Betsy Bonheur

My indroduction to Barbets started in 2002 when a dog historian approached my friend, a fellow standard Poodle owner, and told that her that her dog was in fact a throwback to a Barbet, the Poodle`s ancestor. I began to do some research on the internet and during my research I stumbled upon a French Barbet breeder who luckily spoke some English, she kindly offered to help me import a Barbet from France but at the time I still had a hooligan of a Standard Poodle and three youngish children, so I declined her kind offer.

By January 2006 , my poodle had matured ( a bit), the children were still taking up a lot of time, but I was more capable and I still wanted to have a Barbet. So I re- established my contact with the French Barbet breeder who had a friend that was expecting a litter in a few weeks time, and she was willing to look after the puppy for 10 months to satisfy the UK quarantine rules, it all seemed so easy!. On Feb 7th 2006 a litter of 10 Barbets were born in Arcachon, France. I sent a deposit of 300 euros to secure a female. It was very exciting but also very difficult as my only communication was through the original contact Francoise, Betsys breeder had no computer nor did she speak English!. There was an element of risk as I have limited French, and there was I buying a French dog from a French lady that I had never communicated with,other than to send her 300 euros.

My next problem was to choose my puppy at 5 weeks old, impossible, the timing was wrong, I couldn't just whizz off to the South of France. So via Francoise, I said I wanted a quiet,gentle female who Nicole and Dominique (the breeders) were happy to keep in their family. I also had to choose a name beginning with 'B' (letters of the alphabet correspond with the year Barbets are born). I sent a list of three names, Betsy, Bisous,and Bliss.

We had luckily booked a holiday in Brittany in April, so we decided that we would take a day out and drive down to Arcachon to meet our Barbet puppy, Betsy Bonheur. It was a long drive, but worth it. Betsy proved to be a lovely puppy and I couldn`t be more pleased with Nicole`s choice. Nicole and Dominique, were clearly doing a great job with their litter and it was was also good to be able to meet the mother Tessy Belle, the father Vettis and the grandmother Niaide. We left a new collar for Betsy and some toys and treats for all the dogs. We sorted out costs to cover food and additional vets fees not covered by the breeder and sadly it was time to leave. Most importantly my husband did not sneeze or wheeze during the visit (he is allergic to most dogs).

After our sucessful visit in April we decided that we should book our family holiday in August near to Betsy in France, once again Nicole was fantastic as she booked us a mobile home near to her home so that we could have the dog for the two weeks. Time dragged, we had a few photos in the period between visits but black dogs do not photograph well. I did get conformation that she had passed her rabies test, which was fantastic news as we could begin the 6 months countdown in earnest. Finally it was August and we had our puppy, for two weeks anyway . It was a very different holiday, taking a dog out everywhere, but great for the children and us to get to know our new family member. We had a wonderful holiday, and we were all sad to have to leave Betsy behind.

I am very grateful to have found Nicole and Dominique, they have brought up Betsy in their home, not for profit as I only pay costs and even attempted to teach her basic commands in English. I would not have wanted to bring a Barbet over and put it into quarantine in kennels for the 6 months. Betsy arrived in the UK on 4th January 2007, at 11 months old.