Just a couple of pics of my two in the garden today. That's Mazy's with her head in a hole. She's a busy dog, Domino will stand and watch the world go by for ages, Mazy has always got something in her mouth or her head in something.





Love the puppy photos Aly and all the others too.

Hi Aly glad you liked the photo it would be great if we could get the picture of all the brothers Judith would love it since it was the only litter Keisha had. Arent the puppies scrummy I felt really bad I couldnt take them all when we chose Troy. Bonfire night didnt bother Troy he spent the whole evening lying on his back fast asleep with his legs in the air must be a munster thing dont know any other dogs that sleep this way. Halloween was worse Troy couldnt understand why he couldnt play with the children when they came to the door for trick or treat.

Thanks for posting those Ally aren't they gorgeous, so chunky and pretty.

Have just heard from Judith who is having a lovely time, they have just been whale watching, lucky devils!!!!!!

Narla and Logi Pups

I went to see the pups yesterday - they are really lovely scrummy bundles. I would have liked to put one in my pocket and take it home, but I guess I'll have to wait another 2 weeks! The two in Sandra's arms are the boys, and the 3 together are girls, then all of them at dinner time.

Thanks also to Pauline & Norman for picture of Troy, Jiggy & Ringo - they are all such handsome & regal looking dogs. It would be nice if we could all get together one day and get a family portrait!

Elsa is turning out to be great at pointing. I'm really pleased as this was never Maggie's thing

Both waiting for me to open the gate to the field

Thank you Lins and Sue for your advice. Lins I have got your number and will take you up on that offer nearer the time if we go - if I ask you now I'll just forget everything you tell me)lol

We have had a lot of wet walks here recently - always seems to rain when I go out. They have put sheep in one of the fields I like to go to now so I have another limit to my walks. Today I took them up the road on the leads and cut through some fields home. It was nice to do some road walking with them for a change and they were both very good.

Tessa, Maggie is just as mad as ever and she will be three soon - I think she will always be like that and I can't imagine her staying put if there were pheasants around. I do admire those that have such control of their dogs. Elsa though is proving much calmer in character than Maggie -she is a little sweet heart and has been no problem at all. Long may it continue!

Tallulah looks fabulous Loudon (on photo blog) - she has lovely markings and looks so well. Funny how having babies doesn't seem to age dogs like it does humans. I suppose it helps not being able to see the dark circles under the eyes from all those sleepless nights!!

Love the pics of Cosmos - what a long way he has to travel but I'm sure he'll be very comfy in his crate. Ludo loves his crate and puts himself to bed in the evening - it wouldn't surprise me if one day he learnt to close the door behind him too!

At the moment Ludo has his back end on the sofa and front paws on the floor having enjoyed the firework display put on by the Royal Naval College. He didn't bat an eyelid bless him! Very different to his first experience where he went into a complete panic! It's amazing how they come on.

Fireworks

Loads going off here tonight. I seem to have a couple of strange dogs though. Domino is sat outside the back door watching the fireworks, not making a sound. Mazy is just sat indoors as though she can't hear anything. Hope everyone elses dogs are OK. I suppose tomorrow and Saturday they will be going off too.

Good luck to Sue for tomorrow.

Tessa, I'm not sure Munsters do ever grow out of puppy madness, Domino will be 9 in a couple of weeks and sometimes she's as mad as ever, she just sleeps more in between the crazy moments.

Love the pictures Loudon. Cosmos is a very handsome chap and I am sure he will be very comfortable on his trip - more leg room than the humans upstairs!
Good luck on Friday Sue. I have to smile at the thought of Evie on a shoot - there would be birds everywhere. I think she has great potential to work but it is not really my thing either for the reasons you mentioned Ali. Fat Cats ,posh cars, no skill, ready made gundogs and lots of dead birds. Some friends of my parents have a shoot in Worcestershire and he always used to comment that certain of the clientel 'couldn't shoot a fart in an entry'. It is however nice to see the dogs doing what they enjoy and the relationship between dog and master when working (the genuine ones that is).
At what age do Munsters grow out of puppy madness? Evie is now 12 months but still has moments of complete craziness and still bites with excitement at times. I have found that shouting doesn't work with Evie as it just winds her up even more but a squirt from a water bottle works wonders.
Hope all the pups are doing well in their new homes.
Can we see more pictures of Narla and Logi's babies please Sandra.

