Go George Go!!

This weekend is the World Dog Show  in Budapest and the Budapest Grand Prix. (the latter being held the day before.) We are DELIGHTED to announce that at the GP, George (Ch. Farlap Guesswork) and his owner Maria, won Best of Breed and Group1. George was of course the only brother that Gerty had, and it really was such uplifting news to see him do so well. Congratulations to Maria.

National Day Out

After last weeks misery we decided that a day out was called for, and as we'd entered  hounds at "The National" (Birmingham National Championship Dog Show), I spent the day at Stafford yesterday.
It was Jaras first ever show, so it was going to be a day to remember what ever happened, and Im pleased to say he won the Puppy Dog class and went on to be Best Puppy in breed. I decided not to wait five hours for the Best Puppy in Group competition as it was just too long a day for him and me. Baffle then won Open Dog and was awarded his 2nd CC, so another  reason for it to be a day to remember. Thanks to Evelyn Burnside/Lynda Hayden for the photo of Farlap Baffled in the CC line up.

RIP Gerty

A very sad time at Farlap, as this week we have said goodby to Farlap Gertrude, AKA "Gerty.
Those that knew her, would probably agree with me that she was one of the most charismatic, and undoubtedly stubborn hounds weve had. Her tracking ability was a real pleasure to watch, and she loved nothing more than going in harness and working. She had a short show career which included Top Puppy  of the year, and two res CC's, however she really didnt care for the showring, as she was very keen to show me by planting herself mid ring and refusing to budge on more than one occasion, so she was allowed to retire, and concentrate on her tracking, and, if fate had allowed it, we had hoped she would have been a mum this year. Sadly none of it was meant to be, and we lost her to the terrible gastric torsion, despite a very brave effort and hard work from our wonderful veterinary team, they couldnt get her through. Above all that, Gerty was a member of our family,  a huge character and has left a gap that will be impossible to fill. This is one of my favourite shots of her,as a puppy.

The Farlap Diet

Well after the trauma of Foragers dietry habits, we had another scare this week when late Sunday night gerty decided to go for the full gastric torsion!! After two hours late night surgery, and a couple of days in hospital she appears to be none the worse despite the seriousness of the situation!!
On a more positive note, young Jarousek is really coming on nicely and has fitted nto the household so well, hes a pleasure to have around. Hes started his training with K9 search dogs and is coming on really wellas can be seen in this lovely shot from Sharon Newman.

 Knowing how Gyp was missing "running dog" company after the loss of his friend Flint, we took the plunge and picked up Lottie last week.......shes a rather nice lurcher girly, with impeccable breeding, and already showing great working aptitude, although having two rather active pups in the house together can be somewhat hard work!

The Ins and outs at farlap!

The last week or so has been a bit traumatic, with Forager managing to eat some more stones, only this time one got very wedged in his stomach and he ended up having some emergencty surgery to remove it. he then had a few days in "hospital" recovering but Im glad to say came home last weekend, to some intensive nursing in front of the wood burner!!
Meanwhile a few hundred miles away in Germany, his half brother Bran (Brian to those who knew him as a puppy), managed to eat the house keys.....as you can see from the photo! Im glad to report hes now fully recovered and keys safely recovered, courtesy of a large tin of sauerkraut!!! When not eating keys, Im glad to report that Bran was BOB/CACIB at the Offenberg show last week,as well as being a first class tracking hound.
On the subject of tracking, great news from Eden (Farlap Bargain)and her owners, who won 3rd in the Novice Bloodhound Working Trials this week. Great team work, well done from a very proud "Granny"

Crufts 2013

Well the Farlap hounds had a good day out at Crufts.
Baby Farlap Florence (belonging to Lynda Hayden) was best Puppy in Breed, Farlap Festive won Junior Bitch, and Farlap Baffled won Limit Dog and the CC, making him Best Male hound and reserve best of Breed. The day was only marred by  a bitch in the challenge line up, having a go at Florence and scaring both her and her owner half to death. because of this Florence had to be taken out of the line up as she was really frightened. A terrible disapointment for her owner.
Farlap Baffled, pictured with our judge Colin Avery, after winning the CC. photos courtesy/copyright R. Manley

New arrival

Another months seems to have gone by without a blog update.......sorry to those who like to keep upto date....its just been such a frantic few weeks. My work with the charity K9 Search Dogs has been very busy, with lots of training plus a couple of searches in difficult conditions - you can see more here www.k9searchdog.org

Also we have been in Europe for a week or so, catching up with some lovely old friends in CZ, such as Lenka, Adela, Martina and Petr, so nice to see everyone after a years absence.......oh and we did bring a small package back........please welcome Cayman Od Hadiho Potoka our new baby boy from the Od Hadiho Potoka kennel in The Czech Republic.

