Posts filed under ‘Cavalcade of Whimsy’
Cuba takes to the water.
What better way to keep cool on the hottest day of the year than to explore our river:
Cuba is approaching 13 weeks old and has excitedly splashed and paddled in the river before, but today she first retrieved a stick and then went for a series of full-on deep water swims, demonstrating an amazing technique right from the very first attempt!
Belatarr Reunion.
This last weekend saw the gathering of the clan as we hosted our 3rd Belatarr reunion. After weeks of daily rain we were incredibly lucky and blessed with unbroken summer sunshine for the entire afternoon. 20 Belatarr Wires were present, together with special guests Oz and Bertie the Labs, Molly the Golden and teeny-tiny Frankie the “Shorkie”. Needless to say much wiry romping in and out of the river and around the garden ensued and it was wonderful, as ever, to see our babies all grown-up and very much enjoying life to the full!
Many many thanks to everyone who came to the day and who braved the holiday traffic travelling back and forth to us in Devon – we couldn’t do it without you all – and particular thanks to Sarah for fulfilling the role of official photographer for the day and for supplying all of these great pics. 🙂
Mama Phoenix in full flight!
Belatarr at Bournemouth.
A super day for the Belatarr babies at the Bournemouth Championship Show… The heat was often stifling, but 4 Belatarr dogs from 3 generations of Phoenix’ puppies took to the ring today, and judge and breed specialist Karen Richardson did us proud.
Billie stacked in Open Bitch.
Billie’s examination – (camera facing straight into the sun, unfortunately!)
Belatarr Mahalia Jackson ShCM (Billie) was awarded 1st Open Bitch and went on to take Best Bitch, as she had previously done at the same show in 2014.
Her younger brother Belatarr Scluptor (Kofi) was 1st Post Graduate Dog and went on to take at excellent Reserve Best Dog, whilst, very excitingly, it was also the show debut of two of the newest generation of Belatarr puppies – the Hitchcock litter – as Belatarr North By Northwest (North) and his brother Belatarr Vertigo (Sabi) took to the ring at just 6 months and 2 days of age. Both boys looked terrific and though the heat made concentration and focusing very difficult indeed for them, they both acquitted themselves very well and both managed to qualify for Crufts 2016. Thrilled to have been there to see (and, in Sabi’s case, move) them in the ring 🙂
Belatarr Vertigo (Sabi) – a hot pup!
Sabi on the move in the ring.
A very hot North on the move in the ring.
Belatarr’s newly extended family.
Phoenix and Mingus became grandparents this week as I’m delighted to welcome the safe arrival of 9 lovely new ginger babies to their daughter Belatarr Nina Simone (Ruby) who lives in the New Forest with her humans Beverly & Jeremy. 
Sired by Hillfern Manhattan (Spike) none of these pups are affected by the HUU mutation. We hope that the combination of parents and grand-parents to this litter should result in some lovely, typey pups and I look forward to meeting them all very soon! All of the puppies were reserved before birth and their progress can be followed at: http://jembel.simplesite.com/417326804 
Puppy Portraits – week 4.
The last two days have seen some wonderful Spring sunshine arrive in Devon allowing us to get the pups outside to experience the big wide world for the first time. The thermometer showed 70 degrees F in the sunshine and the pups were able to spend 4 hours in the fresh air on two successive afternoons. Sadly the forthcoming weather forecast suggests that they may not have another opportunity to get outdoors again for the foreseeable future, but we were just delighted to see them frolic in the fresh air and were also able to take this weeks portraits outside too.
THE BOYS
Mr Black.
Mr Blue.
Mr Bronze.
Mr Bronze, again.
Mr Red.
THE GIRLS
Miss Green (sleepy!)
Miss Mint.
Miss Orange.
Miss Pink.
Miss Purple.
Miss Yellow.
The gang get their first taste of the outdoors!
Mr Bronze takes a nap in the sunshine.
…and has a snoozy snuggle.
When indoors and out the pups love nothing more than to pile into one or other of their cat-carrier dens, which have been equally enjoyed by all of their older brothers and sisters before them.
The gang pile into their micro-den (note the chew marks from previous pup inhabitants!)
For the last week we have also been weaning the pups onto their solid food diet. Starting with Royal Canin weaning mousse the kids went absolutely nuts with excitement at their first sniff of the solid stuff and within a few days were lapping very efficiently. From mid-week they were old and tidy enough to be fed from their super-duper Weena-Feeder and by this weekend they have been transferred onto their raw food diet – essentially the same as their mum eats, but put through a food processor to remove all of the chunks and lumps.
