As predicted Mollies litter arrives on Tuesday morning

Molly has been very restless throughout the day and I was convinced she would deliver her pups in the early hours of Tuesday. In anticipation I bedded down at 11pm on Monday night to await developments, even Molly looks embarrassed.

1am our first arrival which Mollie seemed more than surprised at the way he dropped out.

5am  8 pups successfully delivered I think 3 girls and 5 boys but I will need to re check. Mollie out for the count.

7am Took Mollie out for a toilet break and a leg stretch while Di changed her bedding. Seen here counting her pups when she came back in.

8am after some milk and wheatabix settles back down with her pups.

Everyone shattered I will keep you all posted and hope to get the webcam installed in the next few days.

PAUL.

The A litter and Grommit

We were due to do tracking and search training on Sunday 3^rd Nov but due to the awful weather we switched to some environmental training in the old Western morning news building in Plymouth at the last minute.

Pictures below shows Arry, Ava and Annie and then Axel, Anya, Gromiit and Argo all in the upper tower. I was getting a little concerned that Axel was going to end up with soft floppy ears ( pictured far left)  but I needn’t have worried as Steve his puppy walker sent me this picture of him taken this week. ( picture Axels ears). 

Arry, Ava and Annie

Axel, Anya, Grommit and Argo

Nothing wrong with my ears, thank you!

The A litter are now 5 months old.  Grommit is 4 months old. We purchased him at 7 weeks to keep diversity in our breeding programme and the early signs are very encouraging.

Grommit is pictured below in a relaxed pose overlooking the Plymouth Estuary.

Mine neither

Our current Initial Police dog course of Max, Jasper, Megan and Shadow have just completed week 10 of their 13 week course and are being assessed next Wednesday and Thursday. I will update you how they get on with their assessments and take some photo’s.

Finally Molly is due to whelp her litter this Wednesday November 20^th but we had a scare on Saturday when she was showing signs that it was about to happen. I am sat at home as I write this on Monday Nov 18^th looking for signs and I reckon it will be tonight.

She is pictured here this morning making herself at home on our suite and trying out the whelping box for size.

Bidding goodbye to the class of January 2014

As always on the dog section a lot has happened since my last update 2 weeks ago.

I will start with the sad news that our force will not be running a General purpose Police dog initial course in January 2014 which means that our 4 dogs for that course Tyson, Charlie, Murphy and Buddy will not now be working in Devon and Cornwall.

We run 2 initial Police dog courses each of 13 weeks duration within our force each year .These courses are nearly always fully subscribed with 4 handlers on each. One course starts in January and one starts in December.

Very unusually there is only one handler in our force needing a dog in January and it is therefore not economical to run a 13 week course for one handler. This means that the next Devon and Cornwall course will not be until September 2014. As a result I have had to find alternative Police forces for our boys.

It is something I hate doing because having grown up with the pups and the puppy walkers ideally we want to see the dogs working in Devon and Cornwall. That said they are dogs that are born to work and are much happier dogs working with their handler as a Police dog in whatever area they find themselves. We insist that Police forces who take our dogs must keep in touch with us and more importantly keep in touch with the puppy walkers.

I remember staying overnight in Angelsey in January this year and seeing the 4 brothers with their other 5 litter mates at their breeders farm house and seeing them all running and feeding with ducks, chickens, and geese when they were 7 weeks old.

I brought the four of them back the next day and they are pictured here being united with their new puppy walkers at HQ Middlemoor. (Pictures 379 and 384.)  On photo 384 from left to right, Murphy,  Tyson, Charlie and Buddy.

Here are some more pictures of the boys on subsequent training days.

Exeter city centre

Outside the force helicopter.

On the farm.

Last week Buddy and Tyson left me to go to Derbyshire Police force photo 006 and Charlie left to go to Bedfordshire photo 0205.

Murphy who was born with a badly overshot jaw and has moderate hip dysplacia in one of his hips has been retired from Police duties and his puppy walkers Emma and Kevin Wiggins who live in Exmouth have taken up the option to keep him as their own dog. We wish Murphy and his family all the best for the future.