A bit of video footage of Puddin' sat on our lawn listening and taking in the smells on the breeze. 

Puddin' waits at the gate down to where ​Teagol is kennelled whilst on heat.

Smudge two weeks after having a ​Sebaceous Cyst removed from the inside of her upper eyelid of her right eye. All healed.

Got a very nice video sent to me yesterday evening from Caroline, who has Alfie. Alfie is from Casper and Blottie's litter of nine little Blenheim pups

"Hi Jane
Hope you and your family are well. I thought I would send you a video of Alfie swimming and retrieving. We were so pleased with him. He normally just paddles in water and has never swam before let alone retrieved in water. And it was a big stick!!
Speak soon
Take care
Caroline x"

Lovely update from Madeleine for Oliver now 10 years old. He is from Charlie and Millie's litter born just before I started our website and blog back in 2010. Oliver is the Cavalier I wrote about having being diagnosed with CM/SM and not long after his CM/SM diagnoses Oliver then had a couple bouts of Idiopathic Disease, but as you will read below, now at 10 years old he is 'remarkably well.'

"So Oliver is 10!!
Not sure how that happened!
He still does remarkably well for all his complaints. Still heart clear at 10!!!
The SM is managed well with Gabapentin and he continues to not have a repeat of the Idiopathic Vestibular Disease he suffered at 6.
He does now unfortunately have dry eye. His right much worse than his left. We manage this easily enough with lubricating drops but I do have to be mindful.
I don’t think his eyesight is as it was he often misses where the ball goes when we play fetch, something he still loves like a puppy! I just throw it in the direction he runs to help him out. 😂😂
He has gone a bit grey around the eyes but otherwise he is trim and healthy. He is quite shaggy in the photos, lockdown long hair! 😂
He is such a precious boy.
I adore him. As do my children and hubby.
Hope you are well
Madeleine"

So what do we hope to acheive putting our pure Working Cocker spaniel boy on Teagol, who is 62.5% Cavalier, 25% Brittany and 12.5% Poodle (miniature)? 
We will end up with a dog that is technically 93.7% spaniel and 6.25% Poodle. The spaniel then can be broken up to Cocker 50%, Cavalier 31.25% and Brittany 12.5%. Technically some purest fanatics might also say, "You end up with  a mongrel", but a mongrel is actually a dog of no definable type or breed. It you can't see my dogs are spaniels, you may need a little drive to Barnard Castle

​Teagol's Mum is a first cross Brittany/Cavalier, and in that one cross, we managed to produce Blottie with no Chiari-like Malformation (CM)/ Syringomyelia (SM), with having a Cavalier mum, Smudge who is CM graded 2 and SM graded 1, but with putting Blottie to Ernest who is CM graded 2, but has at 4 years old still graded 0 for SM (He has also great heart health on both sides of his Cavalier breeding). Teagol has been graded CM 1, showing no signs so far of SM.
Using a small cocker like Puddin', I hope to correct this little step backwards with improving the stop further and more length to neck with a bit more length in the back to leg ratio.
Puddin' has a lovely length of neck. If you look at breeds being bred with the disease Brachycephaly ​as a ​desirable trait as Cavaliers are being bred, one thing to note is how short their necks are. This seems to be one of the traits that occurs with breeding for a broader in width and shorter in length cranium, along with the muzzle getting shorter. A lot of really important anatomy has to fit into these areas for the dog to be able to breath and regulate body temperature. The concertina effect of brachcephaly with the loss of length to muzzle, then cranium and then neck has a knock on effect causing a reduction in quality in life for these dogs. Just breathing can be a struggle due to the airway being restricted as space becomes a premium and especially regulating their body temperature during hot weather as their Nasal conchae is either compromised by being so compacted or is all but non existant due to lack of space. As can be seen in the CT-scans (below) comparing a dog with brachcephaly to a dog without. 

Billy Bunter turns 14 weeks old 

Lottie is Ernest and Bumble's daughter. She turned two years old this March and is a very sweet girl. Very cuddly, also a handy flushing spaniel. Happy to go in through the tightest prickly places.

Love from Megan on her 2nd Birthday. Megan is from ​Casper and Treacle's litter of five pups

"Dear Jane,
I have had a lovely birthday and send lots of love to you all and to my brothers. Just off to the kitchen for some supper. We went for a good walk in the woods this afternoon.
Hope you are all well and coping with lockdown.
Lots of Love,
Megan, Casper and Bridget. XXX"

Got an update from Wendy and Tony a couple days ago for Barney, as Barney turned two years old on the 21st May. Barney is from ​Casper and Treacle's litter of five pups

"Hello Jane.
We just wanted  to wish Barney's sister and brothers a Happy 2nd Birthday.    Barney is as lovable and mischievous as ever and has brought so much joy to us, especially during the difficult time of the lockdown.    His latest game is to remove all the labels from the plants in pots in our garden.    We find them collected together on the patio or scattered all over the lawn.    We are not sure what we are growing now!    He is such a friendly little dog and he and Daisy, who is now 9, are the best of friends.    I'm attaching a couple of photos taken this week of Barney.   
I do hope you and all your family are keeping well.  We are fine but missing  our family.   
Kind regards, keep safe and well.   
Wendy & Tony"

Birthday wishes from Alison for Millie and her eight siblings. Millie is from ​Reggie and Smudge's litter of nine pups born April 2012.

