![]() Tracey arrived today with her husband Paul and daughter Jodie along with their two Cavapoo dogs, Roxy and Charlie. Roxy is from Lucy's first litter, with the Dad being my sisters Poodle, Rollo and she is three years old. Charlie is from Ysobel's litter born last year on the 31st July and is now ten months old. Tracey and her family have been down from Essex for a few days in North Devon on holiday (North Devon Coast is classified as an area of outstanding natural beauty) and today they had arranged with me to have Roxy and Charlie for a couple hours while they went over to Withypool to go on a North Devon Hawk Walk, which is going out into the moorland area of Exmoor to watch Falconary and get to handle the birds as well. They dropped off just after 10 am and as Withypool is a bit of a drive from us and it was booked for 11 am, it was a quick, "Hello !" and they had to get a wiggle on. Whilst they were gone, we introduced Charlie to some of the dogs and two being Reggie and Ysobel, who are Charlie's Dad and Mum and got some photos and video footage of them. They managed to find what I think was some Hedgehog poo and as you see in the video have great fun trying to splash it all over. Tracey, Paul and Jodie returned just after one and had enjoyed the falconary experience. They then came in and we had coffee and cake and a chance to have a chat. Paul asked if he could get a photo of Charlie with Reggie because he was so taken with how much Charlie is like Reggie in his mannerisms, so we got a photo of Reggie and Charlie with Paul. Time flew and it was approaching 3.30 pm when we said our goodbyes. It was lovely to catch up with Tracey and her family, human and canine. Thanks Tracey, Paul and Jodie for giving such a loving, caring home to two of our pups and letting us see what lovely dogs they have become in looks and manners. Primrose's pups are well and are now three weeks old, although I think on the blog yesterday they were three weeks old, but that was because when I wrote that I had brain fade and thought it was already Saturday. They are doing really well and we are now starting to see them more as individuals and in some of the photo's I can now more easily recognise the boys from the girls. ![]() Last night one of our children took these couple photos of the dogs . Is that a new fluffy cushion ? or Treacle doing a very good impression of a fluffy cushion ? ![]() All Smudge's pups have now left us. With the last, but certainly not the least, Jake, who made his way to Bedfordshire with Sarah and her family on Tuesday evening. Jake travelled well, but unfortunately his only misdemeanour on route was a couple bouts of diarrhoea, which can sometimes happen with travelling and it seems it must of just been the long trip, as the next day he was fine and morning after his first night in his new home I received an email from Sarah to confirm he was okay. Sarah mentions reading through something I sent her and that was information about introducing a puppy to cats, as Sarah also has a cat. Thanks Sarah for the photo and letting me know all is okay after his road trip. ![]() Thanks Jane Have read that through and will make the steps they recommend. Jake slept well during the night - I didn't hear a peep out of him from midnight through to 6am, and that was only because I got up then. No mess either. We've had lots of fun with him this morning, he's a lovely puppy. Played lots of games and he's now having a sleep. Kind regards Sarah Next is an update received from Chester's family. Chester being Jakes litter sibling and these two boys will be meeting in the near future, as Sarah's family who have Chester are good friends with Sarah's family who have Jake. Thanks Sarah for letting me know all is going well with Chester and thanks for the lovely photos of your family out and about with Chester. Hi Jane Just thought I would give you a little update on Chester. He is a little star, coping with everything in his path and the children adore him. He is sleeping through now from 11pm until 7am and no accidents at night, we have just had a couple in the day, when to be honest, if we had been a little more vigilant, they wouldn’t have happened. As I mentioned before the sprinkling of liver on top of his food has helped his food intake to be where it needs to be. I have enclosed a couple of pictures from yesterday when we took him to Stowe Gardens for a walk. It is doggy walking heaven, all the dogs have to be on a lead so it was really good for Chester to meet other dogs. It was very interesting to see his reaction to each breed that he came across. It was especially evident when we came across a King Charles Spaniel. He was very lively and not at all “woofy” as he had been with other dogs. Glad Jake is coping well. We are meeting up with him and his new family on Friday, so it will be interesting to see if they remember each other Thanks again for all your help Sarah Another update from Smudge's pups that have just left us and this one is from Rhian, who has Mollie. Thanks for letting me know thinks are going well and that your Bobbie is taking to Mollie. Hi Jane Thought I'd send a photo of Mollie and Bobbie that we took yesterday, she is such a clever girl, we do some training every day and she is picking things up so quickly. She loves running around the garden and her favourite game is chasing the brush. She sleeps all night and is doing her toilet outside. She has taken to her crate really well and is not at all bothered about going in it. She is really laid back and very good when visitors come to see her. Everyone loves her. Hope the pups are doing well. Best wishes Rhian Last update for this blog is another from Smudge's pups that have just flown the nest and this one is from Lucy and Alan who have Flora, who was the first of this litter to leave us. Although no photos with this update, Lynne more than makes up for this with her vivid account of life with Flora. Love the image of you with the string of plastic sausages and so lovely to know that she is bringing you both, such joy and fun. Thanks Lucy and Alan. Dear Jane, Flora is wonderful! She had her second injection at 10 weeks and so this week we have ventured outside of the garden - with 4 paws on the ground. She is managing harness and lead well and has enjoyed meeting some other dogs and of course the adoring public! Our vets run puppy support sessions with the nurse and so she has been to vet twice , and they weighed and wormed her , and said she is putting on right amount of weight.We have kept on her lilys kitchen as all seems well on that - I cannot believe quite how quickly she