The Border Collie Convention hosted by the Midlands Border Collie Club

Today I spent the day at The Border Collie Convention - the first of its kind - which was hosted by The Midlands Border Collie Club. My close friend and business partner Lisa Lister (Havocsmill) has owned, worked, shown and bred border collies for a number of years and as you can imagine, I therefore have an interest in the breed as she does german wirehaired pointers.
Together Lisa and I had a really enjoyable day. All credit to The Midlands Border Collie Club who were such good hosts - tea, coffee, wine and food were in no short supply. The day started with a breed specific talk on movement and construction by Ross Green (Fayken) who owns the breed record holder Sh Ch Tomkory Palerston at Fayken, followed by a selection of demonstrations/talks - preparation for the showring and showring handling by Jo Ratcliffe (Grandver) and Rachel Spencer (Tobermoray); breeding by Penny Forster-Cooper (Sheltysham) and Felix Cosme (Beagold) and judging by Kathy Burnell (Fieldbank) and Toni Jackson (Elbereth). Lisa and I chose to attend the show and breeding talks. Speakers were both knowledgeable and entertaining.
The talk which Ross gave was very informative and to accompany his speech he showed a selection of pictures and videos which clearly demonstrated the effect of construction on movement.
Penny Forster-Cooper discussed the different methods of breeding - inbreeding, linebreeding, and outcrossing - their advantages and disadvantages and Felix Cosme demonstrated the effects of his breeding programme for fixing a 'type' to his line.
I would have no hesitation in attending another such seminar and feel that much of what I leant today can be applied to my own breed - the GWP. Hopefully, as these events become more common place, our breed club will hold a similar event.

Crufts 2010 and docked dogs

This year we only entered Lottie at Crufts since we were unable to enter Winnie. Although Winnie is legally docked, the law currently stipulates that she cannot be shown at a show where the public pay an entry fee to watch and as such, she was not eligible to enter.
Despite the fact that Lottie was not in the cards this year, we had a lovely day meeting old friends and catching up with everyone's gossip. The atmosphere ringside was friendly and relaxed.
Crufts is something of an institution and the show that most dog show enthusiasts look forward to entering. It is also the show that most dog lovers are familiar with - whether they follow breeds, agility, flyball, obedience - they either visit Crufts or try to follow it on the tv. It is the Kennel Club's flag ship - the show at which the best of the best appear either to represent their breed or their given sport. Sad to think therefore, that because of the current legislation concerning docking and since the Kennel Club have chosen not to find a way to accommodate the docked breeds, many of our quality dogs were unable to attend. Certainly, the fact that young docked dogs were not eligible to be entered at Crufts impacted on entries, since the numbers of dogs and bitches being exhibited in the lower (and usually age related) classes was poor.
Like many other kennels that choose to dock their puppies, it is only a matter of time before we here at Klancraig have no young dogs that are eligible for entry at Crufts, not to mention some of the other Championship dog shows that insist on charging an entry fee for spectators.
Of course we could choose not to dock but why should we when we wish our kennel to represent the versatile, dual purpose GWP that is worthy of being shown AND worked? At Klancraig we choose to dock for the welfare of our puppies, especially those that go to working homes and we will not be deterred from this even if it means that we must forego showing our youngsters.

The Cost of Feeding a Raw Diet

At Klancraig we 'raw feed' our dogs - that is to say we feed them a species appropriate diet of raw meaty bones, minces, offal, fish, eggs, fruit and veggies. (A more detailed description of how we feed our dogs can be found on our website, on the Dog Care page).
We are members of several forums dedicated to this subject and recently, on one of those forums the subject came up relating to the cost of feeding a raw diet. Obviously, cost will be dependant upon the size of the dog, how much he or she eats and how varied the raw diet is that is being fed. It has been sometime since I actually sat down and calculated this but given that we do feed a very varied diet to our dogs, I was pleasantly suprised to find that it costs approximately 70-80p per day, per dog according to what we actually feed.

Spring is in the Air...

Well, I am under no illusion that spring really isn't in the air yet and that there is plenty more bad weather to come but this morning was so lovely - clear skies and bright sunshire. It was my turn to visit Nigel Dear and because of Christmas and the snowy conditions, it was the first time that we had met since November time last year.
Bronte and I had a one-to-one training session with Nigel and I was delighted with how she hunted and retrieved. I am really looking forward to entering some working tests with her this summer.

Back to School

Today Gary went on his first one-to-one gundog training session with Nigel Dear of Llanforda HPR's. Gary already takes a big interest in our dogs but hitherto his involvement has been very much behind the scenes. However, having spent the last two seasons beating on our local shoot with Fergus, he has been bitten by the bug and now wishes to take a more pro-active involvement in training and working our dogs - who knows, we may even get him in the showring with one of them!
At nearly ten and a half years of age and with a wealth of experience behind him Fergus does not really need to go back to school since he has now retired from the competitive working arena but it does make him the perfect companion with whom Gary can learn the finer points of working an HPR for when he gets a GWP puppy of his own.
Gary enjoyed his afternoon (once he found where Nigel was) and Fergus is going to be kept very busy over the next couple of weeks doing 'homework' with Gary, ready for their next lesson.

Otto's Visit

Yesterday Gary and I spent a lovely afternoon with James and Claire and their youngster Otto, who is Winnie's litter brother. To look at them Otto and Winnie are like two peas in a pod and proved to be just as cheeky as each other too! We had a tasty pub lunch in the George & Dragon - James and I eating one handed whilst Otto and Winnie took it in turns to bat each other on the head with their paws and entertain the other diners with their antics and then we went for a walk along Wenlock Edge. The weather was very kind to us and we had warm, mellow sunshire and the dogs had a great time running down the bridle path and through the woods.
We are really pleased with Otto - he is maturing into quite a striking young man with a beautiful nature which we are delighted to say, seems to be apparent with all our Tilly and Timo offspring. Otto's basic obedience is excellent and James hopes to start gundog training classes with him later in the year.
Pictured here at Wenlock Edge - picture courtesy of James and Claire.

Last Weekend of the Shooting Season 2009/2010

Gary made the most of the last of the shooting season this weekend. Saturday saw 'Beaters Day' and Gary was invited to join Eric (the Gamekeeper) and the usual team of beaters to shoot, whilst 'the Guns' enjoyed a days beating. Don't be fooled - Gary didn't shoot all of these birds himself - pictured here, Gary and Eric with a number of birds shot on the day.
Today was the last shoot of the season and Gary took the day off work to resume his role as beater with his trusty side-kick Fergus. They had a fab day out and we were really proud of Fergus, who at nearly ten and a half years of age managed six and a half hours 'on the job'. Needless to say, tonight he has earned his place in front of the wood burner in the lounge resting his weary limbs.

No doubt both Gary and Fergus will now be wondering how they are going to fill their Saturdays. However, since working on our local shoot over the last two seasons, Gary has been really 'bitten by the bug' and will be attending one-to-one training sessions with Nigel Dear with a view to taking a more pro-active role in training and working the dogs in the future.