Alfie and Beasley are Blottie and Bumbles brothers from Smudge and Henry's litter born earlier this year. I got this sweet photo from Joan and Colin of Alfie having his first car ride wearing his doggy seat belt. 

"Alfie's first trip to town wearing his new car seat belt. Looking quite relaxed. He had many admiring smiles."

Thanks Joan and Colin, he looks very chilled out.



Beasley is settling in really well with Myfanwy and Will. Myfanwy asks me a few questions and also has a problem with one of Beasley's eyes called Cherry eye, which I have heard of and also seen, but have never experienced it with any of our own dogs, so I have published along with her email, my full reply to her email and references a very good article on the internet about Cherry Eye.

"Hi there Jane, 

Hope all's well with you all. I just wanted to give you a little update on Beasley. He seems to have felt right at home and very content over the past few weeks.  And he just had his first 'walkies' on the weekend after his last vaccine. He's taking to the lead very well and is socialising great with all the other dogs around our village... and all the neighbours who've fallen in love with him! 

The vets were really impressed with his cross-breed and temperament - I knew you were on to something! They'd never seen this mix. He's grown quite long and he grows more handsome every day! He brings a smile to everyone's face:) 


I wonder whether he might be teething as he wants to bite and chew a lot. We've got plenty of toys to try and interest him. He's had pretty much 100% attention from us since day 1. He does sleep on his own now fine. He's very energetic and I see much of Henry in him which is great; like when he holds his nose up to the sky taking in all the Somerset scents. 

The only problem we've had is one of his eyes bulges up a bit, which the VET explained is 'cherry eye'. But he said it will hopefully settle down in time. It's happened a few times, presumably when he got some dirt in his eye from playing around in the garden,  but normally it goes down within the day. Have your cavaliers had 'cherry eye'?

I've been waiting for a sunny day to go somewhere scenic and take some more photos of us all together, but I've attached  some so far.  Also, here's a link to the first time he learnt SIT. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLl8gXuY5VI&feature=youtu.be 
He learned very fast : )

RE food;  The vet in Bath suggested feeding 'Pro Plan'. I see it has a lot of added minerals for brain and skeletal development. But it has a lot of extra cereals.  I just wanted to ask; what do you think of it?  Another local vet  suggests Royal Canine (vet version). Do you rate it? For now I've stuck to Arden Grange, which seems to have less added cereals and more meat. I'm guessing that Vets try to push a certain brand as they might have deals with the companies.

When it comes to worming and fleas, our Vet in Bath recommends using Milbemax + Stronghold, while other local vets recommend Advocate. I'm trying to do some research, but there's so much mixed opinion on the internet. Just wondered if you have any thoughts on those?  He's booked in for the next dose on 3rd Aug. 

Thanks again for bringing him into the world. So glad I found you!! 

Best wishes, 
Myfanwy x"

"Hello Myfanwy,

good to here that Beasley is settling in so well. The Cherry eye thing I have heard of, but I have not ever had a Cavalier with it. Cherry eye is quite common in Cocker spaniels. I found this article about Cherry eye that might be of interest to you Information about cherry eye in Cocker Spaniel dogs Hopefully the eyelid should become tighter as Beasley grows and the condition should right itself.

Both the dry dog foods you mention are flogged by vets, you will pay a premium for them, when buying from a vet. I would try and avoid dog foods with high cereal content. I also use Burns complete dry food and find the dogs do well on it. Milbemax is a good all round one dose wormer. Stronghold is a good pour on that I use a couple times a year, as it does your dog for heart worm and I suspect is why your vet is using it on Beasley. Stronghold is a prescriptive pour on unlike Frontline, but Frontline does not do heart worm, but does kill ticks, which Stronghold does not do. Advocate is one of the more stronger chemically of the pour on treatments and I have heard of dogs having skin reactions to Advocate. Advocate is a prescriptive pour on as well.

Hope this helps and thanks for the lovely photos.

