It has been so hot and muggy for the last few days the dogs haven't wanted to play until the evenings. Martin came to visit with Antar, Zinka, Luca and Femme. The Laekenois pups all played together, their coats are changing again and getting very coarse. Vogue has learn't how to climb over the kennel gate so they have the whole of the kennel and run at night too now in case she hurts herself. With the hot weather they like sleeping outside at night too.

The last picture is of Antar not wanting to be left behind as Martin packed the LandRover.

Monday was a lovely day and I went up to see Carols' new Buckskin foal and take some photos. Chatter had her hip score done on Tuesday and the plates look very good. Today Frizzle came to play with her brother and sister and she is looking a very Laekenois puppy now. They were hot and bothered and didn't want to much running around so lay in the clover patch. Poor Pudsey got stung by a wasp on his foot so was on three legs for a while but seems ok tonight. I was attacking the ragwort tonight, it blows over from the setaside and it has to be pulled up by hand but it is getting less every year. They don't seem to worry about it in this county, but it was always illegal not to remove it in Herefordshire, apart from it being so poisonous to horses I ften wonder if it has any ill effects for dogs. I always wear gloves as it is supposed to be very nasty if it gets on your skin. I strimmed a couple of paddocks as well as the grass seeds are getting into the dogs coats and ears.

Ann sent me this photo of Solli which she took on Thursday, and he is definitely a very hairy chap. It is going to be quite exciting once they come out in November. News from Wendy that Bristle has grown a beard whilst she was away last weekend ! I hope the weather is a bit cooler tomorrow, it was quite unbearably hot and humid today with millions of thunderbugs, even the windows were covered at one point, and they are horrid when they get in your hair and on your face.

There has been so much going on this weekend. On Saturday we went off to a fun day to do a bit of socialising with the pups. Udall even won a couple of rosettes in Best Dog and Dog the judge would like to take home. They had an agility display and then a Have a Go Agility so I took Celine round it--she blasted round and had remembered all her contacts. Then there was a working trials demonstration and we were invited to go back and watch the dogs working the next day too. I had arranged to go to Empingham to see Diane and Martin with Riley so I went to watch the tracking and search squares and then went on to the agility show. By the time I got there and had been mugged by Riley and had a cuppa they were making the last presentations, so I took Brizo and Vogue for a walk round to get the puppy used to lots of other dogs and people. Vogue was really good and wanted to have a look at everything. We met lots of friends and had a chat with Belgian owners--there were lots there.

Jo and Nige had a good few days with agility at EMDAC and then Flyball today. They had lots of places with Ronnie and Keisha and they had their fastest time of 19.97 seconds with the Brickyard Bandits winning 4 races but losing the last to come in 2nd.

News from Helen that Vienna (Bonvivant Nonpareil at Stonedragon) was BIS at the Isle of Wight Limit show, pictured here with Sam and the trophy.

Kate took Heidi swimming with Brian the labrador and sent some great pics.

David with Rusty got the RCC in the Agility Champ class today ! It is the "K" litters' birthday today so they have definitely been celebrating in style.

Frances with Isla (Bonvivant Quichotte) went to her first show today (Worthing and DCS) and had 4thJ,2ndPG and a 3rd in Open.

I am sure there have been lots of other Bonvivants' enjoying the weekend too, I am sure they will let me know what they have been up to.

Chiraze and Cliche had their rabies jabs on Wednesday as their Passports had expired so they will have to be bloodtested again. Ann arrived too as it was East of England Ch show on Thursday.

Despite the rain we had a lovely day, with Cougar BD and BOB, Sam RBD, Deepha BB, Ciel RBB and Saffi BP. Ciel and Cougar were third in the Pearl Crocker Brace Stakes. Bruine had 1st in PGD Tervueren. Asta had a 2nd in PGB and Tala had a 3rd in the PB class. Deja was 3rd in Open Bitch. I had a lovely win in OD with Tweed and his 9th RCC!! That 3rd CC is very elusive.

It was a sad day too as we had heard that Terry Thorn had passed away after a long illness. Terry was a lovely man and always stopped to have a chat at shows. He awarded Cougar his 3rd and crowning CC at WKC in 2006. He was a great Cachet fan and she had her CC at East of England show under him too. He will be sorely missed as one of the all time great all-rounders.

Rhodes and Keona have come for their holidays and have been enjoying some playtime in the paddocks. Keona keeps the young lad in his place but he has been busy destroying the plastic dogbeds and using them upside down as springboards. (Mind you I caught Keona at it too).

It's a full time job keeping up with blowing coats at the moment and the yard is fur-lined, poor dogs don't know what season it is at the moment but we have had a lovely few days sunshine. One thing for sure the birds all have furlined nests and they are all on their second broods and are hammering the bird feeders. I had to stop today for about thirty swallows on the ground, which is very unusual, then for a partridge and two chicks and a pheasant with three sauntering up the lane.

