The Life of Pi the black and white Barbet

I have some news, sad news for me but at the end of the day it was my decision as sometimes you have to accept you are not ''superwoman'' . The lovely Pi, Netis Jitterbug came into my life with encouragement from my Mother, which was a surprise as she had always said I had too many dogs. She also suited my long term breeding plan as she was a lovely combination with a Dutch male that had come into the UK who I had a soft spot for, as his Father was the male I had the failed mating with Betsy the Barbet we lost at 7 years old. Pi passed all her health checks, 4/5 hips, 0/0 elbows, 2 clear eye certificates, D/D locus , VWD type 1 carrier,  Tan, an excellent show critique from France, the list is endless....she was a perfect dog for breeding as she is also of excellent temperament.Pi went to live with a wonderful family, it was a difficult time but I want all my dogs to be happy and Pi was looking sad at times as she is a very affectionate girl, it was a better life for her as I had only ever planned one breeding as there are already so many Barbets with similar genes, afterall I only have 2 hands to stroke dogs , it was  right for her but it took a long time for me to get over as I missed her terribly and felt very guilty. However in early 2016 I finalised my breeding plan for her, late in the day but I had lost my Father in 2014, and my Mother in 2015. So after so much grief what could go wrong ? Firstly the Dutch boy had been removed from breeding, so I chose an English Stud who when Pi was ready for mating drank some stagnant water and was immediately very ill and not feeling very passionate and he remained ill during her fertile time!, not being nervous about travelling we had a 48 hour window to find a male that would be a good combination for the breed in the UK, my first choice in Holland was denied due to Pi being under 30 months, then by chance we found another male in Holland that I was happy with  ( remember at this stage I am thinking of combinations for new blood in the UK and a combination that would work with Martha,) Meanwhile our window for breeding was getting shorter and we knew we were cutting it fine. So a quick dash to Holland arranged, dog wormed, channel tunnel booked last minute, hotel booked. A 5.5 hour delay at Eurotunnel meant we arrived at our hotel at 1am, we had planned to be there at 5pm. Anyway to cut a long story short, we tried first thing in the morning and Pi was really not interested, and timing wise I think we were pushing our luck had we got there at 5pm . As soon as we realised it was too late for Pi we left for home. We waited for her next season, and this time I had decided to try chilled semen from overseas, this failed once again over timings I believe, we don't have instant progesterone checks in the UK so we get our results in 24 hours or longer and this also means nothing over the weekend. In hindsight using a female who had not produced was my error and I also chose a reproduction vet that was useless over communication!. The lovely family who have Pi kindly said I could try again but it is now 2017 and this year ( very shortly) we will become grandparents and 2016 was my window to breed Pi as I also have my lovely Martha (2 failed matings last year is another story!) and her daughter Snoop who has passed her health checks with flying colours. I am only telling the story about Pi as I don't wish to hear rumours that she has been spayed for any other reason. Pi is very happy with her family and my breeding plans have changed yet again as Pi and her husband were to have made a male for Martha in the future! and when you hear that it is all about money...think again as Pi to date has cost me about £8000      

Barbet girl 4 weeks old

At the moment her name is Novaforesta India, and she is holding her own with the boys, she loved being outside for the first time and is a very playful puppy. She has discovered the settee, or should I say she has discovered going behind the settee.

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

           

Hallie and Bobby

I have already mentioned that these two dogs are now the best of friends but they spend the whole time trying to share small bits of paper, if you click on the photo you can just see the glimpse of green paper in Hallies' mouth!

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.  

grandma Bepop

 

Bepop does not take this role of Grandma very seriously, we are waiting to hear whether she will have more grandchildren, only a couple more days to go.

Betsy Bonheur and puppies

Novaforesta Enid  aka Ellie and Novaforesta Esme

Well it is only 13 days since Betsy was mated but she has been very quiet and very sleepy so in another 2 weeks we will scan her to see.

Betsy retrieving game on land

I am keeping only positive thoughts as this will be Betsys' final contribution to the Barbet population, she is a very thoughtful dog and loves her home and family and the majority of  puppies she has produced in her last two litters have been kind and very loving dogs. Betsy has the ability to swim well, and she swims for pleasure aswell as to retrieve anything thrown! but happiness for her is to have her head on your knee or curled up next to you on the couch.
 