Where have you been?

having had three emails this week asking where have I been and why is the blog not updated, I thought I should try and catch up! Firstly weve had a holiday....yes its true......first in, er.....9 years??? but it was worth the wait!! We visited Winnie, a pup from our last litter, in her home in the Scottish highlands. What can I say except WOW! Here she is loving the snow, plus Andrew and Tennant at the top of a mountain

We have had a somewhat frantic week with our K9 Search dogs Charity, being called out on two searches, and then at the weekend it was a mad dash up to the Bloodhound Club AGM and spring show. The show was great and under breed specialist Pete Smith, Farlap had a great run, with Farlap Baffled winning best In Show, Farlap Festive winning Best Junior and best bitch, and her litter sister Florence winning Puppy Bitch.
Thanks to Rob Manley for the photos from the show, its much appreciated.

Normal? Whats that?

Just as things started going back to "normal" we have had three girls in season. This has meant hormones flying, and the two older boys hardly eating in 2 weeks from the excitement of it all. Happy Days!
On the plus side, training has resumed and is a little more back to normal now. Festive who is in mantrailing training is going great guns and loving her work as you can see in this great shot, courtesy of Sharon Newman.

Not to be left out, and despite the distraction of those girlies, Baffle is pushing ahead with his work with www.k9searchdogs.org and here he isbelow, tracking a "lost dog" (aka Tennant!) and being very pleased to find him. Another great shot courtesy of Sharon.

Heres to 2013

We are looking forward to 2013 with anticipation of better things to come. Its been a sad year for us with the loss of 3 bloodhounds, and Flint the lurcher, especially as those lost were particular favourites (not that I should have favourites I know....but some are just extra special hounds). To top 2012 off nicely, Andrew managed to have a heart attack a few days before Christmas, so all in all its been a stressful time, and its unbelievably good, just to find ourselves slowly returning to normal (whatever that is!) over these few days.
Due to all thats happened which included weeks of flooding and 2 weeks of flu prior to Christmas, we didnt get any cards sent out as we usually do, so must apologise....please dont think weve forgotten you, its just that circumstances were not on our side.

Heres to a Happy and Healthy 2013

A little good cheer at last

The last couple of weeks have brough much sadness to us, starting with the terrible road accident in Denmark that killed our friends Jens and Lise. They first came into our lives  6 years ago when they were looking for a  red puppy, and they came twice from Denmark to our home to meet the hounds, and eventually they were the proudest owners of Henrik, a sweet red boy from our first "B" litter.
We kept in touch regularly and met up again for the World Show in Denmark a couple of years later, where we enjoyed a few wonderful days. Jens was such a tall guy, and our  cottage has low ceilings so he never could stand up straight here, and this amused him. He was fiercely proud of his Danish heritage so we renamed him our "Viking".....he rather liked that! Lise was the sweetest kindest lady you could meet, always so knowlegable about hounds, and their pedigrees, always a kind, warm, gentle character, who adored her bloodhounds so much. With the advent of facebook it made keeping up to date with each other and our hounds, very easy, so we were often chatting and swapping photos of the hounds, and only a few days before the accident Id been speaking to Lise about her having her next red boy from our planned litter. Sadly that will never be. I know its been the most terrible shock and loss to the Danish bloodhound community.

The next sadness was hearing the death of Billy idol Roborovski, in Czech. He was the son of Ch. Farlap Generous, and brother to our Isabelle and I know his owners are devastated at losing him in the peak of his life, to the dreaded torsion. Sad times.

HOWEVER, just to send some cheer on these gloomy cold days, we had more news from george (Ch Farlap Guesswork) who was exhibiting at Moscows prestigious "Golden Collar" event, and went on to win best of Breed and Champion of Breed. Поздравляю!!!

Winning East to West

Last weekend saw two Farlaps on their travels again. Firstly Farlap Guesswork (aka George) who lives in Moscow, went to Russias Internation Dog Show and won CACIB. Here he is with his handler Nikolay, looking fantastic.

George is officially Farlap Guesswork Russian Jun Ch, Russian Ch, Russian Grand Ch, Jun World Winner, European Winner, Jun Club Ch, Club Ch, RKF CH!!

On a slightly smaller scale we went to the Bloodhound Club show on Sunday and baby Festive won best Puppy in Show as well as Best Bitch, so very pleased with her, especially as it was cramped and crowded in the hall, and she was unphased by it all. Thanks to Ev Burnside for sending me this photo.

