Took these couple photos of the dogs snuggled up together this morning. Anyone want to take a go at naming all seven, and the dog in the photo that is related to them all?

Interesting bit of interaction behaviour in the video between out male dogs. I had just got in the door from the morning milking, and was having a quick cup of coffee before getting on outside with the dogs, so the dogs have an air of excitement about them, as they wait for the off. Henry is playing with Ernest. Ernest is a very good social player within the pack, and knows it's a very good idea to keep the biggest kid in the playground on side. Ernest gives full submission to Henry and their is a lot of trust between them. Yes, Henry has his jaw at times right around Ernest's neck. Then Ernest's Dad, Toby seems to want to join in. Henry and him have a bit of a more grey relationship, and had a tête-à-tête once a couple years ago over a bitch on heat in the run area at the front of our stable block. Which ended with Henry pinning him to the ground. Hence since we make sure dead on heat bitches are kept right out of the way of the males, unless of course we intend to mate one with them. They have never fought since, but there lies an uneasy alliance between them, which can be seen subtly in Henry's hackles rising slightly at his back end, when Toby offers him the submissive gesture of licking his face, and when they part Henry looking at him doing a rigid tall stance.

Two weeks after the wonderful arrival of Blottie and Ernest's  litter we had Blottie's sister Bumble on heat and she would be also mated with Ernest. This mating like Blottie's has a bit of a tale to it as well. Nine days after noticing her coming on heat, she was ready to accept a mating with Ernest, all went well. Once a bitch accepts a mating, we then introduce the dog to her every 48 hours, until she declines his advances. Three days after Bumble came on heat, Sasha also came on heat, and Ernest we had noticed really likes Sasha.
So when we went to do the next mating with Bumble in the stable next to where Sasha was kenneled, Ernest decided even though Bumble was trying to catch his attention, to go to the partition between him and Sasha and stand there whimpering for her. I had never had this happen before and was a bit perplexed. The next few days, with Bumble most certainly still happy for his attention, he would not entertain mating her, but look towards where Sasha was housed. Six days passed and I considered Bumble must have gone over her time to be mated, and letting her out, Ernest and her ran around the side of the house, and I then came around to find him tied with Bumble, much to my amusement. We then put them together 48 hours later, and she excepted one more mating. Her Grandmother, mother and sister have all displayed long estrus periods on heat and tend to have good size litters. Bumble though had been mated on her 9th day and then a massive gap of six days before being mated again. What was Ernest playing at? Would Bumble be pregnant at all? With such a big gap in mating, would we have missed her optimum time for mating? I worried that she may only be carrying one or two pups, which is never good, as dogs have evolved to carry multiple pups per pregnancy, one or two pups conceived most often they then grow to big due to the extra nutrition and more room to grow in, to be born naturally. I would rather we had missed her altogether, than just one or two pups in there.
Only time would give us the answers. Around 28 days from her last mating I could feel that Bumble was most definitely pregnant, and got her scanned. The vet said, "Be prepared for another good sized litter." So for all Ernest's refusals to mate with her whilst he was distracted by the whiff of Sasha dead on heat, he had caught her good and proper. Now we would have to wait for the birth to know, when he caught her. Bumble's pups arrived and working back the dates, he had caught her from that first mating. It had all been done and dusted after the first mating. Are we to assume Ernest new that, and that is why he did not want to mate her, whilst he could smell another bitch at her optimum time? We will probably never know, but it does make you wonder about the olfactory powers of dogs. 

We kept one of the Blenheim girls from the litter, naming her Lottie. 

As with Blottie's litter, her sister, Bumble's litter also produced a beautiful litter of spaniel type puppies, and over the last eight months we have watched Lottie grow in to a lovely dog, along with her seven litter siblings, thanks to regular updates from their families.
In Part three, the coupling of Treacle and Casper. Culminating with part four, where are we, and where do we go from here.

Interesting seeing Teagol lying beside her Grandfather Toby. You can see she has a longer muzzle and hopefully you can see that she has more length to her cranium. Fingers crossed for when we have her MRI scanned in a few weeks time.

Just to let everyone know that Sheila and Vincent have been keeping me updated on how Rowan has been getting on. He has settled in well with them and Charlie. Looking forward to them all visiting us next year to catch up in person. Below are some of the photos they have sent me over the past weeks. 

Received a lovely 6 month update for Cooper yesterday from Fiona. He is from Casper and Treacle's litter born back in May All done

"We can’t believe Cooper and his siblings are 6 months old now! Looking back on the old photos is so interesting as he has changed so much. 

He remains just as affectionate as he was as a puppy (whether you want a cuddle or not) and friendly and gentle with everyone he meets.  He still loves the office but has also been going to daycare a day a week where he runs around with a lovely pack of dogs all day and comes back absolutely exhausted. He has passed puppy training and is moving onto the next stage in the new year. His recall is fantastic but we are working on focus and heel! The vet is very pleased with him. 

