Theyve arrived!

A busy week with a couple f days in Belgium visiting our dear friend Marianne, and bringing home the botanical babies.......Poppy and passion Fruit (aka Sherman and Flora). Theyve settled in so well with everyone and are a real delight.

Then Friday we whizzed up to Builth Wells where bellabella won res CC, so what an exciting week here at Farlap

growing like ....well....weeds!

Poppy and Passionflower (ie Sherman and Florabunda) the botanical Belgians, are growing up fast!

baby update from the Truffe Medievale Kennel Belgium

Our Belgian beauties are growing so fast. Human and hound mothers are doing a great job, and we cant wait to zip over there in a couple of weeks and see them.
Sired by our special boy Fergus, he would hvae been so proud of them.

Third time lucky!

Bellabella won her 3rd CC at the weekend, by winning best Bitch at the Bloodhound Club Championship show under breed specialist Mr Shane O'Keefe, thus making her a champion (subject to the usual KC conformation)

Her companions also did well . Nettle was 1st in PG bitch

and Jaunty a respectable 3rd in a tough limit bitch class

Bella does it again

So proud of BellaBella on her 2nd CC and both with BOB, at WELKS

crufts done and dusted

The annual trauma of Crufts is done and dusted! Thank goodness I wont be going back with a hound til 2019!  it wasnt all bad though, the girls loved it as you can see, and we met some really lovely people who were interested in finding out more about the breed, and having some proper hound cuddles with the girls on the benches. Sadly there were also some not so nice people there, one bloke for some unknown reason came up to jaunty and grabbed her leg and started twisting it and pulling it. I really dont know what he though he was doing, but it was very unpleasant, as was he. Regardless of the negatives, we hope that the little boy who was so scared of them to start with, is still smiling, as he was when he realised how gentle they were and how soft their ears were.

fab photos from Official Crufts accredited photographer Milly Davies.

Bella On Form

Our beautiful Bella (GIOIA DELLE ISOLE LONTANE AT FARLAP) imported from Italy, won the bitch CC and B.O.B at Manchester Championship show January 2016

The good and the bad

As always when you share your lives with dogs, there are good and bad times, and sometimes its hard to see past the bad. We are very sad to have lost our beloved Farlap Festive last week, and her cheery disposition and comical character will be greatly missed. To lose two hounds in just a couple of months has been really heartbreaking, as they are first and foremost our family, and all loved individually for their special characters. Losing two livers has made the gap seem even larger, as we are so used to having three livers all bouncing around us, with that daftness that I think only "Livers" have!

On the "plus" side, our special little Bellabella (Gioia Delle isole Lontane at Farlap) from Italy did us proud at the Manchester Championship Show, where she won her class, best bitch, CC and Best of breed and passed the vet check with what the vet described to me as "the best movement hes ever seen in a bloodhound". We are immensely proud of her. She can be seen competing in the hound group  here

Happy New year

Wishing all our bloodhound friends a wonderfully happy 2016. Last year ended on a sad note for us with the loss of Farlap Cinnamon , a very sweet lady who gave us endless pleasure.