February.
Liz and Cal's pups were 4 years old on the 14^th, Teasel and Paddy's pups were also 4 on the 27^th, so Happy Birthdays to all the pups and thank you to their owners for taking great care of them.

Kate and Rio were in season at the end of the month.

March.
The Bentley and Liz puppies were 1 year old on the 1^st so Happy Birthday to all the litter, and thanks again to their wonderful owners.
Liz was mated on Mother’s Day to Doyle, also known as Kirkmarsh Mr Doyle of Hiberna (a Teasel and Paddy pup from the first mating in 2004).
All of these girls in season were driving Bentley to distraction!

April.
Was a busy month as we had planned a trip to America to see Ginny and Larry Spencer who bred Bentley, and also it coincided with the Irish Water Spaniel Club of America Specialty in Maryland. We had planned a 3 week stay over there, but due to the Icelandic Ash cloud problem we only managed 2 weeks. This was a very special holiday for us, as we had not been abroad for a very long time – some 30 years, and it was the first time for us together. We were really looking forward to seeing Ginny again and meeting Larry for the first time, and of course we got to meet Bentley’s parents Cruiser and Gracie and his brother Tibbot. we will write more on this together with lots of photos of the whole event.
The only thing in this that we were not really happy with was leaving the dogs, I know that they would be in good hands, but it was the first time we had left them with anyone. I nearly wrote a manuscript on the requirements of each dog, they must have thought I was over the top, as our good friend and gundog trainer Jack Gretton does nothing but dogs all day every day.

May.

We arrived back home from America on the 7^th and straight away went to pick the dogs up, and of course everybody was fine, and our lovely Liz was very “plumpious” and they were all very pleased to see us, but not half as pleased as we were.
On the 16^th May Liz had 8 puppies 5 bitches and 3 dogs. Their first visitors Pauline and Ian Probert who own Doyle (the puppies' dad),  were over the moon with the puppies and already Pauline was trying to decide which little girl she was having! who already had the name “Faith”.
Our joy was short lived as on the 24^th May Denise's  Dad passed away, which in all made things very hard for us, helping my Mum,  with funeral details, being there as much as I could, and also having a litter of pups to see to, and of course 4 other dogs as well, this gave both of us a lot to cope with.
With all of that going on Denise had no time to grieve for her Dad, and it has taken its toll on her over the months to come.

June.
We had Denise's Dad's funeral on the 7^th. Melvyn was 60 years young on the 8^th, and he became a granddad on the 10^th to a little boy named Noah. You can imagine all the emotions at this time.
 

We had also had an email in February from the states from a young lady called Sarah, interested in a male IWS puppy. So we came up with sending videos of the three boys from the age of 3 to 4 weeks old every week, so she could decide which puppy she might like. We also had puppy owners coming and visiting the pups and taking photos.

July.

Puppy owners came to pick up their puppies, starting with Pauline collecting her puppy having preference of 1^st choice. After much deliberation between two of the bitches, she went away with Faith.

Sarah who also had first choice of the dog pups, had already chosen her puppy by video and named him “Cletus”, but he was to stay with us until he was 10 weeks old, then he could fly to the states.

Thank you again to all the new puppy owners of this litter, you were all very patient with us during our loss.

We went to Chillington Hall, for the Sporting Irish Water Spaniel Club's working weekend, mainly due to the responsibility that Melvyn had at the event. We entered dogs that had had no training for a long time, due to being away and Denise's death. But we have to say that they went through the weekend very well considering they were young and had not had as much gundog training as we would have liked. We were very pleased with them.

Cletus went to the vet to get his Fit To Fly certificate, and he passed with flying colours, after getting chipped as well.

Sarah had arranged to come over to England; she did a little sightseeing in Scotland and then met up with us at the CLA Game Fair. All we can say about Sarah is what a lovely lady she is, and she and Cletus got on so well with each other, we knew that there would be no problems with them.

While we were at the CLA it was Liz’s 7^th birthday. We really cannot believe she is 7 years old.

On the 26^th we said goodbye to Sarah and Cletus, Melvyn took them down to Heathrow airport, and the photo above is of Melvyn and Cletus at the animal health check in.
 