"Hello Jane,
Hope you and your family are keeping well.  Have been meaning to message you for a long time, belated birthday wishes to all of Millie’s 8 siblings.  Can’t believe another year has passed, Millie continues to be a very much loved part of the family, I think she’s enjoying having a houseful, and is enjoying the extra walks.  I wonder how she will cope when she is left on her own again.
Just read you blog, glad to hear both Millie and Smudge are on the mend, did relate to the silent sleeper, sometimes I have to watch Millie really carefully or make a noise (before I can breathe again!),she goes from one extreme to the other as she can snore really loudly as well ! 
Looking  forward to puppy news at the end of the year (fingers crossed).
Have attached a couple of photos one being of when I caught her making a bed from some pillows which had been left on the floor!, they been piled up but she had other ideas.
Love
Alison and Millie x"

Lovely update from Judith for Bella, 12 months on from picking her up. Bella is one Casper and Bottie's nine little Blenheim pups

"​Dear Jane
I hope you are all well at Poundlane.
I can't believe how quickly time has flown.  It's 12 months since I came to pick up Bella and my life has changed for ever. Sometimes it only feels like yesterday, yet sometimes it feels she's been with me for years!
I knew I'd have a steep learning curve ahead of me, and boy, what an experience. She's a loving little dog, quick to learn and fiercely independent - verging on the devious sometimes! She loves a romp round the field or through the woods and is currently into digging mouseholes and rolling in sheep poo - today she rolled in a cowpat. Thankfully she loves a shower! And she really has some speed on her when she sees another dog or a person she knows in the distance. And of course I have to have a rota for who has free run in the garden otherwise Bella would be chasing the chickens all over the place - and no eggs!
I daren't trust her at night or when I'm out as she'll chew anything, so she still sleeps in her crate apart from an hour or so cuddled up with me on the bed morning and evening. She's chewed more pens than I can count and demolished four pairs of specs! She can now reach the worktops and top of the chest of drawers so I'm running out of places to put things out of the way! 
She and my Mum love each other to bits and they see each other every day despite the lockdown (legal as I'm my Mum's carer!). Bella tears in through the front door with tail wagging, jumps on my Mum's lap, edges alongside her, then gradually moves behind her and eases her off the chair!
Jane, I can't tell you how grateful I am that you chose me to have one of Blottie's pups. I do wish you could see her now she's getting all grown up, but we'll head west once all these shenanigans are over.
Much love from us both.
Judith & Bella xx"

Interesting bits of video I took this evening of Puddin'enjoying in the hot weather we are having, an old dog bed we use as a makeshift paddling pool for the dogs. The interesting bit is how he knows to breath out when he puts he's nose into the water to retrieve the stones. All the dogs I have had, that happily retrieve from water. This knowledge seems to be innate. Unless I've missed the time they did it the wrong way, and they are very quick learners. 

Cheap Wellington is basically a Beef Wellington using minced beef instead of fillet of beef. We use John Torode's ​Minced beef Wellington recipe.

when she was just over 5 years old, and yesterday it was still a slight heart murmur, so the surgery went ahead. All looks good. The cyst came off easily and Smudge has recovered well from the anesthetic. 

Friday evening I called for Millie. It was time for her supper, and although over 12 years old now, her hearing is still as sharp as a pin, especially when she knows meat and biscuits are awaiting her arrival. So I was surprised she was not at my knee, just hearing the rattle of the dog bowls. Let alone calling for her. So I popped my head around the door into the utility room, to see her stood (back to me) on the big dog bed. I called her name again and at first her reaction, I thought I had surprised her and then for an awful moment I thought she was having a heart attack. She suddenly flipped over off the dog bed staggering around and seemed unable to get her balance. I quickly got hold of her taking her to a sofa to keep her calm, and then I noticed her eyes flickering back and forth. I've seen siezures in dogs, but this was different, and a quick search by one of our children came up with it potentially being ​Vestibular Disease and apparently quite common in old dogs, enough that it is also called, "Old Dog Syndrome." We took her to the vets and he confirmed that all her symptoms pointed to ​Vestibular Disease.
​As she had not been sick and showing little distress. Still wagging her tail, when you called ner name. The vet said, "Time is our best friend with this condition, and 48 hours should hopefully see nearly all symptoms ceased." Well, 24 hours later it was hard to believe she had, had anything wrong with her. The video below is of her yesterday following one of our children around, who had a treat for her, and as you can see looking pretty good for a dog over 12 years old. Millie is on not on any medication and her heart murmur that was diagnosed around 5 years old is still slight between 1-2. Her respiratory rate at sleep I have recorded as low as 11 breaths a minute recently. She like her daughter, Smudge when sleeping, you sometimes have to watch for a while to check if still actually breathing. Respitory Rate With Regard To Mitral Valve Disease
I've never experienced ​Vestibular Disease in a dog before. It is a frightening thing to see, and said to be like vertigo in humans, but fingers crossed for Millie that all things point to it just being an idiophathic episode, so her outlook is good. 

Steph shared a photo of life in lockdown for her pets. She has Lily, who is Ernest's litter sister from Toby and Treacle's litter born April 2016.

"Hi Jane ,
Just thought you might like to see Dottie on her sixth birthday, I don’t think she was very impressed with her party hat !
Such crazy times at the moment, Dottie is such a great stress reliever and is always making us laugh with her antics ,she continues to be such a joy .
Birthday greetings to all Dottie’s siblings, once this all over we hope to be able to meet up with Dottie’s sister Lottie once again.
So glad you’re still posting your updates , it’s great to catchup with what’s going on at Poundland ,nice to see Reggie and primrose and I’m enjoying seeing Billy he looks such a bundle of fun.
Love to you and your family, stay safe and well .
King regards
Sue and Colin xx"