We couldn’t believe the pictures of Barney- they looked nothing at all alike as puppies and now are the spitting image of each other!

He is such a good natured dog, which everyone comments on.  Him and his nephew Jack are such important parts of our family now and we are so lucky to have them. 

Love to Barney, Jim (is it Bailey now?), Megan and Koffee, and of course the Pound Lane pack.

Fiona x"

​"Hello Fiona,

lovely to hear from you, and that Cooper and Jack are such loved members of your family. It is funny how Barney and Cooper look so alike now.

Jim is now called, "Rowan" and has settled in his new home with Sheila, Vincent and Charlie (maternal Great Granddad of Jack).

Thanks for the photos and updates.

Love from us all at Poundlane

Jane x"

Our son, Thomas uses Blottie as a pillow, whilst watching television. Lottie lies to the left of them, she is just back in the pack after being on heat for the first time. Blottie has Rosie lying her head on her next to Thomas's head, and Blottie's Dad, Henry lies at her front legs.

Got a lovely photo of Saffy with Kathy's daughter the other day, along with an inquiry in to whether I could have her for two weeks in the New Year. She is Lottie's litter sibling. So we will be seeing a whole lot more of Saffy in the New Year. Looking forward to seeing how she has grown up.

Received an interesting update and photos for one of  Teagol's sisters, Skye from Jean.  One of Blottie's litter of ten pups

"Hi Jane 
Hope all well with you all. Just a update Re:Skye : 
Following Skye's visit to the vets to day to discuss (Spaying the conventional method verses keyhole  ) among other things . She is provisionally booked early Jan : approx 3 months from her season : 
Any way I digress again!! We saw the senior Vet,  first time he has seen Skye his colleagues saw her previously. During his examination of her  he was constantly referring to her looks and shape of head stating she was a beautiful looking dog in all respects . Well We just had to tell him the Poundlane story /history : His words as a Professional !!!!!! He wished there where more caring and responsible breeders as Poundlane is and was extremely impressed with your programme and iff you needed clarification of the success of breeding such healthy and beautiful dogs Skye is a credit to you . He was constantly referring to the shape of her head being longer muzzle whilst regaining the Cavalier overall features . We came away very smug !!! and very lucky to have her in our family .
I would say she's perfect but that bark !!!!! 😂😂😂
Much love to all 
Jean and Family particularly Toby x"

Yesterday I managed to get out with a couple of our dogs on a local shoot, which is a very friendly small affair. I took Ernest and our daughter, Florrie took Ernest's daughter, Teagol. For a young dog Teagol was very well behaved, and was very switched on to the job at hand. With a young dog, it is advised to keep them on a lead for their first few times out, and some would advise the whole of their first season. We did let her off for a run around after finishing the last drive, which she really enjoyed, running around with the other dogs as we came in for supper. 
Ernest although his first time. He is over two years old and his recall has always been spot on. So on the second drive, near the end he got let off to flush half a dozen pheasants out of a very tight bit of brambles, and returned looking mighty proud of himself. He then had a run around after the last drive with his daughter, Teagol. Really pleased with both of them. They were not at all perturbed by the noise of the guns or the noise from the flags etc.  All going well, they should make a couple of steady flushing spaniels.
​I did not take a camera, and I don't use a phone, but oldest son, Bert was home this week and on the one drive he was stood next to me waiting to move forward. He got a photo of Ernest and me, on his phone. 

In October I received a lovely update for Fletcher from his family

And also an email with photos after receiving his cup for 'Best Local Dog'

"Hi Jane
I hope all is well at Poundlane. We all regularly visit your website for your wonderful updates on the Poundlane family and to see how Fletcher’s siblings are all getting on. Fletcher received his cup this week for ‘best local dog’ at the village fete, so thought we would send you a picture of him showing it off. Plus a couple of other recent pics, including a nice one of him looking out of the front window (he has a habit of leaping up onto the bay windowsill to check out what is going on in the World!). We cannot believe we are just over one month away from his 1st birthday. What a fab dog, we are so lucky. Thank you so much. 
All the best 
Ross and family"

Got a lovely update in the post, back in August from Sue, who eight years ago had one of Dolly and Rollo's pups Ruby

This advert had us in fits of laughter last night, as we heard the narration, but was not watching the screen, and it sounded like Red Riding Hood's Grandma was a Granddad!

Photos and video are from this morning running Teagol out with her Dad, Ernest and her Auntie Lily (Ernest's sister), with Rosie tagging along. 

Little spaniels are such fun!

Made an apple cake for supper, and on picking one of the children up from college. Popping in the shop on the way home for a few groceries, and saw raspberries. I got a couple punnets of them and made a raspberry sauce to go with the apple cake. Which went down well with everyone. 

The video footage was taken at the end of their run out this afternoon. They had been going for a good hour and a half. 

Managed to catch a couple blurry stills of Bumble making a reasonably impressive leap.  

Been admiring this fungi for a while, on one of the routes we run the dogs