Thunder Ridge's Altessa "Tess" made her appearance on March 8, 2006 at 1:25 am.  She was the 4th of 9 healthy pups born from our "A" litter mating of Snowy Oaks Alli and Aron von Grinzing.

Tess can best be described as a loveable dork and is an eager to please girl.  She has the characteristic LM full- body tail wag where her butt just about hits her in the head!

Her enthusiasm and inquisitive nature, however, tends to get her into trouble and has earned her the nick name "Tessmanian Devil". 

When she's not terrorizing her mother, she is a counter, table and sink surfer and we are still trying to break her of that annoying habit.   She's also an escape artist and has figured out how to push her way under the fence.  I can't tell you how many times I've said, "It's a good think you're so cute." Dick's response is, "You better turn out to be a &*%# good hunting dog!"

Playing fetch is her favorite game and retrieving is one of her strong points.  She loves the water like her Mom & Dad.  Dick spent the spring of 2007 training, training and more training.  His efforts paid off.

On May 18, Tess passed her NA Test with a 107/112 prize II.  She received all 4's except she got knocked down to a 3 in search because she spent the first 5 minutes in the field trying to figure out where she was going to go potty!  (Dick had taken her out of the truck 30 min. prior to the test to do just that!) ARGH! Once that was taken care of she made 6 birds in 15 minutes.  She really pulled it all together on test day.  Dick couldn't have been more pleased. 

Tess is a soft dog and Dick has had to adjust how he handles her in the field.  Training continues to build her confidence and let her mature - she is still such a puppy! 

See what some of Dick's hunting partners had to say about Miss Tess during a recent hunt.  She's coming along nicely.

Here I come!