Off to France

The French Kennel Club arranged for a Barbet Symposium that would run in conjunction with the Water Dog Club Show and invited Barbet breed/owners and anyone else who were interested to attend. It was held in Chatel-Guyon a very pretty part of France but quite a long road trip from UK.  To keep expenses down we decided to go in one vehicle so sadly we didn't have room to take any of our dogs.  Although we were obviously disappointed we all felt it was more important to actually attend the meeting than show the dogs especially as the Club had arranged for English Translators at quite an expense.  Wendy, Julian, Julie and myself left early Thursday morning and took the ferry to Caen and then drove to the meeting place (had an overnight stop half way) for Saturday.  The weather was wonderful and being without dogs meant that we could actually meet and talk with all the others that attended and to be able to sit and watch the judging of the Barbet classes without having to worry - we saw some beautiful Barbet and I was impressed on how they all got on together.   I was lucky enough to be asked by Renate from Switzerland to show her beautiful 8 months old bitch pup called Djili - to say it was love at first sight for me is an understatement :o)  I wanted to bring her home with me big time but sadly Renate wanted to keep her :o(    She got 1st in her class which we were very happy about and she enjoyed every minute of it which was even better.

Djili de la Colline des Vioilettes

 Some of the winners

This is Caya who is Ooli's sire

We had a really good day and enjoyed the Symposium which really reinforced the breeding plan that we have been following here in the UK is the way to carry on - in my opinion the way to go is 'slow and steady' building up a 'healthy' gene pool gradually,  not just importing any dog we can to get the numbers up to satisfy the UK Kennel Club criteria for recognition as another "breeder" has suggested.  

A lovely bonus for the day was that owners of a Spinone pup from my last litter turned up with her and their other two Spins to see me - it was so lovely to see Keith and Irene and to be able to have a cuddle with Hannah (the pup).  They had to drive two and a half hours to get from their home to get to Chatel-Guyon and we were able to spend a couple of hours catching up - sooo grateful for all their effort :o)

Well at the end of a tiring day it was a mad dash back to the hotel where we had to do a quick change and get back to the Gala Dinner also arranged by the Club - it was a really nice way to round off the whole day with lovely food and great company - sorry folks no pictures of me in a frock :o)))

I want to thank Wendy (the supermarket queen) Preston and Julie MacDougal for being an excellent roomie and last but not least , Julien Preston for putting up with us 3 women and our non-stop chatting and for doing all the driving!!   Cant wait for the next trip :o)