SAVVA – BREEDING 2/2

BREEDING – PART TWO – PRODUCING PUPS 

PREPARATION OF BROOD

While some breeders embark on special preparations for brood bitches, Nick expects his greyhounds to be in top class condition, including parasite-free at all times. He does not therefore introduce a specific worming program for bitches prior to mating.

The first indication of a bitch being in whelp is when they go off their food at about three to four weeks after being mating– though it is not a foolproof method – some broods never lose their appetite.

Nick said: “By six weeks the belly is growing. If she only has a couple, you can sometimes not see anything and assume that she has missed. You can get them scanned, but I seldom bother.”

The bitch’s preparation is not so different from racing dogs in terms of feeding, particularly in the early stages.

But from the 40th day after mating, she is given a daily 10ml dose of the wormer Panacur. This continues until two weeks after the whelping.

The bitch’s feeding regime changes as she approaches the whelping date and is unable to hold a full stomach of food.

Nick says: “She will be fed a minimum of three times a day, including a breakfast and as much as she can manage. If she is struggling, we may leave the food in with her.”

 

WHELPING FACILITIES

Nick has three whelping kennels. They are approximately six feet by ten feet in total to include a main bed for whelping, plus a separate smaller bed for the dam (approx 3 feet square), a ramp to enable the pups to get off the bed and a small floor area. The separate bed is to allow the bitch to be on her own when she needs a break from the pups.

Every kennel has permanent access to its own small concrete and grass paddock with the door just big enough to facilitate the bitch going in and out at will. Each doorway is fitted with a curtain to prevent draughts.

All kennels are heated during the winter. In addition, each has its own heat lamp.

Nick says: “I keep a thermometer in the kennel and try to keep the kennels at 16 degrees centigrade.

“The heat lamps bring some extra concentrated heat though they aren’t always necessary in the summer.”

The whelping beds are the size of wooden pallets, roughly 40 inches by 48 inches.

On top of the wood there are newspapers and on top of that a carpet that is fixed so that it doesn’t get rucked up when the bitch moves around.

Nick says: “I always put some newspapers on top of the carpet for the bitch to tear up if she gets agitated and tries to nest before whelping down.

Nick said: “The rest of the newspaper is for soaking up the fluid. We also put newspaper on the floor of the kennel after the pups are born. For years we used sawdust, but like in the racing kennels, we find the newspaper more hygienic.

 

GIVING BIRTH

The day of whelping can often vary between three and four days either side of the generally accepted gestation period of 63 days – by rule of thumb, the bigger litters are more likely to be early and the small litters late – though this does vary.

As the bitch approaches whelping time, it is quite common for them to stop eating up to 12 hours before whelping.

Nick says: “As the time approaches, they tend to get a bit anxious and start to pant showing signs of distress. They will start to scratch at their bedding to make a nest.

“Eventually the contractions start and they may continue for several hours before the first pup is passed.

“If the bitch appears distressed, I might start to think about calling the vet though in most cases we get through the stage with no real problems.

“If the bitch produces the first pup okay, then she starts to settle. But if the first pup is breeched or dead, it can produce difficulties, though thankfully, problems are rare. If they are going to occur, most of the problems will tend to come with the first pup.

“But the majority of litters go without any major problems. There have been several occasions when the bitch has whelped unexpectedly and I have found mother and pups in perfect condition without any help from anyone.

“If the contractions are weak or prolonged, a quarter of a millilitre of Oxytocin will often help the contractions. If that hasn’t produced any results, then she may need another, but always in consultation with the vet.

“Even to this day, after all the years we have been doing this, I have no hesitation about getting a vet out of bed. I would strongly advise against using a drug to induce contractions unless you are very experienced. You create much bigger problems if she isn’t ready”

Experienced bitches are normally better able to cope with whelping. But with maidens, it is sometimes helpful to pass the pup to the bitch if she is slow to clean it up when it is first born – particularly if she is still full of pups and struggling to turn around. Very occasionally, apparently dead pups can be resuscitated by being rubbed with a towel or paper.

Eventually it will appear that the bitch has produced the last of her pups. The contractions will stop and it is impossible to feel any more movement in her abdomen.

She is then administered a full 1 millilitre dose of Oxytocin which should encourage the bitch to pass any remaining afterbirth.

By this stage, the paper bedding will have been changed several times and the bitch is now able to suckle her pups on the carpet.