can eat each meal!House training has gone well - we followed on from your start of her going outside and are remaining vigilant.Good weather has helped as we keep door open a lot of the time and she just takes herself off outside. She has come with us to a barbeque and dinner party and behaved very well , I am amazed at how she takes things in her stride.We are trying to expose her to new things daily , without over tiring her . We have started to leave her alone in crate in daytime so Alan can go out for short periods and this week we will see if we can be brave enough to let her off the lead in the local park. So, we are having early starts ( I think your getting up for milking is in her body clock!) but she brings us great joy - who thought at this age I would be running around my garden of an evening , giggling, pulling a string of plastic sausages around! So Jane , take no news as good news from us - hopefully we can send you some pictures soon , computer has a blip at minute so wont risk sending attachments.Thanks for your email , its great to know advice is there if we need it. Best wishes Lucy and Alan and Flora Now that Smudge's pups have all left, my attention can now be fully on Primrose's litter of six Cavapoos and it's frightening to think they are tomorrow three weeks old and the weekend after this one, we start families visiting to pick and meet their pup that will join their family. They are now twenty days old and a lively bunch, already, they can be seen wobbling around the whelping box and we expect the first breakout any day now. Loaded the photos up on to the computer to find this bit of video footage, that our daughter Florrie took, she did forget to turn the heat lamp off, so we have an orange/red hue to it, but it certainly shows how active they are already and how vocal. Treacle is the dog you can hear woofing as she was playing with Henry and Mum, Primrose was just lying out of sight when this was being filmed. Mum at this stage regulates her visits to her pups and she will not attend them straight away when they start to wake and call for her and it's interesting to watch her lie quite unconcerned beside the whelping box as they call her and if you feel her milk bars when this calling starts and when she decides to then tend them around five minutes her so, since they started calling her and as the calling dies down, you will feel that her milk has come down more and her milk bars feel more engorged. I have observed all our bitches do this with their young and I know some novice breeders, when they see a bitch not tending their pups straight away when they start to cry, that they think the bitch may be starting to reject the pups. I believe the bitch knows what she is doing and making the pups do this, gets them motivated to start moving and gets them experiencing stress and to cope with it. Having breast fed all my young, I also know when your young cry a certain way, it makes you drop your milk, in fact when lactating my milk would drop if out shopping if I heard someone else's baby crying in a certain way, so it also works to help the bitch drop her milk and may be more milk. I know the other bitches when her pups cry also show very broody actions and the other day, we found Treacle in asleep with the pups and I have noticed Treacles milk bars looking a little plump. Within wolf packs normally only the Alpha bitch breeds and the other bitches in the pack, which are normally relatives, often siblings from a previous litter, will also start to lactate and help feed the Alpha's litter as well and this is thought to happen, so that the Alpha bitch, who is often the best hunting bitch can soon be back hunting insuring survival of the pack. Phantom pregnancies in domestic dogs are thought to be from the ancestory connection to wolves and the group suckling young, and is in my experience why a lactating bitch is one of the easiest animals to get to adopt others young. Next week the children are back at school, so I will hope to have more time to get some more action footage of the pups, but we do have two of the children's birthdays in the first ten days of June.
We have Tracey and her family visiting tomorrow with Roxy and Charlie, two Cavapoos that we bred and then the next three weekends we have full with families visiting to meet their pup from Primrose's litter. Finish now on three Cavaliers in a row. Took this photo last night of Dolly, Jessica and Jessica's brother, Toby fast asleep all in a row. ![]() Well the time is nearly here for Jake aka Little Brian, to leave us. Jake will leave us tomorrow afternoon and although they leave us, our care is still here for all our pups if needed. Jake is the last to leave of Smudge's litter and he is now 13 weeks old and more than ready to find his place in his new family. Might be a watery eye tomorrow when this chap leaves, but I know he is so going to be very loved in his new home and is going to make a lot of laughter and if any tears, hopefully they will be caused more from laughter than sadness. ![]() As we prepare for Jake to leave we have news from two of his siblings that are already settling into their new homes. Kayla has just had her first haircut and Lynne sent me this lovely photo and thanks again Lynne and for all the other photos and couple videos you have sent me, that I have not yet been able to upload on here. Next is a lovely little clip of Harvey on the London underground on a tube train, looking like he owns that tube train. Thanks Liza for that, with the rain returning this afternoon to North Devon, it brightened us all up here no end, watching Harvey looking so unconcerned by it all, travelling on the tube for the first time. Harvey will be a regular on the London underground in a weeks time, as Liza goes back to work with Harvey at her side. Hi Jane, All going well - I've attached a video of Harvey on the tube for the first time in preparation for when he starts work in a weeks time. He took it all in his stride and seemed really relaxed, everyone loved him and our day ended in queens park playing ball in the sunshine. This week we are off to the lakes and hopefully the beach - he hates the rain so I'll let you know how he gets on with water. He is perfect and no problem at all. I hope the family are well. All the best Liza As I said above, the rain has returned here this afternoon, after a promising start to the day. This Sunday morning unlike the one before with the sun on my back, I walked the cows in with the rain driving against us, washing my face of the last remnants of my nights slumber, under a cloud filled sky, casting down a gothic light