Very kind  update from Sally, who has Poppy. Poppy is from Ernest and Rosie's litter of eleven pups. ​

"Hi Jane,
Hope you and your family are all well now and over the Covid thing?
We read your blog and thank you for the mention! 
Just so you know, Poppy has without doubt come into our lives and brought sunshine with her! 
Daisy is happier than she’s been since we lost Barnie and Keith and I feel the same. Poppy comes to work with us part time hours so she’s found a cosy place to rest filed under “D” for dog and is exhausted when she gets home  xx"

Received this update on the 17th from Sarah who has now had Harley five years. Harley is from Henry and Primrose's litter.

Received this lovely message (below) from Lynda and Steve along with updates for Ted and Ruby. I had been hoping to meet up with all of Teagol's litter on the 18th, but felt I was not far enough in the clear after having Covid 19. Fingers crossed that we can get together in the near future!
Ted is from ​Puddin' and Teagol's litter of seven tricoloured pups. Ruby is from ​​Ernest and Rosie's litter of eleven pups.

Elly sent me this lovely update (below) for Missy, the last week in August. Missy is from Ernest and Rosie's litter of eleven pups. ​

"Dear Jane,
I've been meaning to write to you with an update on Missy and to express how sorry I am for your loss of Teagol. She was an absolutely lovely dog and I can imagine this has been a very challenging time. Sending all my best wishes to you and your family. 
As for Missy, she is growing into a gorgeous dog who brings me joy every day. She is ultra-confident and nothing phases her. She bolts around the parks and loves nothing more than to meet new people and dogs. She is a master of London's public transport and happily jumps on the Overground, train, taxi or bus with me.
She is submissive when meeting a new dog - for about 5 seconds! She then tends to launch herself straight at the other dog's face and continues to give them kisses until one of us has to leave. Other dogs and their owners love her and she gets bundles of attention when she's out on walks. 
We also took her to Wales last week where she went to the beach for the first time and absolutely loved it. She also made friends with the local animals - pigs, sheep, donkeys and even alpacas! 
She is pretty good about being left alone although she is with me most of the time. I am looking into dog sitting options for when I have to eventually return to the office 1-2 days a week. Toilet training is progressing although we do still have occasional accidents and she hates going out at night as she gets scared by the shadows!
I thought I'd attach a few of her funniest pictures - you can see why she makes me laugh every day. 
All my best wishes,
Elly x"

A lovely message from Jenni who has Luna. Luna is from ​Ernest and Bumble's litter of eight pups.

"Hello Jenni,
Thanks for your kind words about Teagol. Really good to hear that you have been able to find Willow. A livelier mix than Luna, but I bet very bright and trainable.
All the best
Jane x"

Thanks for the get well wishes. We are all back on the ball again. Thanks Ruth!
Pablo is from ​Ernest and Blottie's litter of ten again

Updates from Andrew and Pam for Iris (below). One from August and one from a week ago. Hope you had a lovely time in Scotland with Iris.
Iris is from ​​Ernest and Rosie's litter of eleven pups. 

Thanks Helen for your kind messages and photos of Tilly over the last months. Much appreciated. Tilly is from ​ ​Ernest and Rosie's litter of eleven pups. The photos are of Tilly from August up until now.

 Below is a recent update from Helen and the photos and videos are over three updates for Hope back to the beginning of August. Hope is from our last litter from ​Ernest and Rosie's litter of eleven pups. Helen who is a vet has noticed that Hope has developed an undershot jaw since she has had her, so I ask everyone who had a pup from that litter to check their pups teeth. It is something that can develop even if a perfect scissor bit at eight weeks old. Undershot jaws can pop up in any breeds, but with Cavalier seperating from the King Charles, which is purposely bred with undershot jaws (don't get me started on deliberately breeding dogs with undershot jaws)  it has a higher prevalence in the breed than others and can pop up. 
Thankfully with Hope it should not cause her any major issues other than keeping an eye on and manual cleaning of teeth as more prone to tartar build up. Thanks for letting me know Helen

