overseas news

Dominic is having a great time in his new home in Chihuahua....but despite having lots of other hounds to play with, his favourite place is in bed with Guillermo!!
Sheila (Now Shelly) is also settling in well although she still has 5 days in quarantine before she can finally go home with Steve and the family. They have visited her nearly every day and its amazing how well she has settled to her new life. here she is having a cuddle with Shaylee.

double trouble

The terrible twosome are inseperable and I am having to take them out individually just to get them used to spending time apart. Luckily for Tennant, they are more interested in playing together than in tormenting him and pulling his beard, a practice he disapproved of but was too polite to complain about. He can be seen here, patiently sitting and waiting for his quota of the attention.

All creatures great and small........

Finally a couple of rather shakey shots in the near dark (ran out of time yet again!) of the 2 pups! Cinnamon and "Auntie" Vivid at the top, and Candle and "Uncle bas" underneath.
Poor Cinnamon managed to get walked over by her Grandfather while I was at Crufts and after 2 vet visits and an xray, she has fractured 2 toes and is meant to be resting. How on earth do you rest a 16 week old puppy who wants to be a hooligan like her sister??
Buck has been flying free now for a week and has a rather varied taste, as 2 days ago he tried to catch a roe deer, which was slightly ambitious to say the least! After successfully chasing it off his land, he then caught a vole in the grass and seemed well pleased with himself despite the quarry being a little bit undersized!
I understand that there have been some complaints from "persons un-named" about the ABB website www.associationofbloodhoundbreeders.info not being updated. I am at a complete loss to know what exactly it is that this person wants to see on the website, as as far as I can tell, its completely up to date. However if they care to contact ME the website builder, and tell me what they would like to see on the website, then I would be delighted to oblige where I can.

missing dog....have you seen him somewhere?

Trying to help Shelley haggerwood find her beloved missing boy. Please look at her blog http://missingbraccojacob.blogspot.com/ and if you have any sighting anywhere, that may help then please contact her.

shes landed

Well our little "Sheila" has landed safely in Australia and apparently when she was let out of her travel crate she had the biggest pee ever, and her bedding was completely dry, so she had managed the whole 22 hours without a pee.....what a star she is. Im looking forward to some photos from Oz soon.
Im still at Crufts (day 3 and knackered) and the Bloodhound best of breed went to Helen and David Powells Ch. trailfinder Fortitude.....well done Forti! it was a well deserved win and he looked really good in the ring. Im glad I didnt enter this year having seen the rest of the judging.....however it was great to catch up briefly with lots of bloodhound folk I havent seen for a while.
its funny how you get chatting to folk you dont even know and you hear some of the advise they have been given ........well not so much funny as "worrying" and I can only hope we are not going to have "puppy farming" in our breed.....there are certainly some worrying things brought to my attention this week.

what a long day and a long week ahead. Today Farlap Cautious began her journey to her new home in Australia.....not quite on the "convict ship" but still an arduous trip for her. Shes in the very best hands though.
Im off to Crufts tomorrow to set up the studio, as Im working as part of the Accredited media team aas well as being the official photographer on the Skinners Dog Food stand......oh yes, and on standby for a translator (Czech) for the overseas guest lounge as well!! Please dont expect any sensible conversation from me by Sunday as I will be shattered! Im not showing this year, for the 1st time in as many years as I can recall.....i dont think Ill be missibg much based on previous experience with our breed judge. I just hope the best hound wins.......but......well....we will see!
Andrew is left at home in charge of all the hounds and menagerie.....he thought he was having 4 days holiday at home but lttle does he realise that the 2 pups alone are a full time job....I havent let on yet!!! Come and see me at the Skinners Dog Food stand if you get a chance and want to say Hi, and talk about hounds.

Tennant has to BUCK his ideas up!

Well Ive had several emails wanting to know who Tennants new hunting partner is....so I wont keep you in suspense a moment longer! Please meet "Buck"

he couldnt stay at his old home due to him probably being a partial imprint and therefore being rather vocal. However this isnt a problem for us here (he has a lot of hounds to match on the noise front!) and hes settling in well. hes a bit overweight to fly free just yet, but on the creances hes fine, and he even caught a mouse in the bushes today whilst on the Creance so showing plenty of potential!!! Tennant is a bit unsure and its unfortunate that our previous bird "Links" died before tennant had a chance to bond with him....it will be a lot harder now that tennant is nearly a year old, but Im hopeful it will work out and they will become firm allies in the pheasant catching team.

first big trip

The 3 remaining babies went on their first big adventure overseas today. Well......when I say overseas.....it was more over The Severn......as they went to visit The General in Wales!!! Not quite as exotic as mexico, but they enjoyed it! great to see TG and for the pups to all have a romp in the garden with him and the bassets.....and I can vouch that Glenys makes the very best bacon buttie Ive ever tasted!!!
After that I had to go to the depths of Wales on a bit of a mercy-mission......and brought home with me, what hopefully will be Tennants new partner in crime. I wont spill the beans just yet!!!

