Wylanbriar Labradors

Today Disney passed away.  Some will not know Disney. Some who read this will. Some who read this will not realise they know who Disney is but actually do. Disney is Your latest Trick for Wylanbriar. A chocolate bitch who was the mother of the prolific producer Anapher the Lion King (Derek). But more than that, Disney was a sweet girl who was a Dyl;an daughter of most typical type. We took her many years ago instead of a stud fee to a Dylan wife. I went to pick her and Disneys mum would never have been voted ‘mother of the year’ she was the most hectic little girl ever, screaming about, sending puppies flying at every turn. We picked Disney and came away. Darling Disney. She raised litters, and she fostered puppies of her own breed any others. She was never her mothers child.

Sadly a marriage break up forced me to rehome Disney with good friends Chris and Annette. They took her forward at a young age for a long and and productive life, working when she fancied it!, and in Annettes words today ” truly was a fantastic dog with the greatest of temperaments, she didnt growl at anything or anybody her whole life “. She was her fathers child and the world will be the lesser place for her passing today.

Run free Disney darling.

Not just once but twice over in a week! His first good lady has 6 little tadpoles, born last Wednesday and his next lovely wifelet, mated Christmas DAY so that will make for naming to be easy I feel, has 8 small fishes laying with her born last night!  All together now….. Ahhhhhhhhh! So this means, on both counts, that Deeds is a Grandad now to another 14 little GrandDeedslets (as both were his daughters!) and so it goes round and round 😉  Deeds doesn’t quite know whether to light Fish a cigar or punch him on the nose…. but as they are soundly asleep laid on each other in the kitchen right now, they appear to have come to some kind of understanding….  😉  I can’t wait to see them in time (basically read that as when they are all SOLD!!!)   😉

The first Tiny Tadpoles 😉

So whilst we are on the subject of sex, Shiney, the siren, is full on in season right now and is coming towards, slowly, in her usual rather drawn out way, the attentions of Mr Fish the newly dad. Day 13 means NOTHING to Shiney. It might as well be day TWO or something. She read the Book of the Bitch about Day 12 being the ‘sort of average mating day for most bitches’, then tossed it in the bin with a hollow laugh and said …after serious consideration…. ‘No! Actually I think Day 17/18 has a FAR nicer ring to it for mating…’ and so, she keeps her men waiting…. and waiting…. and waiting….  😉  On this exact topic and for once, on a serious note, a lady Deeds is waiting on, with hugely responsible owners who are happy to keep premate testing till she is bang on right, is about to have a fourth premate test tomorrow, on day 19, with the previous test showing unmateable levels! So please….those who solidly go the ‘mating on days 11 and 13 route….’ understand how flexiable you really DO need to be in your thinking to get as many girls in pup as possible.

Ok, well we have some news for those who read the website regularly. Our lovely little Brogan has gone to pastures new. Its an interesting thing but some dogs just do not suit a group environment, jostling for attention. We watched Brogan be an outgoing waggy small puppy, a credit to Miles and Rebecca who whelped her for us, and then gradually turn into quite an introverted ‘bugger trying to get their attention i’ll just do without’ type older puppy who got knocked out the way by the very powerful personalities of Tom and Bond for love, cuddles and general acknowledgement. When we realised, it possibly was a fraction too late and us trying to overcompensate, payng HER loads of extra attention fell, very slightly, on deaf ears. Its one of the snags of keeping several puppies close together in age if you are a soppy old household like ours where we tend to know each dog intimately and have them in the kitchen with us quite a bit.

So Trina and Jez had a think and said they would take her into their home on a trial. They have Happy, Brogans half sister. They are professional dog walkers with walks and fun and other dogs being part of everyday life. They do not kennel. They feel guilty having dogs sleep in their (luxury) KITCHEN for gods sake rather than on the kingsize with them!   So Brogan fitted in like a round peg in a round hole and the rest, as they say, is history. A week into the two week trial they were sunk, especially when at 8 months old she behaved like a dog three times her age when they took her to the pub for the afternoon! So Brogan leaves us to start a lovely new life in a kind of ‘ Sandals all inclusive Tropical Holiday’ environment.  😉

With Shiney in season, Tom and Bond have gone to stay with Auntie Tracey at her boarding kennels in Northiam because, quite honestly, Bondy is WAYY to talented in the shagging department for a man of 9 months and Tom is Shineys SON! S the further they are from causing a commotion, the better 😉 So with Brogan, Tom and Bondy not here, its pretty quiet here at Chez Wylanbriar for the time being!

Last Sunday Bondy went to his FIRST group training session with fantastic results. Nick Potts and Chris Marshall took a private class and Bondy did about 30 minutes, showing me that he is ungunshy, not noisey when hugely adrenalinised, and a poppet for the future! I then took Mallie for the second half and she went extremely well bless her, considering she has been thrown about during the shooting season and only now have I thought ‘Oh Christ! The first Open tests are REALLY close! Best work on mallie for a bit…..!’

Wedsnesday we went for the first time to Uncle Robert (Worrall). Boy taking a youngster to a one to one shows up what yu ahve ‘skimmed over training only that dog to your way of thinking. Robert was fantastic as ever, splitting the house between Bondy and Tom. Showed a few gaping holes, and showed a few nice bits… but generally speaking, it was just great to have someone else decide what to ‘do next’ in a training session rather than a whole damn winter of going it alone!