Various

Karen, don't worry about the dogs not being allowed back in. As long as the passport is correct (it's easy to check when it is issued), the dogs would only be delayed in coming back to the UK if the worming & flea treatment paperwork is not correct (usually the time is not filled in or correct from what I've read and what I saw when we brought Beecham back in). All that happens, then, is that the dogs have to be re-treated and you would just have to wait with them until it is OK (24 hours) to bring them back in - just expensive, but your dog insurance, if you have it, should cover some or all of that. But, they won't be taken away and locked up in quarantine.

Would it be possible for you to do a day-trip? I was going to do that with mine just to get Bosco used to it. Then, you would be able to get your own vet to do the worming/flea treatment before you depart as you would be back within the correct number of hours. I was going to get Peter,my vet, to do the dogs on a Friday afternoon so that we could go out to France Saturday morning and return Sunday lunchtime. Then, I thought my rellies and their Persian cat might not cope with the monsters, I mean Muensters, for even that long... I seem to remember that they once said that Wooster could visit them in the UK as long as he was tied to the bannisters in the hall throughout my visit ... I wasn't sure how strong the bannisters were, so I didn't try it, lol. But, doing a day trip might put your mind at rest to the procedure and at least you would go through the checks at the French end knowing that your paperwork was in order.

Thanks Karen & Ali again. Yes, I totally agree Ali. I think, looking back, that I had a few unfortunate experiences in childhood and that has led to this sort of phobic attitude, but it is fantastic to see the dogs doing what they were bred to do. This shoot used to be like the Clarendon one you mentioned, but they have a new gamekeeper now and it sounds as if it is quite different. There are certainly not the carpets of birds anymore, just shed-loads. They have not had an HPR on the shoot before. One of my trainers told me that I should not take the dogs as they would run amok and upset the gamekeeper and that I shouldn't take them on a lead as it never worked. I was intending to do the latter and watch as Bosco is young, not very experienced and I'm a novice. He would get a couple of retrieves if they were suitable - the gamekeeper was happy with this. Then Bosco broke his point to chase a rabbit @ training and didn't stop on the whistle, put up a pheasant the next day and didn't stop to the whistle (he's normally good on feather) and screamed when he saw a pheasant today. Ho hum.

All the puppies looked really great, Loudon, but Cosmos does look especially gorgeous. I love the collage. It must be very hard to keep a pup for longer than the rest when it is not staying with you.

Sue

ps nearly forgot, the current shoot sounds good, Ali. I'm not surprised the dogs are enjoying it. Ihe tornado sounds awful. I'm glad that you are all OK.

Karen

Feel free to call me if you want to chat about the passports and travelling etc. Like you say, I do travel reguarly with my dogs and have been doing it for about 9/10 years. Going there is easy, but it can be a bit daunting on the return journey. If you dont have my number either let me know on here or get it from Ali.

Collage - Cosmos

This is how Cosmos will travel to the States. I think he is delighted - a lot more commodious than when we travelled there! He will be sleeping in it with his sister Tansy until he leaves on 17th November. So hopefully he will have some comfort with familiar smells and bedding. Will be hard seeing him off. Tansy I fear will miss him terribly, as will I.

For those interested here is the news report on the Tornado!

Tornado in Hampshire causes chaos http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20091104/tuk-tornado-in-hampshire-causes-chaos-dba1618.html

Catch up

Goodness lots to read.

Sue - good luck on the shoot! You've come a long way with your lovely boys and I know what a lot of hard work you put in - you must be proud of them. I used to be a bit squeamish about handling dead animals but yesterday Maggie got a pheasant and I quite happily carried it back hoping to have it for tea but I stupidly left it on the compost bin while I rang Frank to ask him what to do with it and by the time I'd gone back out it had been half eaten by Kites and Crows! I then had to move it out into the field and that wasn't nice!

Sharon, love your new addition to the family. Louis looks very similar to the Munster - it will be interesting to see how he is in character. Do let us know.

Lovely photos everyone.

