February at the Kennels

The working dogs have had a rest after the season has finished as has Jack. The tweeds are ready to go to the dry cleaners and the pickup is ready for a good service. And we look to start training the young ones which are under a year old now . Next week the year olds go to have their eye tests and fingers crossed they all pass and then it is the hips and elbow to be scored. This is like waiting for your 11 plus results as a lot depends on them as we would never breed from dogs with high hip scores. We are told it takes the BVA about 3 seconds to give them a score which is crazy when you think it can be a make or break time for the future of breeding the lines in the future. Finn is 13 this month and although he is fully retired he still enjoys doing what he does -trotting round the fields three times a day with the rest of the clan and enjoying an extra breakfast to keep him in good condition. Even the vet who came to inspect us for the council grading was impressed with him . Dont know if the same could be said for Finn as he is very much Jacks dog although he can be a bit of cupboard love creeping in and will wag his tail to anyone who feeds him a sausage roll or other tit bit. It saddens us to hear of people who bought dogs in lock down who were taken in by people only interested in making a uick buck rather than being respnosible breeders and "We have got the papers' doesnt really mean a thing as soon as they get them out of their cars you can see they are not true Labradors and no matter how much training is put into these dogs they will probably be "handfuls" for the rest of their lives. Minty continues her life doing whatever she pleases .She dines with the cats early morning and her brother George often shares his supper with her . She loves a sausage at lunch time and looks like a dog smoking a caigar with it stuck in her mouth as she proudly carries it about. She has a routine that tallies with Jacks and you certainly dont need a watch when she is about .As I type this they are both having their afternoon siesta on the settee.In th eeveings she makes a fuss as she likes to curl up with the cats so goes backwards and forwards to the door till we get sick of it and darent risk it any longer in case she wants to go to go to the toilet,but it is just so we let the cats in.

New additions to the Cuckavalda Gang

Our #FridayFavourites making them #SaturdaySpecials as these are the ones we are building back up our Cuckavalda Gang .Heeling up already with Minty in charge Youngest cockers are 7 weeks old . We were very touched that when we lost the 13 dogs in the accident that people, some we didnt even know got in touch and offered to give us a pup from their litter .It was just not one person but many .People were so kind and we feel so humbled by this and will never forget it.As much as we were truly grateful for their offers, we needed to keep our own blood lines which made us who we are today. So Peg and Molly the cocker spaniels have given us Lucy,Blue and Twig .You will see 3 black Labradors too These were not actually bred by us but we bought them from the lady who bought a Cuckavalda Labrador from us 3 years ago and had just mated her with one of our stud dogs the week beofre the accident happened. We were keen to jave some as Guy is the grandfather, he was one who died. So as we started with 3 fox red Labrador pups many years ago we now start 20 years later with 3 - Well it was going to be 2 but Anna came home with an extra one as it seemed only right as a nod to the orginal 3. 2 have collars on as trust us 3 black Labradors are very hard to tell apart. So here we have Chloe- who we didnt name.. and Sky and Abbey. You will also see Minty out with them and Lucy too. We have to look to the future.

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