During the whelping we will make fluids available for the brood, either tea with honey, or whey protein plus fresh water.

 

THE FIRST FEW DAYS

“After the bitch has whelped, she is washed down and the bedding is replaced. Any soiled paper is replaced at least twice a day in the first two weeks when the mother is cleaning up after the pups and to remove any discharge from the dam.

After that, when the pups start to soil the paper themselves, it is changed as many times as is necessary

Sometimes maiden bitches will not produce sufficient milk and the pups will have to be fed by syringes before eventually moving onto baby bottles.

Although not ideal, Nick has brought many successful open racers into the world this way. If a brood fails to produce ample milk for her second litter, it is unlikely that she will be mated again.

Nick said: “That would be rare though. In most cases the bitch can cope unless the litter is particularly large.

“However you also need to be wary of mastitis. The teats swell up and you can detect a sour smell. The pups also stop suckling. It needs to be treated with antibiotics as soon as possible.”

Within two weeks, the puppies should be able to lap, and they will be fed their Whelpi in a shallow dish. By one month, they would be able to take solids, a puppy meal supplemented with a small quantity of meat or chicken.

By this stage, ‘mum’ will probably require several breaks from the demanding litter and will take full advantage of the separate bed where the pups cannot reach her. And even though the pups nails will be regularly clipped from two weeks, they can make her belly sore.

Good mothers often continue to produce milk for their pups for up to eight weeks. Nick says: “Even after Mega Delight dried up, she was happy to remain constantly with her pups until they were around seven or eight months old. I would always try to leave the pups with the dam for as long as she is able to tolerate them.”

It isn’t long – dependent on weather – before the pups are following their dam out of the whelping kennel and into the paddock. It is kept clear clean from faeces on a daily basis.

 

WORMING AND IOCULATIONS

Nick says: “The pups are wormed at two weeks and every two weeks from then on up to 12 weeks. They are then wormed every six to eight weeks at a rate of 1 ml per kilo bodyweight. We alternate the worm treatment with Melbamax.

“In the early days, we followed the vets advice and when we started to worm at six weeks but the pups they were full of spaghetti (round worm). We rarely see worms now; this is a much better start to life.”

The first inoculations are given at around six to seven weeks of age with a repeat four weeks later.

 

REARING

The whole Westmead rearing process has changed considerably from the early days (chapter 3) when Nick and Natalie would take the pups to the Downs for early morning exercise.

Back in the mid-1960s, Edelsborough was a fraction of the size that it is today and Nick took full advantage of the neighbouring countryside.

He said: “I would take them up to Ashridge and they would just follow me. There wasn’t a great deal of wildlife for them to chase but they would run miles.

“I would also take them to a big field, open the van door and watch them take off.”

The current rearing process is more about controlled exercise with little chance of pups running onto roads or coming into contact with pet dogs. You also reduce the risk of injury.

After the inoculations have been given, the pups are ready to be transferred into a rearing paddock.

There are seven rearing paddocks, surrounding and with access to the main part of the property which is a large two acre field that also incorporates the schooling track and sand gallop.

Each paddock contains a shed and all bar one has natural shelter against the sun.

Once a day, twice in the summer, each litter is let out to gallop around the property, which includes access to the main paddock, the gallop, the infield of the schooling track plus the track itself.

Nick says: “They make me laugh just to watch them. When they go out for the first time, the mother always shows them around. They soon pick it up for themselves and they go from one thing to the next.

“They might start off by chasing each other around in the paddock. Then one will take it into his head to gallop around the schooling track. Another will jump in the pool for a swim and then they will end up finding their way to the whirlygig where they will play for another 10 minutes.

“When they’ve finished playing we let them back into their own paddock and put another litter out.

“Occasionally, we might take them down the four acre field for a change of scenery and to get used to travelling in a vehicle.

“In my opinion, pups should run until they get tired – that is all they need. It doesn’t do any harm for them to spend their whole lives in a 10 acre field though I don’t think it is necessary.”

Nick strongly believes that pups must be handled throughout their lives. Westmead pups are fitted with collars and trained to lead from around three months of age.

They are also ‘formally’ introduced to the whirlygig with short sessions when they will chase a dummy on the arm.

To prevent boredom, the litters are often given rags, plastic bottles and toys to play with, and sterilized knuckle bones to gnaw.

