Busy, busy, busy

For the last several weeks I've been busy meeting potential new puppy owners and introducing them to the good and the bad, the fore and the against of bringing Spinone and Barbet into your home.  I'm a great believer in letting people know the total truth about characters/grooming etc as its no good lulling people into a false sense of security about silly things for example  'how much mess' they can make.  People certainly have seen the dogs at their worst recently because of the torrential rain and resulting mud we've had.  If this doesn't put people off then nothing will :o)

The visitors have now stopped until around 4 weeks after the arrival of the pups and then it will be non stop again as everyone comes round to meet the babies.

In between meeting everyone I've also managed to get all the dogs groomed, clipped/ hand-stripped and bathed.  The only thing thats been a bit neglected is the housework (shame) even though we've also fitted out our en-suite en-suite with new units/loo/sink.  I always remember a sign I saw at an old friends house saying 'A clean house is the sign of a wasted life' haha :o)  Love it, thats my excuse and I'm sticking to it!!

Puppies!!!!

I'm sooo happy to be able to announce that after having her ultra sound scan it has been confirmed that Ebene will be blessing us with a litter of puppies and they will be due around 21st March :o)
Daddy is the lovely Eton who full of fun and has the most wonderful nature.  More details are on the News page.  Obviously if you would like more details about this forthcoming litter then please feel free to give me a ring.

Novaforesta Eton

Can Ch Courailee Ebene

 These babies are coming sooner than expected as Ebene wasn't due to come into season until beginning of March but she obviously had other ideas and decided to bring it forward to January :o)
This has meant that as last year, there will be a litter of Barbets and a litter of Spinone here at the same time, so chaos will reign in a few weeks time when the babies are bombing around the house like loonies!!   Dori my Spinone girl was due in season in October which would have made a nice gap between the Spins and the Barbet babies but she chose to wait until January too, so all my plans went out the window as they say :o)  Fingers crossed it will have stopped raining by May so they can all run in the garden as well as in the house.   Wish me luck folks, I'm gonna need it :o)

My back garden :o)

The Snow

Well the rain has now turned to snow and the dogs just LOVE it!!  I must admit I prefer it too, having a respite from the constant mud for the moment.  Probably be a different story when it all melts.

 Ebene

Ooli with his snowman

Clever Claude

Congratulations Claude and well done Karen for passing his Obedience Test with flying colours. This was a surprise test with an independent examiner coming in on one of his usual training days. What a clever boy :o)

Birthday Girl

It was Lacey's (Netis Brezza) 11th Birthday yesterday and I still can't quite believe that all that time has past since she was born.  We always called her Nora Batty when she was a pup as when she stood up all her loose skin seemed to congregate around her ankles :o)  She is thankfully still fit and healthy only having occasional stiffness when she gets up after being laid down for a long time (don't we all).  She's the first dog that I had bred that I took into the show ring and considering we were both totally 'green' in the art of showing she did really well gaining a CC, a couple of reserve CC's and a number of first places.  It was never really her 'thing' though, she much preferred bombing round the woods so after a couple of years we decided enough was enough.  Her brothers and sisters are still going strong too which is lovely.

Lacey and Beanz yesterday

Lacey at around 18 months

Christmas

Well we had a pretty quiet Christmas here (as quiet as it can be with my lot) as Jimmy and myself had this horrible cold and cough bug thats been doing the rounds and both of us ended up on antibiotics.
Lisa and Ellie came to stay as usual which the dogs were happy about as they know they're always in line for treats :o)

It was a juggling act trying to stop the dogs pinching Ellie's Moshi Monsters that she got for Christmas and the most interesting to them was the Furby who they all through was fair game but miraculously it survived in one piece!!

The girls scrounging for Ellie's pavlova 

Angel and Furby standoff