"Hi Jane,
I hope that you have all recovered from Covid now.  I just thought I'd send a quick update on Hope who is now 19 weeks old.  She's doing really well, has a lot of enthusiasm for life but is still able to settle well.  She's not had any accidents in the house for several weeks now so seems to be pretty well housetrained.  She graduated from puppy class, despite being a bit distracted in our last week, and has now started on the bronze Good Citizen Dog Scheme classes.  She's very responsive to training but does struggle to focus around other people and dogs - she just wants to play with everyone!
One thing I have noticed is that she's got an undershot jaw.  It was very subtle to start with and I was hoping that as her adult teeth came through that it might correct itself, but it seems to be becoming more pronounced if anything.  It's not likely to cause her any particular issues and she's still beautiful, but just wanted to make you aware in case it affects any of your future breeding plans.
She now weighs 5.2kg and is tracking on her growth chart to an expected adult weight of just over 8kg.  She's got extremely long legs!  I'd be interested to hear how big her siblings are now.
Hope you and all the Poundlane family are well.
Kind regards,
Helen"

I received the update (below) the beginning of August (That's how far I'm behind on here) from Helen who has the very handsome Otto, who reminds me of his Grandfather Toby (pure Cavalier), if Toby had more length of muzzle. Otto is from Puddin' and Teagol's litter of seven tricoloured pups. 
Otto unfortunately had an undescended testicle and when it was looked for, all that was found was a mass of cells (believed to be a vestigial testicle) stuck to an abdominal artery. Otto is from a litter of seven pups, four being girls and  three boys, Ted having both testicles descended, Gwyn had a retained testicle that was located and removed when castrated and Otto having a vestigial testicle. The first time I have had a report back of one of our dogs having a vestigial testicle. I know it has been and is a worrying time for Helen waiting to know if he will need surgery and the risks involved if he does need surgery again. They are in my thoughts and Helen is keeping me posted.
The last time I had a litter with retained testicles was Blottie with Casper and as Casper had a pup with a retained testicle with another bitch before and he dropped a puppy with Puppy Strangles in each litter. He was castrated and now lives with one of his daughters Megan. The term for an undescended testicle/testicles is ​Cryptorchidism. It is a bit of a disappointment to see that the pairing of Teagol and Puddin' produced two pups with this condition, especially as they produced such a stunning litter together. It is seen in many species domesticated and wild populations. This article ​Cryptorchidism is complicated with data of this condition in purebreds from the Netherlands. The data shows us that when both parents were known to produce pups with retained testicles, classified as carriers (CxC) produced significantly larger litters and also significantly more males than females, than when parents were classified as non-carriers, normal (NxN) and when one parent was a carrier and one was normal (CxN). 

Hi Jane,
​Otto is just fabulous. Loved and admired wherever we go. He's very adaptable too. We have stayed in 3 self catering cottages and 1 hotel so far this year and he settles really easily. He's very good in pubs and restaurants too! And brilliant with kids. So soft mouthed and gentle, giving up his ball so it can be thrown by a child again and again.
We're working towards Kennel Club Bronze currently and the trainers love him as he's so keen to learn. 
The only cloud hanging over us at the moment is whether Otto needs another operation. He had his descended testicle removed in a normal castration, but the vets couldn't find an obvious second retained testicle anywhere. All they found was a mass of cells stuck to an abdominal artery, which they believe is a vestigial testicle. He has to have a rig test in the next few weeks to see what his testosterone levels are and whether he is still producing the hormone from these cells. If he is, he will have to have an op to remove the tissue from his artery. The vet said we can't risk leaving it because testicular cells heating up in the abdomen represent a significant cancer risk.
We're obviously very worried, but have to hope he will be in safe hands with a specialist surgeon.
Anyway, I'll keep you posted as I know you're always interested.
Attached are some recent pics of Otto, including in a pub on his birthday (!) which I think show he has a good likeness of both mum and dad, both in looks and his loving personality.
Helen,  Al, Romilly and Otto xx

