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!!

more rain!

Rain Rain Rain!! will it ever end? The hounds have webbed feet!
David Gore managed to get over in between the showers so we could shoot some more pix of his lovely girls.......and then it had been arranged for me to test his "Beetle" for her working permit....well the moment he arrived at the flags the heavens opened and we were soaked to the skin......the wind howled and there were deer on the line and mud deep enough to lose a hound in...but.....she hunted beautifully and I was able to give her her permit and look forward to seeing her at trials.
Trials...now there is another thought....every year I swear I will get fitter for the hunting season.....this year is no different except that I am actually judging them this year and I am still not fit!!
I just keep everything crossed that the lead up to the trials are disaster-free as last time I judged I put my back ou the week before and struggled around like a 90 year old.....the time before that I sunk my landrover in a river the day before and had no transport so had to get the train to London and then another one to Bucks.....can you imagine what I looked like on the return journey at Paddington station, covered in mud and exhausted, its no wonder folk were taking a wide berth!!

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.