[ SHOWGSD-L ] Re: Joan Ford: A Great Lady. We Miss you already Part 2.
- From: "Brenda Shepard" <tashina1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <gsprock@xxxxxxx>, <showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2007 16:36:09 -0700
Gail,
I can say that I never had this wonderful opportunity.
From everything that has been posted and said, I feel like
I have missed the opportunity of a life time.
Thank you for giving some of us the chance to see what a delightful lady
Joan was. I would like to say may Fran have the Best Wishes ever for the
days
to come.
Brenda Shepard
-----Original Message-----
From: showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf
Of Gail Sprock
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2007 11:17 AM
To: showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ SHOWGSD-L ] Joan Ford: A Great Lady. We Miss you already Part
2.
Yesterday I sent the first of three posts I am providing to the list so that
maybe those who never had the opportunity to know or talk to Joan can get to
know her at least a little bit. This is my second post.
---Gail Sprock
Joan: Elsa had an exuberant personality, was great to live with, and she was
tough. You had to be careful not to make a mistake and give her a chance to
get a hold of another dog. She did eventually get a hold of my Val. Val was
out and I opened the trap door, and Elsa ran out. That was my first major
fight. The neighbors were building the house next door, and there was nobody
living there but us. We didn't have any of the fencing in the back. Fran was
taking a shower and getting ready to go to work and I was stuck out there
all by myself with the two bitches at each other's throats. Elsa was ready
to kill, and the guys on the roof wouldn't come down to help. They were
scared out of their minds. So I was stuck out there holding these two
bitches by the scruff of the neck, screaming my head off for help. Finally
I managed to get them apart and throw one of them in a run.
Later Lonie turned out to be just like her mother. She was like a stick of
dynamite. She waited for you to make a mistake so she could pick a fight.
Elsa was six, and we leased her for that one litter. She was a good moving
little bitch and she could have finished. She was not a large bitch, sort of
medium small, very red, with a black saddle. She was real cute with a super
temperament and curvy with a nice little hindquarter, considering what was
around in those days. She had short little hocks with a nice shoulder,
good lay-back and a long upper arm and a strong back. I think she looked a
lot like her sire, Richter v Liebestraum. Now there was an impressive
looking dog. He had nice bone and substance and was a good easy mover.
Elsa had a brother that was as good or better than she was, but he was a
monorchid and was placed as a pet.
Lance of Fran-Jo
Joan: There were seven puppies in the litter and three of them were shown.
The three were Lance, Lonie, and Lido. Lido's owner was not very big on dog
shows and if anybody else had had him he would have finished at all-breed
shows. Lance was a beautiful puppy. It was very obvious that he was going
to be a great one right from the start. He won all the puppy matches he
went to. He was eleven months old when he had his first bout with pano but
he showed well before that. We took him in ourselves. Fran handled him most
of the time and put most of his points on him. We put all his points on him
ourselves except two; Bob Denton, who also finished Lonie, put two points on
him and was the first to special him. I remember that he finished on the day
that both he and Lonie were entered at the Kentucky show. Fran also showed
Lonie, won a Futurity with her, put her first major on her under John Seiler
and a couple of singles under Gerhart Plaga. I pup points on him and Group
placings at all-breed shows but we thought he would show better with a
professional handler on him. He was an easy dog to handle, very obedient and
of course of beautiful type. He would stand, bait and pose and loved to
show when we were there. And he was clean on both ends and took a longer
stride than the other dogs. Mind you, he was loose as a young dog,
"flexible", I would call it. But by the time he was three years old he had
tightened up. I think that is the case with most dogs that have this
"flexibility". Now, I am not talking about the really faulty ones, the
ones that are really sloppy going away. There really is a difference between
a dog that is bad--one is the result of a faulty structure and the other is
a question of ligamentation which often tightens up with maturity. A dog can
move with straight hocks and still be loose and that's the way Lance moved
as a young dog; but of course he was penalized for it, and some people said
he was bad going away.
Joan: We were just breeding to get what we thought would be a good dog; one
that was good looking and could move. We wanted a good male but we didn't
plan or expect to get what we got. At the time we had no idea we were going
to have one of the pillars of the breed. The only thing I know now is that
we are so proud of him; we loved him so. I remember we were at a friend's
house with him, sitting on their front porch. Lance was a four month old
puppy and I thought to myself, "This is too good to be true". He had all
those angles, much more so than when he was older. You know they tend to
lose them with age. And he had a great personality and was a wonderful dog
to live with. He went everywhere with us.
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POST is Copyrighted 2007. All material remains the property of the original
author and of GSD Communication, Inc. NO REPRODUCTIONS or FORWARDS of any kind
are permitted without prior permission of the original author AND of the
Showgsd-l Management. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
ALL PERSONS ARE ON NOTICE THAT THE FORWARDING, REPRODUCTION OR USE IN ANY
MANNER OF ANY MATERIAL WHICH APPEARS ON SHOWGSD-L WITHOUT THE EXPRESS
PERMISSION OF ALL PARTIES TO THE POST AND THE LIST MANAGEMENT IS EXPRESSLY
FORBIDDEN, AND IS A VIOLATION OF LAW. VIOLATORS OF THIS PROHIBITION WILL BE
PROSECUTED.
For assistance, please contact the List Management at admin@xxxxxxxxxxxx
VISIT OUR WEBSITE - www.showgsd.org
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