Lovely update from Toni for Bingley. Bingley is from ​Ernest and Blottie's litter of ten again

"Dear Jane,
​I was so incredibly sorry to hear about Teagol. We are so sad to hear and can only imagine how heartbreaking it must be for your family.
​I thought you'd like to hear how Bingley is at 8, almost 9 months. He's the most delightful dog. Permanently happy, enthusiastic about life and inquisitive about his surroundings! Its as if he wakes up every day full of joy and anticipation for what the new day will bring!
He had a hard time when our older dog died (very suddenly) in June. It threw him hugely - obviously first time he was without canine company and also he seemed to completely lose his awareness what his role was in the pack. He began to bark - a lot - in the nighttime, at us, and at any noise outside. He was improving as time went on, then about 6 weeks later we had a week's holiday and when we came back he was back to his old self - no excessive barking. It's almost like the trip away reset him and took away the worries.
He is still a dog who loves the outdoors and will usually be found in the garden - asleep or awake, or if a bit chilly, in the doorway with his head on the step looking out! He's also extremely sociable and his happiness seems to increase proportionally with the number of people or dogs that enter our house! I've attached a picture of him for you - he's trying to look round me as I take the photo at my daughter who had walked on ahead! 
He's got a strong mind of his own so has needed some clear direction of what his boundaries are. He really laps up any training, seems to be able to focus for extremely long periods so I'm always ending the training when he's ready to keep going! The hardest thing he's found is being left on his own. That's taken some extended work. He'll still pick himself up from a nap and move himself to where I am in the house and then fall back asleep there. 
Wishing you all the best as you rest and recover as a family,
Toni"

"Hello Toni,
Thanks for your kind words and letting me know how Bingley is doing. Very sad to hear that Whiskey died in June.That must have been hard for all of you. Sounds like Bingley was a bit lost for a moment. Good to hear he has settled and been able to adjust to losing his canine friend. He does look like his Mum and the focus will be from her and the loyalty to be near you will be from Dad. Ernest is asleep at my feet as I type this. 
Hope you are all okay.
Kind regards
Jane x"

Thanks for all the kind messages (some I have yet to reply) and updates for Poundlane pups as I took a break from the relentlessness of the internet and recharged the batteries. After having Covid go through our home, we are now back on track again. I have a lot of catching up to do with a burgeoning inbox of updates and I will get them up as time permits. Thanks everyone!

 I missed Polly's litter siblings reunion at Winkleigh on Saturday, as I thought it a bit risky to go to having only just gone negative for Covid, but I hope we can all get together in the not so distant future. Hope you had a lovely time catching up with each other in person.
Yesterday, with the gorgeous weather I felt it was about time we got Polly to the beach. Her first time, but you would not think it. She loves fetch and one of my children took some photos (above) of our trip and filmed Polly (below) making a couple retrieves. The one with me throwing the ball, she gets distracted by a bit if stick poking out of the sand as she brings the ball back, but when I repeat the command, "Bring it back!". She regains her focus. The one with one of my children throwing the ball into the water. Tilly is a bit lacklustre in her instruction to Polly and I tell her to ask her to "Bring it back!" So Polly brings it to me. 
​Polly is such a lovely combination of her parents Puddin' and Teagol. 

