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Jeremy and Jake on our wedding day
Joanne with Jake as a puppy
Jeremy with his first GSP, Sam, and Jake, sharing the couch together
Flyball training with Jake in 1999
Jeremy & Jake (middle) showing at Canberra Royal 1999 (only their 2nd show!)
Joanne & Jake showing November 1999
Family Christmas 2000
Joanne & Jake competing in Novice Retrieving trial for Gundogs May 2004
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In the beginning...
The Fourjays kennel was founded in 1999, though our breed involvement began in 1997 with the purchase of our first shorthair, Jake - Ch. Moorquail Devilkin UD AD JD ET. Little did we know what adventures this mischievous little brown puppy would take us on! We enrolled Jake in obedience classes at our local dog training school and he flew through the ranks, with Jeremy in charge of his training. By the time he was 9 months old, Jake had progressed to the novice (trialling) class and clearly had an aptitude for obedience work.
As a youngster, Jake received many comments about his looks, and so we began investigating the possiblity of entering him in a dog show. He was just 12 months old when we went to our first show as complete novice's, with no idea what to do. Amazingly, Jake not only won the dog challenge, but went on to win a nice Best of Breed, over interstate dogs and experienced exhibitors/handlers. Our next couple of shows were not as successful but that first taste of success changed our lives forever. We ordered our next GSP that same year, from the well known Heiderst Kennels in South Australia, and in June 1999, Jodi - Ch. Heiderst Paris in Spring CDX AD JD ET arrived and the Fourjays kennel was founded.
Achievements
Our first litter arrived in May 2001 and since that time we have bred only a further 3 litters, with puppies from every litter being shown, and all of those receiving points towards their Show titles. We have bred 2 Australian champions and 1 New Zealand Champion, with another 3 well on the way to their titles. Additionally, pups from every litter have also entered the obedience ring and have shown how well GSPs can do in this field. 1 pup has her CD (Companion Dog) title and is working towards her CDX title in 2008, and another pup has just gained her CCD (Community Companion Dog) title and will be working towards her CD title this year.
With our own dogs, in only 8 years of trialling, we have obtained 3 CD, 3 CDX and 1 UD obedience title, as well as 2 AD (agility dog), 2 JD (jumping dog) and 3 ET (Endurance) titles. They have many wins and placings, including wins at State Obedience Titles, GSP National, GSP Specialty and numerous agility and jumping trial wins and places also. Our showing and trialling activities have slowed down somewhat for the moment due to family commitments and the fact that age is catching up with the dogs, but we hope to have some youngsters to carry on with soon.
In the show ring, dogs owned or bred by us have won All Breeds Runner up Best in show, multiple Best in Groups (Group 1), Runner up in Groups (Group 2), numerous classes in show and classes in Group, a Royal Reserve Challenge, a Royal Puppy in Group, National Specialty placings, National Specialty Best Coated, GSP Specialty class in show wins and placings and placings at Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne Royals.
All our resident GSPs are Australian Champions in conformation and they have all won the coveted Dunbar award, awarded by the ACT Canine Association in recognition of dogs who have gained both show and obedience titles (beauty & brains - the ultimate!). Our male shorthair, Ch. Moorquail Devilkin UD AD JD ET, is the first and only GSP in the 33 year history of these awards, to have won the Gold Dunbar medallion, which is the highest level awarded.
Our dogs have also all been awarded the ACT Gundog Society Obedience Dog of the Year trophy, with Jake winning in 2000, Jodi in 2003 and Mouse (Ch. Fourjays Just WatchMe CDX ET CGC) in 2006 as well as having won awards from our local obedience club.
Currently, we participate in obedience trials in and around the Canberra region and attend the odd conformation show, though we do attend the major shows when we can such as the Canberra and Sydney Royals and also the GSP National when it comes around every 2 years. All of our dogs have been shot over, have retrieved birds and display natural working ability, so important in maintaining the original qualities of the breed. They are an important part of our family and live and are raised in a family environment where they allowed to just be dogs.
The future...
Our breeding plan is always to incorporate excellent conformation with sound temperament and to maintain working ability and versatility. Whilst our current breedings incorporate show lines, in the future we hope to introduce some working lines as currently there is a divergence between the two in Australia and I feel that we are slowly losing the original abilities of this breed and creating an ever widening gap between show and working bred GSPs. This is in line with our commitment to maintaining the working ability in our dogs and not just breeding for show ring trends.
Health testing we feel, will become more and more important in the future, and we are currently expanding on our current health testing system (hip and elbow scoring ) to include Eye Certification (using the ACES scheme) and DNA testing and profiling. These tests are quite standard in other countries and I do hope that other Australian breeders will start to take advantage of the benefits of health testing in our breed.
Extra-curricular activities
Both myself and my husband Jeremy are obedience instructors. Jeremy instructed for a number of years at the Tuggeranong Dog Training Club and we were both heavily involved in the development of that club when they were granted permanent land and location by the ACT Goverment. I joined the management committee of that club and went on to become a Senior Instructor, was Chair of the Instructor Training Committee and was also heavily involved with the redevelopment of the Clubs training syllabus, based on Karen Pryor's clicker training methodology.
I left that club and we have now been a member of Canberra's premier dog training club, the ACT Companion Dog Club, for a number of years and I have both instructed and been involved at Committee level with this club. Currently I am very actively involved with the ACT Gundog Society, having been a member for numerous years and on the Committee for the past 4 years where I have been the Newsletter editor, have been involved in the running and organisation of shows and helping at Retrieving trials. Currently I am Treasurer, Membership officer and the Obedience Trial Manager.
In 2008 I hope to become a Conformation show steward and am also an Obedience Steward. I am also toying with the idea of doing my obedience judges and conformation judges licence's sometime in the future.
For recreation, I enjoy reading and learning about canine behaviour with a particular interest in behavioural problems, and keeping up to date with positive motivational training methods, especially how they apply to obedience training. I have also recently begun giving private obedience training lessons for people having issues in the trial ring and am pleased to say that I have now helped people gain their CCD, CD, CDX and UD titles. I am passionate about helping others and trying to encourage an interest in trialling.
Members of:
ACT Canine Association
ACT Gundog Society
Dogs NSW
GSP Club of Victoria
GSP Society of NSW
GSP Club of QLD
ACT Companion Dog Club
Tuggeranong Dog Training Club
Committee Member of:
ACT Gundog Society - holding the position of Treasurer/Membership officer/Obedience Trial Manager and Public Officer
ACTCA Retrieving and Field Trial Committee
Joanne & Jake competing at the ACTCA State Obedience titles 2007
We won the Utility class this day
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Jodi at around 12 weeks of age
Our first Best in Group (Group 1) win. Joanne & Jodi July 2000
Our first litter, the J litter, born 5/5/2001
Puppy party with some of our J litter pups
Joanne with Mouse, our first homebred Champion from our first litter
Mouse winning Best in Group, then onto Runner Up in Show, handled by my friend Lara Preston
Joanne & Jodi competing in Novice Jumping
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