Toby gets it together and Henry out with the mother-in-law

Toby getting a well earned rest

Toby last night finally got it together, or to be exact, he got it together with Primrose and I know about it. 
Toby is now three years and five months old. Primrose is his first ever time we have used him as a stud dog.  Our other two stud dogs are not to put to finer point on it in the wham bam thank you ma'am category, but Toby is not, probably partly because he has had to wait a little longer than Henry and Reggie before being used as a stud. Toby seems to like a longer courtship with his conquest. It seems he is not just a Cavalier by name only. Lol
On Wednesday, Primrose was ready to be mated and in the morning Toby and her were brought together, although Toby was very taken with her, happily doing what we call, "love dancing" together (This is a dance the bitch does with the dog, if allowed, to test him socially and figure out if she digs him and thinks him a good suitor) and was Primrose throwing him all her moves, he seemed a little shy to move it to the next step though. So I let him play a while and then removed him, to try them together again in the evening. Often if two dogs are not getting on with the business, a break can rise the level of amour in the male when put together again.
The evening arrived and my husband David came home from work and around 8 pm we put Toby and Primrose together again. Toby was more keen, but after an hour or so he still had not got close to doing the deed. So I could do one of three things, sit all night in the stable to make sure they mated, remove Toby again or leave him with her for the night and hopefully he would figure it out in his own time. I took the executive decision and left Toby with Primrose for the night. This option though, would mean that because I would not know if he had mated her or not, I could then not swap dogs and would just have to hope he mated her. 
The morning came and Toby and Primrose seemed happy and I then separated them for the daytime again. The evening came and I put Toby with Primrose again and watched for a while, then took a break to go indoors to start writing a blog last night and my son then came in from his bedroom saying, "I can hear some yelping coming from the stables and wondered if Toby has tied with Primrose ?" I jumped up went out and there they were, Toby and Primrose had got it together. They might of done the deed the night before, but at least I now know the deed has been done at least once, so far. 
Being with dogs when mated does stop potential for the bitch to harm herself or the dog, if she pulls away violently when they tie (When they tie the bitch contracts her vagina and holds the male and this can cause discomfort for the bitch for a couple minutes and some can become very distressed by this) and with some very aggressive breeds, they can actually try and kill each other at this juncture and is why often aggressive breeds, the female is restrained and both are muzzled when mated. Sad is it not, what we think acceptable to do to animals and that some dogs are so aggressive, they need restraints when mated.
When I mate dogs, I like it to be natural and I'm just there to check that the deed gets done and in some cases, just keep the bitch calm as they tie. Canines have been doing their thing for millions of years, so really if you need to be interfering to much to get two dogs to mate (You would not believe the weird shit some get up to, to get two dogs to mate and often now with the Kennel Club allowing Artificial Insemination (AI), some males amour is never tested with a bitch, but only by the hand of their owner), you might want to ask, "Should this mating be taking place ?" The social skill, amour and vitality to reproduce unaided, surely is one of the markers of a dogs temperament and health.

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Smudge six weeks pregnant

Henry the father to be

Smudge at six and a half weeks pregnant

Smudge is now heading towards seven weeks pregnant this weekend and with the labour ward in situ, it's just keeping an eye to Smudge. She is looking big and has just started to slow up and she is being a bit finicky about eating, so her food is now split into four little meals.
Last weekend Henry the father to be of Smudge's pups to be born in a couple weeks time, had a run out with Smudge's mother Millie at the river, so sort of Henry's mother-in-law. Got a bit of video footage of a moment that Millie nearly made a break with Henry, to go off hunting and the other bit of the video is Henry going for a swim and I get a little worried and call him back, as he was only feet away from swimming into a part of the river that has a very strong current. Thankfully he comes back to my call. 

Henry back at the car, sitting next to mother-in-law Millie, and next to Millie is Dolly

Now to finish on  a funny moment with our children, when I try to explain what clubbing is to our youngest Tilly, who is just six years old. 
This evening when I dropped them at my in-laws for supper, whilst I milked. Just before we got to them, a song came on the radio in the car and on it finishing I said, "In its day that was a massive club anthem, when I used to go clubbing." Our daughter Tilly then asked me, "Mummy, what is clubbing ?" I replied, "Clubbing is when a woman gets a club and goes out and finds a man, clubs them over the head and then drags them back home." Tilly replied somewhat unconvinced with "What!" Our oldest daughter Florrie laughing, shouted from the back of the car, "Is that how you got Daddy ?" I replied "Yep, that's why back in the day, I was known as 'Neanderthal Jane', or was that because of my hairy arse. I can't rightly remember now."  "Oh , mum !" said all the children laughing. 
Don't you just hate it when you can't recall the finer detail of your youth. Lol