A study reported on ​CavalierHealth.org states that ​Cavaliers have higher levels of deleterious genetic variations, compared to seven other breeds. This is a pilot study and the researchers do air caution saying, "... although cKCs have accumulated deleterious alleles that are likely to have large phenotypic effects, the total number of added mutations may be relatively low and it may hence be premature to use our results as an argument to discourage further breeding of cKCs."
The interesting bit for me is the bit about gene NEBL in papillary muscles, where they say, "The most common disease in cKCs is myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD). To identify variants linked to this disease we next characterize mutations that are common in cKCs, but rare in other breeds, and then investigate if these mutations can predict MMVD in dachshunds. We find that variants that regulate the expression of the gene NEBL in papillary muscles may increase the risk of the disease, indicating that loss of papillary muscle integrity could contribute to the development of MMVD."
PLOS have published the whole study and you can read the study HERE

 Some may of thought that I had forgotten you Smudge. Smudge passed away the end of April suddenly, just as I was awaiting the arrival of Rosie's litter and just after losing her Mum Millie. So I mentioned her passing and said, I would mark her passing at a later date, because it had been a bit unexpected. Then we had the tragedy of losing her Granddaughter Teagol.

​Just a week before Smudge's death I had joked with a vet about seeing her in six months after her check up, as we had started her on heart medication. Although on heart meds, she was very well in herself. The old MVD can be like that though and having her trundling around happily that morning to then finding her collapsed in our utility room, a quick check of her gums. I new what was happening. Her valve had all but totally gone. I rung the vet for advice about whether I should let nature take its course and stay calmly with her. I was told to give her twenty minutes and if she had not passed, it may be best to come in with her and help her on her way. She remained amazingly calm and with my oldest son Bert, we took her to the vets. No crying I said. Not until she's gone. Don't make her think she has upset us.
It was a tearful burial. She was such an old softee, one of the gentlest, kindest dogs I have been lucky to have had in my life. I will always feel your warmth and whiskers against my face Smudge, never forgotten!

Covid has made its way through our home, with only David (husband) at the moment not getting it. He has been given a wide berth and it is weird staying at least 2 metres from your husband and if any closer I am wearing a mask and have sanitised hands. Being double vaccinated and flow testing negative with no symptoms. He has been able to keep working, although only on one farm where it is all field work at the moment. 
Our six children have all got over it, not much more than a cold for them all. Three of them had received one vaccination and nature decided to give them the other. David and me are both double vaccinated. As I am chief cook and bottle washer, it was going to be almost a given that I was going to come into contact with Covid. I spent a week testing positive with very mild symptoms and a couple days ago Covid decided to ramp it up, which did coincide with after me painting the utility room. It is so boring being confined to barracks, so I thought I would use the time to get some of those jobs done that you keep putting off. So a faint line on a rapid flow test, changed to a dark red line and I felt rough with a bunged up nose and a sore throat, which has now just gone to being an irritable throat. I'm hoping this is it and a few more days and our home will hopefully become Covid free. 
Well that's enough of my woes and what for the future of Poundlane. July saw the tragedy of losing Teagol (daughter of Blottie and Mum to Polly) and a few days after her death, I had her Mum Blottie booked into be spayed. Blottie (who is a first cross Brittany/Cavalier) turned six in April with having her daughter Teagol, and Teagol already producing Polly for us from her first litter. I did not see the need to breed from Blottie again. Losing Teagol suddenly changed things and I put a stop to have Blottie spayed the end of July. Giving me a chance to think things over. I did not want to base my breeding on grief. Only having Polly to carry on that line feels a bit precarious and once I had spayed Blottie, that would be that.
So after much thought, I have decided that Blottie will breed one more litter, her fourth and last litter.I have only bred four litters from two bitches in the past and this was because they were exceptionally easy whelpers and fertile girls. Blottie ticks both those boxes and  she will also have to pass a heart examination and other relevant health checks. All going well she will be paired with Ernest (our beautiful 3/4 Cavalier and 1/4 Poodle (miniature) boy), who also will have to pass his health checks as well. He turned five back in the Spring. Blottie is due to come on heat around December time. Hopefully a Spring 2022 litter. As soon as I get over Covid, I will get health examinations booked and start the ball rolling.
​So it's back to the future for our next litter!