upon the land, and yet, beauty still abounds, even when the sun is not around. Although I would not mind seeing the sun a bit more often at the moment. Lol Primrose 's pups are now 16 days old and all now have their eyes open to varying degrees. Primrose who normally is a picky eater is now eating like the proverbial horse. Good to see them eating really well when feeding their pups and her hearty eating can be seen reflected in the growth of her six pups. Yesterday received an email asking about a girls and boys photo of Primrose's pups. At this age it's hard to do posed photos and I rarely do them at any age, as I find as with the children, the best photos come from real life, rather than posed life, so they aren't the best photos. As the pups grow and their eyes are fully open I will try to state in individual photos the sex of the pup. Primrose's pups were two weeks old yesterday and Primrose is doing a grand job with them and doing it all in her stride. The video shows the pups suckling and if you look back at footage of these pups first born you will see how much growth they have already made. They are all over double their birth weight and quickly heading towards three times their birth weight already. Cavaliers are very good mothers. ![]() Jake is giving us lots of fun in his last days with us before leaving for Bedfordshire this coming Tuesday afternoon. The children introduced Jake to a wind up Brussel Sprout left over from the crackers given to them by one of their Grannies at Christmas. Unfortunately we did not catch him on video being very excited mixed with being a little worried by Wind Up Brussel Sprout. We did get one photo of them both at a stand off though. Lol Jake still likes to have a play with mum and my husband caught this bit of footage of the two of them having a bit of rough and tumble. Jake has been hanging out with the pack most of the day and is now sparko at my feet whilst I'm on the computer. I have had a none stop Sunday and with no school tomorrow for the children, I'm going to get the children to bed and hope to get to sit down with my husband and a scattering of canines and partake of a couple glasses of wine together, seeing as my last chance to have a couple glasses of wine, Primrose decided to go into labour, so that bottle has been on hold until now.
Jake is now the only pup left with us from Smudge's litter of six and we have the pleasure of his company for a few more days, he leaves us next Tuesday. Last night was his first night sleeping on his own in the puppy pen and we did not hear a squeak from him, but Jake has a new bedfellow in Foxy and our son Bert caught some lovely photo's of Jake snuggled up with Foxy. You will see that we caught a few photo's of Jake today hanging out with the big boys and me nursing him. He's up for a play or happy having a cuddle. I don't mind keeping pups on a bit longer, the only downfall is the more attached you get, but I know Jake is going to be a super little dog that is going to bring so much fun to his family. Last chosen of the litter, but certainly not least. A few photo's of Primrose and her six pups now 11 days old and look out for the photo showing the girl pup, who both eyes are half way open. An observation we have noted with pups, is that it seems it's always the smallest pups in litters that open their eyes first. ![]() Chester left today for Bedfordshire. Sarah came and picked him up just after midday and have just got an email to confirm they got home safely and he is taking things in his stride with two very excited children, who did not realize Mum was picking him up today. Sarah a couple days ago emailed me wondering if it was possible if Chester could when leaving take Pink Bear with him, as they had noticed that in a lot of the photos of him, he often was cuddled up with Pink Bear. I replied saying, "that was okay and just to remind me about Pink Bear when they picked Chester up." Well, I washed Pink Bear a couple days ago, smartening Pink Bear up for when Pink Bear left with Chester and last time I saw Pink Bear was yesterday by Chester's bed, but today I looked around the place and could not find hide nor hair of Pink Bear. I knew who had removed Pink Bear from the puppy pen, that being Henry because Henry has a habit of jumping into the patio, sneeking into the puppy pen and removing puppy toys, normally we find him with the toy and just ask him to leave and he brings it to you and lets you have it or you find it in his hiding place at the top of the garden behind a pile of wood we have there at the moment. When Sarah arrived to collect Chester, I made apologies for Pink Bears absence and explained Henry's great panache for removing the pups toys. Sarah left with Chester and his bag of goodies which included a snuggle toy that has been living with him for the last couple days. When the children came home from school, I asked each one if they had seen Pink Bear, but no luck and this was starting to become a bit of a mystery. We then found Pink Bear's nose on the lawn, the plot was getting decidedly thickened by this development and obviously concerns for Pink Bears welfare. Then a break through. Our son Alfie found the decapitated body of Pink Bear by the wheel barrow at the end of the stables, not only had Pink Bear's head been removed, but one leg also lay strewn amputated from Pink Bears body. I'm pretty sure of the culprit and Henry knows who he is, he ain't no angel that's for sure. As for Pink Bear, we are stabilizing Pink Bear with an emergency transfusion of stuffing, once stablized the surgical team aka me and my sewing box will be called in to assess Pink Bear. We will rebuild Pink Bear. Jake now is the only pup left with us from Smudge's litter and he will be with us until next Tuesday, so lots of time to spoil him. He has always been very independent and seems to be pretty relaxed about the fact all his sibling have left him and at this moment is happily asleep in the puppy pen on his own. Primrose's Cavapoo pups are now ten days old and we are just starting to see the eyes starting to open on a couple of the pups. On Sunday after Mollie and Harvey left of Smudge's pups we then moved Primrose and pups into the living room from the kitchen, dividing the puppy pen into two until Jake leaves us. Our daughter Molly yesterday came home from school and has had a bit of an upset tummy through the night and this morning with a bit of a temperature, she stayed home to recuperate and the photo to finish on tonight is her resting on the sofa today having a bit of nursing from Jessica. Can't beat a bit of canine cuddles to make you feel better.
