Another week gone by starting with our trip to see Noel Fitzpatrick. Sad news that Cudos has an extra spur of bone in his jaw which,aggravated by his collision with Coppa, has caused major problems. There is an operation but it may or may not be successful and would cost many thousands. The advise is to wait and see if he will cope as he grows. He is still on painkillers so is leading a normal life but, sadly, won't be in the show ring, however he can continue his obedience training which he loves. Off to the chiro on Wednesday to see if she can alleviate some of the pain. I would recommend Fitzpatricks to anyone wanting a referral--we were there for 2 hours and he took loads of x-rays to find the problem. Fantastic state of the art set up and such caring people .

Sunshine at last so have spent all Bank Holiday outside with the dogs. Leslie brought her Grandchildren to see the puppies and they had a great time. Still got 3 Groenendael pups and the Tervueren puppy available--they love retrieving the balls and are such lovely outgoing pups.

Chamonixs Malinois puppies are growing so fast and becoming regular Houdinis.

I had a nice time between the showers photographing Bronte and Harry the Beardie pups and then found some heavily laden bushes of wild plums and Bullaces--just got to find the time to make some jam now.

WKC this saturday and it was a long drive although the weather did stay dry.

Congratulations to a new Champion, Belsharose Nebraska, who got his 3rd CC under Debbie Fleming.( A Cliche son out of Bonvivant Ombrage). RDCC was Revloch Yabba Dabba Doo (Cliche x Ch Revloch O'Baoil). BCC was Ch Revloch O'Baoil and RBCC Bonvivant Coup de Foudre avec Zodantta CSAU,TAN, SCh of Merit. BP was Caper (B. Zippydeedoodah). Cruz won Open Dog, Chic 1st PGB, Lexi 2nd LB.

In Laekenois BB with BOB was Ghiana d'Eroudur and RBB and BP Bonvivant Aziva.BD Haramis d'Eroudur.

It was lovely to see Brima in the ring with Coppa and Ziva her sisters.
In Tervueren B.Ma Cerise at Brackenmeer was VHC in OB.

Today Gill and Simon visited with Ruger(pic top) and we had a lovely day in the sunshine and Simon brought a yummy Lancashire Hotpot for lunch. Mia(terv) arrived for a few days holiday and spent an hour racing round with Caper and Cudos. Tomorrow Remy and Maisie arrive for a couple of days.

On Tuesday Cudos and I are taking a trip to Surrey for a consultation at Fitzpatricks, as he has had a nasty collision with Coppa a few weeks ago, and he has displaced his jaw. He is finding it hard to eat and I am hoping that something can be done to help him. At the moment he is on soft food and painkillers although it doesn't stop him playing rough with Caper!

Today was the first time I had taken Cruz to an obedience competition to compete, not just a training round. I had drawn first in Beginners and had decided to use this for training before going into Pre-Beginners for real.

It must have been me, as Cruz was on another planet, and we were just not working together. I had had such high hopes today and was quite despondent. We went and did our Beginner stays and he was clear. So onto Pre-Beginners. He was a totally different dog and, although I knew we could have done better, with a couple of exuberent crooked sits, he was with me and listening. Only stays to go and yet again he was clear. I must admit I had watched a couple of other rounds and thought them very good so thought we might get in the placings--I daren't look at the score board so we sat outside the ring and waited for presentations.

I was so surprised when we were called in first!--we had won on our first attempt and received a rosette and a lovely glass photo frame with his award on it! I was so proud of him and it took a while for it to sink in. My trainer, Audrey, was at the side of the ring clapping and I was so pleased that we had not let her down, as it is down to her training that we have come so far in the last year. Thanks Audrey, and also to everyone who congratulated us ringside, and have given me such a lot of encouragement.

So now we can concentrate on Beginners, and Caper and Cudos will have to start off a class higher. Such a lot of work to concentrate on over the winter with the 3 boys and hopefully it is onwards and upwards.

Even Cudos lent a paw to help erect the Teepee.

Puppy socialisation, Billy the westie, Totty the collies and buhund pups and Barney and Bronte the beardies

Gerry with her new puppy Raphael

Chamonix with her 6 puppies

Fun with the pups

I cannot believe it is so long since I last blogged, I know so many people have been waiting for the pictures of Psyches' pups, who are now almost 9 weeks old! So now, at last, I have put together some photos of what we have been up to. Loads more pics to put on here but this is a taster.

Psyche had 10 lovely puppies, 7 dogs and 3 bitches, one of which was a tervueren male. They came 6 days early, which was a bit of a shock, but all were well grown and ready.

I qualified both bitch puppy Laekenois at Windsor but, as many of you know, missed my Malinois classes. Apologies to Judge Frank Kane.

Before I knew it the Club show was upon us and Caper was BP Malinois,Cruz RCC dog, Ziva BP bitch Laekenois and her brother Rodney, BPDog. Antar was RBDog Laekenois.
This year we thought we would do something a bit different for our Belgian Fun Day and we had a Teepee with Tarot readings and healing. Everyone joined in putting the Teepee up and even Caper was pulling on the ropes to tighten the canvas.

We also had a canine chiropractor, Fun agility, puppy socialisation and a BBQ, manned by Martin, and Curry (kindly cooked by our curry king Chris).
The weather was against us and many people couldn't make it, but those who came enjoyed themselves. We had a few showers but on the whole it was nice in between.

Gerry and Steve were with us for the week and Gerry was choosing her new puppy. After a thorough going over she chose Raphael (Raffa for short) and they spent a happy time together. Raffa went off exploring and went through the scary bottle hoops and along the ladder on the ground with no problems. After racing round the field with his sister Min he decided to crash a out by Gerry and finish off a well earned cup of tea (Belgians having the perfect cup shaped noses).

Billy the Westie pup, Totty the collie and Bronte the Beardie pups all had a good day socialising and trying out the equipment. Barney the Beardie had his first try at agility and was brilliant, with a bit of assistance from Frieda he was soon going through the tunnel too. Kate enjoyed her day with Megan and Heidi, and Brian the Labrador had a check over from the chiropractor.

We ended the evening with a Shamanic drumming session in the Teepee, accompanied with by Cudos. Thank you Leslie and Di for a wonderful experience.
Chamonix was due to whelp on the Monday but decided to wait until after the Fun Day, so not a lot of sleep that night. She had 6 male puppies and is a very good mum as she was last time.

We ended the week with a Birthday lunch for my Mum with some friends. Back to the normal chaos now so hopefully I will keep up the blog more regularly.

Obedience training with Cruz, Caper and Cudos is coming on well and they really do enjoy it. WKC in a couple of weeks, then Richmond (the last ones with CCs ) and maybe a couple more and that is about all we shall be doing show wise this year. It is becoming so expensive now with entries and the rising costs of fuel we shall be looking forward to more obedience shows and maybe some open shows up at Newark.

Congratulations to all Bonvivant dogs, and relations who have done so well in Agility, Obedience and the show ring this year so far. The future looks exciting with 2 Groenendael puppies(Ceren and Uli) having gone to Chris Paris Brown and Jude Owen, respectively,for Obedience.