Meanwhile teeth are erupting and everyone wants to chew everything, so new rubber chew toys and plastic bottles are going down a treat, when human arms, toes and ears are not available. Their nails are still being filed regularly too, and, when they are sleepy enough, each pup can be gently wiggled upside-down on your lap whilst having their teeny-tiny toes attended to, as beautifully illustrated below by a gently snoozing Mr Blue.
Mr Blue gets his nails filed
Pup Portraits – week 1
It’s been a hectic and sleep-deprived 7 days but all the new boys and girls have thrived and all have doubled their body weight in their first week of life. So we can now start our traditional weekly portrait gallery and let everyone meet and then follow the growth, development and changes in each of the 10 pups over the coming weeks:
THE BOYS
Mr Black
Mr Blue
Mr Bronze
Mr Red
THE GIRLS
Miss Green
Miss Mint
Miss Orange
Miss Pink
Miss Purple
Miss Yellow
And finally some “action” shots from the week – when not feeding then the main/only action when you’re only a week old and can’t see, hear or walk is snoozing, of course!
The Gang’s All Here!
We’re absolutely delighted to announce the safe arrival of Phoenix’ final litter:
Yesterday was a very long and exhausting all-night-and-most-of-the-next-day whelping, but all 10 pups eventually arrived vigorous and squeaking and all suckled strongly immediately, so now, 24hrs later, we are very proud to be able to introduce Belatarr 3.0 to the world: 6 new Belatarr girls – Miss Yellow, Miss Orange, Miss Pink, Miss Green, Miss Purple and Miss Mint, and 4 new Belatarr boys – Mr Red, Mr Black, Mr Blue and Mr. Bronze.
As with Phoenix’ previous litters we have split the puppies into two groups and are hand-attaching them to feed around the clock to ensure that everyone gets their share of milk, so whilst one group feeds the others wait their turn, gently snoozing under the heat lamp. Phoenix is recovering well and sleeping a lot today, but is proving again to be the most wonderful, careful, conscientious and attentive mother. So now the fun begins!
The Belatarr reunion 2014.
An overcast but just-about-dry day greeted us all in the garden here at Belatarr HQ for our second Belatarr reunion. The wonderful turn-out included sixteen Belatarr babies along with their mum, Phoenix and Dad, Mingus, together with Copper the HWV and Oz the Lab.
Much splashy/hurtling/chasing mayhem ensued and all the dogs seemed to have a thoroughly good time exploring the river and the garden with one another. It was a wonderful day and we were, as ever, immensely proud of what beautiful and happy young dogs they have all grown into.
Many thanks to all who attended, and particularly to Sarah, Kathy & Vivien for sharing some of your photos of the day…mind you, getting all of the dogs (or even a large proportion of them!) together for a photograph or two proved a trickier prospect!
Belatarr Noctua (Kaia)
Her older sister, Belatarr Nina Simone (Ruby)
and Dad, Morehay Lars of Belatarr ShCM (Mingus)
Some of those who attended…take 1
…and a slightly more organised, take 2.
Gertie and Jack: the continuing adventures of a boy and his dog.
The ingredients:
1 x Belatarr Musca (10 months old)
1 x Jack (5 years old)
1 x Glorious Cornish Coastline
1 x Summer Sunshine
mix well and enjoy:
With many thanks to Sarah for the wonderful images and happy memories.
Puppy Portraits: Week 3
The Boys
Mr Black.
Mr Blue.
Mr Bronze.
Mr Green.
Mr Red.
The Girls
Miss Fawn.
Miss Lime.
Miss Orange.
Miss Pink.
Miss Purple.
Miss White.
Miss Yellow.
Probably the busiest week of all for the pups. With eyes and ears now wide open and fully functional the pups have started to explore and investigate their environment, and one another, with increasing curiosity and an ever increasing range of vocalizations too!
At the same time appetites are growing exponentially and so we started the process of weaning on Sunday, when the pups were 19 days old. This was 3 days older than with our previous litter and that extra bit of maturity meant that the process of lapping (which is obviously a very different skill set from that required for suckling) seemed to come much more easily to these babies. Still, as with any babies, progress was initially slow and messy, with each pup being taught individually twice a day whilst Phoenix took care of their main food intake.
By Day 23, though, their lapping skills had increased sufficiently to try the pups out on their multi-stall “WeanaFeeda“, which they took to with huge enthusiasm. So now, after another day or so of their starter mousse, we’ll start to blend in their raw food diet and by next week they should be happily tucking into a pureed version of the same diet that their parents and big brother already enjoy.
Miss Fawn winding down.
Can I eat this?
Mr Black.
Mum comes to sort everyone out., meanwhile Mr Bronze discovers that he can climb…
Mr Green looks thoughtful.
Miss Fawn winding further down.
Everyone on the go.
Belatarr Hungarian Wirehaired Vizsla. 