Was going to do a lengthy blog tonight, but late home from milking, phone calls, then the computer playing up, I'm feeling tired now, so bare with me and let's press on. The weekend was lovely with the sun out for most of it and both mornings I was out early with the dogs and then off to milk. This time of year the countryside blooms and one of my most enjoyable things I do at this time is getting the cows in, once they are out for the summer. Sunday morning when most are in bed, calling the cows and watching them rise and start wandering in with the Sun starting to wake up and spread it's warmth across the land with the dawn chorus in full swing and a plethora of wildlife either still as a statue hoping I have not noticed them or running for cover on my appearance, I cannot help but think how lucky am I ? I gather up the odd cow still sleeping and walk in with my hand on the rump of a cow with the sun on my back. One of my sisters many moons ago sat me down and said to me, "Jane, it's alright you milking these cows, but when are you going to get a real job ?" I have now been milking cows for nearly 26 years, so I guess the answer to that must be, " never." Lol. ![]() Sunday we saw two of Smudge's pups leave us and the first to leave was Mollie. Rhian and Russ have been down on holiday in the area and visited us on Monday and came on Sunday to pick Mollie up as they headed back to Wales with their other dog Bobbie, a ten year old Cavalier boy. When families pick up their pup, I run them through all the paper work and that includes the vaccinations the pup has received and in this case not received because the vet had made a pigs ear of it and thankfully Rhian and Russ were very understanding, as was Liza who picked up Harvey later. The problem with the vaccinations was I noticed that the second jab for Distemper, Hepititas and Distemper (DHP) had not been done on Saturday when I took them to the vets to have their second jabs. The vet had only done the Lepto 4, even tough they were booked for both jabs DHP and Lepto 4. These pups had stayed with us longer because the families wanted the pups to receive the full primary course of vaccinations before leaving, so this happening rather defeated the point of them staying on longer with me. So Rhian and Russ took Mollie still and I said I would get hold of the vets first thing Monday morning to confirm it definitely had not been done. Finally on Monday I got confirmation that as I suspected, it was not a clerical error on the vaccination books, but the vaccination had not been done. I was a bit curt with the vet come the end of the call because when you do something wrong, just hold your hands up and say sorry first as last, don't try to make excuses trying to cover your arse, after all we are all just humans and believe me have I made some big mistakes in my time and the quickest why to move on and learn is to hold your hands up and live and learn from it. When I say I was curt, I just abruptly ended the phone call, saying , "So the pups need to have the second DHP end of story, I now have to ring the two people who have taken their pups yesterday, so they can sort out getting their pups vaccinated, thank you bye", as I put the phone down I think I heard him say, "Sorry." Rhian got Mollie vaccinated yesterday, but now because her vet uses a different branded vaccine, Mollie will now have to have a third primary jab. I did refund Rhian for the incovenience and they have been very kind about the mix up and have already been informed that Mollie is settling in well and Bobbie is geting used to his young canine friend. Thanks Rhian and Russ and sorry for the vaccine muddle up. The two pups still with us, Jake and Chester, I popped to the vets yestersay and got the second DHP done before they leave, thank fully. Vaccines have become a thorn in my side and as a breeder your damned if you don't do them and damned if you do. A good subject for a future blog. ![]() After vaccine gate with Mollie, we then had Harvey leaving us just after lunch on Sunday . Liza and her friend arrived to pick up Harvey and I explained the mess up with the vaccinations and Liza was very understanding about the whole issue and left with Harvey for London reaching home around 7.45 pm. First report from Liza is that all is going well with Harvey and he was having his second vaccination yesterday at 6 pm. Thanks Liza for letting me know you got home okay and hope all went well at the vets yesterday evening. ![]() We are now down to just two of Smudge's pups and tomorrow will see Chester leave us with Sarah to join her family. Then we will have just Jake and we will have fun and games with him until next Tuesday, when he will join Sarah's friends family, so Chester and Jake will probably be life long friends, as they will be going to families that are friends. Primrose and her six Cavapoo pups are now nine days old. Primrose is doing them really well and they are growing each day, not long now before we should start to see eyes and ears opening. Lastly a couple photo's of Henry and look closely, is that a halo or a frisby ? ![]() Tomorrow we will see Mollie and Harvey leave us for their new homes and I managed to get a lovely photo opportunity today with the two of them together in their bed. This morning saw them along with Jake and Chester make the trip to the vets to have their second vaccinations and they then came back and had a massive sleep after the stress of a trip in the car and visiting the vets. They were not to bad and just whimpered a little whilst waiting to go in to see the vet. The video is from yesterday and I missed catching the best bit of Smudge playing with her pups. I was watching her bombing around the patio playing with her pups and then thought, I ought to catch this on video and by the time I got the camera they were winding down. Mum still allows them a little suckle now and then, but it's more for comfort, she has yet again been a wonderful Mum. Primrose's Cavapoo pups are now a week old and that has flown past. Primrose and the pups are all doing well. These pups all have homes and I have been busy arranging the visiting of the six families waiting on these pups. I'm now onto arranging the fifth family to visit and then will be in touch with the sixth family to arrange a time to visit. This is the hardest part of having a litter of pups, arranging families to visit in order of the waiting list. ![]() Got reminded this morning by an email from Alison, that today is a special day, it's Smudge and her litter siblings fourth birthday. Dear Jane, Hope this fines you all well and looking forward to summer. Maddie just wanted to say Happy Birthday to her siblings, we can't believe she is four, where did that time go. I was so sorry to read about Jessica, but she has come along in "leaps and bounds" literally, will you be able to breed from her.? All your dogs are so resilient and lay back they just take anything that is thrown at them. As you can see Maddie is settled in her new home and loves her lawn but does miss the beach. Ray and I are fine and enjoying our new home. Just a couple of photo's. The second one she is saying "Has anyone seen my sunglasses" Well must go shopping before it gets too hot. Love to you all, Alison, Ray and Maddie x Thanks for reminding me Alison and a Happy Fourth Birthday also to their litter siblings Teddy, Oliver, Charlie and Flo. Hope you all had a lovely day. ![]() Karen sent me this lovely photo of Darcey a couple weeks ago and also shared a dog friendly day out in Brighton Hi Jane, Couldn't resist sending this picture of Darcey taken in the woods at the bottom of our road, she has spent the last three weeks "flushing" the bluebells! Not sure what she is hoping to find but plenty of bunnies and squirrels have had their breakfasts disturbed. I also wanted to share our experiences of taking Darcey to our nearest town which is Brighton. We took her for the second time yesterday and just in case anyone reading your blog fancies a trip, I wanted to tell you how dog friendly it is. We always tend to stick in the North Laines area which is all independent shops and has a great villagey feel, and Darcey was allowed to go in all the shops and would have even been allowed in the cafe where we had breakfast! We didn't fancy keeping her nose out of all that food so sat outside. It was very refreshing to have her invited in to all sorts of shops and thankfully she behaved herself. Of course she got loads of attention but also three separate, detailed enquiries as to how to get a dog just like her, so sorry if you are inundated with calls! Hope you all are well and love to everyone Karen x Thanks Karen for that. Tracey who has Roxy from Lucy's litter the end of 2010 and Charlie from Ysobel's litter born July last year is visiting us on the 31st May, as down here on holiday. Thanks for the photo's Tracey and look forward to catching up and seeing you all on the 31st. ![]() Lastly a lovely photo Margaret sent me of her Bella, who reflects her name. She is from Dolly's litter born 2011. Thanks Margaret for the photo and lovely to hear from you. ![]() Primrose's cavapoo pups are now four days old and all seem to be thriving. This is Primroses second litter and although she looks like a pup, Primrose will be four years old this September. Her first litter was four Cavapoos and stepping up to six pups in her second litter, she is coping easily with the extra heads at the milk bar. The video shows her suckling her pups and I will warn you that it will show one of the pups pooping and Primrose cleaning it up and not with a wet wipe. As it goes in one end, it invariably has to come out the other end. Today I made a trip to our local country store, Mole valley Farmers to get some Frontline for the adult dogs and also picked up a new liner for the dog bed that Smudge's pups are using and also picked up three new toys for them. The video shows Harvey, Mollie, Chester and Jake investigating the new bed and playing with the new toys. What do you do once you have made sure you have killed the dog bed ? You then go to sleep in it.
Today Rhian and her husband visited Mollie before they leave with her on Sunday and they took her for a trip out in their car with their Cavalier boy, Bob. Whilst she was away the sun was out and I managed to get some lovely photos of her three brothers seemingly awaiting her return. I also took a quick photo of one of Primrose's pups in my hand in front of Chester and although Primrose's pup is closer to the camera, so slightly out of perspective, I think you can just see from head size how much Chester has grown in eleven weeks. We have been getting Harvey, Jake, Mollie and Chester used to having leads on and as the video might show, it's not clear who is leading who ? Before any one tells me, I do realise I call my daughter Tilly by her sisters name Molly. I'm not very good with names and I think it's hereditary, as I spent most of my childhood with my mum going through my five siblings names before she got the right one and often I was for easiness called the little one, being the youngest. Day two in the little kennel in the kitchen![]() Primrose is doing her pups really well and like all the Cavaliers we have had is proving her worth as a very good mother. All the pups seem to be thriving. We got a little bit of footage of her letting them suckle today. Henry happened to be looking in over the pen, as I filmed he was happy to answer questions about the pups and becoming a Dad himself. Henry will bark on cue and it is more from visual than giving a verbal command, you ask him something and I then nod slightly and raise my eyebrows and that will cue him to bark. When he learnt to do this, he was rewarded with a treat and he then had to learn that when ever we had food around he could not just bark and expect to receive food and for a while at meal times he would sit by the table doing a single bark about every five seconds and look at you for a reward and you have to wonder who was trying to train who at that moment, but he has learnt that only when we cue him, we want him to bark and he does it now without even a treat reward. Dogs are very astute at reading body language, especially movement of the eyes and facial expression. Took ages to load all this tonight, as the screen kept freezing. I'm going to end on a cuddle. My son Alfie took this photo this afternoon of his brother Bert reading and Millie seizing the moment to get a cuddle.
![]() Because we have the whelping box in the kitchen rather than the little puppy house Primrose's pups will be starting off in the little kennel in the kitchen and as they approach their first day in the kennel in the kitchen Primrose and her six charges are well. Looking at them not even yet a day old and it's hard to imagine how they all came from Primrose. I have got in touch with every one and thanks for every one being prompt to reply and I will be back in touch soon, except one person that I'm getting the emails returned and it must be they have changed their email address, as I'm sending to the email address they emailed to me, so if Lee Smelt is looking at this tonight and you are still interested in a puppy from Poundlane or not could you please contact me by the end of this week by 16th May, either by email at [email protected] or phone on 01769 560969. The camera is now stationed on the table beside the whelping box, so it's easy to hand to catch photos of the very fast growth that pups under go in the first weeks of their lives. Smudge's four pups still with us, are now 11 weeks old. Mollie will be the next to leave us and tomorrow Mollie's family will visit as they are down here on holiday for the week and after her second vaccination this coming Saturday, she will leave with them on the Sunday as they travel home to Wales. Mollie is a very loving girl and reminds me so much of her Granny, Millie at that age in her demeanor. When they visit Mollie tomorrow they will see Primrose's pups and when you have two litters on the place at the same time one being newborn and the other at 11 weeks old you can then really see the growth they have made and that has now given me an idea for a photo for the next blog. I did promise some video footage of the four on the blog today and I managed to find five minutes to film them in action or not as the video will show and as I type this in the evening they are now playing like mad in the back ground, charging in and out of their pen onto the patio. All the rest of the pack have not really took much notice other than having a quick peek in over the side of the whelping pen. Primrose does not seem worried by there passing interest and when she has gone out for ablutions there has been interest in her and much sniffing of her. Dolly is doing well after her dental on Thursday having had a couple extractions, you would not know she had any thing done and she now has nice white teeth again. Jessica is also going on very well after her leg amputation and everyone keeps asking me if I'm going to breed from her ? The question is should not be, am I going to bred from her ?, it should be, should I breed from her? Losing a leg does not effect her ability to conceive, but it does make her life harder, so the answer is "No" we won't be breeding from her. Although she is coping well after losing her leg, it's going to be harder for her in the long run, so I don't think she needs the burden of breeding on top of that and I don't think she is that worried about it, she will be booked in to be spayed in due course. ![]() Did the blog earlier and then sat down by the fireside, as had twenty minutes before going off to milk and made the mistake of reclining and feel asleep for that twenty minutes and during that time Jessica had decided that my head makes a nice pillow, which was caught in a capture by my husband. Got in from milking and lack of sleep is starting to become more evident and I will get in touch with every one tomorrow, it's really just to touch base, as like to get a few days under the pups belts before making dates to come and visit. Primrose has been out a couple times today to do her ablutions and on one of these trips earlier I ran a few inches of water in the bath and popped her in it and gave her a bit of a clean up. She has eaten two bowls of meat and biscuits and is genrally bright and contently mothering her brood. Back tomorrow and lets hope for some better weather and we can get some action shots from Harvey, Chester, Mollie and Jake. Bath and bed for me now. Thanks for all the kind messages received on the arrival of Primrose's pups, lovely to hear from everyone on here and in my inbox. Night one and all. x ![]() Back from getting the weekly groceries and husband David was left on puppy vigil. My husband should also take credit for the safe arrival of Poundlane puppies and if I did not have his full support it would make things a lot harder and it is as a team we get things done. Now with toilet roll replenished I thought I would get some more photos up before leaving to go milking. All seems to be going well and with all pups a good size between 7 to 9 ounces they all seem to be getting in at the milk bar with no problems. Primrose seems to have a lot of milk, pups already can be seen to of fulled out since being born last night and the only squeaking we are hearing from them is when they start to suckle and jostle for places at the milk bar and once they all get a teat this ceases. The weather is not that good here today and will get photo's and try to get some video footage of Smudge's four pups still with us, on the blog tomorrow, as they will start to leave us from next Sunday onwards ![]() It's now just after 10 am, managed to get to bed at 7 am, soon in a coma, and then woke like a startled rabbit thinking I had been asleep for eternity, to find it was around 20 minutes later, went and checked Primrose and then returned to bed, but could not get back to sleep, so got up and have been like a mother hen each time a pup squeaks putting them on a teat. The first few days great care should be taken to note that all pups are warm, sucking and vigorous when handled, you can easily lose them at this time if you take your eye off the ball. Primrose seems very content with her pups, but as usual showing a bit of discomfort because of how warm we need to keep the whelping box for the pups, if mum is not panting a bit in the early days when in with her pups, there's a big chance you have not got them warm enough. Now we might wonder were she was hiding six pups and I must admit over the last few days she had grown considerably and the amount of movement we could see in her abdominal area, we had our suspicions there were more than four pups, but did not want to get peoples hopes up to high on the waiting list. The scan was done by a young vet, who from experience I could tell had not done a lot of scanning and this resulted in a poor scan, one thing she lacked confidence in was palpation of the abdomen with the scanner and I think that is why we did not get good images of the pups or see any more than three, she confirmed she was pregnant which was good enough for me and we all have to learn somewhere, and scanning is one of those things that the more you do the better you get at it. I have to get supplies now, as our children need feeding and the cupboards are bare and we are getting to a code red on toilet roll. I will get started on emailing people on the waiting list about Primrose's pups this evening, as I am milking this evening and tomorrow morning, but will be in touch with every one by the end of tomorrow. Thought I might be feeling another pup still in the uterus after the fifth pup was born , but with Mum settling down, I decided to get her out for a toilet and clean up the whelping box. Brought her in and she had still got the fifth pup's afterbirth to expel and with gentle pressure I was able to remove it. She then looked very comfortable, so I rather than go to bed decided I would lie on the sofa within hearing distance, just incase me thinking I felt another puppy was not just wishful thinking. ![]() Heard movement and pups sqeaking and went to investigate and at 4.15 am Primrose gave birth to a sixth puppy , being a third girl, so now three of each. She has been a star giving birth and will be feeling tired from her labour and it's amazing how dogs soon get over the birth. She is attentively nursing them now. I think that is it now, but I will stay on shift until husband awakes around 7 am and then hope to catch a couple hours sleep. 2.25 am and we now have a fifth pup and the second girl born, so now three boys and two girls. Just waiting now as the uterus contracts back, might be one more or may just be the uterus I can feel. Although the date says the 9th, we are now in the wee hours of the 10th here in the UK, my blog is on USA time and at 2 am Uk time Primrose gave birth to her fourth pup and being the third boy. We are waiting now as we think there is another, but as the uterus contracts down it can fool you into thinking you can feel another pup, so time will tell. The fourth pup born is the pup on your right in each photo below. Third pup was born only forty minutes after the first, so just after midnight we had three pups, two boys and a girl. Primrose is suckling all three after having a drink, she has gobbled down each afterbirth, so refused food offered and is now settled having a sleep. There is at least one more pup to come. Amazing as you are getting the pups born to suck and you can feel a pup iside her kicking, as you latch the pup on. The pups sucking help her to release more oxytocin which is the bonding hormone and also the hormone that makes the uterus contract. ![]() Primrose has just given birth to the first pup at 11. 40 pm, a boy, weighing 9 ounces. Started straining ten minutes before and did not even yelp as she gave birth. Will be quick, as she is set up in the kitchen and cannot see her from the computer and hopefully if like her Mum, she will not be to long between each pup. In the slideshow is a photo of the pup sucking, amazingly it is still attached by the umbilical and only minutes after the bag being broken it was born in it is already sucking. Always amazes me when you see pups so quickly doing this. As I was trying to get this done another pup has been just born at midnight, a girl, 20 minutes after the first. I might not get back now until all have been born, if she keeps up this speed. ![]() Primrose has decided to keep to her family tradition of giving birth a few days early. Yesterday her temperature was at 37.5 C, but she had been around 38 C the few times before, she runs on the higher side of temperature for a dog and this morning we have a temperature of 37.4C. This drop would of started me thinking things are getting started, but we also have Primrose digging her bed and intermitting panting and generally her demeanour has changed. This stage can last 24 to 48 hours, but you would be unwise to leave a bitch for any prelonged time when they reach this stage, as they could get up any time when showing these signs and start to expel a pup, so have rung work to not milk this evening and I am now on Primrose watch also known as lockdown. I looked at Primrose's notes from her last birth and I had forgotten she came a couple days early then and we just had to pop to the vets to give her some oxytocin and manually pull the last pup off, as it was a very big pup. She was okay and really brave as I pushed down on her uterus to enable the vet to pull the pup out. Primrose's Mum, Ysobel gave birth early to all her litters, so I guess it runs in the family. I gave birth to my six babies all early from 28 days early to the closest to my due date being 10 days early, funnily my three sisters, and my Mum who had six babies had a tendency to go over due, so I tended to buck the family trend, my husband said, "It's because I hate waiting." I will though be waiting around today and having my wings temporarily clipped, I will try to get on with getting up to date with my inbox. On a blog a few days ago, I mentioned that we had no pups available and did not expect any pups available in 2014 and instead of what I was hoping for, less inquiries, it seems to have done the opposite to what I was hoping. Although it is normal to see a bigger uptake in inquiries this time of year, due to people preferring to get a pup during the summer months, as it is the easier time to bring a puppy into the home and get the housetraining established. So fingers crossed for every one waiting on this litter and will be back with news as and when things happen, looks like I'm in for a restless 48 hours. ![]() Dolly went to the vets today to be spayed and have a dental. I did wonder if both could be performed this time together as I had noticed that Dolly not only needed her teeth descaled but needed a couple extractions. It was thought best to do each procedure