Jazz the Standard Poodle

A quick update for those who are interested.
A week of anti inflammatory tablets meant that he was buzzing, the words ''calm down'' were said far too often and I had to shut my eyes watching him take corners at speed as his back legs failed him and he would end up in a heap. So as they also upset his stomach, he has been taken off them as he was a liability to himself. It is a hard choice sometimes, but he did a 3 mile walk at the weekend and still ran out in the garden looking for a ball, and he is still no stiffer after exercise than before. His time will come when he needs them, but I don't think he needs them yet. As for the ghastly lump on his back that the vet wanted to remove with a GA after a week of antibiotics, and in fairness to the vet it was hard to see what was skin and what potentially was hair.  Well yesterday I shaved him off, and my daughter who is less squeamish investigated the lump. As Jazz is deaf and very poor sighted, he took no notice of the screams and my retching, he just sat there in his own world, and the good news is that without going into too much detail, the lump is now an acceptable size (he has had it years bless him).Another shock for Jazz is that at 13.5 years old, he now shares his home with 2 kittens, and he is coping. He is an amazing dog, his life changes daily and yet he takes it all in his stride

Life with an old poodle

I have had years of good health in my dogs, only visiting a vet for boosters or for breeding checks so it is only fair to expect that it had to happen.
Jazz my 13.5 year old poodle who had his toe removed more than 4 years ago (probably cancer, but didn't check) has now got several lumps, the worse one is on his back and looks like a polo covered in hair. He is virtually blind and deaf but his sense of smell is still better than all my other doggy residents! He is a fine example of an old dog. Well after our visit he is now on anti inflammatory medication and antibiotics for a week and the vet possibly wants to remove the lump under a GA so we will have to see whether in a week I want him to have a GA, I am secretly hoping that they can put a band around it and it will drop off. So a good visit really for Jazz, and I was well behaved other than one minor disagreement about ear cleaner. The vet looked in his ears and remarked they were hairy and dirty, yup.....I agreed and it is on my list of jobs to sort and she gave me that look that I dread and said '' Ear Cleaner'' well folks I don't do ear cleaner, no doubt it works but I just have never used it on any of my dogs who also have never had ear problems. I don't consider a dirty ear as a problem so I said ''NO'' why pay for something you are not going to use. I think I must have a lot of black marks against my name. Worth remembering that although dirty ears can be ok, dirty smelly ears are not, there is a huge difference.
As for the anti inflammatories, I will wait and see as, although he is stiff legged he still manages at least an hour sometimes jogging on the beach every day, and he has no ill effects. If we take away the stiffness, will he do something daft, that is what bothers me, afterall he is still a crazy poodle that dances on his back legs when excited and still takes corners too fast when playing....take away his stiff legs and he is quite likely to kill himself, he is blind and deaf so a loose cannon potentially.
So my old man Jazz is doing fine for now and I will keep you posted.

      

Barbet Puppies are 3 weeks old

Purple collar boy- quiet and gentle

Black boy with the white stripe-quiet and playful

Blue collar boy- lively and  loves attention

Green collar boy- could be blue collars twin, lively and always  up to mischief

Red collar boy- He is always in the photos, as is always watching  what is going on.

Solid Black boy - quiet, sweet and gentle

Little girl - always the most playful and the one that makes the most noise! 

Happy Birthday Jazz

13 years old and still as naughty as a youngster!. Jazz has recently moved out and retired to live by the sea with my Daughter. He now has his daily run on the beach which has given him a new lease of life, and he now has toys that don't get taken by the other dogs. The good news is that he comes back home almost daily, so that he never has to be left alone whilst my daughter works. He is in very good health, although he has lost most of his vision and his hearing seems to come and go. He has never had a Birthday cake on his Birthday as our family have lost so many birthday cakes to him throughout his 13 years that a doggy Birthday cake would almost be a letdown!!. Happy Birthday lovely boy and hope you have many more to come.

Hallie update

10 weeks old

Jazz only does this to his best friends.

Well Hallie has survived for 3 weeks in our mad household, she has now completed her puppy vaccinations without a murmour, totally transferred to a raw meat diet and so is eating her chicken wings with glee along with every bit of loose debris in the garden. Our garden is not puppy friendly as since Hallie arrived Julian has been laying a new patio and now is working on a decked area, so much around for a puppy to play with, and as for a puppy and a pile of cement, it has been an interesting couple of weeks.

Toilet training is ongoing, she has always been dry at night and wakes me up every morning by barking at about 5.30, during the day she looks at the grass through the  glass of the French doors and relieves herself inside not outside, so we are working on that.

I have started training her, and so far she is showing great promise. Her scenting ability is amazing, I must try and get it on tape. She sits readily, we are working on the command 'wait' and we try and do 3 retrieves everyday with her favourite toy, which is a furry duck that squeaks. The toy is not my first choice for training, but as she is obsessed with it, it means that training is really good fun and that is what it should be at 10 weeks old, she is a baby still.   

Meet Archie the poodle

Sadly the late Archie, but this is a purebred standard poodle and its totally his fault that I ever heard the name 'barbet'.

Archie was  small for a standard poodle, he had zero elegance, a very oily coat, and was certainly one of the cleverest dogs I have ever met. He didn't have poodle eyes, he ran like a spaniel,and his nostrils well they certainly worked well and they were huge,even in remote parts of the forest he always found tennis balls, some that had been rotting for years.Archie was never castrated, he was never bothered by other dogs, his loyalty was always to his owners.In the summer Archie coat became brown, something that never has happened with my black standard poodle even though both had greying coats and both lived in the same area.

It was a dog historian that spotted Archie and made the comment that he was a throwback to a barbet, and after a few days of research I was hooked by this new discovery.
I was involved in buying Archie, so I did meet his Father and Mother, and also his 10 brothers and sisters (I think it was 10 maybe more). He wasn't perfect, no dog is, but he was an amazing charactor.