Happy Birthday to Novaforesta 'E' litter 5 years old

Time flies and these beautiful puppies are 5 years old today, proud parents being Betsy and Bachus.
November is a busy time for puppies born, as Bepops pups were 6 years old yesterday.
We still miss Betsy, so seeing her pups reach the milestone of 5 years is lovely, and of course her first litter will be 7 years old next March.
Lets hope all the Birthday boys and girls are spoilt today.

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

Pregnancy news

It will be 4 weeks on Friday so we will be having Hallie scanned at the vets, the signs are good as she is very hungry and very tired.
On Sunday she had a photoshoot locally and she didn't join in the fun and games with Martha and Pi, these are all positive signs so I hope to be posting on Friday night the results.

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.  
 

New Barbet puppy

Look who has joined the Novaforesta gang, at the moment she is called Pi but that may still change as we do not make decisions very quickly. She is the daughter of Ebene and Ooli, so the Grandaughter of Bepop. She is 8 weeks today and has settled in very well, and all my dogs love her except Bobby who is having a little bit of a crisis. Enjoy the white bits as they will not last long once she has been in the forest.
House training is going very nicely as she is really clean indoors and with the warmer weather the back door can remain open, I am however waking with the dawn chorus for the first wee of the day, she is going to have to learn that I like tea before I get up in the mornings.  

Happy 6th Birthday to the puppies from Barbets Betsy and Boree

So hard to believe that my very first litter of Barbets were born 6 years ago, to the beautiful Barbets Betsy and Boree, since then Boree has gone on to father a few more litters and done a grand job of producing some healthy dogs for the genepool so as I thought a good choice in 2008 and I was not alone as others have thought the same .

The only 2 Barbets missing at the 1 year old celebration was would you believe but Betsy as she was in season! and Odo, otherwise it would have been the perfect family shot, but hey to capture 6 out of 7 is still an achievement. 

6 years old...almost grown up!

This was the First registered  Barbet litter born in the UK, a slice of history.

Betsy and Boree January 2008.

Remy, Dolly,Nenu, Baxter, Dylan and Bepop 1st Birthday picnic

Dolly,Remy,Bepop,Baxter,Bentley,Nenu and Dylan 1st Birthday picnic

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 :)

Obi at 11 months

Obi, otherwise known as red collar for several weeks is another boy from Bepop and Jedi. He has turned into a gentle chap probably because he lives with young children. His beard is like his Mum, who is coming up to 8 years old and has never had her beard trimmed.

Rugby the Barbet

If you look carefully you will see a hand holding Rugby, he is a rather lively boy and my camera just doesn't have a good shutter speed!. So a good photo of his nose to start, taking him to get confirmed could be quite a weekend as one can imagine how fast he will go round a ring.....He is a lovely charactor which is what is important.

Ralph the Barbet puppy at 11 months

Lovely photo of Ralph at 11 months old.
 Bepop and Jedi certainly produced some boys who like to pose. Nice place to walk a Barbet, it has everything. How lucky am I to have found such wonderful owners.

Bepop

Well I am getting cross with my photos as whatever I do they are going on the blog the wrong way round, but life is too short and too sunny to be cross for long. Bepop out in the garden enjoying the sunshine

Barbet puppies

BARBET WEBCAM

The four brown boys have collars on, just in case you are wondering who is who.

Countdown has started for Barbet Bepop

Well we have 7 days to wait (ish) and we are 2/3 through decorating but 2/3s is better than 1/3 so I am hopeful we may still get it done!. Bepop is sporting a rather short trim as when I got her on the table to trim her short she was in fairness as good as gold but I could see her discomfort, I did allow her to lie down but she still looked uncomfortable so out came the clippers. She is such a lovely shape that if I may say so myself I quite like her short, and should she have lots of puppies there will be advantages, at least she will be less likely to crush one as she will now feel it. She went to the vets yesterday for a check, and she has put on 6.5kg, although you wouldn't know it watching her running around the garden and still trying to leap the gate. As the countdown starts, she is definately getting more soppy, she wants more cuddles and her life is food, food and more food.   The whelping box is still in pieces on the dining room table, tomorrow hopefully it will be ready. I will try and get some more photos tomorrow,

2 tone Barbet

Hallie has gone 2 tone, black at the front and brown at the back. She has not yet had her first hair cut, and so her coat is very long but in wonderful condition (not easy in the wet weather), one of her litter sisters has similar colouring

Kennel Club update......sob,sob,sob

I am very sad to write that I have had confirmation from the Kennel Club that as of July 2012 they have not accepted the Barbet as a recognised breed in the UK.
Why ?  I hear you shout.

Well, read below:

a.     The breed has only had a FCI standard since 2006 and is still classified as a developing breed by the FCI.

b.     Whilst it was acknowledged that the breed is fully recognised in France, there was still a very small UK gene pool. The Sub-Committee noted from the detail submitted on the two latest litters that they were very closely related, with the sire and dam of each being litter mates.

c.     The incidence of hip dysplasia in the breed was noted and the club was advised to monitor scores of UK stock closely.

I have asked the Kennel Club already to explain in more detail why they have classified the Barbet as a developing breed as that statement is incorrect and those details were not in my application, the correct details were given.
 As for the incidence of hip dysplasia in the breed, was my application not read at all........shall I give them to you again.

Betsy 14 -B
Bepop 9-A
Ebene 9-A
Dolly 12-B
Dudley 6-A
Dora 2-A
Diamond Black 5-A
Duplo 6-A
Eton 8-A.

Good results I hear you say.

A barbet weekend and grooming

On Saturday I had the pleasure of Eton and his owner, I am pleased to say we have experimented with a new brush on his coat. We must have removed nearly a black bag of hair, and he still looked like a barbet when he left, so now we sit and wait to see how the coat grows back. Learning about the breed and their coats will take time, in some breeds coat colour makes a difference, and whether the dog has been castrated or spayed can make a difference.So far I do think that shaving black dogs makes the coat curlier and thicker, but thats not 100% accurate. The future for a perfect coat will be the ratio of undercoat to the top coat, and the length of undercoat. If you look back at the old barbet, it would have been shaved with the sheep or as a peasants dog would have got so matted that as the hair grew the dog would scratch the matts out or they would get caught on something and get pulled out, not a nice thought as some areas would always remained uncomfortable for the dog, as some old books describe, the barbet was a smelly flea infested dog.

Eye test results

Whoops I am a bit late with our updates, my excuse being two little black herberts that have been staying at our house for 3 weeks. So now they are back with their doggy family I can start catching up with news.
As expected Ebene and Novaforesta Dudley (Ooli) both have had clear eye certificates issued by the one and only Ian Mason ( BVA Eye Scheme Chief Panellist).
If you see a eye certificate for a barbet it will be normal to read under descriptive comments, the words no ocular disease or similar wording. This is due to the fact that as the breed is not known in the UK, the BVA specialists normally just check the eyes, but as a breed club we request from breeders just that little bit more and ask for checks on the eyelids and eyelashes.
Next on the list will be Betsy and Bepop, another job to add to my growing list of things to do.