We had various visitors over the Christmas New Year break, I managed to take the photo of Jas and Sully lying in a brief moment of sunshine ,watched over by Patrick, our donkey . We had a family walk with Otto, Willows son ,Cassie’s brother and Sully with their respective owners which was lovely ,we rounded it off with lunch and a glass of wine or two at our house. The final photo is of Cassie, Otto and Sully taken before Christmas in a dull but very pretty frosty morning .

I have had my first Munsterlander  judging appointment, which I thoroughly enjoyed,even though it was a long wait ,but that’s another story! I found it difficult not fussing the dogs and Dougie especially wondered what he had done to upset his Aunty Jo.

Ebby my GSD. Is hopefully going to have another litter, she is due in season in February. I have always had a soft spot for long coat shepherds ,Ebby’s mum Ash was a long coat and holds a special place in my heart,( do look at her page under Shepherds) so I am excited to say we are going to see a male with a wonderful pedigree and excellent xray results ,something I have struggled to find. I will let you know how the visit goes.

I still intend to do a repeat mating with Cassie and Harry,so it looks like 2013 might be busy . That will be the last litters for a couple of years until Jas grows up as my girls only do the motherhood job twice.

Any interest in either litter do contact me, both have wait lists started.

Happy New Year to everyone, keep the news coming .

What a year its been, started with a wonderful litter of Cassie and Harry’s puppies. All the pups went to wonderful homes and are keeping busy in a variety of pursuits, ranging from agility, showing ,working gun dogs and hawking. They are excelling at being family pets and are truly adored. I cannot let this moment go without mentioning Cheshire Quill. Her family had the most awful experience of having to deal with the loss of their baby. She unfortunately died from liver damage due to poisoning. The  post mortem results could not confirm the type of poison. It just gives us all a wake up call to be ever vigilant of what our precious pets have access to.

After a very dry early Spring it started to rain, it feels like it hasn’t stopped since. As previously mentioned we have been flooded twice, but our new drainage ditches appear to be working well.

Johnson my cob became very ill and had to spend a week in hospital with peritonitis, I was so lucky to catch it early and have such wonderful service from my vets. He returned home and enjoyed a wonderful time competing with Pete, a good friend of ours, who has used Johnny to give him some much needed experience doing dressage show jumping and cross country. Poor Pete has had a rotten time with his horses and has now hopefully found a new partner Fergus,  he is only 3 and has a way to go yet .Chris and Pepper and Johnny and Pete have had a brilliant time both being succesful and getting rosettes every time, Go Boys !

My car “Berty Bellingo” became terminally ill and was replaced by “Betty Bellingo”, something we could have done without. So all in all it has been a year of high’s and low’s.

Cassie and Jas have had a good season in the show ring. Cassie has won out of Post Graduate now and will move up a class to limit. I am so proud of her. Her daughter Jas came out 1/2 way through the season annd even though her growth has been irregular i.e. she has been bum high, she finished the season on a high winning a couple of classes. Both she and her mum have qualified for Crufts so along with Oscar, Cassie’s brother, that will make 3 home bred Crumpsbrook Munsters at Crufts, unbelievable! If any of you fancy coming along to support us on Gundog day, Saturday, come along,  it would be great to see you. There is a kennel club Crufts website.

My behaviour degree has had to take a back seat during our flood repairs but I am back on course now and will do my dog aggression modules next year. I am loving my training and behaviour work and I seem to be getting busier which is fantastic. I have separated my training and behaviour from Crumpsbrook  and now have a separate website www.mannerlymutts.co.uk . Take a look if you get a minute, Chris will add more articles as time allows.

I have decided to mate Cassie again to Harry in 2013 at her next season. I have been so thrilled with the last litter, their adaptability, characters and quality is so good and Harry is not getting any younger, he is 11 now so hopefully he will be up to the job in the Spring. I already have bookings for this litter so if anyone is interested do get in touch.

Do keep in touch with your news on your puppies activities, I realise the website has taken a back-seat this summer, (Chris has posted new photos on the Musnterlander puppies 2012 page) but hopefully we are back on the case now .

All that remains is for me to wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy 2013

Jo

I judged the pedigree classes at a fellow munster owners charity dog show over the jubilee weekend. So difficult with such a huge range of dogs ranging from Pomeranians to Great Danes . My best in show was a 9 month old Standard Poodle who moved really well .Chris came to support me and took Jas and her mum Cassie. Jas took it all in her stride and seemed really confident, she even found a patch of fairly dry grass to curl up on .

It seems my Munster pups get around the country .Ben has been to London, on the tube, with his folks and apparently behaved really well, there is a photo of him by London Bridge .

There are other new photos to look at of Quill and Ava,

Our friends Matt and Kate have been over to help with Gundog  training for  Jas . Dougie their Munster is well on his way to being a full champion.  . So I hope some of this rubs off on Jas !!