White water, Archie says, "Hello !" and Bristol here we come !

Just got back from the garage, as my husband forgot to take a container to work this morning to bring home milk and after milking 6'000 litre's of milk out of cows today, ironically I have had to go to the garage and pay £3. 30 for 3 litre's of milk. Perk of the job for us is milk from the tank, my children love milk and drink a lot of it and  on occassion have had semi skimmed milk and will ask why the milk is so watery  or why have I poured white water over their cereal and why does it not taste of any thing. Lol

We have a lovely update on Archie tonight from our last litter of pups born back in September 2012 with Mum being Primrose and Dad being Reggie. Thanks Jane for letting us all know he is settling in so well and thanks for yet some more cute photo's of him.

Hi Jane,
Just a quick email to let you know how Archie's doing!He is one very happy doggie! Such a sweetie to everyone and every dog he meets! He is happiest amongst lots of people, especially children and babies. Jasmine took him into school for the "Love your Dog" charity event and he was the star of the show! He is a super-sonic licker/kisser and ear-nibbler! Always gentle and ever so excited to be with us all!He's pretty much house trained and only has a little wee accident if we forget to take him out for a while. Goes through the night now no probs.He sleeps in his bed by our bed at night and occasionally has a little wander around - we just whisper "bed Archie" and he dutifully goes back down and off to sleep again until about 7 in the morning.He loves going out for walkies - he bounces up on us immediately we say, "walkies Archie". He can run like the wind and plays chase with all his friends every day in the park out the back of where we live. He sits, fetches, drops, lies and returns - especially for treats! He's got quite a bark - but it would seem it's a "I really need to go and say hello to that dog over there!" bark - as soon as he bounces up to them and has a good sniff, then no barking at all! He's fine off the lead and comes back when called - except when a border terrier called Bella lead him astray yesterday and he disappeared round the corner in the park for a short while before hurtling back in full chase!Everybody adores him and wants to know what breed he is! And lots of comments such as "that's not a dog, it's a rug"!! We've let his coat grow - it's very lush and long - I've snipped it a bit round his face so he can actually see where he's going!! When he bumped into the wall a few times we thought we'd better do something about it! He's fantastic in the shower - he actually loves it and tries to drink it as we wash him. He's fascinated by the hair dryer and opens his mouth wide if we point it at him and tries to drink the air!!His favourite toy is still the furry fox and he'll go and find it and beg for us to play "pully" with him. He's lost a few teeth - Jasmine has found them on the carpet - she took them into school for "show and tell"!He eats well - we've kept in on the same food that you recommended Jane and it seems to suit him - if he tries other stuff - (helps himself to another dogs food at a friend's house!) he'll have a "runny tummy". He was sick once, after eating copious amounts of grass!! We don't leave him on his own much at all but he's ok in the car for an hour - Paul is at home most of the day so someone is with him almost constantly - he really likes it when we're all together and doesn't seem to have a favourite person - he just loves us all equally and we him!So, one very happy doggie and one very happy family!Will keep you posted.Very best wishes to you all, Jane , Paul, Jasmine an Archie xxx
P.S. below are some photos - the last two are the latest - you can see why some folks think he is a rug!! :)

Finally made myself sit down at the computer and email everyone on my waiting list and hope to know more in the next few days and will then email people to let them know where they are on the  list. Although cold at the moment, its dry and beautiful weather to be outside doing stuff especially with the dogs and they stay clean which is a god send after so much wet this winter and last autumn and last summer, it almost feels like we have had 12 months of winter.  So with the dry weather we have been having, sitting infront of a computer has little lure.

I will be taking Ysobel and Dolly to Bristol on the 12th March for their MRI scans, having to be there at 8.15am and then picking them up some time from midday, so will be in the Bristol area for 4 hours or more twiddling my thumbs. Not being into window shopping or shopping in general unless it has purpose, I thought what shall I do with myself and it came to me, I will take another couple dogs with me and I'm sure I can find somewhere for a good walk .

When the scans are done on the 12th they are then sent to the British Veterinary Association (BVA) panel to be graded which the turnaround for is four weeks.
Dolly will be due on heat any time from the middle of March and we will still go ahead with her mating before results are back. Due to the fact she shows no clinical signs of syringomyelia at the age of five and a half years old. I would not suspect her to have full blown Syringomyelia and if she has any sign of it, I would hope it will be no higher than a Grade 1a with 0a being no sign of Syringomyelia and at Grade 1a and Grade 2a you are advised that they can still be bred from but a Grade 1a can be breed with any Grade and a Grade 2a either a 0a or 1a dog, seeing as I'm using a Miniature Poodle and this breed does not have this problem, then the pups have a very very low chance of having this health issue.
Hope what I put makes sense but if you want to know more about screening and grading for Chiari Malformation and Syringomyelia click on this link  www.bva.co.uk and follow the link to Canine Health Schemes. The fee you see on the site is just for the panel to look at and grade the scan and does not include the cost of scanning and at Bristol it is £260 to scan the first dog and each dog after that on the same day scanned is £200 on this scheme. Further information about syringomyelia and its management visit www.veterinary-neurologist.co.uk
Last year I put this on the back burner due to other pressure's but this year we will hope to get all the Cavaliers and our crossbreed Belle scanned.