Kind regards

Jane x"

The two girls Blottie and Bumble who we kept back from Smudge and Henry's litter of Cavalier cross Brittany pups are nearly fourteen weeks old. Blottie and Bumble on Monday got their first run in the woods on Monday along with Millie. 
Blottie at home and with the couple walks she has had up the road from our property is already proving to be much the braver of the two girls and when meeting two dogs up the woods Blottie showed that not much is going to worry her, but Bumble on meeting the first dog, which happened to be a very large black German Shepherd, high tailed it, luckily being caught by our oldest son walking behind me and the rest of the children. Bumble's reaction you can not blame her for. Imagine yourself in the woods and someone approaches you, who looks nothing like any human you have seen before and also happens to be at least four times your size. Would you just stand there as they bound up to you ? 
The German Shepherd was a lovely friendly gentle chap and thankfully his owner was only to happy to accommodate the time and patience for Bumble to meet him in a more controlled fashion. Whilst I was knelt reassuring Bumble, the German Shepherd thought it a good opportunity to give my face a full wash. Which rather endeared him to me even more. Lol
The next dog we meet was a Labrador and he was also a very well behaved social dog. Bumble and Blottie were happy to walk along behind him following him and his family, as we all finished our walk together back at the car park. I then had a chat with them and thanked them for helping in socialising Blottie and Bumble. 
In the video (Which has taken two days of trying to upload, to finally upload today) I use the term "Alsatian" because when I was a child growing up in the UK it was the PC term for German Shepherd dogs. So please, I don't need a lecture on the naming of these dogs. Lol. Also my son is wearing a camouflage jacket with a German flag on it, but before anyone shouts "nazi"  from a loosely girthed high horse. It is from an Army surplus store and is circa 1994. 

Archie has fitted right back into the pack after arriving with us on Friday, whilst Angie and her family go on holiday. Archie is from Smudge's first litter, with Reggie his Dad and he was born the Spring of 2012. He is such a lovely easy going dog and in one of the slideshows below you can see his reaction to when you ask if he wants to go for a walk. Our daughter Molly caught his classic dog head tilt on camera.

The last update on this blog is for two Poundlane girls. Maisy who is from Primrose's first litter and her Dad is Reggie born in 2012 and Poppy who is from Dolly's litter born the end of 2011 with Reggie the Dad again. 
The email is from Sue who has Maisy and her friend Julie has Poppy. Poppy is staying with Sue whilst Julie is on holiday and Sue sent me a photo of the two together and the conversation below is me trying to figure out who is who in the photo and I get it wrong. Lol


"Hi Jane, 
I hope you're all well? I've just had a lovely read through your website to catch up on all the Poundlane news! Thought you'd like this litte photo of Poppy and Maisy taken yesterday.  Poppy is staying with us for a 2 week holiday, and Maisy loves having her half sister around! 
Love to you all"

"Hello Sue,

good to hear from you. They look like twins. Really can't tell which is which, at a guess and all of us looking at the photo, we think maybe Poppy behind and Maisy in front.

Lovely photo. Hope you are all well.

Kind regards

Jane x"

"Hahaha! No, it's Poppy in front and Maisy behind! Poppy is about 2/3rds the size of Maisy, but they're both as energetic and friendly as each other....have both snuggled up next to me on the sofa now (along with our border terrier too!).

Love to all
Sue" 

Thanks Sue. Save me the red face next time and tell me who's who in the photo before I take a stab in the dark. Lol 

The school summer holidays are now in upon us here in the UK and having six children time to blog is a little scarce. I did try to get on here yesterday and for some reason it was not playing ball when it came to uploading photos and a video, so I thought "bugger it, I have got better things to be wasting my time with." Lol. Today though after me doing a few tweaks on the computer, it seems to want to play ball. 
Sunday saw Bella the Blenheim girl from Primrose's Cavalier litter now seven weeks old, meeting the family she will join when she is twelve weeks old. Hayley visited us with her oldest boy, Lincoln and as the photos that Hayley sent me after their visit show below. Lincoln was totally at home with Bella. Hayley also sent me this lovely email after visiting us.

Thanks Hayley for such kind comments and lovely photos of Lincoln with Bella. If you visit us when our two youngest children are here, they seem to like to give visitors pictures they have drawn. I did not see the giraffe picture, but I have advised Hayley to get it signed by Molly, just in case she becomes a famous artist in the future. You never know. Lol 

The slideshow is Primrose's Cavalier pups over the last few days. They were seven weeks old yesterday. Some of the photos include Blottie and Bumble who are the two girls we have kept from Smudge's litter with Henry. 

