Well I think I can safely say that Brizo is pregnant ! After trying so hard taking her abroad to be mated without a result I asked the Kennel Club for special dispensation to mate her to my Malinois Champion Bonvivant Esprit. Cougar has Maubray du Maugre as his Grandfather, who carried a rough coat gene, so hopefully, rough coat being also a dominant gene, the resulting puppies should have sufficient furnishings and coat. Thankyou to the BSDA of GB, NBSDC and WBSDS who supported me in my request and to Jeff Sampson for all his help.

This is not an unusual combination in as much as it has been done abroad to strengthen the gene pool for the Laekenois, and also to compound a Belgian type with less furnishings; At one point the "Bouvier type" of Laekenois was prominent which had too much coat and furnishings and was altogether heavier. The puppies will be officially Laekenois with 3 asterisks on their pedigree, each successive litter must be Laekenois to Laekenois losing an asterisk until they are classed as 3 generations pure Laekenois.

With only about one week to go now Brizo is extremely big, uncomfortable and very tired. She plods along on her walks and would prefer to sleep on the settee all day.

So there is the reason she wasn't at Crufts or any other shows since, I have not dared to risk travelling her anywhere and have just cosseted her at home. So exciting in a scary sort of way !!!!!!!!!!! Fingers crossed now for a natural birth and live puppies.