A Story Everyone who has heard the dreaded words from their Vet “Your dog has got hip dysplasia” should read,

The Story of Josie
(Orlas Gypsy Affair)

Josie was one of nine puppies born to Emily (Orlas Enchantress) in November 1997, we sold her five sisters and three brothers and kept Josie hoping to continue our Orlas line through her children. Unfortunately this was not to be.
Josie grew and played like any other puppy we had kept and duly the time came at twelve months of age to have her hips X-rayed, I happily took her to the Vets not thinking there would be any problems, unfortunately this was not the case, the Vet said they looked really bad and no way should we breed from her and that there was no point in sending the plates off because she would surely have a very high hip score.
Now my view on this is, that all hip X-rays should be scored, because it would give us a truer idea of what the real average of the breed should be and not a fanciful total of twenty or thereabouts.
I told the vet to go ahead and send them off, I wasn’t hoping for a miracle has I knew from past experience of looking at hip plates, that Josie's were too bad to breed from but I never expected the total that came back. The score was 44:49 a total of 93, surely this bitch should not be able to walk, let alone run and play with our other dogs?
The Vet, who wasn’t my usual vet, suggested that I have injections done to save her from future problems, but again my feeling in this matter is “if it is not broken don’t fix it” and to all intent and purposes Josie was a normal young bitch doing normal things any young bitch would do and not showing any discomfort or pain, so I declined to have her injected with God knows what.
From then on I did restrict Josie’s exercise but did not stop her from leading a normal life, just let her do everything in moderation.
A few years later I changed Vets and he suggested that it may not be a good idea to spay Josie has she could put on too much weight and cause extra strain on her hips, so Josie went un-spayed.
Just before Josie was four years old, I took my grandson to Disneyland Paris, before leaving I placed all the dogs in small groups to make things easier for Stephen when he had to feed them, I told him to leave them in the combinations I had put them until I came home again. Jamie and I were away for five nights and I checked all the dogs before leaving and all was fine, on my return I noticed that Hamish was paying a lot of attention to Josie with whom he was kenneled, I thought this strange has I was not expecting Josie to come into season but went across to check and sure enough Josie had come into season. I had just had a conservatory built and so I immediately put Hamish in there and left Josie in the kennel on her own for another four weeks, thinking nothing of it because she could only be at the most four days into her season on the day I returned. This was mid October and I never gave it another thought.

All our dogs live in the house most of the time, and only spend time in the kennels if bitches are in season or we are having visitors then we put the stud dogs in there until they leave, so the boys don’t get too excited and start getting too big for the boots so to speak.
It was the beginning of January and Josie was in the puppy room, I had put her there because I had noticed that she seemed to have gone thin all of a sudden and was worried about her, so I spent most of my time in there with her. It was around 8 pm on the 4th of January and I was beginning to get really worried about Josie because she was not herself and had begun to shake a little, I rang the vet for advise and she said to bring her in the following morning if I was still worried or to call her again if I thought she was getting worse.
At about 10 pm my friend Julie rang, Julie and I used to breed Spinoni together under the Amechivole affix, which Julie now owns herself. We were talking on the phone and I was discussing Josie when all of a sudden Josie gave a grunt, and Julie immediately said “That sounds like a push,” I nearly cried, it was a push, Josie was not seriously ill has I had suspected she was actually in whelp. Josie had three dog puppies but unfortunately one was still born. The two remaining boys Jeremy (Orlas Only A Winters Tale) and Jerome (Orlas Hunters Moon) were fine and all went well after that.
When the puppies were around three weeks old I had people come to look at them with a view to purchasing them but when they heard what their mums hips were you could see the shock on their faces, so Stephen and I discussed it and decided that both boys would stay and so that is what happened. Therein lies another story that I will tell you later.
I let Josie have another season and was very careful to keep her away from our dogs, then twelve weeks later I had her spayed, I have managed to control her weight and she has so far not put on too much weight.
Josie has never had any treatment at all for her hip dysplasia, and watching her run and play you would never guess she had anything wrong with her. She is now seven and a quarter.
Recently we had some paving laid in front of the house, an eleven metre by four metre area, where we contain the dogs in the wet weather, we put Croft discovery panels up around this area and non of our dogs even try to jump over except for Sadie (you can see her story below) the other week I asked where Josie was when all the other dogs had come in, my husband said “Oh, she will be in the grass area as she jumps over the fence” I did not believe him and said he must be mistaken, but no he was quite right the only Golden to jump in and out of the panels is Josie who’s hips are 93.
So when you hear those dreaded words from the vet, “Your dog has hip dysplaysia” don’t despair it is not a death sentence, nor does it necessarily mean they will have to have expensive surgery and many dogs go on to lead perfectly normal lives despite their hip score.