Today saw Fish at KSS training back with Chris and Nick taking the Open group, and me taking the upper Novice group. What a smashing day training wise. What HELLISH day weather wise! Fish is a revalation to me. at 17 months he is way infront of any dog i’ve ever owned, but then somethng will crop up that bites us on the arse, like Water, or fences, and suddenly it feels like he is a tiny puppy again! The test season approcheth…. is Fishy the Fish ready for his first Intermediate at the end of March? Only time will tell 😉

VERY sadly something went burp in the website yesterday and dumped the whole Dog Blog! Wonderful friends who saved some entries have helped me restore most entries up until 9th January but sadly not the two since 9th January or the one I wrote yesterday! So I will catch everyone up again – its just soul destroying how computers can have the last laugh every single time!! They must be twinned with the Bloody Green Laguna!

We went out for a walk today with all the dogs and took the 4×4 a little bit more ‘off the beaten track’ than most would brave. It snowed hard overnight again and the drifts are something to behold! The dogs adored it and had a fine old time! It was a great way to honour my old boy’s memory today. He would have thought it fantastic….

Snowbeasts! (Tom is the one facing the camera with an icicle Balaclava!

Fish with his long legs, barely getting his belly cold! We nearly LOST Brogan in the same drift!

Fish looking beautiful but like hes frozen in that pose!

Mummy’s Biscuit Meercat being an intrepid explorer!

They found a snow-tunnel! And tried to persuade Bondy that it was quite safe to go through…. whilst Brogan balanced on the top waiting patiently to collapse it on him ‘for a laugh’… 😉

” Well my big man, its been a year without you. Tomorrow is the calendar date. But today is the day. Today was the Friday last year, a cold, wet day, that you made my decision for me, and made it clear it was the end of the line….. I won’t ever forget it. How could I? You were everything to me. You did everything for me. God knows, you did many things just the hell for yourself (smile). You were always there, my whole adult life, looking out for me, taking care of business – as they say.

Boy its been chaos since you went! I know now how much respect you commanded from the other dogs. Every new puppy fell into line immediately. Not a cross word between dogs. Not a moment when anyone else here wondered if they might just ‘try and be bossdog’… never once. Yet I never saw you do a thing. Lift a finger. Tan a backside. Raise your voice. How did you DO that? You amaze me. The sweet dogs here jostle and hump and leg lift and flail around trying to decide, from one day to the next, who might take the reins. ‘She who must be obeyed’ was and is always, ultimately, me. But the dogs needed a govenor who spoke their language too, and you, my darling man, were him. Always. We were a team. And they are lost without you. There is no obvious replacement leader. There is no other you. But then did I ever think there could be?

Most days I speak to you. Every day I think of you. I wonder if that will ever change? If one day suddenly three days will have passed and I suddenly realise I hadn’t thought of you? I don’t know if that is a terrible or a comforting thought that it might happen one day.

Allan says he always thought you though he was a bit of a loser. I’m sure you didn’t – (slight laugh). I know he says you always looked at him as if to say ‘Oh right, Ok… so how long will THIS one last then? Don’t think you are going to order me around, Matey…’ So he never did. He lived in terror that something might happen to you whilst he was meant to be in charge. And he was probably right. You always were a ‘make or break’ feature in my life. If you had time for someone they were probably pretty alright. If you took a while to warm to someone it was always a pretty good indication that I should be sending them packing.

Dyl, I miss you. I’ve never missed something or someone like I miss you. Its a dull ache. Its hard AND its easy. I have so much of you here, both in the beautiful pictures up we have of you and in the other dogs (I’ve got your grandaughter now – shes damn well just as stubborn as you always were! Are you SURE you aren’t actually inside her somewhere because I catch her looking at me some days and its so bloody familiar! ‘Shan’t! Can’t! Won’t!’) Someone sent me a picture a few weeks ago of one of your sons. They had just lost him to old age at 12 years old and it was like staring at you. He was your clone. You know i’m not religious but somehow I hope you got to walk past him whereever you are, because I’d love to see YOUR double take. He really was your clone. Sometimes your daughter here sits and looks at me. I stare back at her and see you. She is so unlike you in her personality, but so like you in her little mannerisms. The way she gets vocal when we have a fight on the floor. The way she will mutter in the back of the car when we turn down the lane to the shoot. Her play-bow to the other dogs. Her absolute perfect timekeeping as regards dinner and her hugely pointed prompts when that time has ticked past!

Nothing has faded. Nothing has left me. I don’t fight to keep it there it just sits at ease with me. Maybe the photos keep it fresh in my memory. I prefer to think you are just locked into my minds eye from staring at you one million times in your 14 years, thinking ‘Is he really mine? My god. He is so bloody beautiful….’

‘He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song,
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.’

………….. I did used to wonder how I would get through the darker days without you in my life. Allan now holds my hand on the days when I used to lean on you. He does a perfect job. You’ll be pleased by that.

So for now, sleep well my angel. I’m not crying soppy tears as I write this, they are just the tears of someone who was never as strong as you. You were quiet and kind and calm and solid. You cannot know what you gave me. So losing you has taken away more than you can know too. But i’m good. I’m alright. I just…. miss you…always.

Mum   xxxx