When Sarah reached her destination, she phoned to say that Cletus had travelled very well, and when he came out of his crate he just walked out to the grass area and had a wee, then a quick roll around on the grass, then had a cuddle from Sarah, and they made their way home. You will find Cletus’s photos and videos on his page “Our Boy in America”.

August.

Well we got back from the CLA and after about a week or so Ziva went down with Kennel Cough, then Rio and then Kate. So, they were out of action for a while.

Kate was in season, so again, she was out of action for 3 weeks.

Bentley had his 5^th birthday on the 21^st where does the time go to?

We decided that we should have a short break, so at the end of August we went to Dorset the idea being that we had a bit of R & R time, and do a little bit of training with the dogs, and also catch up with Eddie and Carole Jones, and their pack of Springers and their IWS Cruiser and Classic.

We would like to thank them for looking after us so well and arranging training with Neil Varney which we thoroughly enjoyed.

Also we had a visit from Shane Honey and Merlin (brother to Rio), who stayed overnight with us, it was great to be able to catch up, with no distractions.

September.

Rio had her Hips and Elbows scored and they came back, hips, Right 4, Left 4, and her elbows were clear 0/0. So we were well pleased with that.

Kate was 2 years old on the 10^th September.

We attended the Midland Game Fair on the 18^th and 19^th with Pauline and Ian, Eddie and Carole, and David and Ursula Wilcox. It was a good weekend and very enjoyable.

October.

On the 2^nd of October Bentley and Denise went to Sandbeck for the start of the picking up season. We were on Partridge, which was a bit strange at first for him, as he had just spent the last few years on pheasant and duck, also standing so far back was different too, but it did not take him long to get the measure of it. Bentley is a pleasure to watch out there working, he is fast, on his retrieves, and has an excellent nose when we are sweeping up after the shoot for finding dead birds or runners.

It was the Any Variety gundog test put on by the SIWSC, there was a good entry of 89 dogs, which kept everyone busy especially Melvyn!

The Bentley and Lulu litter were 2 years old on the 9^th and we would like to wish all Ziva’s litter mates Happy Birthday, and thank the owners for their great care of them.  

After just getting going picking up on the shoot every week, Denise had an accident with Bentley. She was taking him through to the porch to give him an extra meal, when horrors of horrors happened, she trapped his tail in the door! and it took a piece off!! After Denise was feeling very sick at the thought of it, Bentley was looking round for his dinner, no thought for the tail!

So off to the vets, where he had to have an op to straighten it up, and then back home, with a buster collar. Back to the vets a few days after; oh yes going on well, we will left the dressing off and put a tube on the end so he didn't catch it. Back home all was well for the next few days, then more horror! There was no tube on the end of his tail although he had a buster collar on. We searched high and low for the tube only to decide that he had eaten it!!

Back to the vets, he is x-rayed and yes, the tube was in his stomach. So another op to remove the tube and the tape that was on it.

We found out that he got the tube off by sitting up straight, tail bent round his hind leg, and if he looked straight down at it and bent down the buster stopped on his vet bed, but his head and neck could push on through and then he could reach his tail and take the tube off.

During this time of the “TAIL”, Melvyn was taking Ziva to Dorothy Walls for gundog training, also Joy Waddington was coming with us with Beansidhe (Rio’s sister). But as soon as the weather got bad this had to be curtailed.

November.

Melvyn had an enjoyable overnight stay with Eddie and Carole, followed by a great day out shooting on Hartgrove shoot where Eddie is gamekeeper, thank you again Eddie and Carole.

Bentley was still ongoing with his tail but we were nearly there.

We decided to have a bit of a get together on the 28^th so David Wilcox arranged the venue, at the Plough, Stamford. David and Ursula, Pauline and Ian, Gill Taft and the two of us, all sat down and had a lovely meal. The company was great, it was very relaxed and it was nice to know we were with people who are genuine friends.

December.

Yes, Bentley and Denise were back out, but not for long as we got the snow sweeping the country: 2 foot plus. The worst snow the UK had seen for many years, with temperatures of -12 ^oC in the day and in places -20 ^oC at night.