They will normally run riot for half an hour or so before they naturally congregate by the gate to indicate that they have had enough.

Among the less successful Westmead ‘improvements’ was the idea of creating an artificial spinney on the edge of the big paddock which would encourage the wild rabbits to breed there.

The plan was to stimulate the pups in the fields by seeing some wildlife.

Nick says: “Unfortunately, it became a distraction, so I decided to get rid of it.”

Some people believe that pups cannot overcome a bad start. While that may be true if they are badly fed, Nick has seen good recoveries from ‘ordinary’ rearing.

He said: “Many years ago I had an owner buy a pup from a breeder in Cambridgeshire and he asked me for an opinion on how the dog was being reared.

“The litter was nine months old and didn’t look bad but I advised him to move the pup as soon as possible. There was simply not enough space and they weren’t getting enough exercise for the size of the litter.

“He pleaded with me to take the pup. I wasn’t keen, but he was a son of Westmead County who looked just like the father and I gave in.

“I didn’t have any pups to put him with but had an old retired bitch who was very active.

“She liked to play ‘chase me’ games and the pup joined in. On the first day, she ran him so ragged that he had to lay down to rest. But gradually he grew fitter.

“As far as I am aware, Countville was the only member of the litter to make it, In fact, he went on to run third in the St Leger.”

Nick does not believe there is ‘one way’ to rear pups having seen many successful methods.

He said: “A few years ago I let a guy have two Westmead Milos pups. He didn’t have any land but he lived next to a golf course and gave the pups a gallop every day.

“The dog was eventually sold to race in America for £10,000 and the bitch was worth more though he didn’t sell her.

“I think the traditional Irish method, when pups would live around the farm, seemed to work though I think it is probably more a thing of the past.

“Most pups are reared in paddocks these days. Personally though, I’m not a big fan of the American style where you get long narrow runs side by side.

“I am not convinced that the pups learn some of the skills that they will need when they reach the tracks.”

POTENTIAL REARING PROBLEMS

+ Temperament

The size of paddock chosen for any litter will depend on the number of pups that Nick feels he can keep together. In general, litters are kept together whenever possible at least during the early stages.

In most cases, some splitting up inevitably takes place due to squabbles as the pups grow older.

In severe cases, this can be as early as four months old, though it is not uncommon for an entire group to go all the way through to 12 months without needing to be parted.

How the groups are split depends on the level of aggression. Typically, a group of the more aggressive types may be kept together.

Nick believes that aggressive behaviour, in the rearing paddocks or on the track, is something transmitted by one or other of the parents.

The most aggressive saplings he has handled were two litters by a dog with a notorious reputation for throwing short tempered offspring: Daleys Gold.

Once again though, there appears to be no link between aggression in the paddocks and any tendency to do wrong on the track. Indeed the first Daleys Gold/Westmead Move litter produced ten different open race winners and not a fighter among them.

As any trainer or rearer knows, when dogs ‘kick off’ even a well mannered dog can quickly turn.

Nick can easily recall an incident involving one of the kennel’s top open racers of the mid-1970s, Drynham Star.

He said: “I was out with a bunch of dogs and we saw a cat. I was badly prepared, a handful of dogs and no muzzles. I tried to get the cat to move and the dogs got agitated.

“Drynham Star realized that I was stopping him getting the cat, and out of pent up frustration he went for me. I had to hold him by the collar to stop him attacking me.

“Yet he wasn’t a naturally vicious dog. I don’t recall any problems in his rearing and on the track he was as genuine as they come. Basically, the whole incident was my fault for not having him muzzled”

Aggression is not inevitable in rearing, even among some of the most competitive successful greyhounds. Nick recalls an incident when the kennel had three of its best mothers all with young litters of virtually identical ages.

Nick says: “I think it was Westmeads Kim, Seal and Tania. At some stage the door must have been left open and all three litters ended up wandering around and intermingling. The dams were so good that they fed each others litters. There was no friction between them at all.

In more recent times, sisters Olivia and Aoife shared neighbouring rearing kennels. When the pups managed to get through the fence into each others kennels, the mums were happy to play aunt to each others family.

+ Non-chasers:

When asked to name their last non-chaser Nick says: “I can’t remember, but I think it was one of the Newdown Heather pups in what was otherwise a decent litter”. In other words, the kennel has produced one non-chaser in the last 30 years.

