K-See: Am & Can Ch Saredon Chasing Secrets

Dam of Robbie (BOB at the 2005 Welsh Terrier Club of America Specialty & Cyril & DORA (WB - Montgomery 2011) & Donny!

Sire: English & American Ch. Dotendav Jack the Lad (Jack)
Dam: English Ch. Saredon Close Encounter (Barbara)

Tested OFA (OFA #1383402): Patella (normal); cardiac/heart (normal); Thyroid (normal); PLL DNA - normal / clear

Click here for K-See's Pedigree

I guess you would say that Casie (who eventually was renamed K-See-Ya) could be referred to as one of Darwyn's foundation bitches. She has been one of my favorite show girls (multiple group winner, Winners Bitch 3 out of 4 days at Montgomery 2003), a great producer, fun to live with and definitely knows how to snuggle and snooze when she is given the opportunity! She was 8 years old in October 2009, had her 3rd and last litter the day after her birthday, is perfectly healthy, and will be spayed and retired (not that life is going to change much for her now!). Hopefully you'll get a feel for who she is from her pictures, but unless you have lived with her, you just won't be able to appreciate what a character and what a loving dog she is! I am so happy that I took that trip to England in 2001 and did not come home with Jack!

K-See was born in England, from the well known terrier breeder Judy Averis and Dave Scawthorn of Saredon Terriers. My first Welsh Terrier, Honey (Am/Can Ch. Saredon Mistress Nora) was also from Judy, but K-See is different ... I got her as a puppy and I helped choose the parents.

I had owned Honey for a couple of years, went back to England on a family trip, and took the opportuntiy to visit Judy, Dave and their dogs again. I really liked a dog named Jack (Eng/Am Ch. Dotendav Jack the Lad). I didn't need a male - but I liked him! He was their next years Crufts welsh, so was not available. So, if I couldn't have Jack, I asked if Jack was ever bred to a particular bitch that I liked if I could have a puppy .... a number of months later 8-week old Casie arrived in Canada ... Jack was the sire and Barbara, the bitch that I liked, was the dam! I was thrilled when I opened up the crate at the airport! After a very long flight, and customs in both countries, Casie came out full of energy and a happy (and good looking) puppy! Note - Jack went on a few months later to win the breed at Crufts and get a group 2. He was then sold to the US and finished his US championship with multiple group 1st wins from the open dog class! Barbara went on to produce BIS winners! Alice, now living in Argentina, is the best known one (click on her name, or here for Alice's info), or Bruce, Ch. Saredon Die Hard, currently in Italy. While I didn't come home with Jack or Barbara, I was thrilled to have K-See as part of my family, my show dogs and the dam of many of my dogs ... without her, I wouldn't have Robbie, Cyril, Athena - and now these 2 puppies (ex. Merlin) that in 2010 I will be "growing up" (Dora and Donny).

One of her many group wins with Larisa handling

Casie (K-See) was a fantastic show girl. She was always on, always happy and loved to be there! It's unfortunate that at the time that I was actively showing her, I was still very much a novice ... when she and I worked as a team, she was awarded very high placements at the terrier group level (at the breed level, she usually was awarded winners or best of breed in both the US and Canada), but when I didn't have control, we were walked in the group... looking back, I completely understand and agree with the judges ... how could they tell in their 2 minutes if I couldn't have her focussed on me! If she had been with a professional handler, it would have been easy to have seen her get many best in show awards - I was told that many times by competitors, and later on by judges and other breeders. Oh well ... she worked more with me than not, and she easily was the #1 Welsh Terrier in Canada ... and I learned.

In the US, I handled her to 2 majors (in 2003), and was thrilled that the late Anne Rogers Clark (very well regarded judge) put her up, in pretty stiff competition, one was at Great Western Terrier Association (owner handled and conditioned by myself) - it was a very good weekend! :-)

The Open Bitch line-up at Great Western (above) is Ann Baumgardner, Larisa with K-See (Saredon Chasing Secrets), Peter Green and RC Williams both with bred-by bitches ... very competitive!

After her win at Great Western, I talked with Wood Wornall, about handling one of my dogs for the first time, and agreed to leave Casie with him for the Welsh Terrier Club of America National Specialty weekend at Montgomery in October in PA .... he and his team (Jenny Wornall and Andrew Peel) did an amazing job and Casie won Winners Bitch (or better - Best of Winners & Awards of Merit) 3 out of the 4 days of the Montgomery show weekend! The following year, the Welsh Terrier Club of America recognized Casie in their annual awards for the best "Winners Bitch" for the 2003 show year.


Am/Can Ch Saredon Chasing Secrets winners bitch and Award of Merit at Hatboro (I and II) and Devon 2003 (Montgomery weekend) ; conditioned and presented by Wood & Jenny Wornall & assisted by Andrew Peel.

I really loved showing K-See. After Montgomery I stopped calling her Casie, and started calling her K-See-Ya'! :-). I loved it when the judges would ask us to spar, as this was her thing - she would start off by going up on her back legs and clap her front paws together as if she was saying 'yippee - let's go'! She was such an easy girl to trim, since she had that true deep black jacket, great hair (easy to work), such a nice blend of neck into shoulders, a nice short back and level topline I didn't have to figure out how to make it look good (it just did!) ... and she had nicely colored furnishings - that grew to a decent abundance that her front legs looked like the little telephone poles. A very easy girl to trim to look good, perfect size for the breed standard, beautiful head and expression, and always on in the show ring ... what more could you want!

