Novaforesta Lady Fern at 4 weeks

She is little Miss sleepy, always last to wake but this morning she met the delivery man as she was in my arms when the doorbell went, these pups will get used to dogs barking!

Novaforesta Jools Holland at 4 weeks

Novaforesta Jools Holland, (red Collar) he is a very dark brown boy , and the most cautious still out of all the males, so a bit safer to hang out with the girls or go and explore when everyone else is fast asleep.

Hallie and Cooper pups part 3 at 2 weeks old

9. Brown girl with green collar 

2. Black girl

7. Black girl nick named Sweep

10. Black boy (who sleeps through everything!)

1.Brown girl

Barbet puppies have arrived, Novaforesta J litter

Welcome to the world, 11 beautiful Barbet puppies born on the 25th November.

The proud parents are  Charamese Hermione (Hallie) and Cooper du Pré de Redy.

The pups are very strong and healthy, and all very good weights and quite amazing that Hallie managed to keep them till Day 60. 

We have 7 girls 5 brown and 2 black and 4 boys, 3 brown and 1 black.

The webcam is up and running although it is misbehaving and cannot be viewed on internet explorer:
If it doesn't work the first time do keep trying as it does seem to have random blips

Barbet puppy training

I seem to be stuck in the world of puppy training, but before you feel sorry for me it is of course by choice. Every puppy is different, so I always try to get to know the puppy and settle the puppy before I do any training of any sorts. The very first thing I noticed about Pi was that with any toys that trailed she would fold them if possible to carry, this impressed me as I like dogs that think.
Pi is just coming up to 4 months old and is a bit of a tearaway, if she finds anything that she can pick up then she is off like a rocket, and by the look in her eyes it is most definitely planned. She will be a quick learner, a good hunter and I am hope a good retriever. The hunting skills are already showing, most nights without fail she finds our resident toad,and  by her tail wagging it is easy to spot what bushes contain birds, and then we have the goldfish situation ( a blessing really as it does occupy her time) and being rather positive we have a very fit toad in the garden and very fit goldfish.

Anyway, as you may have seen she has taken to swimming like a duck to water, and learnt the sit and down with hand signals and words and I have just started working at her retrieving the dummy to hand.
Pi is still a young puppy, I only do 5 minutes a day training with her, but that 5 minutes I expect her to listen and to work out what I expect of her, that way training is fun as she always looks a little disappointed when it is over.  
 

Barbet Puppy plans

Cooper du Pre de Redy

Charamese Hermione ( Hallie)

 This will be my next Novaforesta litter later this year.

Cooper is a beautiful brown boy from Germany who is about 58 in height, so a perfect size for a male and has A hips and a 0/0 elbow score. He has passed his character tests in Switzerland.

Hallie as I am sure you know is  not only beautiful in looks and character, but has A hips and a 0/0 elbow score and her height is about 56 (hard to measure as she has so much coat at the moment) and she weighs about 20kg

A  lovely combination to take the Barbet forward in the UK with some new blood.

Cooper and Hallie proposed pedigree

   My puppy waiting list has resumed its pace :)

Bobby the Barbet at 11 months

Another lively boy from Bepop and Jedi at 11 months old, this was blue collar boy now known as Bobby.
Be lovely one day to see this boy in the show ring in France, but perhaps a different show to Rugby as 2 excitable boys could be a handful. Actually by the time they have their 1st Birthday they will be calm :)

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.

Bepop and her Barbet wedding

We are back and what a wonderful weekend we had even though it was a little stressy at times. The journey of only 8 hours was uneventful and Bepop and Martha travelled in silence as they slept, although we did find out that the waterbowl had tipped over and their bedding was soaked!. but in true barbet style they perhaps enjoyed the wet bedding! Julian and I were so spoiled by our hosts in Belguim, we had the most fantastic meals and alot of humour, and Bepop had the most romantic time possible so all went well. We did have a slight change of plan but more about that later. I adore Bepop, she has such character and I can honestly say that I know her very well, and she knows me. However Martha is a different dog, she is 6 months old and rather wild at times, her best expression is WTF which is what I said we should call her when we picked her up at 16 weeks, so nothing much has changed and I can honestly say that at dog training they have also seen the look, so it can be verified!!!! The weekend was very good for Martha, she coped well watching the adult dogs and their activities, and she learnt all about automatic doors, staying in the boot of the car when it was lifted, being wormed at a vets in Belgium ( although she did poo in the surgery) and she coped with erratic feeding and general chaos. At the end of the day, Bepop has been mated and all went well, our hosts were tired and we were tired and the dogs were completely knackered, but we will have wonderful memories of our adventure.

Dear Martha in the garden

On Sunday we were up at 4.30 English time as we wanted to mate the dogs before our 3 hour drive back to Calais, Bepop and Martha would have happily slept for longer but they had no choice but to get up and eat breakfast. I have to admit that I don't enjoy dog matings, and because of that I like it to be as natural as possible, so the dogs were allowed as much play as they wanted while us humans froze waiting for the event. 

Carol is the owner of Jedi and Deejee, I cannot express our gratitude enough as she was so amazing and nothing was too much trouble. Carol appreciated our journey to Belgium for a mating, she understood that it was for the breed and the genes for the future. Sensible matings will save the breed, those that breed for the showring or colour will not!

Martha,Jedi and Bepop

           

Water tap for Barbets

All my dogs except the poodle have learnt very quickly about the water tap, often even visiting dogs copy one of my gang and soon learn that the water is colder and fresher from the tap. I often wonder why Jazz has never even attempted to drink from the tap, he has the brains, and he has watched the others do it now for over 5 years and he has been encouraged to try by us.  

Happiness is.......

Martha and Betsy

Grandma Betsy with her grandchildren

Hallie and Martha, what a beautiful family of Barbets. How lucky am I?

Alexia the Barbet puppy

Isn't she sweet? and she is very well behaved but and there is always a but, she already has the older dogs wrapped around her paws. Training her will be fun as her character at the moment is that she knows best. She is very entertaining in the way she reacts with the other dogs, she loiters for the best chairs in the house and always wins...this girl will go far, but whether I can train her.......watch this space  

Novaforesta Darcy

 

Another wonderful day as Darcy, daughter of Bepop and Caya came to visit. A sensible option for Darcy is a short back and sides as she is rather a rural dog and like most barbets likes to swim and find mud. Darcy lives in a family home with young children, and is a very sweet little girl. She was a gentle puppy and has grown into a very gentle dog.At this time last year she was very ill, but as you can see she is back on her feet and now looks a picture of health.