sitting in the whelping box......

im sitting in the whelping box with a laptop!! So far we have 7 babies and Im not sure but there could be just one more lurking!
All ok so far, Logic is a very very proud mother and already has chosen her favourite one!
It was quite a shock to have 2 liver girls in the litter as I wasnt expecting any livers......I am thrilled about it. Photos to follow soon.

light relief

A Bit of light relief from the waiting game today.....a gundog training day photo shoot....and the star of course was our very own tennant!!

still waiting

well we are still waiting!!! Heres a few pix taken by some of our visitors today showing Logic looking all glowing & pregnant !!! plus a nice shot of my lovely Generous

Countdown Begins

Well the countdown to the arrival of our litter of bloodhound puppies has begun. OK I know technically its 10 days away but after the experience of Tarnish having hers a week early last year, I am taking no chances this time! Logic is getting pretty big, despite me telling everyone that she wasnt just a week ago.
Its amazing how much interest this litter is attracting , with calls from friends in Italy, America and Switzerland today, all wanting to know how the mum-to-be is doing. OK must go and paint the whelping room a suitable "nursery" colour!

Thanks Simon!

Thanks Simon for your nice piece in Dog World this week about our recent trip to CZ. Lots of people have been very interested in the trip.

trading commodity

Sometimes I really despair at the people "out there". We had an email last night from someone who had bred a chihuahua, but now their little daughter was bored with it and would like a bloodhound puppy instead.......the mind boggles that a) any on can be that stupid and B) that people can treat dogs like a commodity to be traded when they are bored with it. My reply consisted of just two words....the second one being "off".
over the years we have had some really bizarre folk contact us because they wanted to buy a bloodhound puppy....but this one definitely takes the biscuit!!

Logics travels!

This great picture was sent to me by one of the guys .......thanks Ondřej
Its no wonder the German Police stopped us and thought we had contraband stashed in the Trophies....they are huge!!!

1, 2, 3, 4? How many bloodhound puppies?

Well a positive scan today showed that Logic is in pup and by the looks of it she is expecting a nestful!!
So our plans for the BZH training are on hold now until the new year.
Last night Tennants favourite girlfriend "Zaba" came to play......this was one of the few moments when they actually sat still!!

let sleeping pigs lie

well Logics training for her BZH hunting test is going quite well....I even managed to locate some Wild Boar urine when I made a short visit to Moravia last week.....it will be very helpful for her to learn to track the boar scent....something we are a bit short of in Devon!!
Last week saw me working back in CZ again....near the Polish border, and the nature of the work was such that if I managed to get 3 hours sleep a night, i was lucky! On my return I just wanted to crash out on the sofa...but someone (ie Tennant) decided that if mummy was on the sofa then he wanted to be there too! Since getting home the red stags are rutting and the roaring outside the bedroom windows all night is almost insufferable......so it looks like a few more sleepless nights yet!

Trials and tribulations

Thanks to everyone who entered their hounds under me at the Association of Bloodhound breeders Championship Trials yesterday.
There were 18 hounds competing in the Novice stake and by the 18th line my knees and feet were in serious trouble having walked jogged or run after every hound!! It would have been impossible without my 2 judges assistants Duncan Robertson and Ian Sayles, both of whom were great company.
We were so so lucky with the weather, and without doubt we saw some good hunting from every hound, even though the dry bare ground held little scent in places.
Everyone (as far as i was aware anyhow!) seemed to be happy with their lines, and certainly they were all very nice lines on beautiful ground, with none of the awful hedges, ditches, and wire that we sometimes come across.
Being brought up in a hunting background meant that I have also been brought up with the many disciplines that also go with it and it was in this respect that i felt my only sense of diapointment in the day.....turn out!!!
I have been brought up with the strict regime of making sure your appearance reflects your appreciation for your hosts and your sport. therefore I was really disapointed to some folk turned out to hunt their hounds in the most awful get ups. Im not talking fashion sense here!
If I was a member of the public and saw how some folk were dressed, I would be quite dubious of their intent.... or if i was the landowner, Id be having second thoughts about letting them on my land!! Please please can we get back to sensible country clothing for hunting our hounds? We dont need to look like we are on the beach or working for the red cross....is it too much to ask that we can look like people hunting their hounds in a rural environment??
OK my small moan over.....well done to all the winners, and a full set of results from the weeks trials will appear shortly on www.associationofbloodhoundbreeders.info

First Lieu TENNANT

All aboard!!! tennant had his 1st trip on the boat today. He loved it!!
He tried to jump ship when we were a couple of miles out to sea and it was only when he realised that he cant actually walk on water, that he decided to sit and watch us fishing instead. There was a worrying moment when he thought a long cast was actually some sort of retrieve work, but eventually he got bored with it all, went below deck and snoozed for a couple of hours!

