Charlie's Progress

We're handing over to mum this time so she can tell you all about our brudder Charlie...and probably Crufts too!






Charlie is doing REALLY well with his weight loss. As you can see he has started swimming again, this time at a different pool where the lady gets in the pool with him and he gets to have a fab time! She breeds and works Newfoundlands and was so impressed with Charlie's steady swimming action that she says he can be an honorary Newfie! An honour indeed if you know what wonderful and brave rescue dogs Newfies can be! Many a human life saved by this bold and beautiful breed.

Charlie's weight loss has now topped 650g....not much you might think but an excellent step in the right direction. As he can build up his swim time (he did 35 minutes last week), we are hoping that the weight loss will continue in leaps and bounds. I've certainly begun to notice a difference when I have to carry him upstairs. He remains a happy chappie and my beautiful big boy!

The rest of the Beauclarke Bunch are doing well, Buddy took a tumble over the wood the other day but seems none the worse for wear, Louis is his usual barky self as is Pixie who keeps us amused with her crazy antics bouncing around the place...and the other girls, Penny and Lilly remain their usual stately selves!




The highlight of the doggy calendar came around again last week with the annual Crufts dog show held over 4 days at the NEC in Birmingham. I went along on Day 1 for the Gundogs and Day 4 for the Toys. This is the first year I have done 2 days at the event and have to say it was much better doing it this way round. More time to see everything and also plenty time for shopping!! Next year it will be Day 1 (Toy) and Day 2 (Gundog) for me, I wonder if 2 days in a row will see me off!!! I'd better start my Crufts 2012 savings fund going now!
Here is Pixie sporting her free Continental Airlines towel (from their stand at Crufts)...she wants to be their mascot!!




My oldest human child is 18 today so I had better begin some decorating for her to come home too from college!

More soon.......

A birthday, a bath day and Charlie's leg.

Well, so much for Mum promising to Blog weekly! We knew she wouldn't manage it! But to be fair she is not lazing around doing nothing and has lots to keep her busy.

One of the things she is working on is a children's story featuring us, The Beauclarke Bunch, but mainly about a magical spaniel (of the Cavalier variety ...goes with out saying!)at the moment called Spangle....but Spangle might become Dizzy....So far our lovely dearly departed Golden Retriever sister Ellie Bear has a mention as does Lilly, famous for her snoring, and some of the Jezebell Cats, but we'll all end up on there somewhere with Spangle, or Dizzy or whatever he ends up being called! Charlie and Pixie are modelling for Spangle and Dad is doing the illustrations for Mum's book. Here's on of the illustrations..... Dad's GOOD!!!




Annnyyyywaaayyy, the birthday was Pixie's. Princess Pixie of Beauclarke is now the grand old age of 1. We celebrated with some nice bones and a special doggie chocolate each. There are no doggie birthdays in March but we have 2 coming up in April. The Busdter will be 8 and Charlie will be 2.




Speaking of Charlie, he has been back under the knife again with his leg. He is still having problems walking and limps very badly, so the vet had him in to see what was going on in the joint as his knee is very stable after his original surgery. A new set of X-rays showed up a piece of bone floating around so the vet opened him up to take a look and remove it.....but as our usual luck goes, the bone wasn't free floating in the joint but is embedded in his tendon which is massively swollen. Its too risky to start poking around in the tendon to find the bit of bone as this could easily rupture the tendon. If his tendon ruptures he would most probably loose his leg, if he looses his leg he would have to be put to sleep because he would not cope on 3 legs as he's such a chunky boy (If it came to it mum would buy him wheels rather than loose her boy just because he likes his bones and had 3 legs!)



So he is on a serious diet...in fact all of us Beauclarke Bunch are on a serious diet! We get bones once a week and chicken or liver once a week, but other than that its a diet food for us....actually it tastes OK and we all will eat it. Mum has been hand feeding us so she knows that we are all getting the right amount each. Charlie has lost 300g in a month...it might not sound like much but he can't exercise fully yet, as he needs to rest the tendon. Mum is taking him back to hydrotherapy again this week, so I'm sure he will tell you more.

And today, mum made all us Cavaliers have baths!! Buddy gets away with it becasue he's too big for mum to lift up! Us Cavs had very muddy paws and tummies, so mum trimmed out feet and coats a bit yesterday and made us all have a bath today. Mum says she not sure that we are any cleaner...but we are much wetter as you can see..!!

A Very Merry Christmas!!

Well, at long last Santa Paws has been and visited. Us pups had a nice early morning walkie in the crisp snow (and at minus 11 degrees it was VERY crisp indeed!)followed by an early breakfast of treats including luncheon meat, markies and two chocolate wuffles each! Bliss...we like Crimbo. We have all gotten into the spirit of things and so here are a few more photos of us getting into Crimbo mood. Before we leave you to see us in our festive photos, we would all like to wish you a very Merry Christmas (or Catmouse if you are of a feline persuasion) and a peaceful and Happy New Year.
Love from all at Beauclarke Mews.

