Barbet puppies everywhere

I know I am biased but I think you all have to admit that Eton does look good.

Hellllllllooooo Eton

I have good vibes about 2013, will it be a bumper year for the Barbet in the UK.
2012 saw the arrival of 19 healthy pups, and in 2013 some of these pups will start being health tested for possible breeding. When I look at Hallie, she is just a babe so it is hard to imagine the future but I hope she will be part of the foundation that we are laying for the Barbet as a breed. As I have said before, without a strong foundation of excellant health and charactor we will not have the stability for the future. 

Welcome to Hallies' sister

This site has some lovely photos of 'Nessie' the first Barbet in Scotland

http://dog.lucyandrohan.com/

Although if you study the history of the breed, there was a wonderful story about a rough haired water dog living in Scotland that was so well known that when it perished it was stuffed and on view in a local museum. Sadly the museum has no trace of this dog as it would have been very interesting to see how similar it was to the breed we know today. 

Hallie and dog training

Well, Hallie has now been enrolled in weekly dog training classes and after two weeks she has settled in nicely amongst the labradors which outnumber her by 5-1. I am helping out at the classes as I am very interested in not just the training but also the behaviour of pups and Hallie at not yet 6 months old has to lie down and watch the first class for an hour. To be honest I didn't think it would be possible that Hallie could be that good!.
The first week we sat together and watched the puppy class,  a group of 6 puppies ranging from 6 months to 8 months, it was very noisy, but  Hallie remained relatively calm throughout. Hallie then joined the older dog class and behaved extremely well and was much steadier than I could have hoped for as training with other dogs especially for a pup is very distracting.The second week she was tied to a piano on the stage, with my coat as her blanket and I sat near her whilst the first class was held, and after intently watching the class for awhile, she then lay on her side and slept. I woke her for her training session and once again she excelled, and her three dummy retrieves were all to hand :) So she is learning to chill amongst chaos, and she is learning to work with distractions and what is best of all for me is that when the classes are finished, she turns into a complete hooligan and wants to play and cause chaos with all the dogs. So she is not just a perfect puppy that is easy to train, she is learning what is expected of her in different situations.Fingers crossed for our third week, I will keep you posted.