The Annual Labyrinth Kennel Puppy Reunion Party
Fifteen Years and going strong!
This year was the 15th Annual Puppy Party and amazingly our luck with weather has held for all these years and we had another great day.  It was  raining heavily right up until 11:00 AM+ that Saturday but by the time our guests started to arrive at 1:00 PM the sun was out, the grass was drying up and the temperature was warm enough that we didn't need heavy jackets or mittens like the year before.
Our numbers were down slightly, as I am sure some people were scared off by the gloomy weather that morning, but you have to know that we are die hards and the dogs certainly don't mind a bit of rain! And for everyone who did show up it was a terrific day.  We had a total of 77 people and 37 dogs, and everyone I spoke with was enjoying themselves.  I was informed by one young girl that our Puppy Party was "better than Disneyworld".  There was lots of food (especially desserts! - yum!) and no one went home hungry, least of all the dogs.

Sadly, it was the first year ever at our Puppy Party that we did not have a single Labrador among the crowd.  It has been 10 years since our last Labrador litter so time and old age have taken their toll.  There are still a good number of our Labs alive and kicking, but none of them managed to make it to the Party this year.

But our growing number of Goldens started showing up by 1:00 PM. We had a number of very young dogs from our Quint litter and several of the young pups from our Legacy litter  this year also showed up.  Everyone who wanted to, got a chance to get involved in our fun and games,  We want to send out congratulations to everyone who did join in and especially the winners.

John and Arwen were dragged into the agility competition and then managed to take first place, beating our John and Noah, a professional agility team who came second and Darcy and Lily who did a terrific job to come in third.  In our team activities, the Recall Relay was won by the team of Sergui and Lola, Shanya and Arwen (again), Pauline and Toshi, and Joanne and Ellie.  The French Bread stick race called "Embarrassed in Paris" is always a lot of fun, especially when dogs not on the team try to steal the snack (i.e.Nova!).  The winning team was Lexi with a borrowed Labyrinth dog, Mariska with Brodie, Dustin with Maggie, and Dutch and Ethan.  We also did our "Dress for Success" game that gives us so many great pictures  This year's winners were Sam and Indy, Karl and Abby, Elaine and Jade, and Jill with Samson, Congrats to all!!

After the games we took many of the dogs down through the woods to the pond.  Even a couple of the young pups came along and all of them enjoyed the swim and sharing the water with us all when they climbed out and shook themselves off. When we got back from the pond it was time for the barbecue, and this year I had an extra volunteer with the cooking so I had more of a chance to talk to everyone and say hello to all the dogs again.

Nancy and I want to say a big thank you to everyone who helped out and to everyone who came out to help make the day a special one and a huge success.  Watch here for the announcement about next year's party, to be held the second or third weekend in September.

 

Puppy Party History.
We have always enjoyed any opportunity to visit with our puppies and their owners.  To help us do this we started our annual Reunion Party here at our country home.  Every summer since 1993 we have enjoyed the company of as many as 50 dogs and 100 people in one afternoon, all joined together by their love of dogs in a day of fun and friendship.  We invite everyone who has ever owned a Labyrinth puppy to spend the day with us.
 

We have a chance to renew acquaintances with a bunch of great dog owners, and just sit back and socialize or get involved in some fun and games.  It is a chance to meet the litter mates and parents of the dogs, and it never fails that everyone there has the best looking, fastest and smartest dog in the whole group.

We have a fun obstacle course, some retrieving games of course and always try to have something silly that makes for cute pictures and good memories. Our dogs and owners have come from all over Southern Ontario and even from as far away as Michigan. And our human guests have come even farther.  One year a family from England joined in the fun!

 Swimming dogs 1994