Lifes a beach....

Had these really fabulous photos today of Bailey (Farlap Crofter) on a day trip to the beach with his family.

Hola!!

well what an exhausting few day......Curate has nearly completed his marathon journey, and last night we finally got him to Houston USA. It couldnt have been more exhausting if I was walking there!!! Now he is in the safe hands of new owner Karla, and, after a night in a very posh hotel......they are about to make the final part of their journey to Mexico to join their other hounds.
Here he is after his 12 hour flight, soaking up the warmth of Texas!!
After British cold, we,t muddy, snowy weather, I think he is going to love the warmth and sunshine.....infact Im thinking that Id quite like to be adopted by Karlas family as well as their hounds have the most fabulous lifestyle with lakes and fields and constant sunshine!

home at last

A couple of weeks before Christmas one of our ferrets went missing....she was a new girl that I had bought for andrews birthday, and somehow she managed to escape from our ferret court. We searched around about for days but never managed to find her. Every now and then something odd would happen....like a pheasant or a woodcock that was hanging in the cold room would go missing....then the neighbouring farm had 3 chickens killed inside their locked chicken shed.....but we never had so much as a glimpse of her.
Then tonight I heard a commotion in the yard and went out to find Vivid with a dead rabbit in her mouth.....this rabbit (shot earlier today) had been hung in a locked cold room just an hour earlier so it was a complete mystery how she had got it out and shut the door behind her!!
Anyway a few moments ago Andrew went down to the cold room, heard a noise in the shadows, and there she was...."Miss ferret"!!! it must have been her that took the rabbit out of the cold room and dragged it under the door, where Vivid managed to get hold of it. How she has kept warm in all the snow, avoided being eaten by our hounds or the farm dogs, and not been run over, is a complete mystery. she seemed quite pleased to be picked up and cuddled as you can see in this quick snap of her a minute after she was safely brought in from the cold.

bath time!

Well some lovely puppy managed to pee in their bed last night....so everyone had to have a bath today! Luckily they all took to it quite well. Candle decided to do her Cleopatra impersonation and lie down in the warm water and let her minion (i.e. me) bather her in warm water.....she would have preferred milk but she deigned to suffer warm water instead! Curate, being a typical boy, took it all rather badly and sulked and looked miserable....especially when Andrew came in laughing and took his photo!! The look on his face says it all really....but they all smell so sweet now!

snow hound

Obviously we werent going to make a snowman when we could make a snow hound!! It all started going wrong though, once Generous lifted his leg on it and then all the others followed on......hes taken on a rather yellowy look now!!

A few more snow Pix of everyone enjoying themselves in our 2 feet snowfall.

Tennant the snowballer..

Tennant has discovered a new obsession of snowballing.......photo captions are
1) Got it!
2) Nearly!
3) Missed!

some drifts are deeper than we thought

Poor Gravity hadnt realised quite how deep this drift was when she tried to run through it!

its snow much fun here

Wow we had a really big snowfall today.......and everyone just loved it!!!
Heres Cythar and Tarnish.

let it snow.......

Well at last our snow arrived today....and what a lovely time everyone has had in it!!
The puppies played in it until they got cold and I had to force them to go indoors, Drizzle went sledging with her dad, and Envy and the bloodhounds just ran and ran for the sheer excitement of it.

Tennant "The Man"

Tennant is really "the man" now......on Friday he went on his first proper day at the shoot.
He was so good, we were unimaginably proud of him.....he never ran into shot, he returned on every whistle, he sat at my feet without complaint on the drives we were shooting, and he hunted well on the beating drives. he succesfully pointed a woodcock as well as putting another one up.
Unfortunately his only retrieve, was washed away down the river and so I considered it too tricky for him at this early stage. A bird came down about 20 feet from him (someone elses) and another dog was sent for it....he never flinched!!
he was a true star!

Do I look intelligent like this??

heres a fab photo of Bailey (farlap Crofter), sent to us by his new owners......looking highly intelligent with his new toy!!