The Teasel and Paddy pups from the litter 10.12.2004 were now 6 years old. Happy Birthday to the litter, and thanks again to the owners for their great care of these dogs.

Ziva came in to season on the 26^th December.

January 2011.

We were keeping fingers crossed that the weather would cooperate for the SIWSC  A.V. Field Trial. We were lucky and the trial went ahead, and this year we had a winner. The trophy of a bronze figurine, of a man with a gun and a dog by his side was presented by Gill Taft in memory of her husband Pat Taft, who was a brilliant gundog trainer, and did so much for the working Irish Water Spaniel.

Bentley and Kate had their eyes tested, both were clear.

On the 19^th Liz was presented with yet another 10 grand children, this time down to her daughter Meagan (Kirkmarsh Roisin Dubh at Fendrake) owned by David & Ursula Wilcox. The sire was Ian and Pauline Probert's Kirkmarsh Mr Doyle of Hiberna. This was Meagan's last litter having already had litters of 9 and 11.

Liz now has a total of 62 grand children, all born since late 2008.

Finally, Bentley and Denise had their last day picking up for the season.

February.

Liz and Cal's puppies were now 5 years old, Happy Birthday to them all, and thank you again to all their owners for their care.
Also Happy Birthday to Teasel and Paddy's second litter of pups who were are also 5 years old, and thank you again to their owners.

We started attending training days with the United Retriever Club (URC) and the Pennine Training Area (PTA) and the Dukeries Gundog Club who hold training classes most weekends and in the evenings in the week. We are really enjoying working with the other retriever breeds. We used to work with these clubs a few years ago, but Melvyn's time spent as the SIWSC event co-ordinator limited both of us.

Kate in season, and this time we were going to mate her with Bentley, the coi being 1.9% which is very good.

March.

The Bentley and Liz litter were now 2 years old, so a Happy Birthday to them, and a thank you to their very caring owners.

Rio was in season

Liz was spayed on the 11^th and seemed quite well, although she hates going to the vets

Kate did not get mated, we seem to think she is ovulating very late in her season, so next time we will try her longer with Bentley.

On the 20^th March, it was the SIWSC AGM. This year Melvyn and I stepped down from the committee along with Pauline Probert and David Wilcox. Over the last couple of years, we all felt that we were being hounded off the committee, after all of us have served the SIWSC well for a long time. It seems that our thoughts were right, as when we all resigned nobody was asked why, or would we reconsider and stay, so yes, we were definitely wanted off the committee.    

Melvyn ran Ziva in the PTA Novice test which had 45 dogs entered, this was Ziva’s first novice test, so it was a big day for them both, as being a two year old girl who has not had a lot of training due to our circumstances last year. Melvyn was very pleased with her through the day having to cope with 6 tests throughout the day, we know that all the training, and the tests that we do this year will be catch up training and education for the girls so that they learn and get the experience that they lack.

April.

Melvyn and Ziva are in another test, this time at March in the fens for “Help the Hero’s”. Ziva did not run as well as last week, but then she came up against things she had not seen or done, but she attempted it all with spirit and determination.

On the 10^th we had some very good news, Emma O' Donnell (Cal’s owner) gave birth to a little boy, Ronan, we wish Emma and Ryan all the best, and send our love to proud grandparents Shauna and Mark.

May.

Melvyn was invited to run Ziva in the Minor Breeds gundog test, along with Ian Probert with Kirkmarsh Mr Doyle at Hiberna, Joy Waddington with Kirkmarsh Wild Beansidhe, and John Pollet with Fendrake Iceni  Warrior. The team came 3rd, with the Cheasapeake Bays coming 1^st, the Flatcoats 2^nd, and the Curlycoats 4^th.

Ian Probert and Doyle got the trophy for Top Dog on points for the day, congratulations to both of them.

On the 15^th Melvyn and Ziva met up with David Wilcox and his IWS Feargal (an 8 year old lad sired by our boy Morgan) at March for Ely and District Wildfowlers' Association (EDWA) gundog working test.