Bones!

As you may or may not know, my dogs are fed a raw meat diet, something that I started doing over 20 years ago. At least once a week the dogs have a raw meaty bone in place of their usual meal, this has several benefits some of which are, a few hours entertainment, a meal that involves a bit of effort and lovely clean white teeth. I must stress that the bones are totally raw, cooked bones (including the greasy deep fried bones available in some pet shops) have a high risk of splintering and causing terrible damage. I give my girls pretty much any type of bone, this includes - chicken, duck, lamb, venison and beef, these are not totally without risk, but neither is any food and a greedy dog can choke on a mouthful of dry food as well as a bone, but as long as you can supervise your dog I really feel the very small risk presented by a diet including raw bones is one that is heavily outweighed by the various benefits it offers. I will tempt fate now and say that in all the years I have fed a raw diet, the only time I had any issue with bones was with a pup from one of the last litter, he swallowed a chicken neck whole, gagged on it for a few seconds and promptly vomited it straight back up, he then proceeded to eat it in a far more methodical chewing fashion :-)

Got my camera back :-)

After a month without it, my camera was finally repaired and returned yesterday, so although I am embarrassed about the sorry state of appearance of my dogs (due to delayed but imminent bathing and clipping so they look good for next weekends reunion) I had to take a few shots on our walk today. Then a few more of the cats in the garden, once we got home :-)

Dime is now in season, which means the rest of the girls are likely to follow suit very soon. The plan is to mate Audrey, hopefully giving us a lovely litter of apricot pups who will be ready to go to their new homes at the very beginning of 2016.

Missing my camera :-(

I think I am having withdrawal symptoms for my camera, it has been at the repairers for over 2 weeks now as we had to clarify warranty issues - don't trust Amazon Marketplace and be aware that UK Stock is very different to UK model! As you may now be guessing my camera was not covered by the warranty and I am having to foot a fairly hefty bill to get it sorted, but I am desperate to have it back in time for our reunion, in just over 2 weeks time :-)

I have had a pretty good response to the reunion so please, everyone keep your fingers crossed that it stays dry for us. All with Itzapromise pups are welcome, as are other 4 legged members of their families and of course it is an ideal opportunity for anyone contemplating an Itzapromise dog in the future to come and meet lots of them and chat to their owners.

For the 1st time in many months we have no puppies or kittens, and much as I had been looking forward to the break I find myself enjoying making plans for our future litters. Because the colours I breed have quite a limited gene pool in this country, research of pedigrees is essential, both to make sure there are as few health issues as possible in the lines but also to try and use a mixture of show quality dogs and those with less common pedigrees. Our next litter will be with Audrey, this is to be her last litter. She is due in season next month, which is 8/9 months since her last season, all being well she will be visiting an American apricot boy, he is not a show dog but has the most wonderful temperament and is a very fit and healthy lad with what appears to be, a very clean pedigree with regard to health issues, this will give us puppies with an unusual pedigree and hopefully will be of benefit to the apricot gene pool, my plan is to keep a pup from this litter, and yes, Graham knows, lol.

My new kitten arrives on the 1st of Sept, he is coming all the way from Yorkshire, fingers crossed he has a smooth journey down and that my blinking camera is back!

Mainly pictures

Apologies for not updating for a few weeks, no excuses, just didn't get around to it :-)

Things are quietly ticking over here, the 3 older kittens are now well established in their new homes and the younger kittens will be going in the next week or so (apart from Mrs Miggins, who is staying with us). Our new boy will hopefully be joining us sometime in September, so that is definitely something for us to look forward to.


Had a visit from my bestest friend last week, she brought 3 of her poodle/collie crosses with her, including a delightful, if strong willed, pup, Pixel. As we expected all the dogs got on really well and we had a couple of lovely walks, including one on the beach. I have attached quite a lot of pics today, both from last weeks walks and todays as my camera is sick and I have to send it off for repair, I'm going to feel like my right arm has been cut off, Im dreading missing all those shots that I know are going to present themselves whilst I am cameraless :-(. As always, there are many more pics on my Flickr.com account.

I don't generally post any pics with me in them, but Rosie took this one and for some reason I like it, so here I am :-)

There has been a very positive response to the planned reunion (6th Sept), I am hoping that we will have more poodles than we did at the 1st one, really looking forward to catching up with everyone, please can everyone keep their fingers crossed that it stays dry for us, and that my camera is back!!