Archie arrived this morning for his couple weeks with us whilst his family go to France on holiday. Archie is from Smudge's first ever litter born in 2012, with Reggie being his Father.
Archie has come back and stayed with us twice before, since being with his family. He is a lovely gentle boy and was soon excepted back in to the pack. 
You have to be careful with a pack bringing dogs in to their home. This is not a couple dogs, but a pack of eleven adult dogs, so it is best to do a gradual introduction. Letting each dog become comfortable with Archie's presence and him being comfortable with them, before you let them run as a pack. 
Archie today has been a credit to Angie and her family, taking the stress of being in a different home and fitting in to a pack of dogs with very little fuss and seemingly causing him very little stress.

It has been a very wet day here in North Devon, which is not so good when house training pups. Who wants to pee outside when it's piddling it down with rain. So we have had a few pee accidents with Blottie and Bumble, who had been pretty much clean since their siblings left last weekend. At thirteen weeks old today, at night they sleep with Mum Smudge in the kitchen and happily go from 11 pm to 5 am when one of us gets up for work (milking) without any accidents.

The video is from this morning when it was raining and Blottie and Bumble were in the puppy pen with Primrose's three Cavalier pups now six weeks and three days old. 

It has been a pretty dismal day here, being overcast and raining all day. So you cannot blame me for looking excited when my Birthday cake arrived (Yep, it was my Birthday today) and I "Do a little dance" caught on camera by our daughter Florrie.

Today we had our first visitors to view Primrose's Cavalier pups. Paula, her husband and children came down yesterday from London and stayed in a hotel near us, so they could visit us this morning and see their little Blenheim boy. They have decided on meeting him, that he will be keeping the name Bertie. It was lovely meeting them and they will be back on the 2nd September to pick him up, when he is 12 weeks old. Hayley who is having Bella the Blenheim girl, will be visiting us on Sunday, so looking forward to meeting Hayley and her family then.
Tomorrow we have a guest coming to stay with us for two weeks and that is Archie from Smudge's first litter just over three years ago and is a Cavapoo with Reggie the Dad. Angie and her family are going on holiday and asked me a while ago if we could have him for them. This is the third time he has come back to stay with us. He is such a laid back chap, I hardly know we have an extra four paws on the place when he is here.

Tonight we have three updates from the families that have had pups from Smudge and Henry's litter of Cavalier cross Brittany spaniel pups. These pups will be thirteen weeks old tomorrow. The first is from Laura, who has Daisy.

We've started training and she has mastered "sit", "down" and "high five". The priority now is working on recall so I can let her off the lead for longer periods. She's developed a penchant for chasing joggers which we also need to work on! 
Overall, she's such a big part of our family already. I can't believe we've only had her for just over a week.
I hope everything is well with you and your family. I'll watch with interest at how the other puppies get on and of course keep you posted on what Daisy is up to.
Laura x"

Thanks Laura for the lovely update on Daisy. Good to hear that she is getting better at settling for the night. When getting a pup, sometimes it can take a couple of weeks before they settle on their own over night. It can be just like having a baby for the first few nights, but if you stick to a routine, it will come eventually.

The next update if from Daisy's brother Bertie who was the last pup to leave us, this last Sunday.

"Hi Jane!

Just to let you know Bertie had a clean bill of health at our vets and was so chilled he fell asleep on the examination table! 

We are busy socialising him and he's met all the neighbours, some of our friends and some dogs and sat outside our local café. He only had one accident that first night and has been clean since - what a star!

Our Jasper is learning to share toys and they all swap and share bed space which seems to suit them all!

He really is a credit to you and our vet was quite rightly impressed!

I will keep you posted and here's a pic of some good sharing!

Tracey Xx"

Thanks Tracey, really good to hear that Bertie is getting on so well in his new home and that Jasper and him are becoming friends.

Lastly is an update for Alfie, Daisy and Bertie's brother. 

He had a positive meeting with Lexy, our daughters dog... we took them out for a walk together and it was lovely seeing Alfie trying to keep up with Lexy who is VERY fast. Lexy comes to stay with us for 2 weeks from tomorrow and she seems very tolerant of him so far and has not reacted to his excess of energy. We are using  an Adaptil collar on Alfie as we were told it would help with the introduction of another dog in the house for both their benefits.