As for worming and being abroad- I'm very interested reading about your trips abroad as I am considering taking mine next year. Drontal had a disastrous effect on both Maggie and Elsa and I use Millbimax now. Elsa was very sick and had terrible diarrhoea. I find the whole thing about travelling abroad with them quite frightening - I think mainly cos I'd be scared about not letting them back in the country on the way home. But many of you do it, some like Lins quite regularly so I keep telling myself it mustn't be too hard or you wouldn't keep doing it.

Ali, I did hear about the tornado, didn't realise it came so close to you though - glad no one was hurt. Very frightening. I hate wind at the best of times.

worming and Tornado's!

Drontal makes Tarka very sick always has no matter what way she has it, Stella is sick with it too and so is Diva and Tetra, within 5 minutes of having the pill they are violently sick and feel yucky for ages. We used millibax to bring Diva back home, poor Brodie, he is related to Tarka so not surprised he was sick, I use panacur on the dogs routinely, they have a 3 day dose to incorporate Giardia once a year otherwise they have a single dose, I use the liquid and buy it in 1 litre packs which costs me £58:00 1 litre does the dogs, cats and any puppies I have for a whole year so it's much more cost effective for me. I have to say frontline stopped working for me, I used to use the spray for the dogs and cats but it stopped being effective, we now use a monthly spot on but I don't use it monthly during this time of the year as to be honest we don't have any lodgers!

As for the lumps post injections Summer is the worst I have for that, she gets huge lumps every time she has a jab, ever since she broke her leg and had a lot of injections, massaging the lump does help to reduce them but it's not good.

Sue I do know how you feel about the whole shooting and killing thing, I hate killing but I love watching my dogs doing what they love to do. When we lived at Clarendon I had nothing to do with the shoot as it was far from sporting, so many birds put down you were tripping over them and far too many rich fat cats from the city, hardly sporting, but I did go to another shoot where it was a few local farmers get together and the dogs had to work to find their prey, can you imagine a Munster on a fat cats shoot, poor things it would blow their mind, now we just (I say we, I'm not well enough so Andrew goes instead) go out with 3 guns and 4 dogs on the 2000 acre farm we live on, much more fun as the dogs need to really engage to find the game, I can cope with that as the guns only shoot if they know it's a clean shot, Logi is loving it, well so are Diva and Summer for that matter, Diva went once then was spayed so hasn't been since. Just focus on the dogs and I 'm sure you will have fun.

I have one of Tallulah's babies on the photo blog today, he is settling well into his new family home, Angela his owner is going to join us on the blog as well. If anyone is still waiting for their invite to the blog please email me as I have now sent them all out, so they may of ended up in your spam folder so I may need to send you another.

Don't know if anyone saw it on the news yesterday but we were hit by a Tornado yesterday, about 11am it went quite dark outside and Andrew came in and said it was very windy, we looked out and saw this black Tornado come through the farm, picked up this massive septic tank which hit the ground again at the far end of the field, then these trees came down with a bang and took our electricity with it too. Thankfully although this cottage has no central heating we have a lovely open fire so we kept warm by that and toasted crumpets on it for lunch, amazingly Southern Electric manged to fix the cables and at 6pm last night our power was restored, just in time to see it on the news!!!! Anyway hoping for a quiet day today!!!

Sharon & Well Done to Lauren

Hopefully, this post won't disappear. Every time, I hit 'publish' first time around, the post vanishes :(

That's awful, Sharon. Poor Brodie. It's not a good experience either, never mind being sick.

As far as I understand it, Milbemax is acceptable. I don't know what you normally use.

Beecham didn't have a reaction to Drontal tablets, Lins, as we used to use them before we switched to Milbemax. However, he did have a reaction to the Drontal jab the French vet used (& was frightened of the rising table as well). The vet wouldn't use the Milbemax I was carrying and insisted on the Drontal jab. Before I left, one of the young vets at the practice said that it was very unlikely that the French vet wouldn't use Milbemax, but suggested that, if he didn't, I re-dose Beecham with Milbemax 24 hours after whatever he'd given.

Beecham came up in the most frightful lump. I was in such a panic I forgot to tell the young vet it was at the injection site. The lump was the size of a large plum. I saw my usual vet 5 days later and he wiped me up one wall and down the other for allowing the French vet to give the Drontal jab as he said that a lump at the injection site was a very common reaction. He said that few people gave the jab now, which is why the young vet hadn't recognized it. He also said that some of those lumps don't disappear but, luckily, Beecham's did, but it took about two months.

