In at the deep end!

Its been a busy few weeks here, with lots of training for the forthcoming bloodhound working trials with Gerty (Farlap gertrude), plus even more training with Forager for his role with K9 search dogs.

However there was one thing that wasnt hard for any of them to find, when earlier this week an angus heifer (thats a "cow" to non farming folk!) arrived on the lawn. Now I had always thought the hounds could inflict a lot of damage to the garden but believe me its NOTHING compared with 700kg of walking beefburger, cantering over your lawn!! After a few laps around the orchard, the greenhouse, the front yard and the roses, we finally persuaded her back to her field!

Forager did some search training on the moor this week andwe came across a gorgeous pond, so after his work we had a bit of playtime in the water, but he really didnt take to swimming atall,prefering to paddle in the shallows and pose on the edge.

Back on Track!

After the bad experience for Festive at WKC, it was a certain amount of trepidation that I took her to a small local open show....only 400 dogs, held at a local showground. Despite a rather grumpy beagle having a pop at her (and again, not her fault!!) she was brave and happy, and managed to win Best NSC puppy, resBOB in NSC, and Puppy group 2, so I was immensley proud of her. Shes just like her mother was at this age though....completely unruly on the move and leaping and jumping with joy all the way around the ring! So feeling spurred on by this we went offto Richmond Championship show, where she was 2nd in the puppy class, and I was quite pleased with that, as shes still so raw. Her litter sister Florence came third, so again that was a satisfactory result. Baffle managed 2nd in limit dog and Cinnamon 3rd in Open bitch, so nothing to write home about, but all behaved well so it was all good experience for this young team. With trials season looming, ive been spurred intoa action to do some training with Gerty........poor poor Gerty, not only does she have to do 90% of the work, she also has a huge anchor flaiing about on the end of the leash (ie me!!) I MUST get her sheep permit done asap as Im simply holding her back and slowing her down.

For those who have been following Foragers progress, he had a photo call for his press release for K9 Search Dogs, so thought Id include a couple of the photos. hes such a poser!
Finally news just in from Germany: Farlap Bran went to the St Hubert show in belgium where he got third in a well filled class of males. Two very very proud owners, Robert and Christine......well done!!