Since the pups have gone, back in June, the weeks have gone by in a blur. The garden has kept us busy with a bumper crop of fruit and veg , there is nothing quite like picking your own produce and the summer weather has been brilliant, such a difference to our floods last year.
Jas has been out and about. She did her first working test at a beautiful estate called Hall Barn. It was a first for both of us so quite nerve-racking, still she did me proud even though I made a few beginners errors.
The split retrieve test pleased me as she or I had never done one of those before but we scored really well. For those of you not in the know a split retrieve is when the dog sits by your left hand side and stays put while 2 dummies are thrown in 2 different directions. The handler then nominates one dummy to send the dog to first. The dog is then sent and must retrieve the chosen dummy and present it to the handler and then wait to be sent for the second dummy. As you can imagine lots of dogs get very excited and rush off to the wrong dummy or some try to bring back both at once! Jas was a star and retrieved both correctly for me. I was so excited, she did her “dancing dog”. Not really a gundog requirement ,but I love it.
Having so many animals at home plus my training commitments at a weekend make it tricky for us to do more of these but both Chris and I hope to next season.
Her showing has had highs and lows. She has moved up to Post Graduate now and she looks very much the baby of the group. She seems to be recovering from her fright at a show earlier in the year when a Munster boy decided to try to mount her.
Cassie is at last coming into coat again and she too has had to move up a class to Limit having won out of Post Graduate. She has had two 4ths so far. I’m hoping to qualify her for Crufts before the end of the season. She is beginning to look really well so here’s hoping.
One of Cassie’s pups, Micah or Shep as he was known ,came to stay while his family had a holiday. He fitted in so well, such a lovely boy. He came to Hall Barn with us with Jas and Cassie and behaved brilliantly. His gardening exploits were amusing, he loved to help! He learnt incredibly quickly to ignore the poultry,which is always a concern with visiting dogs, but having chickens and ducks that are used to dogs all helps. We were sad to see him go but delighted to see how happy he was to see his family again.
Ebby my Shepherd has had a busy Summer lots of sex !! Unfortunately to no avail, so far. She stayed with John in June for a week and was mated 3 times. We had our fingers crossed but when she was scanned at 28 days no puppies. She had already missed earlier in the year so I was undecided what to do. Bless her, she made my decision for me by having a split season. These are fairly common. When a bitch fails to ovulate for what ever reason she often comes in again 4-6 weeks later. I quickly arranged with Hilary to visit John again and after lots or blood tests to pin point her day of ovulation Chris and I shared the 3 1/2 hour each way drive to Carmarthen on what hopefully was the ideal day. Time will tell. She is such a special girl and I have a list of people waiting for her puppies. Not a typical situation for Shepherds as they are a lot more common than Munsters. Fingers are crossed here.
We had a wonderful day at the seaside with Carol and Otto and all our girls. There were 3 humans and 5 dogs, plus picnic in Betty, my Berlingo. No mean feet. We were all invited to The Rushan’s holiday cottage in Aberdovey where Sully (Jas’s brother) was on his holidays. We all descended onto the beach there ,which is amazing. Most of it is dog friendly even in the height of the Summer. I think people thought they were being invaded by Munsters 5 of them plus Ebby of course, but they loved it. It was a glorious day, we all paddled and watched the dogs playing in the waves .
We then walked back to the cottage via Aberdovey’s ice cream shop where we all indulged, even the dogs were treated by Carol. The day ended with Fish and Chips, perfect.
Mandy, my Crumpsbrook partner in Yorkshire, is on tenterhooks at the moment waiting for her first litter from Esther. She has been confirmed in pup to Oscar, Cassie’s brother, so exciting times ahead for Crumpsbrook Munsters. Can’t wait to go and see them. I know she has a huge list. Both Mandy and I are really choosy about our pups new families and people genuinely seem to appreciate our extra care.
Some of you may be aware plans are afoot for next year for Jas .We are planning to mate her to Dougie, Paddockridge Rulander, who belongs to Kate and Matt our friends in Stourbridge. They are as excited as we are here. I have received so many enquiries for pups already but there is a long way to go yet.
Thank you all for keeping us updated with info about your Crumpsbrook dogs. We absolutely love being kept informed as to their exploits. So many are doing various exciting activities including agility, showing, hawking and more traditional gundog activities.
It makes us so proud and all the hard work of raising a litter more than worthwhile. It really is why we do it. Keep the photos coming. We have updated the most recent litter photos and will update the older litters soon.
Sorry this blog is so long but the summer has been busy with lots to fill you in on.
Hope it won’t be so long until the next one.