So what is the secret?

Nick says: “I don’t really know. I can tell you what we do, but unless you compared it with breeders who produce non-chasers, it would be hard to pinpoint why all our pups chase.

“I am a strong believer in handling the puppies and getting them used to people. I have seen some litters in Ireland where the pups have very little contact with people and that cannot be a good thing for when they grow up.

“We have always encouraged pups to play in the paddock with a rag or a skin. I also have a piece of wire suspended over the paddock that we hang things onto, usually strips of material and the pups have great fun holding onto it and dragging it around. Maybe this plays its part.

“When the pups are around five or six months old, I put them on the whirlygig. The ‘Whirly’ is an American idea that we only started to use over here a few years ago. But it is a great way of getting pups to chase in a safe environment. It has been a fantastic addition to the property.

“Because the pups have regular access to the whole property, we sometimes find they have made their own way to the whirly and are chasing it just for the fun of it.”

“Pups are like children. The younger they are, the more inquisitive they are. By showing them the whirly up to half a dozen times during their rearing it seems to have a very positive affect on their keenness to chase.

“They also become familiar with the traps which means they won’t be fazed by them later on.

“You don’t want to overdo it but if you get them interested early on, they never forget.

“I have even had pups arrive here at around seven or eight months old who hadn’t been handled and were very shy with people. Initially they refused to chase the whirly but with a bit of perseverance we’ve got them to chase it and they turned out the best in the litter.”

“By the time they are ready to be schooled, you should have already stimulated their chasing instinct. In the old days, when I could gallop them in open fields, they saw plenty of live stuff. That is no longer possible, yet we still get the same results.

“I know some breeders, particularly in Ireland, wouldn’t consider bringing a pup to the track without ‘a hunt’. But in my opinion it is not necessary for the vast majority of dogs to be shown any wild life. Very occasionally we might have to, but very rarely.

“In fact, given the distraction that the spinney produced, and the holes that rabbits make in the paddocks, I positively discourage them from breeding anywhere near the pups.

“Overall, I can’t say that all the pups that we produce are good, we have the occasional ungenuine ones, and some who might not be fast enough, but they always chase.

 

+ Illness/Injuries

There is a school of thought that says ‘when it comes to rearing pups, just let them get on with it’. That is not the Savva way. Litters are permanently monitored, the devil is in the detail.

Just about every boundary is fitted with home made crash barriers. Accidents aren’t ‘just one of those things’ they are a failure to prevent an injury.

By the time that Nick slit and fitted a plastic bin as a safety skirt around a telegraph pole, it had already cost a young bitch pup her racing career.

Nick says: “It has been a while since we lost any pups in rearing. There was a stage when we seemed to get a few stifle problems in pups aged between five and seven months old.

“We will never know the cause, but personally I think there may have been a deficiency in their diet before we switched to ‘all in one’ feeding.”

When it comes to illness, they don’t come any bigger than parvovirus which hit the kennel back in 1983 (see chapter 4).

But given sufficient effort, even that was partially defeated with one of the sufferers, Westmead Account, going on to reach the Silver Collar and Scurry Finals and breaking the sprint clock at Oxford.

Westmead Chase was another who battled the disease and went on to win the Autumn Cup at Milton Keynes and reach the Scottish Derby Final.

 

OTHER PROBLEMS

There are a variety of problems that can arise in rearing. The most likely is that, for some reason, the pups will lose their appetites.

Nick said: “In most cases, something minor has probably gone wrong – they’ve picked up a tummy upset and it will pass in a couple of days.

“Occasionally, it is something that requires veterinary attention and the use of medication. Teething can cause loss of appetite, or occasionally a virus might take hold.

“In the case of young pups, it might be that you have accidentally upset the dam’s stomach and that has come through her milk.

“I no longer feed milk, cow’s or powdered, to pups once they have gone on to solid food. I found that it caused scowering in some pups and wasn’t necessary.

But good management isn’t about just injuries. Sometimes a litter will not thrive for whatever reason.

Nick says: “It happens. You get picky eaters and you have to change the diet. Or they might need a tonic, or a blood test to find out if there is something seriously wrong.

“The alarm bells would always ring if I see a litter that looks lethargic and lacking in spirit.

“Whatever the problem might be, I would always attempt to rectify it, not just ‘leave it to nature’ and in most cases we get to the bottom of it.”

