Latest News:     Harley has exceeded all expectations for 2009 by winning Agility grade 5.  This grade is normally where you would find Collies the super dogs of agility.  We are so proud of Harley. So he has gone from 3, to 4 and now 5!   Check out his videos below

 

This is Harley Living with Ann Miller and Mark

He is a castrated male and not there fore at Stud.

We have dedicated this page to Harley because we are so proud of him.  He is a true dual purpose Weimaraner in the UK.  Not only a family pet, before Castrated went to Crufts by winning his class in puppy class at WELKS.  He was shown until he was old enough to do agility, then he went onto the agility circuit with his very dedicated owner Ann Miller.  Harley is also a working gundog, and is on local shoots through out the winter months.  A true dual purpose English Weimaraner.

We are proud of Harley!

 

Living with Harley by Ann Miller

Harley (aged 5) is a lovely dog to live with.  He is not a dog that likes a lot of fuss and is not an excitable dog.   When new people enter our house they don’t always notice him straight away.  In a house with 3 other dogs  (all bitches) he knows his place is at the bottom.  However he soon gets under everyone’s skin.  Even people who are unsure about dogs soon come around to liking our gentle giant.  He is calm and many of his reactions are very subtle.  Despite this there is a great comedian within him and he seems to love to make us laugh.  We have to be careful though laugh at a trick once and it will be repeated many times.  Give him his exercise, play times on his own and food and he is such a laid back dog.  Be late with any of these, especially breakfast,  and he becomes a pain in the rear. 

I would never say that training with Harley has been easy.  He is incredibly intelligent and learns things very quickly but he also has a very low boredom threshold.   This has caused problems with his agility training especially as all his trainers are used to collies.  Finding the on switch is not always easy but once switched on he is a super dog to work.  Training him is challenge that can be very frustrating at times but the rewards when it does go well  more than make up for it all. 

 

 

 

Pictured below Harley doing his stuff!

 

 Competing with him has been full of highs and lows.  He recently gave me the highest point yet when he “won out” from Grade 3 to Grade 4.  To do so we beat a class of over 80 dogs and some top handlers as well albeit with their less experienced dogs.  Whilst there are about 40 to 50 Weimaraners competing at agility I think I am right in saying there are only 3 others competing at this level and above.   I won’t kid myself this doesn’t mean he won’t carry on embarrassing me by bogging off, going through the wrong end of tunnels or by refusing to weave and generally pretending he’s never done agility but I know there will also be those rounds when everything simply goes right.  That’s agility the Harley way.

 

Training for the shoot has been easier in many respects because the thing he loves the most is hunting.   Motivating him to do this has never been a problem.  The problem has been stopping him.  This is one area where is recall is still a work in progress.  This has largely been due to mistakes we have made as novice handlers that have allowed him to develop bad habits.    Still we have made some progress on keeping him steady in the beating line, just not when a hare decides to run under his nose.  I really do think I should change his name to Silvestre Hare Chaser.

 

As he has matured his pointing and retrieving skills have improved  significantly.  He has also become a favourite on the shoot to call for when a bird is lost.  Now we have added some steadiness to his work he is proving what a good nose he has. 

 

I feel very proud when I’m out with my handsome boy.  I love walking in the forest and being able to call him away from other unruly dogs (well most of the time).  I love it at the end of an agility run when he’s tried his hardest even if it didn’t go to plan.  When it does go right and we achieve success I can’t stop smiling for days.  I love it on the shoot when the guns argue over who I am to work with as they all want the dog that points.  

The best thing about Harley is that I don’t think we’ve seen the best of Harley yet. 

 Ann Miller

 

Pictured below Harley on his local shoot which he attends most weekends during the shooting season.