Although Josie has never had any treatment at all, I do believe that swimming is an excellent therapy for hip dysplasia and doggie pools are springing up all over the country. (Excuse the pun)
If anyone wants to discuss any aspect of this article with me I am only too pleased to talk to them.
P.S. It goes without saying that Jeremy and Jerome will never be used at Stud.

A dog poem

Why own a dog? There's a danger you know,
You can't own just one, for the craving will grow.
There's no doubt they're addictive, wherein lies the danger.
While living with lots, you'll grow poorer and stranger.
One dog is no trouble, and two are so funny.
The third one is easy; the fourth one's a honey.
The fifth one is delightful; the sixth one's a breeze,
You find you can live with a house full with ease.
So how 'bout another? Would you really dare?
They're really quite easy but oh, Lord the hair!
With dogs on the sofa and dogs on the bed,
And crates in the kitchen, it's no bother you said.
They're really no trouble their manners are great.
What's one more dog and just one more crate?
The sofa is hairy; the windows are crusty,
The floor is all footprints, the furniture all dusty.
The housekeeping suffers, but what do you care?
Who minds a few nose prints and a little more hair?
So let's keep a puppy, you can always find room,
And a little more time for the dust cloth and broom.
There's hardly a limit to the dogs you can add,
The thought of a cutback sure makes you sad.
Each one is so special, so useful, so funny,
The vet, the food bill grows larger, you owe money,
Your folks never visit; few friends come to stay,
Except other dog folks, who live all the same way.
Your lawn has now died, and your shrubs are dead too,
But your weekends are busy, your off with your crew.
There's dog food and vitamins, training and shots.
And entries and travel and motel which cost lots.
Is it worth it, you wonder? Are you caught in a trap?
Then that favourite dog comes and climbs in your lap.
His look says you're special and you know that you will.
Keep all of the critters in spite of the bill.
But winter's a hassle; the dogs hate it too.
But they must have their walks though they're numb and you're blue.
Late evening is awful, you scream and you shout
At the dogs on the sofa that refuse to go out.
The dogs and the dog show, the travel, the thrills,
The work and the worry, the pressure, the bills.
The whole thing seems worth it, the dogs are your life.
They're charming and funny and offset the strife.
You're lifestyle has changed. Things won't be the same.
Yes, those dogs are addictive and so is the game!
Anon

This is Sadie and here is her story.

My husband Stephen was working on some council houses in a part of Coventry that was, how can I put it? Not the best of areas. In one particular house this Chocolate Labrador would come to sit with him when he was having his lunch, anyone who knows Labradors can guess why. He got talking to her owner, who said he had kept her when his marriage had broken up, but he was now going to live and work in Cyprus and his new partner was not all that keen on Lady, as she was called, going with them, besides which her owner thought it might be too hot for her out there.

Anyone knowing my husband and I won’t be surprised at what happened next.

Yes, you’ve guessed it Lady came to stay with us.

Stephen picked her up on a Saturday morning, my friend Lee came the same day to play with the litter of Golden puppies I had at the time, we call this Lee’s puppy fix. We were all surprised at how well Lady coped with coming from being an only child so to speak, to being one of many.