Monday I took the two remaining puppies for their second vaccination and met Wendy with Bristle at the vets. That done we went back for a cuppa and Bristle was keen to show his brother and sister round his home. No such luck, they soon left him with me and went exploring on their own. They checked the chickens, bounced on the dog beds, skidded on the rugs on the wood floor and looked hopefully into the glass front of the oven. I shut them out whilst Bristle showed me his latest repertoire. Wendy got him to do some more hand touches and then put a small box on the floor. He had to get all four feet inside the box before his reward. Then he had a round box and had to stand with his two front feet on it for his treat. Poor Bristle had missed his breakfast to go to the vets and found it very hard to concentrate with a rumbly tummy. I retrieved the two herberts from outside, not at all bothered that they had been shut out from the action and they proceeded to rearrange the rugs whilst Bristle caught forty winks. So no worries about being in a strange place for the first time.

Back in the van and they slept all the way home, I had to wake them up to go back into their pen for their very late breakfast. The picture is of Pudsey who is getting very bristly round his chops now and both of them have some very wiry coat coming through. I shall take them out to agility classes with me soon, now that they have had both vaccinations, and hopefully someone will come along for Pudsey, who will want to show him too.

It has been such a busy week with lots of visitors. Sue and Jo came over from Guernsey to collect the puppy Venus on Thursday and went back to Poole on Fridayand were travelling back to Guernsey Saturday. Sue has two Tervueren already and is going to do Obedience and a bit of showing with Venus.

Saturday morning was an early start off to Malvern for Working & Pastoral Ch.show. Brizo went with us and was really pleased to be back at a show, despite the weather which really couldn't make up its' mind whether it was scorching hot or teeming with rain.

In Malinois Capi (Bonvivant Limoge) had the RDCC, Bonvivant Saumur (Sam) was BPD, Bonvivant Sorciere was BPB and BP. It was a relatively small entry of 18 which is a shame as I can see us losing the CCs if we don't keep the numbers up. Showing is getting so expensive with the cost of fuel now I can't see how most of us are going to afford to keep showing, and I for one, cannot enter the number of dogs I would like to.

In Laekenois Brizo was BB and BOB and flew round the ring. I was so proud of her as her pups are only 10weeks old and it has been hard work to get her fit to show again so quickly, and get her undercarriage back up.

We went in the Breeders Stakes with the Malinois and won it, which is a first time at this show, and I collected the trophy which is an enormous cut crystal goblet, beautiful, but I must admit to considering keeping it in the box in case it gets damaged!

Sunday was a lovely sunny day and it was great to chill out and have friends over with plenty of Belgian chat and puppies playing in the garden.

Wendy brought Bristle over today to play with his siblings--we took Bristle and Vogue up the field to take some photos. Bristle has quite a repertoire of sit, down and contacts already--clever puppy. We had to dodge the thunderstorms but Bristle wasn't bothered and trotted off to play in the puddles.

A very strange thing happened this morning---Ciel had an abcess come up on her shoulder last week which ended up with me carting her off to the vets' for a check up. He prescribed antibiotics and said to let it drain naturally and not fiddle with it. She had also started another on her other shoulder. With the warm weather I was a bit concerned as it was oozy that it may get flystrike so had a good look, I gave it a bit of a squeeze and something came out of it----her microchip! It was implanted in 2000 and after all this time I can only think that with age she doesn't have the fat or muscle to keep it away from her shoulderblade. Anyway I checked it out with my scanner, yep same old number, and then rang Petlog to see what they had to say. They were quite shocked and put me in touch with the maker, Bayer, who are going to contact my vet. It will be interesting to see what they say next. Petlog said they would re-chip her for free but at 11.5yrs old I don't think so. Ciel was much happier after it came out--it was about half an inch long--and has been bouncing about all day. Conall and Amy arrived from Ireland and chose a dog puppy to take home tomorrow. Conall is a Field Biologist so their new edition will have a lovely outdoor life and hopefully will be tracking wild mammals in Galway.!

Yvonne came today to pick up her puppy, Brye, and it was lovely to see Janice too. They had travelled from Wales. Yvonne wants to do agility, obedience and a bit of showing. The weather was glorious but very humid so the pups just wanted to crash out in the shade.

Later in the day the four remaining pups were introduced to a tunnel and they soon got the hang of it with the aid of a few treats. In fact they were racing through, turning and racing back the other way! As you can see their run is now littered with the last few bits of their cardboard box and a lot of stuffing from a nice toy--much more fun than the toy itself!

The kennels have been having a springclean, brushing and hoovering a mass of cobwebs and dust--it accumulates so fast.The dogs have all been out in the paddocks enjoying the sunshine as the forecast doesn't look too good for the rest of the week--let's hope they get it wrong and we have more sun.