A voice from the past

What a marvellous thing the Internet is and who has been looking at my website.... We had a phone call from Ruth who used to live at Oldstead 40 years ago. We meet her sister years ago at Coxwold Fayre. Ruth had been looking at the website .She has springers and goes on a shoot very close to here so we caught up on the news. Maybe I will persuade her to buy a cocker as I find when they are hunting they are easier to handle than a springer as they stay close to me.We will not be having any more springers I just have my three old faithfuls Charlie,Molly and Twiggy.
We do hear from Rose and Jill who went down to Nottinghamshire last year and enjoying a lovely life and now go to music festivals with their own tent.

Labrador pups enjoying the sunshine.

Even though the days are drawing in a bit now and we have had our fair share of rain this week the sun was out today. These Labrador pups are very laid back and spent their day soaking up the sun without a care in the world. They were just back from having their second jab at Skeldale and were quite happy to go for a trip out in the pickup . We have lots of lovely photos of them playing out together. I am a great believer in that they should have time to play while they are pups before setting them into training. They explore,discover and carry things around at their own pace.

Work to be done...

had a day off yesterday -well 7 hours.leaving Fiona and young Owen in charge.So thanks to them they held the fort and we escaped to Scarborough to see Tony and Liz Fawcett- but today it was work as usual. I was up just after 4.30am to get the adult dogs out and give the pups their first feed of the day. The next job is to swill and brush the kennels out. Then come in to get my breakfast. Out after breakfast and clean out the pups bedding and so the day continues with training the young dogs,fixing a gate,feeding the young pups again. Answer the telephone- I am a man of few words with Anna coping with most of the communications we get through emails or phone calls. An hour before lunch I just have time to finish strimming the sides of the drive down. The 2 mothers of the pups are exercised more times a day and separately from the rest of the dogs.Lunch then it all starts again. The adult dogs are fed once a day before supper after they have been let out for their second exercise until the shooting season starts then they are fed twice a day. The pups mothers are fed at least 3 feeds a day. I tend to feed pups 4-5 times a day -little and often as I hate to see bog bellied pups and in this way they ate as graciously as a dog will rather than gulping it down and making pigs of themselves.When pups get to 5-6 weeks old I start to walk them and by 7-8 weeks they have built up to walking about 200 yards down the road 3 times a day. Any youngsters we have are feed 3 times a day until they are at least 6 months. The pups are wormed every two weeks from two weeks old so hopefully we keep on top of them. At eight weeks we would then wormed them every month until they are 6 months old then at three month intervals .It all take time and I reckon I know what the painters of the Forth Bridge feel like. By 5 pm I am ready for a sit down and my own dinner and a couple of hours off or off for a few pints. About 8 pm I do the rounds and at 9 pm the pups get their last feed for the day and I am looking forward to getting my head down as 4.30am comes round pretty quickly

Molly- lemon and white cocker spaniel having her pups