Pups get to play hard, sleep hard and their training has begun

Posted on July 3, 2011 at 4:17 AM

Please click on pics to enlarge

Well we have come to that time where the puppies experience many things and the adults become shattered from providing.

It is a wonderful time though.

They are taken out first thing in the morning to do their business and have a play.

With thier new real live play toy often with them, their older sister Jay Jay, who is a sweetheart to them and will be a fabulous mother when her time comes.

We do have a puppy pen garden for them but most of the time they are allowed the whole of the side garden to play in, and they love that.

They have even foraged through the undergrowth journeying through hills and treacherous ravines. Well ok, it was our red heather, dug out holes , watering cans and long grass, but it's huge to them he he he.

They have even come across in the past day a huge hairy mamouth, their Grandad, and they thought he was great fun. Though they thought his undercarriage was really funny :)

They also get plenty of play time with us, and now a bit fun training though they would not know it. We walk around encouraging them to follow us with a few mouth clicks or hand clapping, and plenty of praise when they arrive.

We have also just started giving them a couple of retrieves each of the tennis/rabbit ball making sure we encourage them into us and leave them attached to the ball in our arms, plenty of praise before doing it again.

The ones who had the retrieve fun yesterday passed with flying colours, and the rest shall have that experience by the end of the day.

We will hopefully make a journey with the pups as a pack into the back garden were ducks and chicken scent lie in deep undergrowth :) Ok very long grass he he.

I shall report on both later :)

The rest of their day consists of much the same thing for them, fun, food and more fun, except as soon as they start to fall asleep we take them in so they can cuddle up and fall asleep in their crates.

We do all of this to get them use to such things for when they leave us, and it's our way to start teaching the puppies that their crates are the clean area and outside is where you do your business :)

It is an awful lot of work but we want the puppies to have the best start in the world we can provide. So we give as much stimuli as we can and try to put them on the right road to making their owners and themselves, very happy.

We also love it, so we shall miss them when they go. The adult will enjoy getting my attention back though, bless them!

What a busy four weeks this has been

Posted on February 19, 2011 at 3:16 PM

This blog will be about the everyday training and day to day events of Alfie, Bella, Mia and Jay Jay, our wonderful Alfinmarsh Gundogs. It will also have the updates that we receive from the puppy owners and any events.

Just to give you a taster of what we get up to, their is a quick piece of the past four weeks below. From then on I will try to update on a regular basis with more detail

Hope you Enjoy

Busy Four Weeks

we have had

Our first trip away this year was to the Spaniel Championships in Northumberland, and what a cracking time we had. Great people who shared their time with us even though this was 'The' event

of the year for them.

We even ate at the top table as the Spaniel Club really do take care of new people, and they knew the only people we knew (at the time) had not arrived yet. We cannot thank Liz, Steve and Barry enough for their kindness to us

We stayed at a beautiful B&b which was owned by a couple who made sure all our needs where catered for. Wonderful large room with a very comfortable bed.

It was whilst there David ( David Lisett ) gave us a dvd of Ftch Buccleuch Pepper, who we will be mating with Jay Jay when she comes into season.

Below is a you tube clip Of Jet Aka Ftch Buccleuch Pepper

We then came back to finish up the shooting season, taking Jay Jay to the shoot to give her the experience she needed. Because of a torn tongue (5 stitches which meant she was out for over a month) she had only been on shoot one other time. Apart from the shock she got from the electric fence (which should have been off) all went very well and I could not fault her as she worked hard and well in the beating line, and when on peg she sat quietly, doing as asked and even chasing down a big and hard runner. Mia when on shoot (out for some of the season with a ripped teat for a while) was a total sweetheart to me, as she always is.

Then we made the bi annual trip up to Davids for two days training with him at the Buccleuch Kennels. Anyone who can get a chance to see David and train with him, really should take the opportunity to do so, he has a way with dogs that is a vision to behold. Gary and I consider ourselves very lucky in being able to train with David, and with Nick Gregory from Hamptworth Estate. Just a Shame David is in Scotland, and Nick in Hampshire. The views are stunning at Davids as the picture below shows, but unfortunately (unlike the pic below which was taken last August) the weather was against us this time and rained throughout on the second day. But still worth the trip as we picked up a few more tips from him to use with the girls. The tips I will pass on over the next week.