Snowy Pics As Promised

Well as we promised you here are some snowy pics, we have about 7-8 inches of the white fluffy stuff down at the moment and we are loving it! A big thank you to Dad who risked life, limb and hypothermia to snap these pics of us frolicking in the winter wonderland. (Mum has man-flu and was still in bed when Dad took us out this morning...twice!)But we still love her! OK, time for some pictures and video clips of us enjoying the winter landscape...oh, and by the way, Pixie has not eaten the Christmas Tree yet so well done her for containing herself! I wonder if it will remain all in one piece if mum and dad go out (not that they can at the moment because we are snowed in and at minus 9 degrees C, the snow isn't going anywhere either!)

Its Snowing!!!!

Oh dear, its snowing...our bellies are covered up when we go out! We're quite jealous of Buddy Bear with his long legs when its like this outside! Mum and Dad are going to take some pictures of us in the snow when we have our walkies again tomorrow. We're all snuggled up for the day now. But here's one mum snapped of Penny investigating the white stuff..




Mum and Dad have been putting up the crimbo decorations, Pixie helped lots!

Here are the Beauclarke Bunch Official Crimbo Photos 2010





Watch out for more snowy pics of us soon!!!

A series of fortunate and unfortunate events!

Mum has a lot of explaining to do....so we'll let her go first...... Life has once again been rather hectic here at Beauclarke Mews. But I need to back track to Easter 2010 to begin my explanation of things as they have transpired.... One day I woke up and decided that I wanted to be a dog trainer. I went to Crufts and found a couple of associations that offered training to become dog trainers. I chose The British Institute Of Professional Dog Trainers and booked to do a week long residential course. I was told that as I had no training experience that I would likely not achieve qualification, most of their students come from training schools already set up and running. I quickly booked Louis into a local training school and went along to see what went on, from session one I decided that I could do things a whole lot better.... I went away on the residential course and it was such hard work it very nearly killed me. I took my boy Louis with me and it was an eye opener to say the least. We arrived and everyone there was walking around with perfectly trained border collies, German shepherds and the like...and there was me with a tiny Cavalier who had just mastered 'sit'!! I very nearly got straight back in the car and came home again...what was I thinking??!! But I'm proud to say that I hung in there and despite being physically, mentally and emotionally wrecked I did in fact pass the course!! (Not everyone passed, some with years of training experience did not make the grade, to say the course and examinations were tough would be an understatement. It wasn't all good though, as part of the week we got to do Bronze Level Citizenship with our dogs and Louis was the only dog there who failed!! He just would not wait to go through a doorway!

When I got home again I decided that because the course had nearly killed me I was not going to waste the qualification, and so I went about setting up a dog training business. Enter DY5 K9 Puppy & Dog Training Academy which opened its doors to the first students on June 22nd, with a one hour training class once a week. Things have moved on since the and now we run 5 training sessions over 3 days a week. I have some wonderful people helping me, so a special mention goes to Rob and Nicki. I have taken and passed with Distinction a level 3 diploma in Canine Studies and also a Diploma in Dog Psychology, again passes with Distinction. I am currently studying a Diploma in Canine Communication, another in Animal Healing and also a Canine Massage Diploma. DY5 K9 has expanded to incorporate The Dizzy Pup Pet Care Shop and now SoulCandyK9 - massage and complementary therapies for dogs and humans. Interested parties can see more at the following websites:

www.puppy-dog-training.co.uk
www.dizzypup-petcareshop.co.uk
https://sites.google.com/site/soulcandyk9/

DY5 K9 has just hosted its first annual dog show and raised a wonderful £300 for the PDSA. It was a HUGE success with 37 dogs entered...way beyond the 15 or so we were anticipating! Here's a short video clip of the show.




Mum went back to work part time in November after a long battle to get her angina better controlled, but both her parents are not well and so she made the decision to leave work to look after them. She has her training empire to keep her busy and also will do some hourly paid teaching a few hours a week to make ends meet.

Lilly had her 4th birthday on December 6th and Louis is fully recovered following his knee surgery. Charlie on the other hand is still struggling with his leg and is back at the vets this week...Mum has PROMISED to blog at least once a week now that she has more time available to do so..., so watch this space.....

Charlie goes under the knife, Pixie is in season and Penny is 3

Finally Charlie has his surgery. Its been a looong wait in the hope that he could lose a little weight first but he managed to gain weight despite swimming twice a week in addition to his walkies. He had his operation on Wednesday and today has to go back and see uncle Steve for his bandage to be removed and a cartrophen injection. Brudder Louis will be going along with him for moral support and his cartrophen injection as well.




Pixie came into season for the first time earlier this month and has handled the whole thing rather well. The boys have been pretty good with her too, but they are all neutered!

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Penny who is 3 today! Special Chudgy Chocs all round...in fact Penny was singing this morning...'Happy birthday to me, today I am three, I'm going to eat chocolate for breakfast and tea!' Hmmmm, she probably would if we'd let her, she's a chocolate monster!