. My OH is out for the day tomorrow but not the night However, not long now until the first weekend racing is coming up so he'll be away Friday night through to late on Sunday

Nighty night Jenny, and yes, it's tiddling down here too Jimmi will probably flatly refuse to set paw outside for his last wee.

I love complete dark....but not necessarily when trying to walk a dog!!!

Must go myself, have a good day tomorrow everyone and be good.

Night night xxxxxxxx

I know lots of people have got Utonagan down as some sort of designer type dog and anyone who breeds them as only interested in the money. I actually had a dog from the lady who originally started them, I got Tawney in the early/mid '90's and they had been going a few years then, although they were a bit of a mixed bag but there was this sort of look running through them, which is still there today, but has been a bit more streamlined, if I showed you a pic of Tawney who was born around 1994 from memory, then there is Gnasher's Hal who was Tawney's great nephew as far as we can make out by comparing notes, and then skip forward to my Cariad, and you can see the subtle changes taking place as they move forward in time. I suppose they were the original 'designer dog' in a way at the beginning because the lady wanted a dog that looked like a wolf but acted like a dog, now they aren't always very doglike in their actions and no they don't all look like wolves, but I feel we have moved beyond that original 'spec' They make a good all round family dog, we still have a way to go on some health issues, although we're not doing bad on driving our hip scores down, elbow scores don't seem to be an issue, we have identified where the epilepsy seems to have come from and bred away, but epilepsy can lie dormant for generations and the wrong pairing can have it raising its ugly head again, there are cases of Addisons in Scotland, but nowhere else for some reason. VWD we test for but apart from a couple of isolated cases, again we hope we have nipped it in the bud, we are testing for DM but have never found a carrier yet. Heart murmers and MRD seem to be common, again we are litter screening for these. I love them for their very 'quirkiness' in their natures and the challenges they present. They are definitely not for everyone though!!! I don't think we're doing too badly for what is after all a very modern dog still evolving.