Barbet Club GB Breeders

This is further information for all those who visit my blog, some of you will own a Barbet and some will be researching the breed thinking you may want a hairy beast to join your family:)
It is early days for the breed in the UK, we are laying strong foundations by carefully choosing dogs for breeding that will give us a concrete future, the charactor and health of these dogs is paramount in those choices.
Betsy and Bepop have not been overbred even though they are both excellent dogs and both are a credit to the breed, so laying the foundation is certainly not about money, it is about taking care and waiting to see how the offspring mature before continuing.
Plan 1:
Betsy and Bepop are not related so sires were carefully chosen, so that the offspring would be able to mate.
This has now occurred with the recent litter from Novaforesta Eton and Novaforesta Dora, COI over 5 generations is 6.15%
 http://pawpeds.com/db/?a=p&id=1091198&g=5&p=bar&date=iso&o=ajgrep

Plan 2:
Betsy has had two litters, her first litter with Boree and her second litter with Bacchus, they are two brothers and it gave us a selection of dogs for our foundation that were 0% COI over 5 generations.

  http://pawpeds.com/db/?a=p&id=865894&g=5&p=bar&date=iso&o=ajgrep

Plan 3:
It has been important to produce sires in the UK that can be used by the International Barbet community, we obviously have a small genepool in the UK so some breedings will produce males that  will have limited use, but with a rare breed you need to share your genes.

  http://pawpeds.com/db/?a=p&id=1091190&g=5&p=bar&date=iso&o=ajgrep

Plan 4:
The importing of new blood is also vital, but this is carefully planned, as I have said before one quality dog is better than 5 of dubious quality.
The import of Ebene from Canada has been the most recent import, and a sucessful litter has been born, with 4.68% COI over 5 generations.:

 http://pawpeds.com/db/?a=o&id=832587&g=5&p=bar&date=iso&o=ajgrep

All the breeding dogs in the UK by Barbet G.B. Club members have been confirmed in France, that means that a judge has examimed the dogs including teeth, height, tail set and coat quality..Bepop has not been confirmed, had I known more about the proccess in France in those early years she would have easily been confirmed as she attended a club show and was ranked 4th with 3 different judges grading her as `Excellent`....hindsight is a wonderful thing. If I can fit in a confirmation show before she has her last litter, I will just for the paperwork.

So if you are thinking of importing a Barbet, please do get in touch as we would love to hear from you and to include you in the British history regarding the foundation of the Barbet in the UK.It is vital to make sure that the Barbet you are importing is from healthy stock, as at the moment we do not want to introduce problems to the foundation we have.
The Barbet breed must grow slowly in the UK, the lines we have will be bred together as this is of upmost importance to understand what health issues we may have and therefore what health issues need to be dealt with.
As most of you will be aware,  there are hundreds of dogs in rescue and no one  should just breed to make up the number of Barbets in the UK. I will try and write some questions that you should ask a breeder before you buy a puppy from them,

More puppies...Yippee

I cannot post a photo as I have not got one yet, but the good news is the safe arrival of 8 puppies and the new Mom is Novaforesta Effie.
She had 8 puppies, 5 females and 3 males on the 14th August, the majority are brown and some have white.
All are doing well......
So my Betsy is a Grandma yet again, and what a competition starting as both Betsy and Bepop have the same amount of Grandchildren.....27 each, and the same amount in the litter sizes.
Betsy
Denzil- 5 pups
Eton 14 pups
Effie 8 pups

Bepop
Dudley-5 pups
Dora-14
Dudley 8 pups

Isn't that weird.......

Hallie is swimming like a trooper

However well she swims, she still has caution over where she enters the water. Yesterday we took her out and each time she huffed and puffed about going into the water and then she would just throw herself in, she did some impressive dives! and she loves putting her entire head under the water. So once she is a bit more confident we will take her to a lake where the water is deeper

Hallie and her Dad, Eton the brave!

At long last, Hallie met her Dad and she loved him. It wasn't love at first sight as Eton was a bit too playful and she was a little scared but after a couple of hours of grooming she saw him in a different light and the roles were reversed and Eton was looking slightly harassed by a very playful daughter. 

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.

