Posts tagged ‘water’
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!
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.
Belatarr Litter Reunion Mega-Post!
A few weekends ago we had a very exciting not-quite-Birthday-Party day for the Belatarr babies, and 9 of the 12 pups (all minus Charlie, who was on hols in France, Ella, who was in season & Otis, who was working) returned back here to their birthplace for a wonderful reunion afternoon.
The Wire Gods were definitely smiling on us all that day since we somehow managed to stage it on what was the only sunny & dry day that we’d had for weeks, and, indeed it feels like it’s been raining non-stop ever since then too…
Cakes & snacks were eaten (by humans… and very probably by puppies too), everybody had a good chance to compare puppy notes and catch up on wire-chat, and, most importantly, much highly excited puppy play was undertaken (on land and in water) as a whirlwind of bouncing, swimming, chewing and hurtling was unleashed!
For us it was also quite wonderful and a source a great pride to see the boys & girls back together and all now grown-up into such beautiful, confident and happy young dogs. We were struck by how lucky we were to have found such lovely and loving homes for this first Belatarr generation – and huge thanks, once again, to everyone for bringing their pups to the reunion.
Tim’s camera unfortunately managed to conk out early on in the proceedings, so we are extremely grateful to Marcus & to Emma (thanks guys!) for kindly both sending on their many pics of the day, some of which are included here.
Puppy Updates.
It seems hard to believe that the Belatarr dozen are approaching 12 months old, but next month will see them celebrate their 1st birthday. Meantime it’s been as busy as ever in the lives of the pups:
Django, with his ever more luxuriant facial furnishings.
After a slightly delayed start in the ring our own Django is finally now becoming quite the showman and has racked up a series of Champ Show 1st places from his handful of appearances so far. His (usually!) superb carriage even won him a Best Puppy and then Best in Show award and the local DHK Pedigree Charity Dog Show where he beat approx 60 other (mostly adult) show dogs to collect his first ever trophy.
Like Phoenix & Mingus before them Django & his brother Finley also successfully completed their Puppy Gurus Advanced training this month, during which time Finley developed an evident love for agility – a whole new string to the Belatarr bow!
Their brother Otis lives with his Hungarian pack over at Nansavallan Vizsla in Cornwall. Much like his father before him he has rapidly developed a superb deep red harsh wire coat and is proving to be a complete natural at gun dog training:
Otis demonstrates his new skills.
Otis at 11 months.
Meanwhile, in a well-earned break from the show-ring, brother Charlie Parker has been enjoying the sights and sounds of rural France along with his big brother Oz the Chocolate Lab:
Charlie learns a new skill.
…and another.
A happy boy.
and a well-earned snooze.
Back on this side of the channel, and following their successes in the show-ring, brother and sister act Gryphon (Belatarr Dizzy Gillespie) and Billie (Belatarr Mahalia Jackson) have also been learning new skills as they try out for both working and obedience tests:
Gryphon, who has clearly learned to read.
Gorgeous head-shot of Gryphon (courtesy of Sharon Newman)
Billie, demonstrating her retrieve from water whilst showing off her perfect top-line. (courtesy of Sharon Newman)
….and the dried-off version.
Gryphon & Billie awaiting their next adventure. (courtesy of Sharon Newman)
Bristol resident Milo (Belatarr Thelonius Monk) has also been over to France this summer, and looks to have picked up a new interest of his own:
Milo waiting to be served at the pub.
Starting with his muzzle Milo now has a super, tight wire coat developing over his whole frame.
Milo on top of the world (well, the cliff, at any rate).
Across town is Digby (Belatarr Oscar Peterson), another Bristolian Belatarr with a super red wire coat:
Digby at the beach, back in summer.
Whilst down near the south coast are two of the Belatarr girls, Ruby (Belatarr Nina Simone):
Ruby says hello.
Ruby, keeping up the family tradition.
and last, but most definitely not least, is our very special little girl Ella (Belatarr Ella Fitzgerald):
Ella, in full bloom amongst the heather.
Ella with hew new big sister Ilka.
Ilka showing Ella the ropes….or is it the other way around?
Much more Puppy action coming to the blog very soon with a report/ photo-montage from the Belatarr litter reunion day…
Big Beach day out.
After seemingly endless rain the sun has finally made a return, so what better time to take everyone to the beach for a sandy romp! Little Django is now 9 months old (time certainly flies…) and is looking not so little and all-grown-up all of a sudden….looks can be deceptive, however!
Django in a rare moment of stillness.
This is a more usual pose.
Racing with dad.
…and with mum too.
The family emerges from the surf.
Django leads the charge.