We were unable to have Alfies rabies injection last week as the brand of vaccine they use at ours vets stipulates that puppies have to be 3 calender months old...( it varies depending on which vaccine the vet chooses to use) but luckily we gave ourselves one week of wriggle room before booking our trip to France so timing still works out ok. (Defra only state that puppies have to be  "minimum of 12 weeks", so its quite confusing as regulations  changed Autumn 2014)

Primrose's three Cavalier pups turned six weeks old today. Thursday and Sunday the families having the Blenheim boy Mista Bertie and the Blenheim girl Bella will be visiting us to see their pup for the first time. 
The tri coloured girl Rose, we are keeping. These pups are very cute. It has been five years since I last bred a litter of pure Cavaliers.

The last litter of Cavaliers I bred was from Ysobel and Primrose was one of the girls from that litter. The litter was all girls, four of them.
Ysobel was eight years old back in April this year and is very well in herself. The photo of her was taken last night.

Now Smudge's pups that were leaving us have now all gone and the two girls Blottie and Bumble are out of the pen living in with the rest of the dogs, Primrose's pups have all the pen and have access to run in and out of the patio door. The video taken this morning after taking the partition down in the pen and the pups getting to grips with getting in and out of the patio door.
In the video I mention being exciting, so your puppy will come to you. If you want your pup to recall, then you do need to put a bit of enthusiasm in to the process, even if it does make you feel like a mad dog person, it's better than being mad because your pup has run off.

Today the last of Smudge's litter leaving us left. The last to go was Bertie aka Mushroom. We started off with nine pups with Smudge and Henry's litter of Cavalier cross Brittany Spaniels and we have got two remaining girls, we plan to breed from in a couple years time.
This litter has been a lovely litter, certainly coming up to my expectations and a bit more.  I have so enjoyed rearing them all and I have to admit that Bertie who left us today, I took an extra shine to. Why ? Well if I knew that, then I would know the exact formula for love and I would be bottling up the stuff and be a billionaire, I'm sure. 
Yesterday evening our daughter Florrie took the slideshow below of some of the children and me getting some last minute cuddling in. 

This morning before Bertie left, I caught him having his last play with his two sisters. Henry is like a sentry in the first part of the video and I comment on him nicking the pups toys. He does it every time we have a litter. He slowly removes the toys one by one and we find them disemboweled on the lawn.
Tracey arrived with her husband and her daughter (who is training to be a veterinary nurse) and her boyfriend from Surrey just after midday. Bertie was ready to leave settling down in to sleep mode and just as he was about to leave I noticed he had a swollen lip on the off side of his mouth. We decided he must of had some sort of reaction to maybe an insect bite and Tracey was happy to still take him. I rang them earlier to check that all was okay at arriving home with him and all was well, the lip had gone down by the time they got home with him. Tracey then sent me a lovely email and some photos of him in his new home and with his new canine friend.

Thanks Tracey and lovely to see him with his new canine friend and companion, I'm sure he is going to be very loved and also give you a lot of laughs. I'm not sure if I've gone a little overboard with Bertie's leaving blog. Lol
We now have Bertie's two sisters to concentrate on Blottie and Bumble.

Just got a couple photos of Bertie having his last night with us. He is the last of Smudge's pups to leave us from this litter and we have kept two girls back for ourselves.
Going to miss all these pups running around the place, but I'm not going to have to much time to brood, as Bertie's two sisters start their puppy training in earnest.

Just also got this nice little slideshow of Bumble (Bertie's sister) and Bella from Primrose's litter getting to know each other. Both were sleeping on our daughter Florrie. These photos capture the moment they both wake and become aware of each other. Bumble is now twelve weeks and one day old and Bella is five weeks and four days old.

The penultimate puppy of Smudge's litter left to leave us, left today. With Smudge's litter we have had four of the pups with the same name as three of our children, with two Berties, an Alfie and a Tilly. Tilly was the pup that left us today and the day before yesterday I caught the two Tillys  playing on the lawn together.

Tilly is a lovely girl, a bit of a tomboy and has been very loved by our daughter Molly. Karen and her family are going to have a lot of fun with Tilly. It was lovely meeting the rest of Karen's family today and I'm pretty sure she is going to be a very loved member of their family. 
Just received an update for Tilly. Karen comes from Plymouth originally and her parents still live in Plymouth. Karen with her husband and family live in Wimbledon. Tilly and her family are staying in Plymouth for a couple days with Karen's parents whilst they are having work done on their home. 