 

REARING ELSEWHERE

“The Australians tend to rear differently to the British, Irish and Americans – at least those that I observed.

“For example, Paul Wheeler rears 25 pups of all ages in the same paddock. We wouldn’t normally be able to do that for fear of them fighting – the most that I have reared together is 10 from the same litter – but the Australian paddocks are very much bigger, sometimes 10 acres, which appears to be the secret.

“It appears that the dogs form a sort of pack, much as they would in the wild, and because they have so much more space, they don’t encroach on each other.

“Other differences are down to climate, for example in the warmer states most rearer have a pond in the middle to allow the pups to cool off.

“The Americans tend to rear in long paddocks side by side. I am in no position to criticise because they get good results, but I prefer my pups to get the chance to twist and turn in wider paddocks.

“I was interested to see that Dutch Koerner, whose record as a breeder is one of the best in America, breeds to a system very much closer to my own. He operates in a much bigger way of course though I know he was impressed when he came to see how we do things.”

 

SCHOOLING

Nick says: “I think schooling is over rated. Since I’ve had the ‘whirly’ I hardly school them. Westmeads Joe and Lord each had just one trial at my track before they ran their qualifying trials.

Because the pups are virtually unschooled, there is invariably plenty of scope for improvement from the first trial to the ‘completed article’. But two dogs stood out from the moment of their first trials.

Nick said “Phantom Flash and Westmead Merlin both did open class times in their first ever trial. In each case I thought to myself “My God what have I got here?”

It is often said that the Westmead schooling track has been a major factor in producing so many champions. Nick doesn’t agree.

He said: “If I had my time again, I wouldn’t build a track. The time and expense of maintaining it are way out of proportion to its benefit.

“It might be justified if you were running a schooling track commercially, but I never wanted to go that way. It would have been much easier to use someone else’s schooling facilities. My track was an expensive mistake!”

 

FEEDING

The two biggest factors in rearing are feeding and exercise and in each case – there are no compromises made.

Nick said: “Over the years my feeding methods have changed for the racing dogs so they also did for the pups. All our pups have always been fed from the same batch of food as the racers (see ‘Training’). I would never have imagined doing it any different

“Having visited many good breeders I am sure that there is no ‘one way’ to feed. Feeding varies greatly but you can still get excellent results providing that you don’t compromise on quality.”

“For example, Paul Wheeler, who breeds the hugely successful ‘Bale’ dogs, feeds his dogs on a stew of kangaroo meat and barley.

“He told me, ‘my father had great success using this method and I see no reason to change.”

 

CHAMPION SPOTTING

So can a good dog man pick out the best pup in the litter?

Every breeder has tried it. They might take a shine to a bold pup when they are first born. More likely, selections will be made through fencing as pups chase each other around the paddock.

Nick clearly remembers his early attempts at future champion spotting as the ultimately successful Clonalvy Pride/Cricket Dance litter went through their paces.

He said: “Westmead Silver used to be the hare. They would chase her and she would run them into the ground. From what I saw of her in the paddock, she was probably the fastest in the litter.”

But while entertaining, champion spotting is a very inexact science.

Nick says: “ I certainly couldn’t look back at dogs like Phantom Flash or Sonic Flight and say that I knew they would be champions before they got on the track. I don’t think it can be done. “If anybody can show me how to pick the best in the litter at three months I’d pay him to show me the trick.

“I remember the great Joe Booth coming to Mels Pupil for a mating and offering me a pup en lieu of the fee.

“The pup he sent me, Westmead Hall, turned out to be the best of the litter. If anyone could have spotted the best in the litter while it was still a pup, it would have been Joe.”

“As they get older, if you spend a lot of time with them, you can start to form an opinion, so by the time they were ready for schooling I’d like to think I would know which would be the best.

“But even then, when you put a clock on them for the first time, you can still discover that you made a mistake- particularly with slow developers and stayers.”

Conversely, Nick will sometimes make up his mind about a whole litter in a negative way, even when they are only a few months old.

He said: “It is not a good sign when you get bad behaviour among pups. Some litters just don’t know how to behave. They piss on their beds, or misbehave on the leads. They might be cowardly and standoffish. They might bark a lot, basically have no manners.

“All our pups are reared in the same way. These traits must come from the parents and if a particular bitch has produced two or three good litters and suddenly a bunch of misbehaved pups, the obvious blame must go to the sire.

