A Wander on Dartmoor

The weather has been truly horrible recently, and because of both that and the fact that the girls have been in season, we haven't been to Dartmoor in what feels like forever!
We have instead been sticking to boring street walks, but today we were blessed and the rain held off long enough to let us have a few hours wandering at one of our regular haunts - Roborough Down.
The dogs had a whale of a time, as you can see below.

Today also marks 21 days since Edna had her rendezvous with a gorgeous silver boy. There are now just under 2 weeks until she is scanned and we find out for certain whether she is expecting.
Let's just say I'm feeling confident though 😉

Grooming day

This weekend was a bit of a blur.
All I seemed to do was groom! Luckily, I had prospective puppy owner Jade visiting who was a great help.

I bought a ton of new grooming products, including this very fancy (and super powerful) combination blaster/dryer. I could not be happier with it.

I then tested out the products one by one on all 3 of the dogs:

Edna tested the Pozer Forget Me Knot shampoo, which I mixed with a little Groom Professional coat restoring conditioner. It gave a lovely finish and the bakewell tart scent made me very hungry!
Edna also had her nails painted! Not something I usually do, but it was fun as a one off and looked very fancy 😂

Peggy tried the igroom Charcoal and Keratin shampoo and the Artero Protein conditioner. Again, I was very pleased with these products. The conditioner particularly impressed me, in its ability to cut through knots. Her coat felt very nice and much thicker after using both of these products.

Little Stan had the Pozer Truly, Madly, Deeply shampoo which I didn't like very much - the mango scent was nice but it didn't lather very much, which I don't like.

All of the products I used this time came from Christie's Direct. They are a good supplier, but when spending hundreds of pounds you would expect a quick delivery service and my items took 5 days to deliver, which was frustrating.

I am enjoying trying out new things and learning what works for my dogs coats - every coat is different and what works for one dog doesn't always work for another. I have heard some people swear by tresemme human conditioner for their dogs!

RIP Sharon the Ex-battey hen

Early last year I rescued two ex battery hens - Sharon and Norma.
I knew what I was getting myself into when I rescued them. Ex batts rarely live for very long - they tend to die of heart attacks very suddenly or become egg bound and have to be PTS. I have rescued many ex battery girls over the years. None of them have lived for longer than a couple of years.

Norma died around two months ago - she just went to sleep in the coop and didn't wake up.  This morning I found that Sharon had done the same.

Despite having lost these two fiesty red heads, I do not feel sad. I am so glad that I was able to rescue them and give them a nice retirement home; free range with the sun on their backs. They didn't truly start living until they came to me and I am grateful for that.

I am now down to only 5 chickens, but I'm sure there will be more rescue hens in my future.

Exciting News!

Edna has been mated to a very special silver boy this week, so fingers crossed for some happy news when she is scanned in a few weeks time.
Both parents are health screened with excellent results.
Please email me for more details if you may be interested in offering a home to one of my puppies.
I am so excited!

Pet Care Award

My Centre of Excellence 2019 Pet Care runner up award certificate has arrived!

I am very excited and just wanted to share a picture of it.

In other news, Peggy was groomed this weekend and is looking absolutely fantastic. I can finally see a dog that is almost Crufts worthy 😁

Huge thanks to Jade for all of her help!

Soopdraggon Design

The very talented Debbie Ellis; who owns Ozzie has recently started a new venture - SoopDraggon Design.

Debbie is making beautiful snuffle matts, which create perfect brain training for dogs of all ages. They can be made in any colour and design you wish, from as little as £10.

Debbie is also making these 15 metre long biothane long lines. These are perfect for recall training and scent work. Biothane is strong, completely waterproof and wipe clean and comes in a variety of colours. They are currently for sale at £30 each which is a real bargain!

Debbie's new venture is very much in its infancy at present, but she is always happy to discuss ideas that people may have and will work to their specifications.  The quality of her work is nothing short of fantastic and I cannot fault her dedication and outstanding levels of customer service! I only wish I was half as creative, it is infuriating 😜

New lines are being added all of the time so please keep an eye on her Facebook page for updates.

Good luck with your new venture Debbie and keep the pictures of Ozzie 'helping' coming!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from all of us here at Marcasite Poodles!

2020 is a very exciting year for us.

We are hoping to hear the pitter patter of tiny paws some time in spring, as I am planning to mate Edna to a lovely boy when she is next in season.

2020 will also bring Peggy's second year at Crufts, which we are really looking forward to as well.