Bertie yesterday evening completed his third car trip and his first car trip without getting sick. The trip was an hour and a half in the car. He did drool a little to start with and after twenty minutes slept the rest of the trip, just opening an eye when our son Bert got in the car and had to move him on to his lap.
So a big hooray was given to Bertie when we got home with him without me having to put any towels in the washing machine.
Tilly leaves us tomorrow and she has been traveling well in the car, just getting sick once the first time she traveled. I'm now just waiting on a very late vet to vaccinate these two with their second Lepto4 and then they are ready to leave us. Tilly leaves tomorrow and Bertie leaves us on Sunday.

Yesterday saw Tilly have her first trip in a car. She did the morning school run with our children. Our school run is around a 18 mile round trip and is very windy roads. Tilly traveled without any sick up to our children's secondary school, but on the trip back to the primary school, she did have a little sick, but it did not seem to worry her.
In the afternoon school run I decided to load Tilly and her brother Bertie, as these two leave us this weekend. Bertie leaves us on Sunday, not Saturday as I said on our last blog. Thanks Tracey (who is having Bertie) for emailing me about this mistake this morning, as I might of been cussing you on Saturday, when you did not turn up. 
At the moment our oldest child Bert is doing work experience at my husband's cousin Nick's business, which is called Clayton Cabinets with his website www.claytoncabinets.co.uk . Nick is a lovely bloke and makes bespoke kitchens, and also takes on work making furniture and architectural joinery. My husband has been nipping home from milking in the morning to drop him up to Nick's and in the afternoon, I pick him up. 
Last night the school run and picking up Bert took me an hour and a half. Tilly was really good on her second trip in the car and we had no sick, but poor old Bertie had a baptism of fire and like his brother Beasley when he first traveled, he basically rough scat the towels we had brought with us with sick. Once he had emptied himself out, he then just slept.
So this morning I made shore the pups were fed and dishes removed by 7 am and at 8.30am we set off on the school run. Tilly was really good again with no sick and Bertie had one little sick as we turned of the main road up to the secondary school and then was okay the rest of the trip thankfully. Bertie will have a couple more trips before he leaves, hopefully he will improve each time just like his brother Beasley, who we gave a big cheer when he arrived back home after having his first sick free car trip. 
The photos are of Tilly and Bertie just before we set off for school this morning. Florrie who is holding Bertie has a none uniform day at school today, hence the red cardigan. Molly below looks like she has Bertie in some sort of wrestling hold. Lol 

Primrose and Toby's Cavalier pups are now five weeks and one day old. They are growing very well and now want to investigate beyond the puppy pen. They have been out around the home, but had yet to go outside, due to the weather.

Finally today after three days of rain, we got a break. The sun decided to come out, so it gave me a chance to get Primrose's pups out on the patio. They were very brave for their first time outside. Jessica who lost her leg last year due to an accident, seemed very interested in the pups and the end part of the video shows the four remaining pups from Smudge's litter up on the lawn playing.

Smudge and Henry's remaining four pups are nearly twelve weeks old. They will receive their second Lepto4 vaccination on Friday and then on Saturday the last two pups leaving us will leave for their new homes. The two pups leaving us on Saturday are Tilly and Bertie. I caught the photo below of the two them together in one of the dog beds in the back house (utility room). These two are real characters and are going to give their new families a lot of love and laughs over the coming years.

When Bertie and Tilly have left, we will be left with the two girls we are keeping Blottie and Bumble. It will be interesting to see these girls grow in to adult dogs and I will wait with interest on reports and photos back of their siblings. 

Yesterday and today here in North Devon it has been very wet, so the photos show Smudge's pups on Sunday during the worst of the rain, sleeping it out. 

Henry and Smudge's Cavalier cross Brittany pups are now eleven weeks and three days old. We just have Bertie and Tilly to leave us now and they both leave us this coming Saturday, leaving us with Blottie and Bumble, the two girls we are keeping.
The video is from today and again it was raining and shows the pups enjoying some raw hide chews. My camera has become very dodgy when filming and can flick on to panoramic photo, whilst trying to film, hence my comments whilst filming.

