Ten days old and "Hello Henry," or "Bonjour Henry "

Four days worth of photo's tonight of Dolly's Cavapoo pups, who today are now ten days old. Dolly is doing a supreme job with her eight charges.
All pups are spoken for in Dolly's litter and I will now be intouch in the next few days with people on my waiting list on news of Ysobel's pregnancy and places on waiting list.
Would expect to see their eyes starting to open in the next few days and their ears have already started to open. For the first few weeks if mum knows the ropes, my job is just as overseer keeping Dolly watered, fed and bedding regularily changed, making sure she is not over stressed and that all pups are regularily present and correct at the milk bar. The fun really starts to begin when the pups approach four weeks old.

A quick introduction tonight to Henry our new pack member and is a Brittany spaniel. These french working spaniels are phenomenal pointing dogs and are worked with falcons, I find them mesmerizing to watch when they are working. They are kind natured dogs and enjoy a close relationship with their handler and families. My quest is to breed a Cavalier type dog with better health, Henry is part of that odyssey. He has taken some finding, as not many breeders leave their tails on and ethically for me I could not bring myself to aquire one without their tail. I know lots of spaniels that have tails that are good working dogs and having a full tail is little problem, especially if kept trimmed of long hair if the dog is expected to move through thick cover. One of the  most hilarious things I have ever read is from a website campaigning to reintroduce docking for dogs reguardless of whether they are working dogs or not and it roughly said, " Vets have reported that a dog is less likely to damage its tail if it is removed and dogs with tails damage their tails more than a dog without a tail." That's like saying if you have both legs removed at birth, your much less likely to damage them. Removing a dogs tail is almost equal to removing a humans ability to smile. 
One Brittany site I visited had a page reasoning why they dock their dogs and started by writing "it was not done for any cosmetic reason but because it is kinder, as they might damage them when working" but then finished by contradicting themself by writing, that the "Brittany is described as looking cobby and if the tail is not docked it makes them look long." They have a good tail much like other pointers that tails are not docked.
Some Brittany's are born bobtailed which is without a tail and funnily as in most breeds, breed a dog with a defect and then every one wants one like it. A dog born without a tail is a birth defect and in the wild could be the difference in survival or not. Having good social skills in the wild canid world can give you an advantage and also for domestic dogs having a tail helps them to socialise.
I must get on and will at a later time go into how Henry will fit into breeding a Cavalier type and how and why I have come to this breed. I will just say, I saw him at 4 weeks old and reserved him and have been keeping it to myself until now (breed clubs get a whiff of you trying to aquire a dog for crossbreeding they can shut you out or the breeder letting you have one of their pups) wondering if I've done the right thing and I picked him up on Saturday and it feels right. He is nearly nine weeks old now, he has settled right into the pack and is already proving to be very social with the other dogs and especially the children. Sitting on command already and my oldest son is going to undertake the majority of his training. He is very white but I will talk more about his colouring another time.
If you know your history, I think King Charles II might approve of this marriage.

Must wind up now, as with the dry weather yesterday and today we have been getting on top of the weeds, grass and getting outdoor repairs done, yesterday I milked in the morning (any one catch the supermoon, I woke bolt upright at 2am, thought it was daylight and was late for milking) and other than popping in to check on the roast cooking, eating or checking Dolly, we where outside all day and almost worked ourselves to a stand still and last night I had the best nights sleep I've had for a long time, you know you have slept well when you slip out of bed in the morning and it does not look like your bed has been slept in. The dogs also enjoyed yesterday and today being outside for most of the day. Lovely when its dry, as can keep the doors open without half a field ending up indoors.
Ysobel is looking really well and we will get her scanned next week, she does look a bit thicker in the flank for her but I cannot feel any thing on manipulating her stomach area yet but Ysobel is a very trim girl and tends to tighten her stomach when examined, so normally it takes until around twenty eight days with her to feel the pregnancy. Leave you now with a couple photo's of the dogs.