AW Art

Just wanted to take a moment to share this beautiful picture, drawn by the talented Aleks of AW Art.
Aleks is a friend and fellow poodle addict and when she contacted me recently to ask if I had any headshots she could use to practice her artwork with I was more than happy to oblige.
Aleks created this wonderful pen and ink drawing in less than 24 hours and has really captured Edna perfectly.

Aleks can create these wonderful drawings in A5 for £18 or A4 for £25 incliding postage and mounting.
A link to her page can be found here:
AW Art

In other news, Edna has had a funky pink colour added to her poms, tail and ears. I used a vegetable based pet friendly dye that should wash out in just a few shampoos.

And as ever we have been doing lots of walks on Dartmoor and beyond.

Happy Second Birthday!

Today marks the Shakespeare litter's second birthday. So I thought I should share a post dedicated to all of them, with a little note about their progress.

Otto

Above is Otto. He usually looks like this:

But his pawrents have recently opted for a short practical haircut - something they refer to as 'The Corona Cut'. Having had a fuzzy face for 2 years now, I couldn't believe how pretty he was when it was clipped off. He really is a beauty!
Otto lives in Hertfordshire with his family and is gun dog trained. He enjoys long walks with his canine friends, absolutely loves his red ball (see video) and he is hoping to have a little sister from Edna's next litter.

Ozzie

This funny guy is Ozzie. Ozzie lives in Hampshire with his pawrents, another standard called Freddie and a dear old miniature called Wizzie.

Ozzie can often be found in Wizzie's bed - if squeezing yourself into small places was an Olympic sport, he'd be a winner!

Ozzie and his mum recently discovered scent work and he is excelling at this and has shown real drive for it.

Ozzie's mum is also the director of Soopdraggon Design and handmakes lovely enrichment toys and biothane leads, collars etc.

Archie         

'Just sniff testing it, honest!'

Archie is our local lad and we just love having him nearby. He lives just 6 miles away and I still groom him occasionally.
Archie is a loveable rogue. His favourite hobby is chasing bicycles 😂 he was always one of the cheekiest pups and that still rings true today.
Archie is also incredibly cuddly and loving and he has a Teddy bear he takes to bed with him every night, which just melts my heart.

Archie the comedian

Lenny

Lovely Lenny lives in Milton Keynes and is a much loved family pet.

He is doing agility for fun and his owner tells me he can jump 3ft from a standstill!

Lenny always looks groomed to perfection and is a very smart boy!

Lenny lives with some chickens and an older dog.

Sawa

This regal girl lives in Essex with a human family of 4 children to keep her busy. She is a real lady and her owners refer to her as 'Her Majesty' which I love.

Sawa is a bilingual dog - who understands both Polish and English and she enjoys long walks with her family. 

Here she is playing chase with her human siblings, she is definately built for speed!

Winston

Winnie is living in Wales with two other dogs - another beautiful standard called Mira and a black lab called Bongo. He also has a human sister; a four year old from whom he is inseparable!

Like Ozzie, Winston has also recently discovered scent classes which he is thoroughly enjoying and has been on several mantrailling days too.

 Peggy

Peggy is the puppy I kept and the last two years with her have just been a whirlwind!
She is a funny girl, very quirky and insists on resting her paw in my hand when we watch television in the evenings.
Peggy has already got a Crufts win under her belt and has done some filmwork for Sainsbury's bank, she also has some upcoming modelling work booked for later this year too.
Peggy is great with crowds, with people and with other dogs too. Working Peggy and relaxed Peggy are like two different dogs though and when we walk she really likes to let off steam and just run and run. She loves our walks on Dartmoor and really is a special dog.

Lockdown Ladies (and Stan!)

Nothing exciting is really happening here at Marcasite Poodles because of the current government lockdown.

As I detailed in my previous post - I work for the emergency services, so these are challenging times professionally. My hours have been changed to meet demand and may well change again, but as a shift working single person household this makes little difference because we have no real routines anyway!
The dogs have always been walked, groomed, gone to training classes, played in the garden etc at different times of day and having no routine means that things are kept exciting for them and they do not demand in the way that dogs in 9-5 workers households might.

We are now 14 days into the lockdown and I sometimes feel like the dogs are missing out on having me home with them all day, like the majority of the UK are but on the other hand nothing has really changed for them and I am glad of that, as well as being incredibly proud of my ability to serve the public during this difficult time.

We have been walking close to the house instead of driving to our walks but the dogs are still able to enjoy time off lead in the local woods. We are also doing some lead walking around the local area which is something I rarely do and I have to say, I believe this is particularly benefitting Peggy as we are able to fine tune her heelwork training and get her choosing to sit at kerbs whenever we stop.

Stanley's joints seem a lot better and he is definately happier which is a relief! He currently remains on anti inflammatories, which are making a huge difference. I plan to look into some hydrotherapy for him once things are back to normal.

Here are some pictures of the dogs enjoying their walks:

In other news the chickens are laying again - finally! We are currently getting around 4 eggs a day. 

I have been gifting the surplus to my 94 year old neighbour who is currently housebound and drawing faces on them for fun!

Radio Silence

Some of you may know that I work for the emergency services.
With the COVID-19 pandemic currently ongoing I think it's fair to say I'm going to be very busy over the coming weeks and perhaps months.
I'm going to do my very best to keep my blog updated - my dogs are my peace at the end of a hard day's work and nothing will change in that respect BUT I'm probably not going to be posting quite so much because of how busy I will be.

So, before I go incognito I thought I'd post a few pictures and an update of how they are all doing:

My little man Stanley has been struggling with his joints recently. He hasn't enjoyed the last couple of walks that we have done, so he is on some anti inflammatory medication that will hopefully make him feel better very soon. He also takes herbal supplements which seem to really help.

I am hoping that the meds will be a short term only solution, but this will need to be assessed regularly and may well end up being a permanent solution to his joint issues.

Unfortunately Stanley is unable to have surgery on his legs due to tracheal collapse, so long term pain management is our main goal.

All in all poor Stanley is a very badly bred, albeit lovely dog. He is so very loved and is incredibly special to me. It hurts my soul when he isn't himself 😭

The girls on the other hand are just fine. Great in fact. They are absolutely loving life and our walks and are just as happy as happy can be. 

Peggy pulls the best faces!

Unfortunately the girls' modelling job for The Big Bark has been postponed until 15th August - hopefully things will be somewhere near normal again by that time.

All of the Championship shows have also been cancelled or postponed too - we were supposed to be at The International Poodle Club Show in a week, with the aim of once more qualifying for Crufts. Unfortunately the date that this show has been rearranged for is most likely going to be inconvenient as I'm hoping that Edna may have pups at that time.

Neither of these things are worrying me too much because I am so busy right now I have lots of other things to focus on.

Over the coming weeks I am going to be throwing myself into my work and serving the public - something I am very proud to be able to do. 

I hope that all of our friends and family stay safe. Much love to you all and we'll see you on the other side! ❤