The other day Primrose was standing by Bumble who is one of Smudge's pups and one of the girls we are keeping. They both looked up at me and I thought you could see a family resemblance.
Then I thought, of course there would be, as Primrose has the same Dad as Bumble's Mum. The photo does not show it so well, but stood over them and they look up, you certainly can see they are related.
Primrose's Cavalier pups are five weeks old tomorrow and as soon as the weather betters, they will get a chance to venture outdoors. They already have had runs around the front room and plenty of nursing by children whilst sat watching telly.

Just got in and it is 3 am as I write this. I've just arrived home from a friends wedding that was one field away from us, so tonight it was about a 50 yard walk to their wedding celebration. Licence to drink. Lol
Even at nearly 47 you can't take the hardcore  party person out of me. David and me had a great night at Gavin and Angela's wedding party and it was so good to connect with Gavin's sister Sarah who I used to drag out late of an evening back in the day to hardcore dance the night away. 
I had an age defining moment tonight when passed a book to leave a comment about the wedding. I had to borrow someones glasses. Lol. I wrote  at the end of the message, "P.S, I have written this message half cut and having to borrow someones glasses."
I'm back here at this unheavenly hour, as when I left earlier the video below was still loading.  The video was taken by my husband  of the four pups we have left of Smudge's nine pups. They serve Mum a little roughly to start with and eventually Mum relents and lets them have a suckle. 

Primrose's Cavalier pups are doing really well and are now four weeks and four days old. 
Last night my husband took a couple photos of Dad Toby cuddled up on my lap with Millie and his sister Jessica. Toby is a very gentle natured Cavalier as all Cavaliers should be.

The photos below are from the last couple days and a couple show Bella and the Blenheim boy having wrestle. They are getting cuter by the day and I hope to get them out on the patio tomorrow for ten minutes. 

Bertie is the only boy left with us now of the four pups from Smudge's litter still with us from an original nine pups. His four brothers have all flown the dog bed. 
As the photos show, I don't think he's to worried, as it means all the more of his mother for him. 

"Hi Jane,
Just to let you know, Daisy was a superstar on the way home. As predicted she was a bit sick initially, but then all three girls had a sleep until we got to Reading services, where they all woke up in a better frame of mind. Daisy attracted quite a crowd, but took it all in her stride.
After that, she slept in the back with the girls. After a shaky start, Isabelle got over her dog phobia and they're making friends. 
She's settled in really quickly at home, exploring everywhere in great detail. She seems happy just following the girls around at the moment.
Thank you so much for providing us with a new member of our family. We've all fallen in love with her. 
Laura"

Lovely to hear all went well with Daisy on the trip home and good to hear Isabelle is making friends with Daisy. Isabelle is only three and a little while ago a dog approached her and chomped the ice cream she was eating, leaving her a bit apprehensive with dogs, which is to be expected, I'm pretty sure Daisy will soon get her over this. Thanks Laura for letting me know you all got home safely and for the cute photos of Daisy and your girls.

Yesterday I got an update on how Daisy's brother Bertie 2 is getting on, now called Bertie Boo. Bertie Boo left us last Saturday.

"Hi Jane

Quick update & photo of Bertie. He's getting much better at night with his crate in our bedroom. Has been to socialisation class and he was by far the best behaved! He licked a bee and got stung on his tongue, vets removed, gave anti histamine and he was fine. Is just adorable in every way. No problem with house training at all, he goes outside. 

Hope all okay your end and pups all good. 
Em :-) x"

Our old pupster now passed away, when a pup got stung on the side of his face needing antihistamines due to swelling and Bertie Boo's Dad Henry had a close encounter with a wasp as a young dog, but luckily the swelling did not warrant a visit to the vets. Thanks Emma for letting me know how Bertie Boo is getting on.

Then today a lovely update for adorable Alfie, who is Daisy and Bertie Boo's brother and left us on Wednesday.

