It’s been my good fortune to pick up on a lovely shoot on the Welsh borders this season. The ground is hilly with steep sided valleys, making for high, fast birds and some challenging retrieves. The terrain can make for tricky driving conditions at times, and it was somewhat alarming when the vehicle I was […]
Riska on the sick list
Riska went down with a bad case of mastitis when the puppies were four weeks old (I have a background of working with dairy cows, and check the bitch’s udder daily); she ate her dinner and was fine at 7.00pm, then an hour later I thought she didn’t look right, took her out for a […]
Big strides for small puppies
The puppies are four weeks old today and up until a few days ago Riska was doing all the work of rearing them, while I provided a waitress service to ensure that all her needs were met. This all changed when I started the puppies on solid food, using a deep muffin pan to prevent […]
Double trouble
The puppies now have their eyes open and so they are up and running, starting to play, and keeping me very much on my toes.They have been wormed for the first time, which was a somewhat messy affair involving a syringe, looks of disgust from the recipients, and pink wormer being sprayed in all directions. […]
Sweet dreams
Puppies are amazing little things, and I love rearing them, so much so that I choose to sleep in the same room as the whelping box for the first few weeks of their lives.They dream straight after birth, with twitching legs and little yelps, but one of them must have been dreaming in technicolour last […]