Monday 29 July 2013

Bobby the Barbet

Bobby the Barbet is growing well and has been a delight so far although I think there has been an incident concerning wall paper !. Puppies can be naughty, but they grow up so quickly that you sort of have to forget some of those moments when they trash your house :). I have marks all over my house that I can point to and say who did what......and every dog brush I own has teeth marks which are the art work of Martha.

Bobby the poodle cross

Bobby used to have separation anxiety but I think at 4.5 years old he has finally learnt that being apart has certain advantages.......today I suddenly realised that I hadn't seen him for a few hours and decided to go and check he was ok. It doesn't look that comfy but as he didn't move (I had to find my camera) I am presuming he was very content. He has the best of both worlds, Bepop was curled up on the sofa so he had company, he also had a view of the outside world, plus on the window sill is an antler that he had been chewing, a real antler that he had found in the garden.

Sunday 28 July 2013

Dog History and confusion


This has been sent to me by one of our Barbet owners in the UK, and it is worth a read as for me it highlights why there are disputes throughout the world on the history of certain breeds including the Barbet. People see a painting or a photograph that potentially has a historical link to their breed of dog and then claim it to be part of their dog history. The link below shows paintings, and the confusion surrounding it and is very well written.
Dog history

When I read about the Barbet and its history on websites around the world, I feel quite sad about the future as there are so many confusing accounts. I feel sorry for anyone in 100 years looking back in time, as this slice of Barbet history being made will be nonsense to any good researcher, and where will they find out information as websites will come and go, will there be internet archives available? we have history available to us from books written centuries ago for our present research.
The history of the Barbet in the UK (which will be documented on paper records) will only be facts although I would like to offer explanations as to why the breed has struggled in mainly France I will not as it will then become my personal opinion mixed with facts and for any historical content in the future it would be useless.


Eton and pups

Here is Eton looking rather bearlike, with two puppies, Rugby and Obi from Bepops last litter. Eton is a lovely boy, he is so tolerant of the pups and has the perfect sit and stay which I witnessed on walks and whilst camping over the weekend.

Charamese Hermione aka Hallie

Hallie was a real sweetie and just loved meeting all the visitors. She will be confirmed in France in October and hopefully by then will have taken the basic working test (TAN). Health checks have already been done with perfect results so 2014 her maternal duties will begin.

Thursday 25 July 2013

Congratulations to the Portuguese Pointer

The Game Fair is a wonderful opportunity to catch up on news, and this year I was amazed to find out that the Portuguese Pointer has finally been accepted as a new breed in the UK by The Kennel Club.
It has taken Pauline of Brittyhill Kennels, nearly 10 years with several applications, but finally the letter that she has been waiting for arrived.
So here they are now listed on the KC site:
Portuguese Pointers

What an achievement, and well done for not giving up hope Pauline.

Who will be next?
The French Spaniel or the French Braque or maybe The Barbet ( I can live in hope )

Monday 22 July 2013

An unusual Barbet

Isn't she lovely?, this is a pup from Ebene and Eton who is doing very well in her new home and surprise surprise....loves swimming.


Charamese Hope



Remember the little puppy I hand reared, well this is her all grown up. She represented the breed at the Game Fair this year, and must be one of the happiest Barbets in the UK as her tail never stops wagging. She is a lively teenager at the moment who is totally focused on play, but she will calm down (one day) although she does look very like Grandma Bepop who at 7 years old is still a loon at times

Ralph the Barbet puppy

Ralph is now 13 weeks old and is enjoying being a waterdog in this hot weather.

BVA Eye tests

Add caption
Prof. Bedford who had never met a Barbet before, suddenly found he had a queue waiting to be tested.Nice to be able to say that all the Barbets that were tested passed with ease, and the dogs were complimented on the quality of the eye that he saw.

CLA Game Fair

Keeping cool 
We are back safe and sound from an amazing weekend with the dogs. I have to admit it was very hot especially on the Friday, but as all the dogs love swimming (well they should really!) it was easy to keep them cool, most of the dogs were not so impressed with being put under the water tap but they coped.
This year we managed to have a grand total of 11 Barbets throughout the weekend, and 99% of the time we had a male and female in the pen on display showing the difference not just of the sexes but also coat colour and coat length. The CLA Game Fair attracts people who like the great outdoors, not just those that shoot and work their dogs in the field so the visitors to our stand in the sporting dog pavilion are generally interested in what are Barbets like as a breed .
The most common questions I was asked were:
What is a Barbet like to live with?
Do they require much grooming?
Where do they come from?
What are they like compared to a labrador/Beagle/Spaniel/poodle/Spanish waterdog , the list was endless!

This year was perfect, we only had Barbets on show that have coats maintained by their owners, and having Barbets with different coat lengths was definately a real talking point.
I have to admit that Hallie and Martha were a joy to take, they were definately both tired on Sunday, but three days meeting the public and being stroked by all ages is hard work for youngsters, combined with the heat. In the evening however they would both come to life and letting off steam in the fields with the other Barbets was wonderful for them
Rugby relaxing on a break from pen duty



  

Monday 15 July 2013

Martha the Barbet at the CLA Game Fair 2013

Do come and meet Martha in the sporting pavillion this year at the CLA Game Fair, it will be quite a test for her but I am hoping she enjoys it. At the moment I am thinking she may have accepted her new camping life by Sunday as she will be exhausted by then, but as Martha normally surprises me, we will have to wait and see.

Saturday 6 July 2013

A Barbet boy to watch.....