"Hi Jane and David, 

Alfie is settling in really well. He has bonded very well with us and is responding to his name, sitting on command and is clean indoors. He s a bright and happy boy, very active when playing but loves a quiet cuddle too... He s an absolute joy. 
We registered him with our vet yesterday and she remarked how relaxed he was... He got lots of cuddles and treats from the vet assistants as you can imagine. 
He s not showing much interest with the food we brought back with us tho',  in fact when I added a bit of chicken to tempt him he managed to wheedle all the chicken out and left most of the biscuits. So any advice would be welcomed. He loves the treats however! Were not unduly worried tho as everything else is working well! 
We are recognising the signs when he needs to go outside so he is training us well! He s bit unsettled at night though, but it's early days and no doubt he will settle when he s completely sure of us. He is showing interest in lots of new things.... We have a lot of planes flying over as we re on the gatwick flight path but he just watches with curiosity and we re also on the route to a busy hospital so there are always ambulances passing by with sirens and he s not bothered by that either... 
All in all he seems a very confident little chap and that's all down to your attention and dedication so a very big thankyou to you and your family... We feel we are very lucky to have such a lovely companion in Alfie. He loves our grandchildren and they love him, there are two more to meet... My sons two boys..... Who live a bit further away than Sarah and her family. We hope to introduce him to lexy next week and we ll be using the adaptil spray to help with that! So many thanks again. 
We can't thank you enough love Joan and Colin x" 


Thanks Joan and Colin, it is so good to hear how well things are going. I emailed Joan and Colin back earlier with some advice about his eating, "I would not worry to much about how much he is eating. If you are offering him food he will take as much as he needs, he won't starve himself. His food needs will change to the weather, hot weather dogs don't need to eat quite so much and if getting treats etc you should alter his food accordingly, most treats like human treats are calorie high, that is why they love them, because higher fat, salt and sugar. A dogs drivers (fat, sugar and salt) for eating are much the same as humans hence why they will eat most things we will. You could try some wet tinned dog food mixed with his biscuits, because it is wet it will stick to the biscuits and will be harder to pick out." 

Eating enough when a pup leaves us is one of the top things we get asked about when a pup leaves us. Very often a pup for the first few days won't eat so much, whilst settling in to their new surroundings. Stress just like with humans can suppress the appetite. A puppy will not starve itself to death and if you keep to a feeding routine, they will take enough for their needs.
We now only have four of Smudge's pups left with us. We are keeping two of the girls Blottie and Bumble, and we have the pleasure of Bertie and Tilly's company until next weekend.
The slideshow is from the last couple days before Daisy left us today.

Primrose's Cavalier pups were four weeks old yesterday and we removed the whelping box, as Bella was nearly coming out over and with being in the pen, they now can access food ad-lib. I always find ad-lib feeding  works well, as pups start to want a bit more than just mother's milk.
Today I got online and registered the litter with the Kennel Club. I removed myself from the Kennel Club Assured Breeder Scheme a couple years ago because I feel it misleads the public, who do not realise that on this scheme you do not have to check the parents hearts or heads, all you have to do is check their eyes and the parents can also be as young as twelve months old breeding on the Assured Breeder Scheme, so a bit of a joke to think it protects you or the puppies being bred on it any better from future heartache, than someone not breeding on the scheme. I though do believe in a registry as a tool to breeding, especially if it records health and things like cause of death. What I don't believe in, is closing off gene pools.
So Primrose's pups registered names are as follows. Our tri-coloured girl is Poundlane Velvet Rose, then the Blenheim girl is Poundlane Bella Donna and the Blenheim boy is Poundlane Mista Bertie.
These three Cavalier pups are thriving and it won't be long before they get their first excursion outdoors. The weather is a bit parky (cold) at the moment here, but I think it is getting warmer come the weekend, so we might get these three outside at the weekend hopefully.

We are now down to five pups from Smudge's litter of Cavalier cross Brittany pups after starting with nine. The next to leave us is Daisy this Saturday, who like Alfie who just left us, will be living in Kent. 
The pups are now ten weeks and five days old, and the remaining five are Bumble and Blottie who we are keeping, Bertie, Daisy and Tilly-Tinkerbell.

Just took the photo below. Looks like enough room now for Smudge to get back in the bed and snuggle up sleeping with her remaining five pups.

Beasley from Smudge's litter left us Saturday evening for his home with Myfanwy and Will. I emailed them Monday morning just to check all was okay and the old adage 'No news is good news' comes to mind, when Myfanwy got back to me on Tuesday to tell me all was going really well with Beasley.

