January - February 2009

Friday 27th February

Ninja's puppies have arrived! Four days early but mother and babies are doing well. All unbelievably straightforward and all eight born in well under three hours. Six girls, two boys. We will be getting in touch with everyone that has expressed an interest in one of these puppies in the very near future. In the meantime, there is a photo of the new arrivals on the Current Litters page.

More good news in that Lily, Peasblossom Charm, has passed her Silver and Gold Good Citizens Award without putting a paw wrong. Wow! Well done Lily - we are very proud of you!!

Sunday 22nd February

What a lovely day it was yesterday - bright, sunny and very spring-like. Hoorah! Had a good day at the SESSS Championship Show. Judge was Kerry Simpson. Seamus was third in his class but this was the first time up with the really big boys in Open Dog. We were pleased with that. Kye who was entered in about seventeen classes - Junior Warrant point chasing - well, four really, and managed to win two of those and secure his JW subject to confirmation from the KC of course. Holly was entered in three classes for the same reason, winning all three! She too gained her Junior Warrant yesterday. We are thrilled - no more freezing our bits off in cow shed Open Shows all over the country for a while..... ! Anyway, we are very pleased and proud of our two youngsters who started their show careers at the same show in October at ESSC of Wales and finished their Junior Warrant titles at the same show yesterday.

Another little bit of good news was that Dave won the 'Critique Of The Year' competition run by the Southern ESS Society and judged this year by David Cavill. This was for the critique for Welsh Kennel Club 2008.

Ninja came with us and waddled about a bit. She is looking very big but still enjoyed a long walk today with Seamus and Kye. However, we expect that our next bit of news will be on the arrival of her puppies.

Yesterday, we also saw Liam (Peasblossom Bregan), brought to the show by his new owners. It was great to see him looking so well and happy. His owners were also able to say hello to Liam's sister, Rattan at the show who finished second in Yearling Bitch.

Friday 20th February

Yesterday was Ninja's second Birthday although she is having her sausage ceremony (two sausages) this evening as we weren't together yesterday. We doubt she will mind too much. She is probably just happy to be having some extra food!

Tomorrow is the Southern ESS Championship show - we had entered four dogs but now Lila has come in season early. Big disappointment as her diet is starting to pay dividends and a sylph is appearing once again.... ! Never mind. The other three dogs are trimmed but not yet bathed. Better get cracking as it is 6pm already!

Tuesday 17th February

Sunday was the All Breed Educational Day and the Conformation & Movement seminar organised by myself and Lesley McCourt. It was an exhausting success! Thanks to all our absolutely fantastic helpers, Malcolm, Keith, Wendy, Celia and Graham - we couldn't have managed without you!! We are still counting the money but think we have raised an excellent sum again so thank you to everyone who came along to support the event.

Now we are on the count down to our first 'real' show of the year on Saturday at the Southern ESS Society. We have four dogs entered so I guess this week is going to be a busy one! Ninja is doing just fine and is quite round already - not too much longer to wait now....

Sunday 8th February

Yesterday we took Holly and Kye to the Isle of Ely Canine Society Open Show at Godmanchester. Judge was Geoff Cunliffe (Fallenleaf). Holly won her Junior Class and finished RBOB this time. Kye was second to Holly.

On Friday, Mattie attended the International Show at Eindhoven, finishing Best Bitch and Best Opposite Sex to her kennel mate, Darwin, Whisborne Viking Voyager. She won a third CC and also another point towards her Junior Champion title. She needs just one more. So, well done to all at Kennel van het Veense Springertje! A photo has been added to Mattie's gallery of the win. Go to 'Dogs Bred By Us' to locate it.

Thursday 5th February

Well the snow lasted all of a day and a half and we are back to rain and mud! Roll on summer!!! Some new photos added to Mattie's gallery today. She is looking really well and obviously enjoying her new life in Holland. Lots of luck tomorrow at the show from all of us xx

Seamus and Kye went for their annual eye tests yesterday. All fine including Glaucoma (again!).

Monday 2nd February

Lovely news to share that Ninya has been scanned and is definitely in whelp. In fact, eight puppies were seen on the ultra-sound. She is very well and is indeed eating for at least that many!!! More news soon....and hopefully new photos when the weather improves. We have snow, snow and more snow!

Saturday 31st January

We would like to wish a very happy SECOND Birthday to the Peasblossom A litter for tomorrow. Can hardly believe how the time has flown by. Many happy returns to Alfie, Jazzie, Ozzie and Archie and not forgetting our precious Lila. She will of course be having her sausage ceremony tomorrow evening, although as she has been on a diet for the last four months, hers will sadly consist only of chipolatas!

