Callisae Longhaired Weimaraners

Printed in W.C.G.B magazine -

On April 17 my longhaired Weimaraner bitch Callie, Fursdon Midnight Monsoon CDex, bred by Teresa Clinick, gave birth to her first litter, six healthy, longhaired puppies.

I was contacted on Monday April 19 by Simon Blythe, GDBA Breeder Centre Manager. Simon had himself owned several longhaired weimaraners in the past whilst working as a guide dog trainer and felt that the breed had much to offer in the role of a guide dog. He expressed an interest in our litter and visited us that afternoon to meet Callie, Alec and myself.

Simon discussed at length the selection process, puppy walking, training, matching of dogs to Visually Impaired People and answered all of our many, many questions, particularly those concerning the welfare of any dogs that are not successful in their training. As three of our puppies were ordered, Simon expressed interest in the three remaining – all boys.

After much discussion between ourselves, other professional trainers and friends – two of which are involved with GDBA, we decided to allow two of our litter to go to GDBA as part of their trial using weimaraners for the first time.

We maintained contact with Simon during the development of the litter and at six weeks old two puppies were selected. They were collected at seven weeks old and were with their puppy walkers within two days.

Already these two puppies – Abe and Ace, have been exposed to a tremendous amount of socialisation and early training and are doing very well. The day Abe was collected he had his first trip around Tesco. The only problem being the shopping took three hours as he caused such a stir!

July 3 saw the Breeders’ and Puppy Walkers’ Open Day at Tollgate House, it was lovely to see our two puppies mixing with so many Guide dogs, brood bitches and studs, all with superb temperaments. Some of you may have seen the article and photographs in ‘Our Dogs’ July 23.

We are in regular contact with both puppy walkers and are kept informed of all aspects of development and training progress.

We feel this is an exciting development for our breed and are tremendously proud of Callie and her two puppies.

This may be the start of the weimaraner being used in a different working role - a very valuable and important one.

Watch this space ……………