Piper

Piper is a dream Spinone. He has an incredibly sweet and loving temperament, exceptional conformation, and excellent balance & movement. He is square, has a great head and nice earset, lovely expression, harsh coat and very nice bone and substance. He also has something I rarely see in the breed: a great, thick tail.

He has many accomplishments in the conformation show ring and has shown lots of promise in the field. Click here for video of a quail point when Piper was 5 months old. Finished and with a group placement before he reached one year of age, Piper has since had many other wins, including Best of Opposite Sex at the SCOA parent club specialty before he was even two years old, and several more group placements since, not to mention an Award of Merit under Spinone breed specialist Nicola Spencer, and an Award of Excellence at the 2010 Eukanuba Invitational. Piper has done some great field work, is wonderfully biddable, has a great nose and a very soft mouth. Always up for some fun, he loves to work and he loves life.

He is very well balanced, giving his movement an effortless appearance while still having wonderful purpose and strength.

When Piper turned two years old, I began to do various health testing to find out whether he would be a good, healthy sire, free of the most well-known problems. His hip x-rays were rated "Good" by OFA, and his elbows are normal. His thyroid and cardio tests also were normal, and he has has been tested and found free of the recessive gene for Cerebellar Ataxia - he is not a carrier (both of his parents are also cleared of the gene). His eyes have been Cerf tested twice and found normal in both instances. Here's a link to Piper's health testing results on the OFA registry.

 

Piper in the group ring at 23 months:

 

 

 

Side profile of Piper's head:

 

 

 

 

And the sweetest, most soulful expression ever: