Just a bit of fun on All Hallow's Eve aka Halloween from the Poundlane pack. Good night for haunting here in the UK, as unseasonally mild.  Playing with my horns earlier, as you do and managed to catch a few of the dogs showing that they to, can be little Devils. Happy haunting ! 

Yesterday got a lovely email from Julie, who has Poppy from Dolly's litter born the 29th October 2011 and was the first litter for Dad, Reggie. Poppy was one of a litter of eight Alfie, Chilly, Bella, Edward, Luna, Betsy and Cyril (Who I know they renamed after leaving me and his new name escapes me at this moment), so a belated Happy Third Birthday to the eight of you and hope you had a lovely day and all is well.
Lovely to hear from Julie and that Poppy is such a wonderful family dog. I have emailed Julie back about the fit, as I had Smudge do a similar thing as a pup and someone who had a Cavalier from me at around 2 years old had a similar thing happen, but both dogs have not had a fit since and why they had a fit could not be answered, so hope that Poppy's fit is just a blip and she will be fine.
Julie with the research she undertook when Poppy had problems with her anal glands made me rethink my attitude to the problem of anal glands not emptying apparently quick enough for us humans. Instead of just treating the problem when it occurred and just excepted it as a small dog problem, I looked at it with a more holistic approach, which was to improve diet to a more natural one and to not be to hasty to empty them, allowing the body more time to find its balance. I do think if your dog has a real problem with their anal glands, you really should look at your dogs diet and ease up, on sqeezing them up, as I think draining to enthusiastically often can be part of the cause of the problem, than the relief of it. Thanks Julie for letting me know how things are going and good luck with the therapy dog training.

Last night I intended to blog about Poppy and her siblings third birthday, but ended up blogging tonight with belated greetings due to having four Cavaliers at large yesterday evening up until 9.30 pm. It was not their fault though, as my Mum had a new nurse come to visit her yesterday afternoon and I was unaware of her arrival or departure and she left leaving our gates wide open (today I have been out and bought a "Please shut the gate" sign and it is now safely hanging on out gate). I let the dogs out at around 4.30 pm for a run around and heard them bark and then saw them all disappearing across the road to greet one of our neighbours, who just happened to of walked up their lane across from our property entrance. If she had not been there and I had not heard the dogs bark, I might not of noticed the gates open for a while and might of had all of them on the run. I thanked our neighbour for helping me get most of them back, but for four of them this was just to good an oppurtunity to miss, going on a rabbit hun. Jessica, Toby, Smudge and Millie were the absconders, so the usual suspects had taken to the undergrowth. I walked up and down the road calling, but they had high tailed it by then and supper was on the stove. I went indoors rang around local farmers, whos land they tend to favour and they laughed at my naughty spaniel yet again and said they would let me know if they heard anything or saw them. These four dogs have cost me a far few bottles of wine and boxes of chocolates over the years I've had them.
Around 7.30 pm the first two wanderers returned Jessica and Millie. Millie the old girl and Jessica the three legged girl, but hard core Toby and Smudge were still at large and I feared another all nighter and I would be ringing the dog warden and local vets in the morning spreading the search net. Husband arrived home from work at around 8 pm and he had he's tea and we then set out in the dark to search, I set out on foot calling  and my husband drove to a wooded cover we know the dogs often will go to as loads of wildlife. I returned back about 9.20 pm seemingly without any luck and my husband returned ten minutes later to find Toby and Smudge at the gates whimpering to come back in. The video below is the moment just after I had let Smudge and Toby in the back house. Excuse my husbands explitives, he was pretending to be mad with them.
I made a stupid mistake last night and said, "I won't bother to bath them now, just chuck down some clothes and I will tackle it in the morning." This morning I did not just have to tackle bathing them, but also spending a hour washing down the walls, kitchen units and fridge/freezer, as they had decided that a good way to clean themselves off, was to rub against these items making, like a wall of death pattern around the utility, but instead of a tyre track left behind them, I had almost a continuous smear of mud all the way around the back house with a layer of mud dust on the work sufaces, but I must add, I also had four very smug Cavaliers looking up at me, a lot cleaner than I had left them.Lol

Last of our children's birthdays done now for 2014 and  now waiting on husband's birthday near the end of November.
Hallowen this Friday, so today we harvested our first ever crop of pumpkins. One of our daughters earlier this year got for her birthday a pumpkin growing kit, so we set about growing our first ever pumpkins. We have learnt one thing with our first crop, plant them earlier, so as to get more bigger ones ready for Hallowen. Now I just need to find some good pumpkin recipes, through November we will be eating mostly pumpkin. Lol

About two weeks ago our children's Junior school gave the children a hula hoop each. Now as a child I could hula hoop and was pretty good at it, but to my dismay, could I bloody get the hang of it when the children brought their hoops home from school, "No", is the simple answer, much to the delight of my children, who thought my efforts at failing to hula hoop, hilarious and Molly (who is very much like me in physique as a child) seems to be exceptionally talented at hula hooping. I could hula hoop on my arms swapping from each arm and I could still hula hoop on my legs, but around my waste I was next door to useless, until !
Saturday was Thomas's birthday and after his birthday tea in the evening, out came the hula hoops and Molly set about in earnest to teach her old Mum, how to hula hoop again and you know what, I nailed it with her help. The trick to get me back in the proverbial saddle again, was to spin the hoop and spin around with it and you can feel the rythm of the hoop and I stopped spinning and just kept rotating my hips and I was away. Lets put it this way, everyone in the house new I had done it and probably most of our neighbours, such was my excitement at being able to do this again after seemingly losing the ability to do it. Forgot how it really works your core and what fun it is, might secretly use the childrens hoops when their at school. The moral of this story is, even an old dog can relearn how to do an old trick, with a little help from a young pup.
 And you were thinking how the hell is she going to connect this story to dogs, "oh, ye of little faith." Lol

We have a couple updates and the first is from Sue and Vince who have Lola from Smudge's first litter, born 27th April 2012 and was one of nine, which is a very big litter for a Cavalier. I will let you read the email from Sue below and then talk about Dermoid Cysts. Thanks Sue for letting me know how everything is going.

I first read the email from Sue and I must admit I was concerned about Lola having Dermoid Cysts. I had heard of them before and although in reading up on them and this article  http://www.petwave.com/Dogs/Health/Dermoid-Cysts.aspx   that states that the are, "fairly common in dogs", I have yet to have a dog  with this condition. Lola has had them removed and all seems to be okay and Lola is spayed, so the fact that they are thought to have "strong suspected hereditary component" is not a worry with her, as she has not and is not going to be bred from. My concern is, these are thought hereditary, where have they come from ?
To answer this question or try to answer or maybe we should say produce a theory to Lola having two Dermoid Cysts, first we need to know what a Dermoid Cyst is and this link http://www.vetbook.org/wiki/dog/index.php/Dermoid_cyst explains what they are specifically in dogs and this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dermoid_cyst explains generally what a Dermoid Cyst is.
Often the Dermoid Cyst can be confused with the more serious condition of Dermoid Sinus which is common in Rhodesian Ridgebacks, as is the condition Dermoid Cyst and I stumbled on this website page http://www.dermoids.org/html/faqs.html which explains beautifully the difference in the two conditions. This wiki page also gives a good description of the condition Dermoid Sinus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dermoid_sinus.
So hopefully you have read the links and we are all up to speed on Dermoid Cysts (not to be confused with Dermoid Sinus). So we know they are congenital, so present at birth, so they develop in the fetal stage and they are suspected to be hereditary. Now we see a word that can be a negative or a positive, "hereditary", but exactly how is this hereditary if there is no known history of this condition in both parents and their known ancestery ?
 Another word can be used here that could explain Lola having this condition or be put forward as a theory is the word, "mutation." The definition of mutation is

1. Mutation Definition. A Mutation occurs when a DNA gene is damaged or changed in such a way as to alter the genetic message carried by that gene. A Mutagen is an agent of substance that can bring about a permanent alteration to the physical composition of a DNA gene such that the genetic message is changed.

Many congenital birth defects are in this classification and a mutation is not just a bad thing, it is how evolution works and as we are not clones of each other, one could argue with some brevity that we all are mutants, as we are not eactly the same and are a variation and mix of our parents with an added seasoning called mutation. Genetic Variation and the ability to mutate within a species is a very good long term survival tactic and basically is what evolution is. Unfortunately mutation has a down side which is when the DNA is damaged in a way that instead of a positive mutation we get a negative mutation, which causes a health condition in offspring and then that offspring not only develop the condition but are DNA carriers of the condition. 
Now for my theory. As Smudge (Mum of Lola), Millie (Grandmother of Lola), Charlie (Granddad of Lola) and Reggie (Dad of Lola) show no signs of this condition and I met Reggie's parents who had no signs of the condition, I'm considering that as Lola was one of a very large litter for a Cavalier, this may up the chances for DNA damage as the fetuses grow and compete for survival in the uterus, so the occurrence of this with Lola I think may be a mutation at conception. I have a brother who has a son with a genetic condition called Tuberous Sclerosis. My brother, his wife and their four other children have been screened and show no signs of the condition, so it is thought that their childs condition is a result of mutation at conception.
Mutation is a dice roll and it takes no notice of statistics, that is why you can breed with all the care available to you and a problem can arise totally unintentionally. So at the moment I'm airing on this not being a problem with a bad gene in Mum or Dad or both, but the dice roll of mutation. I'm going to put a call out to all that have had a pup from Smudge's two litters with Reggie and ask though, to contact me if they also have had any Dermoid Cysts occur on them and in general if you get a problem with a pup, even as an adult and it is strongly suspected to be an hereditary condition, you should contact the breeder, they should be thankful, some won't (I'm not going to get into the psyche of why they don't like you telling them about a problem, that would take to long at this time, I've got school pick up in a minute, but I might tackle this in a future blog), but don't let the thought of them not being thankful stop you reporting it to them, it's called duty.
I'm going to end this bit on another thank you to Sue for getting in touch and telling me about the Dermoid Cysts, as it has opened the mind to a blog about how dog breeders, specifically Pure breeders find it almost impossible to face negatives and struggle with owning up to them publicly, and another blog about how DNA tests are not going to be the pancea that Pure breeders think it is and in fact could see an even quicker demise for a lot of pure breeds.

I'm now going to have to be quick as school pick up looms and I doubt if I will get back here again today. So our next update is from another Sue who has Lucy, a bitch we rehomed around three years or so ago and thankfully Sue, Jim and Lucy have finally finalised the sale of their home and are setlled in their new home before Christmas. Can unsettle pets moving home and it is good to plan time, so you can be with them to reasure them in their new surroundings for the first few days of the move.Thanks Sue for letting me know all has gone well.

Now just some photos of the pack chilling out. Finally all bitches off heat and nothing on heat now until the New Year, so the pack is altogether again and much more chilled.

Last is a couple photos of the dogs, as I left to take the children to school yesterday morning. They know the signs of me leaving on the school run and all of them around 8.30 am will be found in the back house waiting for me to shut them in there, whilst I nip the children to school. Now I'm going to push publish, hope for the best and make a dash to the car, I'm running late to pick the children up. Lol madly.

Just a quick add on after publishing earlier. Last night BBC4 showed again the wonderful documentry "A wolf called Storm" were camera man Jeff Turner follows a wolf pack for a year in Canada's frozen North with an exceptional male alpha wolf Jeff Turner names, "Storm". It's just a lovely documentry about one of the most misunderstood and persecuted species on our planet. Jeff Turner with his gentle commentary and understated presence, does not distract you from the wolves and the breathtaking landscape of the wolves territory, really like watching this mans work.
Watching the wolves and the subtle body language along with the less subtle body langauge, you can still see the connection with their distant cousin, the domestic dog and you can understand and see when man was also hunting on foot many moons ago, how our hunting styles would of complimented one another and without much jump of the imagination, you can see why the first canines decided to plant their backside beside us around the camp fire and the rest then became history. If you got an hour to spare, you can catch this beautiful documentry at BBC i Player athttp://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01nmdh3/natural-world-20122013-4-a-wolf-called-storm-natural-world-special it really is worth a watch if interested in the natural world.

This morning Tilly and me were the last two at the breakfast table. Often we are the last two at the breakfast table, my excuse is I'm Mum and spend the morning chasing our six children up to get ready for school and thus are the last to sit and have breakfast. Tilly's reason she is most often sat with me eating her breakfast, is she is five years old and easily distracted, often as you can see the distraction can be of the canine kind.
 Henry loves lying across chairs like this and if the chair is empty he often does this and rests his snout on the edge of the table. He often watches me like this as I do cooking in the kitchen, he is wonderful company, as he attentively watches your every move, I know he's hoping for the occasional morsal and yes, I oblige him. Some might not like seeing a dog like this when you are eating and that's your choice, but Henry knows this is the line I allow him and he will happily sit on the floor if commanded, he just likes to see what you are about and if any food is going to be left for him.

Reggie has become a Granddad to a litter of F2 Cockapoos. A couple years ago someone I knew from our children going to school together and the lady years ago was friends with one of my older sisters, asked if she could use Reggie with a Show Cocker spaniel of her Mum's called Poppy. I don't stud my boys out as a rule, but as I knew her and she had been friends with my sister I said she could try her Mum's dog with Reggie. Now you will read the email below and notice Wendy makes a comment about Darci's mum and I'm just going to say something about this and let you then put two and two together.

When someone uses one of our dogs, because I only use them with people I know and thus think I can trust, I charge £250, split in two payments,  she paid £50 when the bitch was mated and the further £200 if a live litter was produced. I don't charge a King's ransom to use my dogs and obviously there is a big element in trust with the owner of the bitch.

Well, six weeks after Reggie had the last mating with Darci's mum, Poppy, I saw the lady who's mum the dog was at the school gates and asked if Poppy was showing signs of being pregnant. She told me, "she was showing no signs and she was pretty sure she was not pregnant." The summer holidays started and after the summer holidays, I would not meet her at the school gates anymore, due to her second and last child leaving this school to go to secondary school after the holidays.

Time went past and I really did not give this much thought, until someone mentioned seeing an advert for a litter of Cockapoos already around eight weeks old, (seven pups looking at the photos in the advert, asking £650 per pup, not bad return for £50) with the lady who used Reggie, contact details. So I rang her up and left a message with her son, about the remainder of the stud fee, she turned up later that day with the rest of the stud fee and a bottle of wine and some chocolates. I will say no more on the matter and leave you to add that one up.

Any way, Wendy contacted me not long after getting Darci and told me how lovely she is and asked me lots about Reggie. The mum of Darci was a smaller type English Show Cocker and Darci at adulthood is around 8 kilos, so the size of an average Cavapoo (Cavalier crossed with the Miniature Poodle). Wendy earlier this year contacted me again asking advice on health tests, because she had decided to breed a litter from Darci, due to her health and lovely temperament. Wendy is an experienced dog owner, having bred Retrievers in the past. Although I was told the mother had been tested for PRA, the lady has not returned Wendy's emails for further details of health tests, so Wendy has had Darci DNA tested for the relevant PRA's for both breeds, has been gonioscopy examined for primary glaucoma and DNA tested for Familial Nephropathy (FN) a fatal kidney disease that occurs at a higher rate in English Cocker Spaniels, than in the general dog population, so is wise to be DNA tested for.

Wendy I  know from several emails and photos sent me over the last couple years. She seems to come over as genuine and caring about what she is doing. I have seen the health tests she has done with Darci, as she emailed them to me and will be available to view by interested parties. So if interested in one of these lovely Cockapoo pups, as looking at either the Cavapoo or Cockapoo, you can contact Wendy by email at [email protected]  Below is Wendy's email breaking the lovely news of Darci's birth and photos of the pups a couple days old and a photo of their Dad, Brisco.

Hi Jane,
as you will see by the photos, Darci has become a very proud mum of five, three boys, 1 cream 2 black 2 girls one black and one chocolate.They were born on 2nd Oct they are growing well and fast and Darci is proving to be a fantastic mum.I have bred her with a lovely cockapoo, see pic of him. All the tests have been done and both parents are totally clear of common hereditary problems in their breeds.
His name is Brisco and I have his pedigree, which brings me to my request.As I have dads pedigree it would be great to have Darci's Dads, I'm not even going to try with her mums!!!!I know you are busy but would you please take a few moments to send pedigree and any health certificates you hold for Reggie.Trusting alls well with you and your family both human and of the dog fraternity.Kind regardsWendy n Darci xxx

It's been a long week here at Poundlane, work, running children around, looking for dogs that have gone on a jolly and running Treacle to the vets to be injected to stop her carrying any pups from her accidental meeting with her Dad. She was injected at 21 days from coming on heat with two injections 24 hours apart. The injection used was called Alizin and details of this drug can be found at this link http://www.virbac.co.uk/product.aspx?pid=129&product=67&&category=50#page=page-BRAND 
This product can be used up to 45 days after the mating occurred. I don't know that I could terminate a pregnancy in a dog at that stage. These injections have vastly improved for bitches and Treacle has shown, no side effects and at this stage you would expect her to just reabsorb any fetuses, she was from her mating, if she conceived around 8 days in pup. If injected at 45 days from mating, that's over two thirds through a gestation, the bitch would abort and go through labour. I will keep an eye on her for any early signs of pregnancy, as a very low risk of her still carrying pups still. Catching her this early, the vet feels there should not be any detrimental effects on her future fertility. Treacle is such a sweet heart and was so good in the vets. Thankfully she seems unaware of the drama and with seemingly no side effects of the injections, all is well.

Got this lovely email and update yesterday from Caroline, who has Dexter from Ysobel's last litter, last year. Thanks Caroline.

Last tonight are some photos I got of some of the dogs yesterday, as we were outside having a bonfire, burning up a load of hedge trimmings etc. Millie, Jessica and Belle decided to take refuge in the shed where we store our logs and Toby decided to curl up on the grass close enough to get a bit of warmth from the bonfire. When I saw them like this, I asked one of the children to run and get the camera, to catch the moment. I could not go and get the camera because as soon as I walk off anywhere, the dogs all jump up and follow me, along with the children, like a sort of  Pied Piper of Poundlane, minus the magic pipe. Lol

At first glance of the photo above, you could think Henry has cushion love, Yuk ! Thankfully the photo below confirms he is not having a romantic moment with the soft furnishings (not keen on dogs loving up the soft furnishings and our dogs don't tend to display this behaviour), but perching and pointing at my bowl, that I had just finished eating cheese cake from and placed beside the computer. Phew ! it's just cupboard love. Look at the concentration.Lol

Millie shows us that it's not just Henry who can photo bomb a Birthday photo, as we celebrated Alfie's Birthday earlier this week.

Did not get time to bath Toby and Millie before picking the children up from school and have just finished cleaning them up with the help of the children, after their morning of hunting. I say bath, but I had to use the shower to rinse all the aftermath of mud off them, before any bathing could happen.
They are now contently sleeping on the sofa, perhaps dreaming of this mornings exploits or the next jolly, I suspect there will be another, knowing Millie.

This mornig I let the dogs out to run about the property, as the children got ready for school and on calling them in realised, three where missing, Millie, Toby and Toby's sister with only three legs, Jessica. On close inspection of our gates, I noticed that the wire netting at the bottom of one was pushed back enough to allow a dog to get through, believe me a dog if he/she has the will, can get through a hole comparatively small to their size, so I assumed this must of been the route of escape. I then got told by the children, that when I was at work milking the evening before, Dolly and Jessica had escaped throught the hole and Dad had seen them and recalled them, but Dad, my husband had forgot to tell me about this on my return from work and had not repaired the hole adequately enough to stop them exscaping from it again, if I had known this, I would of gone out side with the dogs, when letting them out this morning and done a full repair later. What's done is done though and my husband should be thankful he is yet to replace his broken mobile phone, or else he might of had a rather irritate wife on the phone this morning, by the time he gets home tonight at 8 pm, any anger about this will of long passed by, best not to hold on to such things for to long.
I called for them up the road and down, nothing, they were long gone (These little spaniels if not mollycoddled and allowed to nuture their instinct, can travel through dense covert the swiftest of any of the spaniels). The problem was, I had the school run to attend to, which meant I could not pursue them at that time through hedgerow and thicket. My main worry was little three legged Jessica, my how she loves to hunt and she does not consider only having three legs should stop this pursuit, which she has already paid dearly for with the loss of a leg. Thankfully she returned about ten minutes after me realising they had escaped, I imagine she could not keep pace and on losing sight of them decided to return home.
Millie and Toby though were still at large. I got the children to school and then had to pop Treacle to the vets for her jab to sort out the very accidental mating with her Dad, Reggie with the second jab tomorrow. Got back from that around 10.45 am, so then sorted the other dogs feeding them etc and by 11 am I set out to start the search for Millie and Toby. Two hours with no sightings, I came home because my tummy rumbling, indicated that sustenance was needed. Thankfully I had returned home then, because shortly after arriving home, a knock on the door was heard and Peter Tucker as I opened the door was stood and told me he had seen the two of them at the end of Snape Lane, he was on his way out and was sorry that he had not picked them up (when I found them and the mess they were in, I can understand why he had not offered them a lift).
I thanked Peter who is a neighbouring stock farmer and jumped in the car to get over to Snape Lane and thankfully I found them ambling up Snape Lane, they looked very pleased to see me for a lift home, after a morning of terrorising the local wildlife. I could not be mad with them, they looked so happy (these two Cavaliers still have the Marlboruogh Spaniel about them, rather than the later King Charles, they will hunt until they drop) and one should never be mad with your dogs when they go off on a jolly. Millie and Toby were on there way home, as far as they were concerned they had got through a hole and were doing what dogs do, hunt. They did not think they had escaped and did not comprehend that I would be concerned for them, their only probable thought on the matter and disappointment is, that they have returned empty pawed back to the pack, but thankfully that human creature seems to have a cupboard that refills with food for them, so not to worry to much about that.
The photos I feel don't really show how truly caked in mud and bits of fauna they are, believe me they are filthy and are equalled by this in odour. It's now 2.30 pm and I have got two dogs that need cleaning up (the utility smells of very earthy, musty, damp dog at the moment), bathed before I pick the children up at 3.30 pm, so I best get a wiggle on. Lol

Children came home from school and wanted to sample my effort at repairing the Dolly mauled Coffee cake. One sitting and half the  Coffee cake has gone (You can see why earlier I sneaked a piece of the Victoria sandwich, before they sniff it out) , so it seems it's good Coffee cake and Dolly has inordinately good cake taste. By the way the children were being watched by all the dogs whilst eating the Coffee cake, they seem to all possess Dolly's taste in cakes as well.
In the photos below, it is hard to believe it's the 1st October here in the UK, with children sitting outside eating in shorts and t-shirts. Time to cook supper or should I just, "Let them eat cake" literally.