Ryder is the male puppy we kept from Katie’s first litter in 2024.  Second-born, and a big boy from day one, we could not help but look at him as he grew up with his littermates. As the litter matured to 8 weeks and it was time to evaluate the litter and finalize placements, we were delighted that veteran breeders who came to see the litter agreed with our view that he was the pick of the litter – as we’d completely fallen in love with him.

Ryder has spent most of his puppyhood at the cottage, primarily with Paul, but we did bring him (and his sister Ella) out to show when they reached the baby puppy class age of 4 months. He showed well and generally won Best Baby Puppy in Breed (sometimes losing to Ella). We were thrilled when he won three Best Baby Puppy in Shows before he graduated to the official CKC classes to compete for points towards his championship.

Ryder won Best of Breed over Champions at his first two shows, with a group placement, and then Best of Winners the next two shows to become a Champion at 6 months and 4 days. Since then he has continued to compete intermittently for points towards his Grand Champion, needing only the two points he must get after 1 year of age to be awarded the title.

We’re obviously proud of what our boy has accomplished in the show ring. But, beyond that, we absolutely love living with this boy. He has grown into a lovely, “male” size and proportions. And, most importantly, he is a very reasonable puppy to live with, considering he is still not even one year at the time of writing this.  Whereas Jake is Paul’s boy, Ryder is Riitta’s – and she is loving it.

As Ryder matures, we look forward to seeing how he grows up, and in addition to conformation, doing some other fun stuff with him. And … health tests. 🙂