Meet Toby from Holland, I have not yet met this charming boy but hope to soon as I am only hearing wonderful stories about his adventures. I really hope that Toby becomes a dog that will be part of the breeding history of the Barbet in the UK, but he is still a babe and it seems rather sad to be planning his future as an adult when he has months yet of silly puppy madness to entertain his owner.. His white bits look almost like paint, they are just so white against the black but I do know that he is like all Barbets and enjoys mud!!!!, so don't be fooled.

Novaforesta Iron Duke - Obi Barbet puppy


These photos of Obi make me want to go on holiday, what a lovely place for a Barbet, he is a lucky chap.

Wednesday 3 July 2013

Barbet photos

No need to worry about copyright on this, a big thank you to Graham Peacock, who has to be one of the best Barbet photographers around

Novaforesta Duplo

Duplo has fathered 3 puppies in Finland, which is good news for the Barbet genes. This is a recent photo showing Duplo with his summer trim.

Luna the Barbet puppy


Meet Luna who is looking like a very promising retriever, she is rather beautiful and the daughter of Ebene and Eton.

CLA Game Fair- Meet a Barbet


CLA GAME FAIR 2013


We will be there with a wonderful selection of Barbets on everyday, so do come and say hello.
As the sun shone for Glastonbury, so it will shine for the weekend of the 19th/21st July as I am not now a camper in rainy weather and especially not with 2 Barbets who love mud.
We will be around the site and Barbets will be on show in the 'discover Gundogs' tent plus we will be in the gundog ring two or three times a day.

Martha my dear

Martha has that extra ingredient which makes people smile.She is as needy as Bobby, which for me is perfect as I like dogs that I can learn to understand and I find I never ever get cross about the quirky behaviour, it just makes me laugh. Martha cannot cope with strange noises that people make when they try to attract her attention, and we all do it without realising. Loud noises, fireworks and thunder she doesn't lift her head, but a human making any sound with their lips then she is off, and because children don't generally make those noises she will greet them with no anticipation. I have to say having so many visitors over the last couple of months has done her the world of good and she was so sweet with Betsy when she was ill, you would always find her lying nearby as was Bobby, both were tuned in and seemed to know that Betsy wanted their company.  

Finally a day at home

Today is paperwork day, trawling through my emails, looking at photos, looking at videos, getting organised for the Game Fair and chilling. Life is put on hold when you have puppies, it is hard to leave the house as you have to organise someone to puppysit and we had the added terrible situation with the loss of Betsy after 2 weeks of nursing. I didn't even get the chance to tell you all that we had the BBC filming test shots here all day on the 16th April for a new documentary, as Bepop went into labour a few hours after they left!!!! so puppy news took over. To cut a long story short, the BBC will not be using any footage as Bepop gave birth before it could be filmed, they wanted to follow the progress of puppies from birth till 12 weeks. I was disappointed at the time, but now so very thankful as the thought of a camera crew here whilst Betsy was ill would have been awful and I don't think I could have held it all together.
So now back to paperwork and get ready for some more posting today as I find stuff to share

Tuesday 2 July 2013

Best dog sitter ever

Mad Martha after being groomed
When you have more than 2 dogs it can be hard to have holidays, as for us with the camper van, the dogs would cost us at least three times more a day in kennels than a campervan pitch with electrics/water a day, so it does often put us off going anywhere. However our lives have changed as one of our Barbet owners comes to stay to look after my dogs, and the best thing about it all is that my dogs love her so I never have to worry about their care. So I can't tell you how wonderful it was to return home feeling very chilled after Glastonbury to find a very clean house, a freshly bathed and groomed Bepop, and a groomed out Martha, how lucky am I? now that just has to be a dog sitter worth a million (and she left us biscuits and 4 pints of milk)  

Barbet at Pub?

The puppies from Bepop and Jedi are coming to an age that they can explore the big wide world with less risk to their health. As the breeder of the above puppy I totally approve of his first outing, nothing better than the Village local. Well done Rugby, potentially the start of training to be a well behaved pub dog

Barbet dogs in the UK

Although I have far too many emails to read and phone calls to make, as I am still catching up after 8 weeks of puppies, I just felt the need to have a Barbet dog count.
This could be wrong, as not everyone will be in contact with the Barbet Club but at least these are the Barbets we know about.

We have 6 imported Barbets, 1 from France, 2 from Poland, 2 from Holland and 1 from Canada.
10 pups from Betsy
16 pups from Bepop.
9 pups from Ebene
12 pups from Dora

So we have at least 53 Barbets now living in the UK.

If you read this and you live in the UK and own a Barbet that has different parentage than the above then please get in touch so we can count you in as it would be good to have accurate numbers.

At my last count Betsy has 35 grandchildren,
Effie 8 puppies
Eton 27 puppies

Bepop has 30 grandchildren
Ooli (Dudley) 13 puppies
Dora 14 puppies
Duplo 3 puppies.

The next generation of breeding with Claude, Hallie, Martha and Hector will be very exciting for me, so far the health reports have been excellant, as Claude,Hallie and Hector all have A hips and you can't get better than that, Martha will have her hips scored at 12 months so fingers crossed and then just eye testing results to come.

Ralph



Ralph endured his first hosepipe experience, someone should tell him its a hopeless cause asking to go in the house when you are wet!!! He is a Barbet, he will soon learn.

Agnes the Barbet puppy

Dear little Agnes with her dog friends who hopefully are teaching her good manners.

Obi

Obi in the work place
Obi has discovered water beetles!
This is Obi, he was my boy that loved his photo being taken and it looks as though he is still enjoying the camera. He has already changed so much as his hair is growing fast, but he is still that cheeky red collar boy.

Barbet puppy travels safely

This is the rather beautiful Jacques, a lovely boy from Ebene and Eton. A very happy puppy who must be delighted to be wearing his seatbelt and to travel upfront.