Intro: Lillie is our keeper girl from our working/show litter out of Shira Barkon’s lovely boy Puff and our wonderful girl Cece. Lillie has a big personality and is a lot of fun to work with. Sometimes she can be a bit air-headed, hence her name: Songbird’s Air Balloon. She is extremely smart and knows how to open doors and even childproof gates! At the 2021 Garden State Siberian Husky Club specialty, she surprised us by going Best of Opposite in Specialty Sweeps under breeder judge Tami Rose Bradford. Then, at the 2021 pre-National specialty, she won the 12-15 month class under esteemed judge Pat Hastings. All out of coat too! Once she hit 18 months, she finished her championship in the blink of an eye. Then, as a new special, she took breed in an entry of 30 under breeder judge Jessica Breinholt. She followed that up with a group fourth and many breed wins over top-ranked, group winning specials. More recently, she took a 5 point specialty select major in tough competition under breeder judge John Linnehan. Again, out of coat!
Health & Conformation: Lillie is OFA hips excellent and eyes normal. She does carry red, and she produced a light red boy in her 2022 litter with Blaze. It has been very exciting watching her grow up, since she at times has reminded me of many different lovely dogs in her pedigree. It seems that every day she looks like a different ancestor. She has always moved well with really smooth sidegait and a solid rear. She covers a lot of ground and has nice head carriage on the move. She has a really clean down and back, and she gets a lot of drive. Her rear is really strong and it’s evident in how hard and effortlessly she pulls in harness. Her proportions are pretty ideal for me. She is close to top of the standard and is around 45-48 pounds. Lillie is a very athletic girl and if there was a high-jump competition for dogs, she’d be competitive!
Temperament: Lillie is very sweet and on the submissive side, but she does have a stubborn streak. When she first sees you, she has to come and greet you and lick your face. Combined with her acrobatic skills, she has nearly broken a nose or two in her enthusiasm. We have tried, to no avail, to teach her not to jump. Lillie is slow maturing both physically and mentally, which means that she still acts like a goofy puppy a lot of the time. She never disciplined her puppies at all and enjoyed just being one of them. She loves being with her people and is more of a people dog than a dog dog. We think she would love living on someone’s couch and would do great with a family, so we are looking for the perfect retirement home for her. She does get along well with all dogs and would be happy living with another dog too. Her favorite dog in the yard to torment is her daughter, Maggie.
Drive/handler focus: Lillie is a really hard worker in harness and likes to lope and push for speed. She needs to work on her on-by’s and not getting distracted by other dogs. She is extremely strong, and I’ve never seen her tired. We think she is going to be amazing in harness, but maybe not the best leader until she is older and has more focus. She has a lot of prey-drive and goes nuts if she smells something on a walk. She is not that food motivated and, as a result, does not have as good handler focus, especially in stimulating environments like dog shows. We are hoping to combine the strong harness drive in her line with the strong food drive/handler focus in our other line.
