Days like these......

Days like these dont come along too often.......spending every moment doing something that the hounds and dogs love, good company,scrummy cakes & sunshine!! it started off well when the post arrived and in it was the certificate from the KC confirming Candle was a "Champion". Then Sharon and Bill (Newman) arrived with some lovely cookies and cakes, and walked a line for Gerty, which she flew round!  Its a real shame I havent had a chance to get her to her sheep test before the trials as she really doesnt enjoy being hunted leashed, and once the lead is dropped she flies ahead with great style; I think Im going to struggle to hunt her on a leash next month :(
After lunch we all went out to the fields and did some dummy training with Skarlat and Tennant. They are half brother/sister, and watching them work was really interesting, and Skarlats drive and tenacity rather impressive.
After dinner in the evening we took Flint out with the lamp to catch some bunnies for the ferrets breakfast, but sadly there were few about last night and he didnt get a run atall. Big disapointment for Flint.

Thankyou to Sharon for these two lovely photos of Gerty coming in at the end of her line, plus Skarlat & Tennant relaxing after their training.

Miss Dis-Graceful

"Farlap Graceful" is Gertys sister and we are lucky in that we get to see her quite often. It doesnt matter how cute and irresistable she was as a baby, she is certainly living up to the breeds reputation for being naughty in her adulthood and her owner has just given me an uptodate list of what shes managed to destroy/consume so far. No wonder shes been renamed "Dis" Graceful!!! It should be added that this is a hound thats never left alone, so shes not bored and alone, shes just a normal if slightly naughty bloodhound, so well worth thinking about before new owners take on this breed!!
Heres the list:

Large stones

Carrier bags 

Several dinners out of the cooking pot 

Sun glasses and Reading glasses 

Socks,Pants,Tea towels/clothes 

3 children's gates fixed to the wall

Laptop charger and Mobile phone 

Granite table 

The corners of the work top

 Rearranged the entire garden 

Several dogs beds 

Garden furniture the garden table was completely destroyed

Pulled the entire working of my rear lights from the inside of my golf 

Several boots wellies & shoes 

Oh and pulled down the lounge curtains

Not bad work in 16 months........and here she is with her partner in crime, a short legged one!

Constant & Benedict

It was lovely to receive some new photos of Constant and Benedict (aka Harry and Berty!) today. Im so lucky that these two boys live nearby and I get to see them regularly.

Miss Eden is a star

Farlap Bargain (aka Miss Eden) went off for a quiet day in the cotswolds at the weekend, and came away with a working trials permit!!! Well done to Peter and Jo and Eden too of course, I know how much training they have done and Im one very proud granny! Here she is on the day at the start of her permit line. Cant wait for her to start trialling next season.

The Richmond Dilema!

We had a great day at Richmond Championship Show, which was only deflated by the number of absentees, that made the entry so poor. What a shame. Never the less we were thrilled that under Zena Thorn Andrews, Ch. Farlap Candle won her 4th CC and BOB, Farlap gertrude won res CC, and Farlap Baffled won Best Puppy. As Baffle hasnt had his mugshot on the blog for a while I decided to get some up todate photos taken of him, so here he is at 8 months old.

Going BOB also put us in rather a dilema about going into the group under a judge who has had a considerable influence over the potential future of our breed, and not in a way that I personally approve of...... My final decision was not to go under this judge, and fortunately every other bloodhound exhibitor I discussed it with, was in full agreement with my decision.

Mr T has it covered!

Tennant is a cover boy today, starring on the front cover of Countrymans Weekly magazine. What a star!

Wet wet and wetter!

We have now had 48 hours solid rain and the hounds are officially fed up. After the 5th walk of the day, and my third change of clothes after yet another soaking, I decided enough was enough and Id spend an hour or two in my office instead. The hounds had all gone to bed in disgust at the weather, and Gyp, who appears to have some horrendous medical and life threatening allergy to rain, came into the office with Baffle and me. Typically Baffle settled down in his spot and was snoring as per usual, and I popped back into the house to get a coffee.......when I came back, this is what I found!!! Gyp is now going t be my PA, but his telephone manner needs a bit of work!

More tales from the Life of Brian!

Bran and his humans went to the St Hubert show in Belgium this weekend, it was the 1st time in the ring for both owner and hound, so quite a big moment. Their 3rd place, amongst 6 puppy dogs, was a brilliant achievement. Then as if that wasnt enough excitement in one day, they did a "search" through the town, and bearing in mind all the hounds and people there, its quite incredible that Bran succeeded and found Christine with all those distractions. Here they are on the line through the town, and then relaxing afterwards...well done to Bran, Robert and Christine, from a very proud granny!

Looking a little bit sheepish

Gerty has been doing some more sheep training today so that when we get a chance to take her for her stock test, she will be thoroughly used to them. Shes so used to seeing sheep on the farm that she doesnt take much notice, but of course once shes hunting and her adrenalins flowing it could be a different story.......hence the training regime! Todays damp weather has also been ideal for lines, and hopefully we will do some more hunting with her tomorrow, which will be much more enjoyable than trapesing all the way to Nottingham for the bloodhound show. We are sorry to be missing showing under a judge we respect so highly, but its just too far to drive there and back in a day, and I really am feeling a little tired of shows right now, with their pitifully low entries it hardly seems worth going.

"B" team get tracking

We are getting some great reports from the "B" litter, on their tracking/hunting progress.
Farlap Bran who lives in Germany is doing tracks through town centres, and doing some serious scent discrimination work with his handler Robert, and Roberts wife Christine. I was hoping to see them next weekend but plans have had to change a little here, and sadly we wont make it now.
Farlap bargain (AKA Eden) is also making great progress with her hunting as can be seen here in the photos of her tracking on an old Cumbrian airfield. Her handler Pete, another professional "search dog" handler, is having a lot of fun with her and I bet they cant wait for her to turn 12 months and start trialling.