seperate due to extractions were needed, as removing teeth can release bacteria into the body and could cause infection to the wound left from her being spayed, so I said to get the dental work done first and to look to get her spayed in around a months time. She was on heat a couple months ago, so another month will put her a couple months off coming on heat again. It's best to spay a bitch around a couple months after a heat and a couple months before a heat, as when close to their heat or just coming off heat, the blood supply to the uterus is higher and a bleed may be more likely when spaying them. Dolly was very sleepy when she came home and is now positioned at my feet as I do this. Today has been very wet and dull here and to be honest I was not going to blog tonight, until I caught this bit of footage of Smudge's pups. Finally this evening the rain dissipated and the patio dryed out and around 7.30 pm, as I was getting the youngest children ready for bed, we caught this video of Chester having a mad moment, whilst Harvey was having a total out for the count moment. What started Chester off, was our oldest daughter came out of the bath and leaned over the pen and shook her wet hair at him. Mind the volume when you watch it, it's not the dogs making a noise, it's me you need to keep the volume down for. Primrose is really starting to look very pregnant now and Monday will see her being nine weeks from her first mating. She is very comfortable at the moment and the pups can be felt moving and you can also see her stomach moving as they perform acrobatics in her womb. ![]() Yesterday we had visitors. Sheila and Vincent with what is now becoming an annual pilgrimage, brought Charlie to see us all. Charlie was our Cavalier stud dog and at just over five was examined by a cardiologist vet and a Grade 1 murmur was heard, so subtle that my GP vet struggled to hear it and admitted that if she did not know he had been examined and graded, could of missed it. So by the advice of the cardiologist vet, we stopped breeding from him, neutered him and found him a home to retire. Sheila's daughter who is Vincent's sister contacted me on their behalf just over three years ago about rehoming him, they had just lost their old Cavalier boy to Mitrial Valve Degeneration (MVD), so knew what they were taking on. My worry and any ones worry once a murmur is detected in the heart area indicating it may be MVD in Cavaliers is how quick will the onset be. Three years on and as you will see from the photos Charlie at eight years old is very well and no real change has been noted with his heart murmur and Sheila said that their vet says, "There is something there," and the fact it seems to of not changed I wonder if he has an innocent murmur, time will tell and as Sheila said, "We just put it to the back of our mind." Sheila and Vincent could not be a better home for Charlie and the care and love they give him is only to evident on seeing him, seeing them with him and hearing them talk about him. One of the most important things they do, is keeping a careful eye on his weight as this as with most animals really helps with any health issues and just puts so much less strain on the body fuctioning, especially the heart. Charlie is the Dad to Primrose and Smudge, so any one with a pup from these two girls, Charlie is your pups maternal Grandad, so that makes him the Grandad to the four pups we still have here at the moment of Smudge's and the Grandad to the litter Primrose is carrying. It was lovely yesterday to catch up with Sheila, Vincent and Charlie. The children and Vincent spent the first hour like a bunch of wild marauding wildebeast crashing through the home and at times, the children waiting for an unsupecting Vincent to pass by and launch themselves on his back, was reminiscent of Kato and Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther movies, Vincent had his work cut out, as unlike Inspector Clouseau, he had six Katos to contend with. Hope you have not got back ache this morning Vincent. The children settled down and the dogs excepted Charlie into the fold and Charlie got to meet his old flames Dolly, Ysobel and Millie, and he then meet his Granchildren, who you would of thought would of not noticed another dog similar to the others living here, but we have to remember that a dogs world is an olfactory world and they could smell a different dog in the pack, so they did vocalise at him to start with, but once they saw the other dogs were not concerned about him, they soon were jumping all over him and it was him then trying to exit the situation. Sheila and I had a chance to have a chat and with my husband home, we eventually sat down all together for supper, minus Bert who had to leave for cricket training, but was back in time before they left. Sheila and Vincent came baring gifts and what a lovely thoughtful gift. When Sheila was here last time they visited she noticed Bert had some old Dandy and Beano comics which he had bought with his own money at a school fair, so she collected together old comic she had from her youth and when visiting car boot sales bought any comics she saw that she thought our children would like. When she gave them this gift we then had silence as they sorted through them and they then each found a place to sit and read them. Thanks Sheila and Vincent, the children this morning before school they were reading them and now after supper this evening they are sat still reading them. My gifts to Sheila and Vincent was a dozen of our free range eggs and a cartoon book called, "Off the leash", which I hope they will enjoy. They arrived around 5 pm and time flew and before we new it, it was nearly 11 pm when they departed. Always a pleasure to see them and now we are counting the days until they visit us again next year and all that's left to say now is, "Long live the Grandaddy !" |
“The greatest pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him, and not only will he not scold you,but he will make a fool of himself, too.”
― Samuel Butler Me (Jane) with Puddin' and Teagol, waiting patiently to flush a patch of kale, December 2019
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March 2022
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