Poor Brodie. I hope you have an easier time,next time, Sharon.

Lins, I know of a Muenster who was quite sick after a Drontal tablet rather than a jab. I suppose it's just one of those things.

Ali, thanks very much for your support. It's much appreciated. Bosco has been a naughty boy this week and it's a smart shoot, I think...

WELL DONE to Lauren & Stella. That's really great to be asked back like that. Fantastic.

Sue

Sharon

I've been travelling to and from France since the passport pilot scheme first started (tons of paperwork in those days), mine (three dogs in the past) were all given Drontal, but in tablet form. None of them ever suffered from side effects............maybe we were just lucky. The flea and tick treatment has always been Frontline, although I find it ineffective now and tend to use Stronghold.

Sue, before going to the vets in France I re-read the DEFRA factsheet and decided not to ask the vet to use the worming tablets I had taken for Brodie. For the flea treatment the factsheet specified that the treatment had to be one that was recognized in the country you were leaving from, but it didn’t make this same statement for the wormer. I decided to play it safe and just use what the local vet used as standard. However next time round I will call DEFRA to ensure what I normally use is suitable since Brodie did not react well to the Drontal treatment. The vet said the Drontal jag would be uncomfortable as the liquid was thick; Brodie was not impressed and after 3 bent needles he’d received the full dose. Then about 2 hours later he was quite sick and was not his normal self for the rest of the day. It’s difficult to say how long he was not himself for, as the next 2 days were spent travelling. Having had this experience during and after the jag I’d prefer to stay clear of Drontal for Brodie, so next time I’ll speak to DEFRA to ensure his normal wormer is an acceptable treatment.

Handsome Boys

Nice to have you back Ali and Big Congratulations on the Newsletter award, nice when all your hard work is recognised.

Fantastic pictures of the boys Ali, and the one of Logi is stunning, you would not believe he is now a veteran.

Picture above is of one off his daughters, I think she looks very like her handsome dad.

I have always liked Logi from when I very first saw him years ago, at a Large Munsterlander Club Show, and now I have some of his lovely sons and daughters.

Hope you are not overdoing it Ali, with all the hard work, and just being out of hospital.

Mudlarks sounds a fantastic place, and I am sure the dogs will love their new home.

My Boys

My Man - Logi Still a handsome boy even as a veteran - especially for all the Logi fans out there! My boy again!

Now the boys!!! What a handsome pair and yes I am biased!!!!!

My young gorgeous lad!!!!

Darcy on the go!!!!

Been working up at Mudlarks today and skived long enough to get some pics of the boys, a lovely sunny Autumnal day, but mighty chilly.

Thank you for the Congrat's means a lot, it still sinking in!!!!

Lovely pictures on here and lots to catch up on, haven't been around for a day or two so will play catch up for the next few days. Anyone waiting for me to call or reply to emails I am on it and certainly not ignoring just been rather busy, please bear with me.

JUDTH - BON VOYAGE have a wonderful holiday in Africa, I will keep an eye on the Kids, (Two and four legged ones!!) Just make sure you and Tony relax and have fun riding those Elephants!!!!

All the puppies seem to be settling in well, I know some of you are having sleepless nights but is is early days, bear with it they will soon sleep through it's just a case of them gaining their confidence.

Love Brodies new little brother, very cute indeed and looks just like Lottie and Illy!!!!!!

Elspeth sorry I missed you I am home all day tomorrow if you are free?

Pauline - Frontline, it is something that is used all year round but I tend not to over do it and unless someone starts itching, (cat or Dog) I treat mine around every 4 months or so.

That's all for now but will try and get back on here and see if I missed anything tomorrow, o hang on good luck to Bosco and Sue and maybe Ian and Beecham on Friday, Sue you will be fine relax and enjoy. Lauren took Stella, (Judith's daughter and Summers daughter) shooting last Saturday, she had a wonderful day as they are both novices Lauren was worried and nervous but the guns were so impressed with dog and handler they now have an open invitation, every weekend if she can, both did so well. So just go for it!!!!