What can we say about Piper? He IS Mr. Personality. He exudes character out of every pore and charms everyone that meets him, both man and beast. He's been this way ever since he was a puppy.

Flat-coats are definately optimists and Piper is no exception. Although he is now 7.5 years old, he is still the one that wakes us up in the morning, raring to go and find out what exciting adventures the day might bring. Very occasionally we will throw floor hockey balls up the hill infront of our house for the dogs, at the end of a walk. After every walk, Piper sits patiently at the top of the hill, just incase it might be the day that the balls are going to come out... sometimes he will sit up there for half an hour before coming home.

He's an active guy and would rather be "doing stuff" than lazing about. Despite his age, it takes more to wear him out that any of our other dogs. When out and about with Piper, we still occasionally get asked how old our puppy is!

Piper has a delightful temperament. We call him our "social butterfly", as he loves to make new friends, canine, feline, equine, human...whatever. He is especially fond of puppies and being rather strong, he thinks it's funny to drag us over to meet them at shows and training events.

Flat-coats can be quite "licky" dogs and Piper is our "lickiest". He gets this from his Mum. No bare skin is spared....nor is our cat or any cute puppy ears.

Piper is very "tuned in" to our behaviour and routines. He seems to be able to pick up on things based on our slightest body movements. He quickly learnt that "they're here" meant that someone was coming up the laneway and would rush to the window and bark. Being a poetic sort, he now does this when we say anything that rhymes with "here", such as "would anyone like a beer?" or "Happy New Year". Piper's literary accomplishments extend to being very proficient at spelling (i.e. B-O-N-E-S, D-U-C-K-S).

He makes us laugh every day.

Because Piper embodies so much of what we think a flat-coat should be, we want to keep his traits in our breeding program. However, he has skin problems and because their cause is unknown, we will not breed him. Instead, we are including his relatives, who have similar wonderful qualities (without the skin problems), in our breeding program.
Piper, after messing about along the river during the ice break-up.

Favourite activities:
Hunting, hunting and hunting

Favourite indoor activity:
Washing the cat

Theme song:
Van Morrison's "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" - how appropriate is that?!