Unfortunately I had a horrible flu bug which lasted for weeks over the Christmas period, so I have not kept this page as updated as I should have.
But here's what's been happening over the last few weeks:

Doris the hen, turned out to be Boris the cockerel and suddenly started crowing one morning so he has gone to live with my very good friend in Looe, where he has his very own flock of ladies to love!
Here is a picture of me holding him. As you can see he was huge - a far cry from the scrawny, bullied baby I took on in Spring last year!

Mrs Floppy Head was replaced by her breeder for another hen of the same breed - so please meet Myrtle her successor!

Jade came to visit and we went exploring and found Avonwick Dam!

We also went to see Santa Paws.

Doris (Now Boris!) got into the Christmas spirit.

There was lots of gift unwrapping!

And finally, we had lots of lovely updates from our past puppy owners.

I'd like to say a huge thank you to everyone who made 2019 fantastic for us. Here's hoping that 2020 will be equally as good.

Sad news

Sad news.
Both Mrs Floppy Head and Norma have passed away over the last 48 hours.

Norma was an ex battery hen and just went to sleep in her coop and didnt wake up. This is fairly common with ex batteries - they dont live for long and often have heart attacks and just die very suddenly overnight. I have no idea how old she was - she came from an auction, but I am glad that she had a nice summer in my garden, feeling the sun on her back and having the freedom to roam around. Something battery hens rarely get to experience after their 'service' is over.

Mrs Floppy Head however is a very different matter. She was never quite right from the moment I got her and for the last 5 weeks has been on antibiotics for respiratory problems. She was very much up and down; some days refusing to eat and sitting in the corner of the garden away from the other birds, and other days happily scratching around. Yesterday was one of these days - when I left for work she was eating a handful of corn and making happy cooing noises at me, but when I returned home she was sodden and rocking back and forth, unable to stand properly.
I brought Mrs Floppy Head into the house and put her in front of the fire to dry off, but sadly she was evident that she would not recover. Over the course of the evening she passed away, quietly and peacefully; just closing her eyes and going to sleep, in a nice comfy box of straw, in front of the fire.
I had kept the breeder informed of Mrs Floppy Head's illness from the start and they had offered to take her back and swap her for me, but I wanted to give her the best chance of recovery with medication and for a while it seemed to be working. I am sad that I wasnt able to save her 😭

Centre of Excellence Pet Care Award

I had a lovely surprise this morning, when I awoke to find an email informing me that I have won runner up in the Centre Of Excellence 2019 Pet Care Awards.

I have completed several diplomas with the Centre of Excellence over the years, these being:
Dog Grooming,
Canine Health and Nutrition,
Canine Behaviour and Training.

I completed these diplomas, and am currently working towards another - Animal Assisted Therapy; solely because I want to be as well informed as I can in everything and anything relating to my canine companions, so that I can best understand their needs.

When I received an email a few months ago, asking me what I have done since gaining these diplomas - I responded explaining the charitable work that I occasionally do - rescuing, rehabilitating, retraining and rehoming dogs. I also sent several images of the rescue dogs I have groomed.
I explained that in addition to this, the grooming diploma helped me to reach my lifelong goal of maintaining a standard poodle in show coat and showing at Crufts.
I certainly did not expect to hear anything back from the Centre of Excellence, but thought that my story might inspire others to learn with them.
I didn't actually realise that I had submitted an application to the awards panel when I replied to the email!

I was very taken aback to receive an email back this morning stating:
'Huge congratulations on your incredible achievements! The judges were blown away by your story. You have shown real strength and determination and are an inspiration.'

To say I am thrilled to have placed runner up is an understatement!

My certificate in currently in the post but I will share images of it once it arrives.

I *think* have a problem

Our friend Jade came to visit last weekend and, as I have passed my love of chickens onto her (sorry, not sorry!)
She decided that she should go and get some more hens to add to her flock, from our favourite poultry supplier - Sign of the Owl
I was adamant that I wasn't going to get any more, I didn't want any more.
5 was quite enough...
And then I saw the leghorns!
Leghorns are a pretty little birds, they come in array of colours, have very large combs and lay smallish white eggs. On the day that we visited the pen was full of blacks, with one particularly scrawny little white.
Neither of us fancied the white, so we got a black hen each and I also bought a lavendar hybrid.
I named my two new hens Myfanwy and Mrs Floppy head and took them home where they joined my flock. I then proceeded to tell Jade all about how she was a bad influence and that we were never going to Sign of the Owl again...😂
Well, Jade went home on Sunday and I have spent the last few days thinking about the sad little white chicken so today I went and collected her too!
I am now at maximum capacity with 8 birds, but goodness me I love them.
The new girl needs a name, but for now she will be Britney, because Oops I did it again!

Here are a few pictures of the new girls below:

These really are the last hens now!!!