A brief pause to pose with a stick.
…and swiftly back to bounce mode.
Strutting his stuff, showing off that awesome stick, whilst Phoenix looks on and hatches a plot.
In tandem with Mum…who, having hatched her plot, now has ownership of the stick.
So much sand, so little time.
And relax.
Mingus Vs. Jaws…
The gang had a quick (drizzly) trip to Northam Beach today to enjoy the massive several-mile-deep expanse of sand exposed at low-tide. Mingus also caught a shark!! (albeit only a young Small Spotted Catshark – a very common species in the waters around North Devon) which instantly became a very prized possession….plus we managed to get a couple of nice head shots of him too, despite the extremely low light levels:
A Dog and his Shark.
Django update.
It’s been ages since we’ve had a chance to update the blog and a mountain of pup images have accumulated over the last month or so, so this update is definitely long overdue.
At the ripe old age of 4 months Django is now very thoroughly integrated into the pack and into our daily routines. Like his parents he’s incredibly affectionate and, if anything, even smarter and quicker to learn than they were. Ringcraft and Obedience training both started a few weeks back and, as with everything else, he’s taken them in his stride. Confident, calm & ever-curious would probably be his key adjectives right now, as he explores his world and we take him on his little daily adventures in the garden & river and, just occasionally, the beach too:
Django, hunter-of-voles, stalking his prey.
After a few tentative first introductions to water (not helped by him plunging into an icy pool one freezing day at the beach) Django now shares his parents love of water and excitedly heads for (and into) the river on his short morning walks. He also regularly demonstrates his HPR qualities and likes to Hunt, Point & Retrieve whenever the opportunity presents itself:
On point.
...and again - no vole is safe!
At the riverside.
Managing to keep dry-ish at the beach.
A rare trip out into the garden with mum - who's usually too fast for Django's young joints.
Ever attentive!
Retrieving a gull wing at Crow Point.
...and retrieving a stick from the river.
In profile.
Unlike the rest of the UK we've only had a light dusting of snow, but it was still something new for Django to experience.
Django & Mingus absolutely adore one another and when all the fun, games and training are over they often snuggle up together on the sofa.
Puppies – 4 week portraits.
Hard to believe these little guys have been with us for 28 days, but they’re now 5 times their birth weight and tipping the scales at around 2KG each.
The first teeth (canines only so far) began to appear on Friday, and Phoenix, not un-coincidentally, decided that she would no longer feed her offspring from that day forth. Luckily they are fully weaned now and chomping through 4 meals of raw meat per day. They’ve become quite skilful eaters and make far less mess these days, focussing instead on hoovering up every last morsel and then lying in a big, gently groaning heap whilst their meal digests.
This week saw the cats introduce themselves (to general puppy indifference), a few sessions of swimming in the bath and an increasing delight in running around at full tilt with entire sheets of newspaper in their mouths. The pups were finally able to meet many of their future owners for the first time over this weekend (the initial quarantine period now being over) and so received even more hugs and tickles than usual.
THE BOYS
Mr. Grey.
Mr. Indigo.
Mr. Green.
Mr. Red & White.
Mr. Red & Blue.
Mr. Blue.
Mr. Brown.
Mr. Red (his little white head patch vanished this week)
Mr. Black.
THE GIRLS
Miss Orange.
Miss White.
Miss Yellow.
Pups asleep in their mini-den.
Mr. Indigo's teeny-tiny tongue - for Annette 🙂
It’s all about Phoenix.
Although she scored some very nice Champ Show class wins last year, Phoenix has been very lightly shown since being awarded top HWV puppy just over 12 months ago as we have concentrated on Mingus in the show ring. Phoenix has also had to take something of a back seat on the blog too, so we thought the time was well overdue for a celebration of the world of Phoenix.
Phoenix in the meadow.
Phoenix has a hobby, and one that we’ve never got around to documenting on the blog before. She loves, and I do mean LOVES, for inanimate, “previously-still-things” – sand, soil, mud, and most especially water – to come alive and start to move. Of course she loves hurtling around after deer, pheasants, sticks, toys as much as the next gundog, but she saves her most intense concentration and her most excited response for when she gets to act as goalie and dives this way and that to catch “previously-still-things.” Mingus can be quite obliging, and when he’s digging in the soil or sand Phoenix invariably positions herself right behind to catch the flying dirt….
But Phoenix is a total water-baby at heart, so it’s no great surprise that her favourite variation, and one with which she is now semi-obsessed, is the flying water game:
Stalking...
Focussing....
Bouncing...
Back-Flipping...
Leaping...
A contented Phoenix, post-splash.
