ready steady go!

Bella has taken to "Hunting the clean boot" (man trailing) like a duck to water!

Growing up fast

Little Bella Bella is a very confident forward young lady and has settled right in with us. She starts her mantrailing training soon, we cant wait!

Here she is with her best friend Nettle.

Meanwhile, Forager has had a busy time this month and had a successful search with the charity we work with www.k9searchdog.org  and found a missing springer spaniel for her very relieved owners, and hes now just chilling out with his sister Festive, at home

Where did that month go

Just realised October has disappeared and Ive been bad at updating the blog.....but in our defence we havebeen rather busy, so let me  firstly let me intoduce "Bella" who has come to live with us from Italy. She has settled right in and is enjoying the warm Autumnal weather.

Birthday Girls

We have had two birthdays recently.....Vivid who is now ten (and still acts like a puppy) and
Barvicka (below with Baffle) who turned 7. Wonderful to have two "veterans" and they can both give the youngsters a run for their money!

However the babies are also flourishing, with Jaunty making her debut in the main ring at Buckham Fair recently doing a search dog demonstration, and seen here in training on Dartmoor. 

Photo ©SE Newman

COngratulations to George (Multi int champion Farlap Guesswork) on winning reserve CC at the World Show in Helsinki last week. Always proud of "team George" and his wonderful owner and handler.

Best Friends

Nettle and Jaunty are having a great time growing up together as best friends, and regular updates from the other three are coming in thick and fast.

The heat however is most opressing and all the big hounds want to do is lay about in the shade all day......they arent even interested in their field walks. Weve been taking them in pairs down to dip in the river but its plagued by horseflies there, so not much fun either!! Wish we had a swimming pool for them!

Highland Fling

A jolly jaunt to our lovely freinds in The highlands last week, and with us went nettle, Jauntu and Jigsaw. Jigsaw is now known as "Puzzle" at home and she was off to her new home with Farlap faithful (AKA Winnie) in the beautiful Glen lyon where we are fortunate to be often invited for our holidays. Nettle and Jaunty went along for the ride and as a socialisation trip and they all had a fab time. In fact we all would like to have stayed there and made it our new home!

Puzzle making friends with her new owner and Winnie showing off her garden!

Nettles Debut

Nettle made her debut as a "mascot" for the K9Search Dogs stand at a fundraiser this week, and adored it. Everyone fussed and cuddled her and she behaved like a real pro. Here she is relaxing in a quieter moment.

Meanwhile Tennant has been practising "baby-sitting" skills with baby Jaunty, just in case hes called upon to go and pup sit any of his puppies! His babies are all growing well and we cant wait to go and have a visit soon.

....and then there were two......

its always a very sad day here when a pup leaves for a new home, so having two go on the same day this week was extra hard BUT they both have the most amazing homes with devoted owners and I know I have nothing to worry about, so with heavy heart I waved Jostle and Jackpot off on Thursday.
Jostle (Now known as Beatrice) can be seen getting to grips with the offside rule with her new Dad

meanwhile Jackpot  (now known as Malachii)is enjoying his new home with Jacob the beagle and his Uncle Ezra (Festives brother) and Uncle Silas (Basnicky and barcickas brother). photos soon to follow.

Off to a great start

Nettle got off to a great start at her first day at K9 Search Dog training School!

6 weeks pupdate

Due to the hot weather the pups have not been out in the garden too much during the daytime as they just couldnt cope with the heat, however a bit of a cloudy day means a great chance for them to go garden exploring this afternoon

Hot Dogs

The pups have found the heat rather daunting so havent had too much time out in the garden , with late evening trips being best, but the light is poor then so no really good pix. They are however growing like mad, over 15 Lbs a piece now, and plans are now starting to be made for their journeys to their new homes. So much adventure and excitement for them over the next few weeks.
Meanwhile Nettle has discovered the best way to keep cool is to join Tennant in the river for a spot of gundog training!

We did manage to squeeze a quick show training lesson in as well, but shes too busy enjoying life to take it seriously just yet.

and for those who want to know how her hunting is coming on......well......shes keen to get going as you can see!

The Great Outdoors

The babies had their first outdoors experience this week.....here they are exploring outside for the very first time.

Daddys Girl

Nettle is a Daddys Girl....alternating her favouritism between Baffle (Her actual Dad!) and Andrew (who she adores)

Introducing........

..........Nettle Truffe Medievel At Farlap.....aka "Nettle"    who now has her feet firmly under the table, and is utterly adorable!

Baby classes

In Europe the often have " baby" classes for puppies 12 weeks upto6 months at the club shows. They are only a bit of fun and a good way to socialise young puppies, so Nettle went to the Dutch club show yesterday and was " best baby puppy" bless her!! And she even had a critique written in English!