Ninja is settling in fine and is starving! More news to follow after the scan on Monday.

Thursday 29th January

Ninja is here! Dave collected her from Heathrow late last night as planned. She spent the night on our bed and slept better than we did! She will spend the next few days settling in with the others and will go for a scan on Monday morning to see if there are puppies. She does look 'blooming' however.... Photos of the new girl to follow when we are together long enough!

Monday 26th January

Henley On Thames Open Show yesterday - under water of course. Kye and Holly came with us, Kye winning both his classes and finishing RBOB. Seamus' daughter, Bridies Bridget Jones, finished Best Puppy and went on to win PG2. Well done Berry.

Friday 23rd January

Happy First Birthday to Mattie, Tia, Lily, Bailey and Darcy. Kye will be having his very first sausage ceremony tonight only he doesn’t realise he’s only getting one and that everyone else gets one too!!

Monday 19th January

Yesterday we went to Dartford & District Open Show. Kye and Holly were entered but only Holly went as you can only show one at a time especially when they are entered in the same class! Poor planning, so Kye was all dressed up with nowhere to go! Holly won both Junior and Graduate classes and finished Reserve Best Of Breed. Good news! The weather has completely changed and is now just the vilest imaginable rain and wind with mud, mud, mud. Sigh.... spring seems a long way away!! Anyway, to cheer ourselves up and to get ourselves in the mood for puppies, we have been updating our photo gallery with some photos of Peasblossoms that live with other familes. Go to the main menu for the Photo Gallery.

Saturday 10th January

Brrrrrrrr..........we have snow, ice, frost and everywhere is white and frozen. But the dogs are clean and everything is happy in the Peasblossom household! Plans are afoot now to fly Ninya to England towards the end of the month. Very exciting, but we would like to know how it is possible for Dave and I to fly to Sweden and back for £100 all in, when Ninja's bill will be £1000 one-way! Mmmmm.....these flight companies must see us dog people coming....!

I judged at Dukeries Gundog on Sunday 4th January and had a super entry of 30 springers and considering how cold it was on the day, very few absentees. BOB was Trimere Talking Point of Allenie who also finished the day as Best In Show. BP was Trimere Thrills and Frills, and RBOB, Alanea Charade of Jorobaden.

It was my first ever trip out to Newark and Notts Showground, and yet we were back again yesterday at Boston under judge, Ray Jaggers (Jaraina). Holly and Kye came with us and it was just as cold as it had been the previous weekend. BOB was again Trimere Talking Point of Allenie who went on to top the Gundog Group. Holly finsihed Reserve Best Bitch winning both her Junior and Post Grad Classes and Kye finished as Best Puppy. All in all, a lovely start to the new show year. Go to Kye's gallery for a photo of the main winners.

Thursday 1st January

First of all, we would like to wish all our friends a very happy, healthy and successful New Year. It will be interesting to see what 2009 will bring in terms of change for the dog world and how it will impact on our hobby. For us, another year in the ring like the last one would be pretty good!!!!

So ..... some new photos of Mattie, Peasblossom Caress, have been added to her gallery. Go to 'Dogs Bred By Us' in the main menu to view her in her new home playing with her Dutch kennel mates. Good luck for the forthcoming show season Rudo and Helma. Any good results will be published here of course. Bad ones we just won't mention. Isn't that how it works??????

We went to Luton Canine Society Premier Show on 29th December, taking only Kye and Holly. Judge for the day was Ray Strudwick. Kye won both his Puppy and Junior classes, Holly finished second to Kye in Junior. We waited around for hours in the freezing cold and finally left at 5.30 with the realisation that the Puppy groups would not be judged for probably a further two hours. A shame, but we were very happy with the nice end to the year for Kye.

We have added some History pages to the site - go to the Welcome page in the main menu to view. Just some information on how it all started.... with some really funny photos of Dave too! It's quite hard to make it interesting and not 'and than we did this, and then we did that' so sorry if that's what it's like. We did our best....

Last of all, we are pleased to announce that a new girl will soon be joining us from Sweden and from Kennel Barecho. 'Ninja', Barecho Not Bad At All will be coming some time in January and will be staying for good. Thank you to David and Helene for thinking of us and helping us out yet again. Ninja will be mated to Fritz, Barecho Fun For The Future, (Seamus' father), before leaving Sweden so we are also now looking forward to a litter early in March. This has all happened very quickly and we have hardly had a chance to draw breath, but we have no doubt that Ninja will be a great addition to our little kennel - sometimes fate has a way of sorting things out for the best.... Ninja has her own dedicated page and our Planned Litters page has also been updated with details of these 'unexpected' babies.