Tennants trip to the CLA Gamefair.

well Tennant had a couple of days at the CLA Gamefair and as he found it all quite tiring, he went to sleep in the gundog breeds tent WHV static display with his sisters and mum for a few hours.....as seen here with Richard....(photo courtesty of Karen thankyou grandma!)
He also got to appear in the gundog parade in the big ring!!!
He had a great time browsing the trade stands and choosing his new training dummies personally.

vetting homes

I was in a discussion with another breeder about vetting potential homes this week and we both agreed that over the years we have got a couple of them wrong....luckily on those occasions the pups were returned and happily rehomed. However I was then quite surprised to find out how little actual "checking out" some other breeders do....none more so than when i heard on the grapevine about 3 pups in homes that I had no hesitaion in refusing a pup to!!! One of them even has a bad repution in several countries yet they were still sold a pup from the UK. What a sad state of affairs. of course we all make misjudgements of characters and no one is exempt...especially me! but its not hard to check out potential puppy owners with fellow breeders when they have been begging breeders for some long time and yet still no one wants to sell them a puppy...or do some people actully believe they are above doing this and that their knowledge is greater than everyone elses??
Meanwhile if anyone gets a usa enquiry and its the same one as i have been dealing with for 19 months then i can give you some pointers on not selling her a pup!!!

Papa Gustek

odpočitas v pokojoi Gustek, na duhovy most.

memorabilia

I was very kindly given several large boxes of bloodhound memorabilia by Eden Griffiths, that Pauline (Weatheroak Bloodhounds) had collected over more than 30 years.
Its all such interesting stuff that I can not stop reading it....with club newsletters going back to the early 1960s and so much info on hounds I had researched over the years, including photos and pedigrees.
One of the nicest things was the collection of bloodhound clippings, where Pauline had obviously taken an interest in others successes, and had cut out many many newspaper articles and photos depicting the highs and lows in the breed. This is a truly remarkable archive and one that I am proud to be the new custodian of.

Rule number one!

Before tennant arrived it was mutually agreed...by hounds, humans and the cat.....that Rule Number one would be that he would not be allowed on the sofas....so....as you can see.....that worked well!!!

thankyou!

Thanks to everyone who so kindly emailed or rang to say "well done" to Logic for winning the CC and BOB at the club show....it was nice to receive all your messages...especially after the lovely (I think not!) comment from another exbibitor which was obviously meant to just take the lovely edge off a great day!

boys boys boys

Well with 2 girls in season at the moment the boys are all getting a bit hot blooded....so they have had some time out swimming in the lake this week....which has calmed everyone down a bit!
We are getting several puppy enquiries at the moment, however we do NOT breed to supply a puppy market not do we breed just to reduce the waiting list a bit (!!) we only plan a litter when we are looking for something to continue our lines and are wanting a new youngster for ourselves.
further more we dont just breed from some bitch to make her "pay her way"......we breed only from those we feel have something important and special to offer the breed......from those who we feel will be able to improve some part of our lines....and with this in mind we are hoping for a litter early next year.

mouths

recent discussions have thrown up the age old subject of mouths again. At a recent breed seminar, one of our most respected breeders and judges with decades of experience was asked about mouths, and she agreed, like me, that no hound with a bad mouth should be bred from.
Recent judging critiques have suggested that bad mouths need watching again......i really hoped that this problem had been removed from our gene pool but it seems not, so one must really question as to why anyone would want to breed from a hound with a bad mouth? i really cannot think of a good reason.

at last!

at last hes arrived....our little Hungarian boy....well if you are going to do a European tour then its logical to go to Hungary as its only a stones throw from CZ!!!

whip round for a sofa

OK folks I think we are having a whip-round for a new (ish) sofa for Fiona!!! Hers is slowly being disected by Berkley...aka Farlap Baračnik....failing that maybe theres a free cycle in somerset Fiona??? Hopefully you can get something that looks better than this one?

slightly more cheery

well on a slightly more cheery note today.....we finally have a date for the arrival of our new baby "Tennant" and are just counting down the days now. .....12 and counting!! photos soon I promise.
Thanks to everyone who has emailed to say how sorry they were about gad and Cythar losing their babies. Glad to say he has his other litter due very soon by AI in Europe, so fingers crossed!

so sad

well we are so sad today, having heard that Cythars "wife" has lost her puppys. Its so maddening when you hear about people with little care for the future of the breed who are just out to make a quick buck......they seem to have no problems producing a litter with the minimum of care or attention....then you get a really special mating like this one that has so much riding on it....you even get to see the scan of the babys....then this happens and you begin to wonder why you try so hard to do the right thing.

Danish News

Good news from our puppy owners in Denmark....at 8 months old he went to his 1st show and 1 st trial....and won both....best Puppy in Show at the Danish Club show and 1st in his working trials...well done Henrick!!

Having spent all the week laid up indoors with a nasty debilitating virus, I decided today to leave my sick bed and get out into the sunshine for a gentle walk. I opted to take the 2 pups as they are still at a clingy stage and tend not to disappear over the horizon like the others......I also took along the deerhounds for a much needed leg stretch.
One of our fields has a large heap of soil in it which makes a good vantage point to check there are no deer lurking before the hounds go galloping into the grass. Having given them the "all clear" they charged about in the grass like lunatics....rolling and running....then all of a sudden the pups saw something in the grass.....their hackles went up and they started baying and then turned tail and ran back to mother. Intrigued at what they had found I ran over to look, only to find a badger snoring its head off curled up in the grass!!
As I tried to sneak away, the deerhounds sussed that something interesting was happeing and came bowling over and ran right into it...next minute there was a hissing spitting snarling badger with 2 rather surprised deerhounds trying to get their delicate feet out of the way...plus the puppies by now in full bay again. Badger was last seen heading for the hills at a very fast gallop and the puppies still didnt really know what all the excitement was about!

At long last Tarnish has her cast off her leg.....I just wish someone would tell her that she is meant to have another 6 weeks complete rest!
Cythar ivaliruz is very proud to hear that he is going to be a daddy in a few weeks time....we cant wait to see his 1st crop of pups.

honestly - some people!

Some people really are unbelievable......I mean how sad is it that someone telephones a breeder, pretending to be interested in the breed......when their true agenda is to try and discredit a very genuine and honest breeder. Come along luv, do I LOOK like I came down in the last shower??? Many years as a press photographer has taught me to recognise when I am hearing bullsh*t! Next time you want to phone me please just use your real name!

Well another busy week....Tarnish is causing mayhem with her huge plaster cast (she broke her leg in a mid field collision with Gravity). For some reason the vets feel the need to wrap the entire thing in cammo patterned vet wrap, which at 1st is very scary to another hound but now they are used to it, it is seen more as "lunch"!
Barvička continues her puppy chewing saga by overnight eating a complete book plus half a beam from our 13thC cob cottage. Hope the beam wasnt an original piece of timber as unsure what the listings people would say about that!!!

Welcome to the blog

well after so many folk requesting a regular update on the hounds, we decided to start this blog.
Hopefully you will find it interesting and informative and it will be a great way to update you with events as they occur.

What a busy week it has been with Adela Veverkova coming to stay (pictured here with Farlap Basnicky) and to take her puppies to their 1st UK show. Then there was a visit from the lovely Bagr and his family, so we could see how he was progressing...what a big lad!

Congratulations to Fiona with Farlap Baračnik on winning the res CC at only his 2nd show and at just 8 months old.