Barbet puppies 5.5 weeks old

A beautiful girl

 Yesterday we saw the litter of 14 pups from Bonnie and Eton, although Julie the breeder knew each and every pup I found it very hard to keep track of my two little babies,Hope and Half pint.  

A beautiful boy

Hope is being very well behaved, Halfpint didn't want to pose!

Halfpint  who just wanted to play and not pose

Lovely to see them all outside enjoying the sunny weather, and  so amazing to see Bonnie with her pups .

Barbet puppies 6 weeks and 6 days old

 How beautiful are they? and all reserved so all that is left to say is '' good luck in your new homes, behave yourselves and be proud to be a Barbet.

To the left is Annette feeding her 10 Spinone pups and the 5 Barbet pups, it was a calm affair which was almost surreal when I think back to feeding Bepops 12 pups and the chaos!I will post more photos as its great to see the Barbets and Spinone pups together.

Barbet puppies at 5 weeks

The rain stopped and the 5 week old pups at Annettes were released into the bigger world of outside. When you see this photo you can't help but think they are longing for the next stage which is 'the field'.
Tomorrow I am going to see them again, so although I will say 'goodbye' to my temporary puppy residents, I will also get a few puppy cuddles with older pups. Having so much puppy time is almost as good as having my own, but it has made me realise its time for more puppies at the Preston house, its been far too long.

Hope and Halfpint Barbet puppies

They do wake up sometimes, but this sleep was deep as both had their first bath in my washing up bowl. They both paddled round the bowl and either they enjoyed the experience or they were both in shock but they took the bathing in their stride.

Hope is now showing that she wants to play, her little tail wags on sight of Bepop or one of us. She uses her bottle like a punchbag, showing her frustration that the milk doesn't flow fast enough for her hungar, so weaning for her is easy. This morning she came out for a walkabout and met Bobby face to face, he was very gentle but was looking over his shoulder for Bepop or Betsy, so I got the feeling he felt he was too close to such a young pup. As for Halfpint, he is a few days behind Hope, he loves his bottle and loves a cuddle while feeding,with a full tummy he wants nothing more than the crook of your arm and sleep so he is not as eager to explore yet . I am not getting attached, BUT both these pups stare at your face when you feed them, they fix you with a look that can't help but make your heart skip a beat. Monday will be  the next stage for these beautiful pups, they are going home and they will be over the coming days/weeks be reunited with their large family.   

Barbet puppies

How sweet is he? We had been calling him 'Roo' after Kanga and little Roo, but he is starting to behave more like a 'Rudi'. One day in the future I hope I will be in the situation that I can write his name given by his owners, it will be wonderful to see this boy as an adult. He has real charactor, he enjoys a cuddle after feeding whereas the little girl goes straight to sleep. Hand rearing these pups makes you realise how strong the instinct is to survive. I am trying to make sure that everything is as clean as possible, the bottles are sterilised and hands are washed continually. On a visit to the vet, both pups enjoyed sucking the vets tunic and of course they have been introduced to new germs just by moving house and living with 4 different dogs who are out in the forest walking.  

Barbet information

I have just added a couple of new links, one is the pointing dog blog and the other is a site called the French waterdog site which has lots of interesting articles and is being updated frequently with litters being born overseas, and also a  list of stud dogs with a COI of breeding and heights and weights.
Please note that the COI of breeding listed for the stud dogs is from an unknown source and does not correspond to the public database available to all. As with most things in the barbet world, this will lead to confusion,as an unknown source means it cannot be verified officially.

Its very sad to see the links on the French Waterdog site do not include the GB Barbet Club or my Novaforesta site, but the world of dog politics is as I have grown to learn fairly quickly is based around 'people' and not about dogs and the Polish man who runs the site dislikes me or should I say has only ever sent me rather unpleasant emails. I don't bear grudges, so as he is doing stirling work for the breed I am very happy to share the link.
 I try to stay out of the 'barbet politics', but just sometimes you feel the need to say something as I do have opinions on certain issues. Luckily my sweet Bepop and Betsy don't care, they are  lying on the sofa  both snoring. So folks for me the barbet world is about barbets regardless of who is friends with who and sites I link to will only contain information as if 'mud slinging ' occurs then those sites are just not worth reading.