Dirty pups

Dirty and wet, but who cares?

Ready for towelling down before bed.

Lisa's pups

As predicted, the mist and rain are back today, but here are some photos from yesterday's training session.

Foxy (left) and Folia (below) are both settling into their lead work.

Pedigree (and puppy pictures) in the litter section of our site.

Patch & Canela

After several days of rain, mist and muddy dogs, the clouds lifted to give us a glorious sunny day. So we had the puppies out in the garden, and this afternoon I took Patch and Canela out for a walk down to the cliffs.

More rain/wind/thunder is forecast for the next few days, but in the meantime, here's a picture of the dogs scrambling down part of the path.

Limão e Gelo (or, Ice and Lemon...)

Anothing important thing that has happened this winter is that Limão has gone to a new and permanent home in Slovenia. Despite the ice and cold, we are pleased to hear he is doing well.

He is now living with Nina Werdonig, and her other PRT, and is co-owned by Jani Korosec. As well as finding a new home, Limão will continue in shows and has started in agility.

Limão is a special dog for us. We have three of his daughters here (Canela, Patch and Lisa), and currently a litter of his grandpups (see our litter page). He went with us to the UK in 2005, and also spent some time in the US in 2006.

So we're delighted that Limão is in such good hands, and we wish him and Nina every success for the future.

More pictures and information at http://www.slo-prt.com/limao.htm.

All clear!

This week we completed a task we set ourselves last year - to test all our dogs for patella luxation and for eye problems. All our dogs have tested clear on both counts.

We are doing the tests at the Lisbon Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. The director of the clinic is a specialist veterinary orthopaedist and tests the dogs for patella problems. The eye tests are carried out by the clinic's resident ophthalmologist, who carries out a detailed and complete examination.

We are not able in Portugal to have eye tests carried out by a member of the European College of Veterinary Ophthalmologists, for the simple reason that the nearest member is in Barcelona, more than 1000 km away. The membership requirements for the college are extremely strict, and require experience with equipment which does not exist in this country. However, we are assured that the equipment in question is not relevant to identifying the conditions which are normally tested for in dogs.

So we are now committed to annual eye tests for all our breeding stock, which will help us in our resolve to breed sound and healthy terriers.

In the picture, Abby (Aurgwen Abracadabra) just short of her seventh birthday. Abby has progeny in several countries and was top PRT in Portugal in 2006.

Don't cry for Louie

Louie (Snow Winds Churchill) has joined us here at Roseira Brava, kindly leased to us by his breeder, Mary Strom.

He made a good start at the Porto shows, winning the CAC on the first day, whilst on the second day he made it onto the podium in the junior handling - all credit to the young girl who took him in.

Louie is a seasoned show and stud dog, and having him here will add extra interest to our plans in 2007. He is also a nice dog to have around, happily playing with the others, and also with the pups.

Two litters, one mother

Here's a photo that shows a happy ending to a sad story.

A few weeks ago we lost one of our bitches due to complications after whelping, leaving us with three orphaned puppies. Luckily, Lucy had had pups just two and a half weeks earlier, and was able to adopt them. She had already heard them crying in the other room, and when I brought them in she got to work immediately, cleaning and nursing.

So Lucy (Snow Winds Turn Me Loose) has been rearing a total of seven - four dog pups of her own, and three smaller ones. A tough job, but with a bit of help she has saved the day.

A special word of thanks also to our helpers - Catarina, João and Dona Isabel - who held the fort while we went up to Porto for the first show of the year.