Wednesday 30 November 2011

Happy Birthday to Betsys' beautiful pups

Betsys' 'E' litter are 2 years old today.

One of these pups  just has to be Eton , he was a record breaker as he weighed 530 at birth, so I believe thats the heaviest barbet ever born.



Left to right.
Enid (Ellie) Effie and Evie










The whole gang with Betsy watching over them. Eating is a pups pleasure, eating outside in the snow is survival training or is it socialisation with the elements.

Tuesday 29 November 2011

Happy Birthday to Bepops beautiful pups

Three years old today.

A lovely litter and I am proud of Bepop and Caya for giving the barbet world such wonderful dogs.

Tuesday 22 November 2011

Thank you Bepop

Well done Bepop, an excellent morning with fine British weather.
A varied day for her, a bit of flushing, two marked retrieves, three lost birds and most importantly two pricked birds.
Was she tired? yes
Was she happy? yes
Is she wonderful? most of the time....whoops! yes

Betsy and her boys

Its not everyday that 2 of Betsys' sons are together, in fact its been nearly 2 years since they last met. Luckily both boys are very good natured, and were pleased to see each other. Betsy took it all in her stride, and Bobby thought it was his birthday as he loved Remy (a possible playmate in his eyes as the girls now are a tad boring unless they are on heat) and he knows Mr Bentley and they normally tear around the garden together.
A lovely day with good company, thank you to my visitors and see you soon.

Tuesday 15 November 2011

Back to normal.

Its lovely to be back in the forest walking with my friend although its often quite a full car!. The dogs are all so different in charactor, we have a rescued border collie who is ball obsessed and hates anyone shouting, a black lab who failed at 6 months to make the grade of a working lab and by coincidence (of course!) has suffered terrible joint problems, a very sweet border/jack Russell terrier who manages to wind Bepop into a frenzy during playtime, I think its the only dog that has ever dared to stop Bepop in her tracks by hanging off her ears!. The last couple of walks, we have taken a tennis ball to encourage the border collie to run rather than walk at heel. A tennis ball has been life changing to Bobby as every toy we own is his, in our household. He has been exhausted after the forest, a couple of hours of constant running after a ball, didn't matter if you threw it for any of the others, he always found a way and he never gave up, surprising for me is that even Bepop joined in at the end, she has never ever shown any interest in getting a ball, but it does make a lovely walk....5 dogs and 1 tennis ball.      

Monday 7 November 2011

Bepop my star.

 Fantastic day for Bepop on Saturday, she did a fantastic retrieve on a pricked bird . When you see your dog working so perfectly it makes you very proud. I am pleased to say that I shared the experience with (I think) the entire shoot, and they appreciated Bepop as much as I did.
Why am I so proud? firstly Bepop had to find the bird that had gone to ground, secondly it was a runner,and it went a long way from me, finally it must have been a struggle picking up the bird as her head was out of sight for ages. But suddenly there she was in the distance, standing proud, bird in mouth almost one would think posing for a photo, at that point I whistled and Bepop being Bepop surprised me by  proceeding to go to the nearest gun to deliver the bird. In hindsite, the nearest gun was on a  flat run, I was at the top of a valley a long way away...this dog thinks and she was tired!!! anyway after a bit of jumping around on the spot and arm waving, she   changed direction and delivered the bird. Bepop certainly enjoyed the praise from the guns and beaters, she had her 'grin' face and her tail was wagging, in fact people remarked that she was a happy dog, and her real treat was the muddy puddle we found on the way to the next drive.
No one likes to see a wounded bird, so for me its an important role of a retriever to find and pick up these birds so that they can be despached.