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, like her mother. She responds to people very well, and we think she could do rally or obedience in the future. She can easily jump several feet in the air from a standstill, so she would probably do great in agility too. 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 in a lovely group of puppies! 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. We have done Embark DNA testing on her, and she does not carry any of the identifiable genetic diseases in Siberians. 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 still changing, but at the moment they are pretty ideal for me. She is close to top of the standard and is around 48-50 pounds depending on how much muscle she has.
Temperament: Lillie is really sweet and responsive to people, always pinning her ears back when you look at her or talk to her. I can rarely get a good picture of her because the moment I walk towards her with my camera, she puts her ears back. 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 and we have had to teach her not to jump! She absolutely adores the older dogs in the pack and is extremely submissive to them and just wants them to like her. She has great dog manners and gets along well with everyone she meets.
Drive: 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. Pound-for-pound, she is probably the hardest pulling dog in our kennel. 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.