We decided to change Lady’s name to Sadie, and all that weekend she never left Stephens side. Monday duly came and Stephen went off to work leaving Sadie with myself and the others. Sadie cried for most of the day and again never left his side when he returned home, this went on for a couple of days and by which time I think she had worked out that I loved her too, and from that moment we never looked back.

During the first week I would call her Lady Sadie or Sadie Lady so she would get used to her new name and by the end of the week she was already answering to the name Sadie.

All went well for a few weeks, except for the fact that Sadie did not stay in the part of the garden that the other dogs did, fences couldn’t contain her, she could jump for England.

One Saturday morning Stephen and I were in the barn after letting out our chickens and goats, when we heard a commotion and to my horror, when I went to investigate I found Sadie in the chicken run, there were feathers everywhere and what looked to all intense and purposes a dead chicken or rather cockerel at her feet. I got her out of the chicken run and put her immediately into one of my kennel runs where she couldn’t escape. Stephen was panicking and saying we would have to find her a new home or maybe she would have to be put to sleep because she had tasted blood. For once I was calm and went to investigate the damage, only to find that apart from the fact that not many of the chickens had any feathers left, none of them had any injuries at all, to Sadie it was just a very exciting game, chasing and plucking chickens. Sadie had to stay in the kennel run for three weeks during the daytime, until I could get Tom, who does our paving and fencing to come and erect a Sadie proof fence. This fence cost me £700 by the way.

All’s well that ends well and Sadie is now back indoors and very much a part of our ever growing family.

Zoe (Orlas Czarina)

In the New Year of 2005 I got a phone call out of the blue from Gabby Lord who had two bitches that I had bred, one twelve year old called Zoë (Orlas Czarina) and one five year old called Millie (Orlas Winter Sunshine).
She said her, her husband Graham and their two, now grown up children’s lifestyle had changed and they no longer had time to walk the girls, could I find them a home for them together.
Right away I got on my PC and e-mailed everyone I could think of asking if they knew of anyone who would take both the girls on. The same answer came back from everyone, they knew someone who would take Millie the five year old but no one was prepared to take on Zoë the twelve year old.
I rang Gabby back to tell her this and to tell her that I would take them both back, Gabby said not to worry that her son Alistair had said he would take responsibility for the girls and walk them when he came in from work. So this is how the situation was left.
Some weeks later I was staying up North for a few days because my mum had taken a fall and fractured her hip, when I got a call from Stephen to say Gabby had phoned again and said could we take Zoë after all, they had found a home for Millie but not for Zoë, so Stephen told them to bring her back on the Sunday when I would be back from up North. When I got home on the Saturday evening I rang them right away to confirm that what Stephen had said was OK and to bring Zoë back the next day. I also asked them to give my name to Millie’s new owners so I could keep in touch and know how she was getting on, as Gabby had always done in the past.
Early Sunday morning they brought Zoë back. They did not give me Millie’s new owners name or address or even telephone number so I am sad that I now have no feed back on Millie, apparently she has gone to live in Basingstoke with a couple who already have a male retriever who was a rescue and is, I think, called Splash. So if anyone reading this knows of such a family could they please let them know that I would love to hear from them of Millie’s progress.

Zoë has now been with us for about a month and she has settled in without any problems, after about two weeks she seemed uneasy and it wasn’t until Stephen and I discussed it, that we realised she had been used to being left for holiday periods but now two weeks were up and she was waiting for them to come back for her. After a few more days she seemed to realise that this was not going to happen and again settled down to our routine and was no trouble at all.

Zoë is a lovely Golden and so I decided to change her back into my name at the kennel club, inform them that she had been spayed by her previous owners and maybe enter her into a few veteran classes at some open shows.