Away Days

Ive had a couple of lovely "away days" over the last fortnight. I went up to the Bloodhound Club Working trials last weekend, spending the night at Elsenham Court with Josh, Silas and Ezra, three Farlap boys who live there with their mum. It was a real joy to spend time with them, and they probably have the best life of any hounds I know!  Silas is a larger than life character who likes nothing more than waving to his fans. (see video!) Unfortunately Gerty didnt have a particularly successful line at the trials, and on returning to our vehicle, someone had tried to break my windscreen so we limped home and missed the rest of the day. Nice that so many people offered to help .

This week I had a visit to Harry and Bertie, two more Farlap boys, and spent a lovely afternoon walking around their fields with Forager and Festive as well. Harry (Farlap Constant) is litter brother to Candle and Cinnamon and hes like a black and tan clone of Candle!

will it ever stop raining?

The endless rain is driving me nuts.....the lawn is like a paddy field and the trickling stream overflows and roars across the yard every other day. The hounds never get time to dry out between downpours and im sure they are developing webbed feet!! We should have been at the trials last week with gerty, but unfortunately at the last moment something happened that meant I need to stay home and prepare for a short trip away, and I was unable to get to trials. Disapointing as this was, IM glad to say that other "farlaps" kept the side up with Farlap Baracnik at Moorlander and his owner/handler Fiona, coming third in Novice and Farlap bargain with Pete, getting a COM. So proud of both of them and thanks for this photo of Bargain.

On one of the rare days the rain eased a little, we did some training with Festive whose a real natural at tracking and a pleasure to work......shes almost up to novice lines now so hope she will go for her permit in the New year. Here she is working through some maize. She didnt believe me when we first entered the crop, as you can see from her expression!






Weve had a few visitors over the last few weeks: all people who are interested in owning a bloodhound and wanting to find out a bit more about the breed first hand.......its really the only way to be sure if they are going to fit in with your lifestyle. This liver trio were the welcoming committee!! (front is Farlap Cinnamon, middle is Pol. Ch Isabelle Guerin Roborovski and rear is Ch Farlap Candle.

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!!

Welsh Woe

Well off  we went toWales to the WKC show, and it was baby Festives first show ever. On arrival she was meeting and greeting everyone and loving every moment, and  I was looking forward to taking her in the ring, as she was full of confidence. however just as we entered the ring she was launched at by an agressively behaved bystanding hound, and was completely terrified. After that she was so scared that everything was going to attack her, it was fruitless, and her first day out was ruined. The only saving grace was that after a nice long walk around the show ground, after her class,she regained some confidence and was wagging her tail again.....sadly her confidence in being approached by unknown bloodhounds has been completely knocked by this experience.  Kitty took this nice photo of her posing in the garden today.....what a shame her chance to pose in Wales was ruined :(((( .

She will be doing some trailing training this weekend, and that should cheer her up a litte bit.

Long Time No See!

Ive been particularly remiss about updating the blog this last month. its not because very little has been happening, but more because LOTS has been happening and I dont seem to have found the time to sit down and catch up with my blog! So "Sorry" to those who I know follow with interest to see whats been going on. Ill try to fill in a few gaps!

Firstly its "Happy Birthday" to Vivid.......our oldest hound now, since dear old Fergus died. Here she is on her eighth birthday....still fit and trim and enjoying life to the full as you can see from the video clip Ive added.
As the weather has not been too warm, weve been able to get a lot of training in over the last three weeks, and that includes Festive with her trailing, which is going very well, and also Forager with his training with the K9 Search Dog group.

This week sees the very first show for Festive so weve been doing a little bit of show training with her.....but shes such a live wire its not been too successful so Im hoping its not too embarassing at the show! Isa is still patiently waiting for her hip/elbow scores to come back......we are hopeful they will be good and she can enjoy a maternity break in the not too distant future. As you can see shes pretty chilled about life! (photo above) and now weve started clearing out the old pond shes discovered its a good place for a snooze!

Vivid has also been busy posing alongside Cinnamon and Shelley (in Australia) for an international bloodhound calendar. Shes on the cover of the 2013 calendar as well as appearing alongside 6 other Farlap hounds throughout the years photos.
Last and not least.....all my hounds are now be back in the name of Miss S Clark for the purpose of shows and trials etc, and not in the name of Mrs S Sutcliffe.......I really dont want to be associated with the name any longer.

Life's a Beach!

The pups had a great time at the beach this week although not as brave as their brother in Switzerland who swims happily in the mountain lake, my two are still at the paddling stage! here they are having great fun and enjoying puppyhood to the full.

Baffles trip to Windsor

Farlap Baffled won the res Dog CC at Windsor today. Thankyou to Kitti Kilian from Agria Dragon Kennels for this nice photo of him winning.