Given that she is a girl, and while I loved to show her, girls need to take time out if they are going to be part of the Darwyn history line. So, her show career ended (shorter than I would have ideally liked), and her time as motherhood began. And, just as she was a fun girl to show, she has proven time and again, that she is a fun mother. She is one of those mothers that attend to the young babies just fine, nuturing but not too possessive, but when they start walking and being "little welshies" she turns right on and really starts to have fun! Not all do - in fact, most mothers don't (by that time, they are happy that their playmates will play with them and they can have a break!). This is when I knew that I wouldn't be showing her again - it was just too much fun to watch her with puppies, both hers and others. She lets them grab her anywhere they want, pull on her furnishings (face, legs, tails- whatever they want to) ... play tug-o-war, rolls the ball for them and plays keep away. And, I'm not talking about just young puppies - she has done this with a couple of different daughters/grand-daughters or sons of hers (girls up to the age of 18 months old, or boys up to 5 years old). I have included some of these fun playing photos of her with various relatives of hers - Diva (now known as Ginger), Cyril and Athena, Parker and Joe. So, as much as I enjoyed being with her in the show ring, I feel like she's done her thing and for the last 6 years (now being 2010), she gets to do the 'rough and tumble' playing thing with the puppies and young dogs at home!

Below are 4 pictures of K-See and grand-daughter Athena playing in March 2009 (Athena was 15 mths old here). 2nd row from the bottom is K-See playing tug with her son Cyril (left lower) and tug with her daughter Diva (right lower). And the bottom row is K-See having a great time out in the fields with her daughter Diva ... digging, running...

Breeding her proved to not be the easiest thing ... when she did produce ... WOW ... she really produced well! Her first litter was sired by Bentley, a Ben son that I bred (his sister won Winners Bitch and AOM at Montgomey, and Bentley himself a Am/Can Champion was a group winner). That first litter, of 5 puppies, included 2 boys which went on to become American & Canadian Champions (Robbie, Am. Ch. Darwyn's Heart Throb, won Best of Breed at the Welsh Terrier Club of America National Specialty in 2005), and Cyril (Am/Can Ch. Darwyn Secret Rendezvous). I next tried to breed her using frozen semen imported from the US - but as with the risk of using frozen semen, no puppies were born. Her next litter, bred to a very nice dog in California, produced 3 puppies - Diva (now known as Ginger) was kept until she was 18 months old - I decided to place her for personal reasons in my life, but until then, K-See and Diva sure had a blast playing tug-o-war together, racing around the yard, and seeing which one could dig the deepest holes! I intended to repeat that breeding since 2 of the 3 puppies were super high quality ... and I tried twice ... each time with no luck.

So - many breeding (stud) fees later, mucho dollars in vet costs for all of the progesterone testing, and other pregnancy associated testing, and associated flights for her (and me) and hotel and car rental bills later, and my decision a few years earlier to place Diva and repeat the breeding started to seem very silly. Oh well - what's done is done. I decided that I was going to do one more try. Given that K-See was getting a bit older, I took her to a specialist to make sure that she was healthy, and when the time was right, my wonderful reproduction vet specialist (Dr. Corry van der Ende) did everything possible to increase the odds of her getting pregnant ... and it worked!!!! On October 13, 2009 - 1 day after K-See's birthday, she had a c-section (my 2nd ever) and delivered 4 healthy puppies! I was thrilled and Michael and I were so organized and so dedicated that even though we needed to tube feed these puppies for the first 3 weeks (apparantely some mothers after a c-section just don't have enough milk), they were going to survive - and survive, and thrive, they did! Two (Dora and Donny) are going to 'grow up' here and two are in amazing companion pet homes (Murray and Charlie), both knowledgeable terrier owners! K-See ... you came through yet again, and now Dora and Donny will start the new era of showdogs from you ... and Murray and Charlie will make sure that everyone they meet will make the world fall in love with Welsh Terriers - just as your other offspring have done so far!

At home, K-See has a few different personalities. While she doesn't really do long walks anymore

K-See hanging out with Michael

(she's grown to be a bit lazy over the last few years), surprisingly she still has a blast racing around the yard! She loves to play with other welsh, you can see it in her eyes when she is playing tug-o-war with someone. But, I swear her mission in life is to 'destroy toys'! When she first comes in, she surveys the various rooms looking for any toys that are available ... every once in a while we will sacrifice a toy for her, and she'll be very pleased with herself - knowing that she has kept us safe from the intruding toy! I joke, saying that she'll destroy toys in minutes, but realistically, she does get a lot more 'play value' out of them than just that, and once they are 'de-fluffed' and the annoying squeeker removed, she will still throw it around and play with it for days and days. When there isn't a squeeky toy around, she seems to be just as happy to chew on a bully stick, or a nylabone type of toy - and most importantly, cuddle up on some corner of the couch, or bed - or even a lap. :-) She is very happy to snuggle right in. However, I do say that she is not the right one to sleep on the bed with, UNLESS, you are prepared to sleep in! This is one of her super-powers! It was great when I had many dogs to deal with - I'd see to everyone else first (even crying puppies), and she wouldn't even budge! In the mornings, or late at night, this girl is like a rock .... she makes herself become very 'heavy-like' and really doesn't want to move (and I mean this girl will sleep in until noon if you let her - and has always been like that!), and if she is on the bed with you, she makes you not want to get up - but just enjoy the morning in bed, snuggling. The weird thing is that once she's up (no matter how early or late) - she's up and full of life!

Below are a few pictures of Michael with K-See, and then Joe & Parker join in (and I got them all looking!) ... another night it is only K-See and Athena with 'their guy' .... not much reading going on this evening, way too much activity!

So - Casie (K-See-Ya) ... plays hard, is fun, always on, is a beautiful welsh, but when

one last show photo ...
she's done for the day, she does enjoy to snuggle and likes her comfort.

She embodies the best that life should give us all - energy for the times we need it, and the ability to relax.

We love you.