Bree

Anara Brilliant RN RA

Bree is a six-month-younger half-sister of Adora, but she's quite different in style!  She has more leg, she is more 'square.'  She is really nice, structurally, so it's not surprising that she tends to pose well.  When she stands, she always seems to wind up in a stacked pose.  Her head is not great -- she needs more cushioning under the eyes to bring her muzzle into visual proportion with her skull.  But she has a lovely neck and shoulder and excellent angulation front and rear, nice topline, good tailset.  She is quite large for a girl, which probably counts against her in the ring almost as much as her plain head, so I basically stick to performance with her.

Any decent Cavalier loves meeting strangers, but Bree is the one who leaps into stranger's laps at shows, sometimes with a great deal of determination!  She will pick a particular person out and every time she gets a chance, up she'll go into that person's lap!  Fortunately, people who attend dog shows rarely mind if a Cavalier wants to pretend she is their personal lapdog.

Bree is a good deal more 'mouthy' than her half-sisters because she (unlike them) is a natural retriever.  She is not quite as fast in the Rally ring, which means I never trip over her.  She is still fast enough that she usually wins any tie, so that's fine.  I think she might do well in regular obedience, not only because of her natural retrieve -- I'm sure I could teach any of my girls to retrieve -- but because she takes things seriously and thinks things through.  That may sound nuts, but it's true.  I think she's the one who would figure out in her own head how to really do an exercise and then care about doing it right.  Pippa was fun but a bit too exciting in the regular obedience ring -- I think Bree might be the one I eventually take through a CDX.

Bree is nearly three years old.  She has had her first litter, showing me that she can produce beautifully marked tricolor and blen puppies with good bodies . . . only three, though, and rather too big at birth; poor Bree's whelping was a bit too eventful.  Now I'm just waiting to see how the puppies turn out -- hopefully they will get their daddy's head and NOT get their mama's size.