Eyes wide shut

Amazing how much progress the pups make in their first three weeks. They now have their eyes open and are starting to focus on their surroundings, as well as  developing hearing and actively walking. 

They had their first play with toys, although their mum kept stealing them for herself!

They had their first non bloodhound visitor last week when Lottie came in to have a sneaky look at them.

Despite them being quite active, they still get vast amounts of sleep!

Eat - sleep - eat

The life of a puppy is blissful.  Eating and sleeping with a lot of kisses and cuddles in between.

The puppies are growing fast and Festive has proved to be a fantastic mum to these little chaps, although now and then She just has to get some sleep!

New arrivals

Our first litter in two years has finally arrived. Please meet Jackpot, Jaunty, Jostle and Joyful! Mother and babies all doing well.

Spring Shows

We had a wonderful trip to Malvern last week to the West of England ladies Kennel Club (WELKS) Championship show, where we were just thrilled that Jara (Cayman Od  Hadiho Potoka) won the dog CC, and reserve Best of breed, and Baffle (Farlap Baffled) won Res CC under breed specialist Shane O'Keefe.
 As you can see, Baffle is quite unimpressed with the show world and prefers to mix it with the ponies!

 

Meanwhile the Farlap ponies themselves have been busy at a few spring shows including the National Pony Association and SW Pony Association shows where they had a great run in the ring, including Mabel getting "best Miniature yearling" special award. Here we are posing with a few ribbons!

Sunny Days

We have had a glorious couple of weeks in Devon, the sun has shone, the grass has grown and the hounds have enjoyed every minute of it. Festives pregnany is now into its 44th day and she is seemingly enjoying the position of authority its given her amongst the other hounds, and its quite funny to see her now getting pole position on the best sofas where as before hand she was always relegated to the dog beds! Funny how the hounds just "know", and are happy to let her get her own way. Shes also taken to stick collecting (se photo below)...a new hobby for her, and perhaps part of her hormonal changes! The lovely warm dry weather has also been a bonus for meeting prospective new puppy owners, and we have  enjoyed alfresco tea, in the spring sun, several times last week with some lovely families.

Its not just the hounds who have enjoyed the warm weather, Reggie and Mabel our resident lawn mowing shetlands have also been out and about to the shows over the last few weeks, amassing all sorts of awards and qualifiers.

Some Good News at Last!

Some exciting news to share, we have a litter due early May, and Festive (Farlap Festive) is the mother to be, and Jarousek (Cayman Od Hadiho Potoka our import from CZ)the expectant Father! its our 1st litter in over two years so theres lots of sprucing up in the nursery to do over the next few weeks!

We have just returned from a short trip to Belgium to meet a lovely litter sired by our very own Farlap Baffled, at the Truffe Medieval kennel. Beautiful beautiful puppies, and we very much look forward to Truffe Medieval Nettle coming to the UK at some point soon. This could be her!!

Ups and Downs

March has brought us some ups and downs. Firstly we are sad to report that we lost Bas (Ch. Farlap Basnicky) at the beginning of the month. The very sudden onset of illness took us by surprise and in a week he went from his usual happy go lucky character to a sad introspective non eater. After numerous tests and investigations he was found to have large tumours on the liver, and with much sadness we had to let him go. Bas was a champion in the showring, but first and foremost he was our family pet, and he was a true gentleman, quietly leading his pack, and always teaching his children Forager, Festive and Baffle, how to behave and be gentle pack members. A huge loss to us. This is one of my favourite pictures of him as a small puppy, and another of him soaking up the sun last summer.

Due to Bas being so ill, I decided not to go to Crufts this year, it was a last minute decision, and it meant that I could be at home with Bas, but also meant that I missed seeing Multi Ch. Farlap Guesswork winning BOB, for his lovely owner Maria Doroshina, who had travelled, by bus, a 4500 mile round trip from Moscow.....now that IS dedication!
Afectionately known as "George", he looed fabulous in the ring and thankyou to all my friends who kept me posted minute by minute by text, on Georges winning in the ring, it helped ease an otherwise terible day.

Photo copyright Ev Burnside.

They say that these things come in threes....well this month they come in fours, as within a few hours of each other, we had the wonderful news that Baffles litter had been born in Belgium. All 11 puppies are doing well and their mum Kashmir is a great mother, we look forward to visiting them very soon. We are also delighted that Isabelle is in pup, and they are due in April.

Baffle grows up

Its been pretty quiet here in january..... but Baffle (Farlap Baffled) has had an interesting visitor from Belgiam, the gorgeous red girl "Kashmir" . She was a lovely house guest, very sweet natured and easygoing, and following her brief  liason with Baffle, her owner is delighted to announce that she is now in whelp, and her litter is due in March. If anyone would like the contact details of the breeder in Belgium with a view to being considered for a puppy, please let me know.