Well , Sunday 6th March 2005, was Zoë debut, I took her along to Coventry Gundogs Open Show at Ryton-on –Dunsmore not really expecting her to get a place as she had never had any ring craft training or been shown in the past, our turn came to go into the ring and I went to stack Zoë for the judges inspection of the line up. Zoë did not seem to like this to I thought well nothing lost, I had a pocket full of treats and I stood in front of her and free stood her, this she did as though she had been doing it all her life, the judge asked us all to more round the ring which Zoë did, not perfectly, but at least with drive. Butterflies were now playing in my stomach because the next step was when the judge went over her, she had objected to me touching her back end, how would she react to the judge? There was a lovely Irish Red and White in front of us and then it was our turn. Zoë let the judge look at her teeth, I then held Zoë’s head while the judge went over her and she stood like a rock, the judge asked us to do a triangle and then up and down, which we did and at one point Zoë nearly took off in a gallop, this is the bitch that her previous owners had said didn’t really want to go for a walk anymore. We went back to our place and waited for the other four dogs to be seen. I looked down the line and thought, well; we will be the only one to go home without a card. The judge then came to make her choice, she pulled out the Irish Red and White first, which was in my opinion a lovely bitch, then to my astonishment called Zoë and myself out, at this point I was ecstatic, and completely forgot to congratulate the lady with the Irish Red and White, I did so later when she came out of the ring. I came out of the ring with Zoë’s card and rosettes and the lovely people who had won Best of Breed and Best Puppy in the Golden Breed classes congratulated me, the steward from the Golden ring came up to congratulate me and one of the committee members from Coventry Gundog also came up to congratulate me, at which point tears were welling up in my eyes, I couldn’t have felt more proud if I had won Crufts. It was a lovely day out for Zoë, my puppy Georgina (who I had entered in breed but not shown as she was not a ease in the hall) and not least for myself.

Thank you to the Judge Jenny Miller (Feorlig) and to all the people who helped socialise Georgina and who were there to congratulate me one Zoe’s second prize.
This was one of those special days, which I will always remember.

On returning home from the show I investigated why Zoë was so reluctant for me to touch her rear end, only to find it was very inflamed, so the following day I took her straight to the Vets, it turned out that Zoë had been leaking (something that often occurs after a bitch is spayed) for sometime and therefore I can’t believe that her past owners didn’t know about this, maybe they thought if they told me I wouldn’t have taken Zoë back, then they don’t know me that well. If only I had been told it would have saved Zoë being in so much pain and to think through all that pain, she pulled all the stops out and showed for me like she had been doing it all her life. My dogs never fail to amaze me; they are what make life worth living.

If anyone knows of the whereabouts of Millie, I would be so pleased to be in contact with her new owners, I believe she has gone to live in Basingstoke, with a couple who already had a rescue Golden dog called Splash. I would love to know how she has settled in and maybe send them some photos of her when she was a baby.

The Story of Sally Waites
(Orlas Fascination)