Go Gerty, Go!

Well......... thanks to Kitty who has been walking lines nearly every day for 2 weeks, we have got Gerty really going well , and yesterday we took her to Buckinghamshire for her working permit, which she passed in quite arduous dry conditions, so I was very proud of her. Also thanks to Kitty for this lovely photo of Gerty coming into her runner (Peter Brown) and a cheery looking handler! For those interested in her tracking lead, you can read a bit more about it here http://www.farlapbloodhounds.com/section533515.html

Gerty does good!

At last Gerty has done something right!!! After despairing of her in the show ring (shes not keen!) we decided to give her a go at hunting. WOW........finally something she enjoys!!! She did her very 1st line of 300 metres, and today had her 2nd line, about 400 metres, with a gate way and a sharp turn. Well done Gerty! Here she is posing in her harness! (photo copyright Kitty kilian)

This n that

Yesterday we had a great trip to the beach with Baffle, Tennant, the lurcher team and "Princess Drizzle" (who is anything but!). It was Kitty;s first real trip to the "Ocean" so great fun for everyone.
We have received some lovely photos today from talented portrait artist Ev Burnside, and the one she has taken of Baffle in the show ring is great, thanks Ev! Her website is here

www.evelynburnsidepetportraits.co.uk

Finally we had photos today from "Little Brian".....who is now BIG BRAN!!! (see sofa photo!!) His tracking is amazing, and hes doing 1km lines through towns, with skateboarders and dog walkers as planned distractions......His owner traoner Robert is doing a fantastic job!

Farewell

What a sad day for the breed, with the loss of Jean. I well remember her arrivingat a trials in Dorset, to watch her 1st trials, with Flora a mere 5 month old baby, and from that one day, she achieved so much with her hounds. All our thoughts are with Duncan.

Another fun weekend

Another fun weekend with the hounds..........saturday was up to the hound show where some of the judging was interesting. It was Farlap Blissfuls first show with Lynda, who, despite having been to several shows herself when she was the "Brighton Bloodhounds" kennelmaid, this was her first excursion with her very own bloodhound. She handled Bliss really well, and Bliss was calm and collected all the way. Their 2nd in puppy bitch has qualified them for Crufts 2012. Well done girls!!
Baffle was also a good boy in the ring andI couldnt have asked any more of him. Gerty was her usual awkward stubborn self! Sunday saw us at the SW Lurcher championships, but as we were the only "bull bred" there, Im guessing everyone else knew that this wasnt her type of hound LOL. Nevermind it was a fun day out, and we took Gyp on his first official "day out" as well.


Shame to see people using their (perceived) positions of authority to their own ends and to air their personnal grieviences instead of to the benefit of the breeds we love. Looks like more pills needed!!!!
Thanks to KITTY once again for some great photos xxx

Thanks Kitty!

.......for taking this photo of Baffle, its his first "show photo". I hope he can remember how to stand at Hound Association, as he seems to have forgotten hes a bloodhound this week, and is acting more like a pirhana!
Discovered today that the most unlikely of people read my blog!!!!

Our Quarter Century

Leeds Championship Show 2011 saw Candle winning her 3rd CC, making it the 25th CC for Farlap (excluding all the overseas ones). It was also Baffles first show, and he was 3rd in his class which I was also very pleased with, as it was a very noisy and scary show for a 1st time baby. Despite 13 hours of driving and an unpleasant verbal attack in the ring from another (presumably jealous?) competetor,.......I should add that they were NOT even in the same class as me....... we had a fantastic day in Leeds!

24 hours in Paris

Our short sojourn to Paris was interesting. Some of the judging was quite unusual (and thats being polite!) and I certainly have never seen a judge using a microchip scanner to ascertain the origin of a dog, to aid their decision before!! We were pleased that Logic won her "Champion bitch" class and so the weekend wasnt completely wasted. However the best part of the weekend was seeing our dear dear friends Pavel and lenka, catching up with Maria and Farlap Guesswork (who had spent 4 days on the coach from moscow to get there!) and enjoying a couple of lovely days in the French Countryside, sampling local fare. Congratulations to Farlap Guesswork (George) for becoming a World Junior Winner.
All 3 of our girls were graded excellent, which should be very pleasing but considering one of someone elses hounds went around the ring hobbling lame, and that also was graded "excellent" then I dont think I can really take this judges opinions too seriously!!
It was great to have Dr Jim Edwards (USA) support ringside, and his comments to us afterwards were much appreciated.

photos show Maria and George, Lenka who kindly handled Isabelle to 1st place for me, and Logic winning her class. photos courtesy of Linda Vander Sichel.

Sweet Dreams..........

Weve just had this lovely photo of Bran in germany with his new BSD police -dog puppy friend "Hades". Its the sweetest photo!

Graduation day

Look at proud mummy Jo, with her graduating "Eden" (Farlap Bargain). Now they have to start the next training course which Im sure will be quite a challenge. As you can see, she also loves to pose with Daddy!
Wehad a visit from Monty and his owners last week, and Baffle really loved having his brother to play with for the day. Logic was also pleased to see her son, and the three of them had a great run in the field together. (I was a very bad Mummy and forgot to take any pictures while he was here- sorry!)
On a completely different note......why are some people so unable to do anything without trying to cause unpleasantness?. Whilst its easy enough to take legal redress (and those wheels have been set in motion!), I still dont get what these people feel they have to achieve by their comments and behaviour. Maybe they are jealous? There again maybe they can't help it and they have some mental health issues going on that they are not in control of? Who knows!