“I remember when we had the Tico litter out of Westmead Move, they were quite disruptive, but they didn’t even look like nice greyhounds. It is hard to put into words but they just didn’t look as though they had any class about them.

“It is very rare that a litter that has displeased me ultimately goes on to prove me wrong. But that doesn’t mean that they aren’t fast.

“A good example was the Hondo Black litter out of Westmead Aoife. They were stunning to look at, had perfect behaviour in every way, but turned out to be minor open class at best.

“The champions though are invariably model greyhounds. Ask anybody who has been lucky enough to train a special dog and they invariably tell you that the dog does nothing wrong. Well that star quality is usually visible in the rearing paddocks.

The only factor in picking the best pup is luck – as was demonstrated so very early in the Westmead story with the four ‘least wanted’ pups out of Cricket Dance (see chapter 3).

For many years Bob Morton has taken his choice of whatever pups are born at the kennel, there are any number of Westmead stars who were snapped up by other owners including Phantom Flash, Westmead Merlin, Right Move, Westmead Harry, Westmead Surprise, etc etc.

The broods who were sold out of the kennel included Westmeads Kim and Seal (both later returned), Westmead Flight and Westmead City (dam of ‘The Manorvilles’)

Nick says: “People always used to say ‘he always keeps the best for himself’ but it doesn’t always work out that way.

“I remember Brian Turner wanted to buy a couple of pups and he asked what was available. There were three bitches and I said the only one that I didn’t want to let go was the fawn because Natalie had taken a shine to her.

“He said, ‘if Natalie likes her that’s good enough for me’ and he insisted that I keep my promise and give him the pick.

“The fawn never made it, the other two that he didn’t want were Westmead Call and Westmead Move.”

But compared to one of the kennel’s longest established owners, Brian Turner is Midas.

Nick laughs: “Poor old Barrie Bolton. I have never seen a man be so unlucky. The times he has had pick of the litter and always picked the worst one he is uncanny.”

There is a rumour that the other owners insist the “Allglaze” man get first pick to give themselves more chance.

At least Turner got Olivers Wish from the Move litter that also included Westmead Wish and Westmead Whisper.. BB got the forgettable Allglaze Chelsea.

In the litter that included Westmead Claim and Charm, BB got the moderate Allglaze Crystal (who was later sold and became a good brood).

The list of misses goes on and one. Left to choose two from three pups he rejected Mistley Trojan . . and he turned down Westmead Striker. .

But maybe luck levels itself out! Westmead Chick’s litter to Spiral Nikita were hugely disappointing. But Barrie held onto Westmead Wise who went on to be a decent brood and produced Beatties Best (Sussex Puppy Cup) and Fear Robben (Puppy Classic).

 

One day Nick received a phone call from a very nice, well spoken lady who asked if he had any pups for sale. Nick replied that he had two young litters and she would be welcome to view them.

The lady turned out to be Gill Cribbens who duly arrived with her husband, the comedy actor, Bernard.

Gill wanted two pups but couldn’t choose between the two litters. Nick tried to help by recommending a brother and sister from the litter by Toms The Best out of Celtic Lady.

He says: “It was quite funny because Gill then became very suspicious at why I had recommended that particular pair. It was quite obvious that she wasn’t sure she could trust greyhound people

“She started to question me, so I said, ‘if you are not happy, take the other pair instead.’

“She seemed relieved that she still had the choice and decided to go with the first pair I suggested. They were only young babies and I had no idea how they would turn out.”

In the following months, Gill became a regular visitor to the kennel, sometimes with her husband, sometimes on her own.

Nick said: “They both took a real interest in the pups and we became good friends, Gill was much keener than Bernard though he was always very friendly and good company.”

Unfortunately, things took a down turn when the pups were around nine months old. The bitch developed an aggressive form of bone cancer and had to be put to sleep.

The dog turned out to be Westmead Woofa who won a string of competitions including Nottingham’s Puppy Classic, and the Diamond Stake at Shelbourne Park.

So what happened to the two pups that Gill originally rejected?

“They end up as two graders” replied Nick.

To balance the story – we should also relate the story of the day Gail May asked Nick for some help choosing a pup.

He says: “She picked out a white and black dog. He didn’t have any testicles and I tried to persuade her to take one of the others. But she was determined to stick to her choice who turned out to be Spiridon Louis.”