"Hi Jane

Was just logging on to email now to send you a message, been 100% focused on him. Have only just sat down to my desk. What a joy he's been already!  We've been lapping up every moment with him. 

He wasn't sick in the car at all. He slept most of it, and a couple of times looked up almost to say 'Are we there yet?', then realised we were still on our way,  so would go back to rest.  Perfectly fine. 

He was so happy and relaxed the moment he was shown his 'patch' outside and found plenty to explore straight away. He didn't seem disorientated at all. Adapted with ease and felt right at home. And we haven't needed the adaptil spray again since the car ride.

He settled in and bonded with us instantly. Very content. I reckon he just seems to know what's going on.  

He's also been going to the toilet outside all the time; no issues. And no problems at night; as long as he knows we're near when he wakes up - just once or twice.   (He's been coming up to snuggle as we've camped out in the lounge while he gets accustomed to his new surroundings).  

He's very easy,  loving, and loves his cuddles.  

Today he's been learning 'sit' - learns very quickly! And has been playing energetically with balls/ toys/ us. 

It's so lovely seeing him take in all the sights and sounds and smells. Will was even building a gate and making a bit of loud noise and he wasn't bothered in the least. He just observes curiously and quietly.    
So all good! Thank you for everything, and I'll send another update with photos soon. 

Best wishes, 
Myfanwy"


Thanks Myfanwy for letting me know how well Beasley is settling in. I know he will have a very loving and caring home with Will and you.  

The fourth puppy from Smudge's litter of nine Cavalier cross Brittany pups left us today.
Joan and Colin traveled down from Kent to pick their handsome boy up.  Alfie, like his three brothers who have already left us, has been a joy to rear.

Joan and Colin emailed me a little earlier to tell me that they had got home to Kent safely with Alfie and also a very cute bit of video footage of their Grandchildren with Alfie. 

"Hi Jane,


Alfie had a bit of sickness at the beginning and at the end when the roads were at their worst. In between he was very peaceful on Joan's lap. Just on 5 hours journey. Our daughter and her daughters were at our house to welcome Alfie and after a settling in period they had some play. He was great and he cried after them when they left but he seems to have forgotten now as he is playing very well with us.

Thank you for all your good work. He has had a tremendous start through you and we hope we can continue to provide a happy loving home for him.

Thanks again and our best wishes to David and your children.

Joan and Colin"

Thanks Joan and Colin, it has been a pleasure to work towards this point with Alfie for you and I'm in no doubt that he will have a wonderful home and I can't wait to see the photos of him running around in the French Alps later in the year.

THis Sunday I was not working after milking Saturday morning and having two puppy pick ups as well on Saturday, I promised the children, we would go out somewhere on Sunday. The video was taken this morning, just before I nipped off to get some groceries and features Primrose and Smudge's litters. When I say, "Unfortunately we have to eat," I should of said, "Unfortunately the shopping don't do itself", because I like eating.
At the time I filmed the video, we were having a thunderstorm with heavy rain showers and also hailstones. Thankfully the weather did clear up enough for us to take the children to Instow beach for a couple hours this afternoon along with Millie. I only took Millie, as I thought it would be a bit busy, but it was actually not very crowded and I wished I had loaded up a couple more dogs. 
Instow is not a big beach and if busy, you don't get to let the dogs have a real good run. We got back about 6pm and finished the day off with some baked Rainbow Trout, as in Tesco's this morning they were half price. Our children love fish. 
I'm now finishing off the rather large glass of wine I was given by my husband with the meal. This is only the second Sunday since Christmas (As I was working out notice for one farm, while taking on more milking for another and the notice I worked out, went from two months to six months, somehow) I have had off and after a bit of a poor start, the day really finished on a flourish. 
Looking forward to tomorrow, as I meet Tracey and her husband who are hopefully having Bertie 1. Enjoy the video.

Primrose's Cavalier pups are all spoken for at this time and I look forward to meeting in a few weeks time the families that the two Blenheim pups will be joining. 
They are now twenty five days old and are getting more active by the day. Yesterday I put their collars on. A pink collar on Bella, a green collar on Rose and a blue collar on the Blenheim boy. Today we put a few toys in the whelping box for them to play with and they already have been mouthing them and trying to shake them.