was awarded multi-point Challenge Bitch, and at one show she was awarded Reserve Challenge Bitch. Of those 8 shows, Ripley had never been the only female on the day, at all shows she has competed against other females including much older females than herself.  And at one show was even awarded Runner-up Best of Breed over other much older male dogues…… Best of Breed went to her father, Argento, so it was a lovely father/daughter win.  Fantastic for a young female and we were very proud of her.

 

Ripley was a real water baby.  She would soak in the paddling pool and loved to play with a running hose, sticking her head into the stream of water trying to bite the water.  Her first introduction to a swimming pool at the age of 3 months, saw her take a running jump into the pool, she sank down, came up swimming, climbed out and did it all over again.  Living in the Blue Mountains we are lucky to have nearby streams, rivers and waterfalls.  Two photos below show Ripley enjoying a waterhole, she swam and swam that day, even out swimming a Portugese Water Dog !

 

Ripley was a very sweet natured girl, showing her love by often nuzzling her head and muzzle into your neck and holding her nose to your face for a kiss.

Attributes

Ripley was a substantial bodied girl with good bone.  She had excellent wrinkle across the muzzle and forehead, and a strong broad underjaw, giving her wonderful expression.  She had a very beautiful head with a lovely pronounced stop.  And she beautiful cheek development.

She was deep and wide chested, lovely and straight in the front.  Her weakness sadly was her rear end which she inherited from her father, she was lacking in angulation and thigh muscle development much like him, so we retired her from showing and after 2 litters, decided not use her in our breeding program anymore.

When Ripley had her first litter, we kept a baby girl, Cadence, who can be seen on her own page.

 

Ripley’s second litter was in late June 2007 and she had 10 puppies to our boy Roman.  We kept Viva, who has her own page now.  Luckily for us, Viva did not inherit the lacking rear end of her mother and grandfather, so we will continue on with Viva towards more improvements.

 

 

Major Achievements

 

CANBERRA ROYAL 2007 - BEST OF BREED FROM 18 DOGUES

SYDNEY ROYAL 2007 -  SECOND CHAMPION BITCH FROM A CLASS OF 8

Aust Ch Chienamour Kiara “Ripley”