The bit written with a lump in the throat first…. For all the brave words, we have decided to sell Holden. I suppose you could say we aren’t your average *kennel*. Each of our dogs gets a lot of individual attention, some might say *too* much. I have spent weeks torn up about whether I, at this really crutial stage of training Bondy for competition, and Tom for picking up, assisting in Fish’s training, keeping Shiney ticking over…. and trying to have some semblence of a *normal* and *working* life too, if TWO puppies of the same age is entirely sensible. The simple answer is… its not. Ther is sadly no contest who has to be found a lovely wonderful home – Mia we really look forward to following behind her mum as the next Wylanbriar ‘mum’ one day…. so suddenly there *is* no reason good enough to keep Holden… and although i’m in no hurry at all, the home has to be right. Its the only sensible thing to do. Sigh. Keeping numbers as low as possible has to be a priority rather than as high as possible…. 😉 I could be making a huge mistake…. but I kind of don’t think so. So now we sit back and wait for Mr and Mrs *right*. Sob.

So onto happier stuff. Bondy and Fish ran in their KC Gundog Working Certificate last Thursday. It was a GREAT day run by Eileen Ayling, really enjoyed it. She did brilliantly well running the whole day as a simulated shoot, and seriously, it was authentic! We have drives, we beat through, we had walking guns, A keeper telling us to be quiet (grin), water, jumps, and altogether a good old all round test. They meanly made me work both boys together as I was running both, i had NO IDEA what to expect, and they both were very good indeed. Or tried to be. The odd bit of confusion nearly had me falling over them as Bondy figeted like the adrenaline fired whatnot he is…. whilst Fish laid not moving a muscle trying to be a good boy…. and it was sort of like conducting an orchestra of two halves….. the zebedee ‘bring it on! bring it on!’ Meercat, and the ‘Don’t want to get ANYTHING wrong, am I doing alright mum??!!!’ Fishmeiester. Two very different boys, both the same result… Passed 😉 Happy Days! Thanks Eileen, it was a credit to you. I would like to try a GWC again in the winter on game, in this new ‘single test day’ format they have conjoured up in the last few years (it used to be a two stage thing…) If anyone knows of one later on this year PLEASE let me know, its finding them thats the hard bit!

Saturday saw us all lounging around in the sun all day after some really enjoyable training on the edge of the Ashdown Forest with friends, early doors, before it got hot. Sunday saw Fish, Bond and me heading off to deepest Wiltshire for the URC Hants and SW Special Puppy test. Two nicely behaved Special puppies from Wylanbriar managed to end up in a field of 24, 4th and COM, with Fish kicking Bondys butt this time (by only by a mark so Bondy says its HARDLY a butt kicking when Fish is nearly 5 months older than him!) Fish allowed a little smugness to pass his, unusually handsome, face 😉 😉

To be fair, three tests, three cards for the Biscuit Meercat is a fairly impressive record, but there is much room for improvement, and with Fish being the long tall Sally that he is, the fact he has an Intermediate on Sunday gives me some hope that he might get the chance to ‘open up’ a bit in terms of distances again. Its a funny thing. I know many friends feel that working tests are a bit of a hindrence. I started the year completely disgareeing, but funny enough, you can see how you can make a dog a bit of a ‘working test’ specialist in training too much for working test senarios and forgetting the ultimate goal, which is, of course a shooting/trialling dog! It was when I spoke with one of my trainers and said ‘how do I stop Fish thinking every mark is in the next County?’ And he said ‘why….?’ and I muttered about him running in Special Puppy tests, and I KNOW he must have thought I was mental, worrying that the dog WANTED to be bold and get distance! And I was trying to think of ways to sort of temporarily train him out of it just for the odd Special Puppy test! When I looked at it like that I did feel a bit of a short sighted idiot its true! Stretch stretch and more stretch! But without stretching too far…. oh god! The worry of it all!!!! I need a lay down in a darkened room! 😉

Thank you boys, we are having such a blinding summer! And Tom, never you worry my boy, this winter is all about you and birds! Hopefully of both types! 😉

Oh my goodness I nearly forgot! Guess what? The green bloody Laguna has been written off! Not a crash, but the work needing doing was unbelieveably expensive so the stupid car signed its own death warrant! Right now I am carless, and its not easy juggling with Allan, begging and downright STEALING his motor regularly! But with some helpful neightbours with a spare car and the hope that in 3 weeks my lovely lovely boss is giving me another (sadly small and non doggy) car to take forward, the future may not be hugely bright on the motor front, but at least its not Green!!!!!