Lifes a Boar

Logic has now started her training for her BZH Hunting exam under FCI rules.
I was slightly worried that it would affect her chances of hunting "clean boot" in the UK as it means encouraging her to hunt game....however...it seems that she is more than capable of distinguishing between wild boar and regular UK game...so as long as we dont get wild boar on her lines in the UK then there shouldnt be a problem!! Im working on the" steadiness to gun-shot" and started working her to the dummy launcher that we use for training Tennant. So far so good!!
We have several boar skins here prepared for dragging as a line but are now working on getting a fresh carcass to liven things up a bit!!

Logics travels!

Sorry that updates have been slow but what with me injuring my back and being laid up for so long, its been a struggle to sit at the computer....anyway.....thanks to EVERYONE for all their messages emails and calls regarding our recent trip to the Czech Republic with Logic.
It was a 2.5 thousand mile round trip...exhausting....but well worthwhile...
her BOB/BIS win was just a fantastic experience and more pix will appear here soon.

Tennants Travels

Tenant has been to stay with "granny and grandad" for a week and they sent me this terrific photo of him with their alpacas.......I am thinking of sending the hounds over there for some training now!!!

Nothing to do with hounds......

..................but just wanted to send a big hug to my friend Stanley (see photo I took while training in Dover this summer) who has , today,retired from his life long dream of being the oldest person to swin the channel. Stanley you are truly inspirational!

puppy sales

if anyone has sold a bloodhound or bloodhound puppy to someone with the surname ELLWOOD in the last couple of years can you please email me.

Going Under Cover

Poor tennant has gone undercover........hes very fed up that a) its continuously raining and b) my Mothers Border terrier (Leo) has come to stay for a week.
Leo was OK for about 24 hours but now hes grumpy and pinching the best spot on the sofa. The rain has put paid to Tennants garden meanderings as our acre of lovely lawns and shrubs now resembles an acre of mud bath! Tennant has decided hes not coming out of hiding until Leo has gone home and the rain has stopped!
The hounds have all got webbed feet from all the rain, and another 2 inches forecast tonight...oh joy!
My crocked back means that walking is nigh on impossible at the moment so its been especially difficult to get them fit enough for their overseas shows in a weeks time.

Do woodcock wear socks?

Up until my mishap last week the training of young Tennant was going great guns & we decided to introduce the dummy launcher.
This innocent piece of equipment is actually capable of putting a satellite into orbit...its so powerful...and its taken quite a few attempts to calm down the height and distance to something suitable for a 4 month old pup! Anyway.....Tennant decided that the launcher dummy wasnt to his liking...it just wasnt the same size/colour/weight as his other 4 dummies and he jolly well wasnt going to fetch it or even look at it! So A. had a brainwave and told me to take off my sock!
Once the dummy was wrapped in my sock ......a) it flew less distance and b) Tennant loved retrieving it. So...the question is....do woodcock wear socks and if not....will he ever retrieve one??!!

oh deer!

Some of you may know that we were training Tolerant to be a stalking (deer) dog, however after he died last year we hadnt thought much more about it and had planned to train our HWV instead. However there have been a couple of call-outs of late and so it was decided to train fergus instead. it would probably put paid to his working trials as encouraging a hound to hunt deer is not ideal for a trialshound, however it was decided he was the best candidate. Last Tuesday afternoon I crunched my disc in my back and was in agony....then with perfect timing a call came in for a wounded deer that needed tracking. By this time it was dark and I could barely walk...but we harnessed up fergus and Andrew had a lamp and a rifle and I had fergus! So we climbed up the hill and into the forest and tracked the deer through trees, rocks, brambles for over 2 miles in dark.....mostly on my hands and knees because i couldn t walk!! In the end I couldnt go any further and Andrew parked Fergus and me at the roadside...it was midnight by then...and walked home to get the Landrover and collect us!!
So the tracking was unsuccessful and my back was even more crocked and since then i have been stuck here on my back unable to move for 2 days. Fergus meanwhile is llooking forward to his next outing!!