We had a great reaction to our last blog post about our beautiful dogs and so we thought we would share one of our most recent anecdotes with you here…
My plan of lifting our main crop spuds in September seems to have been superseded by a couple of Clumber spaniels with very large digging paws.
We grow three 20 yard rows of potatoes in a different part of a field every year, and the other day, when I went to check them for blight, I found a scene of total desolation right in the middle of the patch.
The neat rows had been replaced by a sort of mini tank training ground with potato haulms and half eaten spuds liberally scattered everywhere! The culprits, Barley and Holly, were laid up in the shippon busily licking the evidence of their extremely muddy paws. Shouting at them had little effect, as by clumber standards, that was a good day’s work.
Speaking of paws, clumber spaniels have paws that must be at least three times bigger than a springer spaniel’s dainty little feet.
Barley’s paws are particularly large, with great tufts of hair growing between his toes. Follow his tracks in the snow and you could be forgiven for thinking you were following a small bear. When Barley puts a paw in your hand, it fills your hand. When either Jessie or Teazel offer a paw, you wonder how they can work beating all day in challenging conditions on such neat little feet.
No doubt there will be many more stories to come!