PHOTO of Sally and Maisie to follow

It was the morning of the 29th April 1992, Megan (Orlas Margarette) had just begun to whelp her second and final litter, all seemed to be going well at first, Megan was spacing the puppies out and sometimes it was an interval of an hour between each puppy. Most of the time I whelp my bitches on my own, but thank goodness Stephen was around on this particular occasion, because after a few of the puppies had been born and were feeding well and all was fine, along came Sally, it was with a feeling of horror that I picked up this tiny little scrap with all her intestines outside her body. I called the Vet and told him what had happen and he said to bring her down and he would see what he could do but couldn’t promise anything. I called Stephen in from the garden and sent him on his way with the little bungle, in a box with a hot water bottle in the bottom and all wrapped up in vet bed.
I continued to whelp the other puppies and believe me it was the worst whelping I had witness both then and to this very day, it went on for over twelve hours, by which time Megan and I were both exhausted.
Almost two hours after Stephen left for the Vets he returned home with Sally all stitched up and a supply of syringes with antibiotics in to be given twice a day. The message from the Vet was that if she makes it through the night she stands a chance, but we had to make sure that all her bodily functions were working properly.
Megan had eleven pups in all but only seven lived as I said it was an horrendous whelping and that is why Megan never had any more litters.
I slept with Megan and her new babies, as I always do with my litters until they are three weeks old. The following morning to our joy Sally was still with us and eating and passing normally, I had to administer the injections into the back of her neck, and as I was not very proficient at this, poor Sally ended up with a lump on the back of her neck, but this disappeared as she grew.
When the puppies were ready to be seen by their new prospective owners, a lovely family came to visit, all of the other puppies had been spoken for but I kept Sally until I found the right home for her where I knew she would be loved for the rest of her life, however long that may be, because at this stage we didn’t really know how she would progress. This lovely family were the Waites, Barbara, David and their two daughters Becky and Kate. Barbara seemed such a lovely caring person that I felt she would give Sally all the love and attention that she would need, and the rest of the family also seemed as though they would really love Sally too. So when the right time came for her to leave us, off she went with her new family.
I have visited Sally in her new home on a few occasions but will never forget the first time I visited, the day before Barbara had made a huge pan of Chilli Con Carni, she had intended to freeze some of it for a later date and left it on the top of the cooker to cool down, she had to go out, leaving Sally and the cats on their own for a short while. To her horror on her return she found that Sally had managed to get the pan down and had proceeded to eat the contents leaving the pan spotless. Of course Barbara was worried what this would do to Sally knowing her history, so off they went to the Vets, but Sally was fine and has never looked back.
I have bumped into Barbara in town on and off and we have kept in touch by Christmas cards and phone calls over the years.
A few weeks ago I had gone into Stratford to meet another of my puppy owners Julia, who was at a Cat show there and when I came out of the building I meet some people who I used to go to ring craft with, I was chatting to them when I spotted, out of the corner of my eye, this lovely old Golden together with a lovely West Highland White Terrier, everyone must have thought I was mad, I just yelled out “STOP!” as they were crossing the road with their owner David. He turned round and came back to chat to me, I couldn’t believe how well Sally was and when I realised that she was thirteen years old I was overjoyed to realise that all those years ago we saved this wonderful Golden and she has had a lovely healthy life ever since.

So don’t ever give up on those little scraps that seem to have nothing going for them, they too may grow up to give someone many years of pleasure.

OUR MINI HOLIDAY IN CORNWALL

When Zoë (Orlas Czarina) came back to live with us, Sharon, who owns Jody (Orlas Crystal Celebration) her litter sister, and I thought it would be a good idea to take them away on a doggy holiday.

We decided to go to the Dalswinton Hotel in St. Mawgan-in-Pydar, Cornwall, where dogs are most welcome.

We also took Sharon’s Cassie and my Ada. All of them “oldies”, in fact Cassie was the baby of the group at ten years old.

We had a lovely two nights stay in the hotel where we enjoyed the wonderful cuisine and friendly atmosphere, the dogs also enjoyed their stay and met six more new friends in the hotel, so all in all there were ten dogs queuing for Stuarts treats in the evening after dinner, it was lovely to see all the different breeds and cross breeds getting along so well together, it really was a lovely experience.

On the Saturday we spent the whole of a glorious sunny day out, first on Mawgan Porth beach then on to Padstow and back for a stop off at The Cornish Inn, for coffee and lovely gooseberry crumble, then on to Perranporth Cove where we leisurely sat on the sand dunes while the dogs played safely on the beach, until Cassie decided to take herself back to the car across a busy road, this was the only worrying incident of the whole trip but all’s well that ends well.

The girls and ourselves had a wonderful time as you can see from the photos.

For details of tariffs at the Dalswinton contact Sal on 01637 860385 or visit their web site www.dalswinton.com

This is Ella Scattergood (Orlas Calendar Girl) at two years of age, we had quite a scare with Ella as a puppy, a few days after she left us she ended up at the Vets with interserception which we feel sure was caused by the worming medicine I had given her before she left us.
But luckily the Vet operated and all went well and as you can see from the photo Ella has grown into a lovely Golden Girl.

Home History Our Family Pups Stud Dogs Extended Family Inspirations Megan News British Shorthair Cats Links Contact