Hi fellow human owners! We're Gracie and Ficelle and we love our new life in France at La Belle Vilaine in south Brittany. We have trained our humans to a very high standard (with the Kennel Club Good Citizen Dog Scheme up to Gold level). If you have very well-behaved, sensible owners like us (with or without a certificate!!) you are welcome to bring them along on your self-catering, gite holiday. Terms and conditions apply - contact us for a booking form for further information.

Latest news - During May Cheryl and Daisy passed their "CSAU" (Certificat de Sociabilité et d'Aptitude à l'Utilisation") under a judge at an obedience competition. She is now able to compete in Agility. At their first ever show over the first weekend in May, in the UK, they earned praise from judges and fellow competitors alike and even won 1st place for one of the courses. On Saturday, 8 November 09, Elaine was awarded the qualification of "Moniteur en Education Canine Premier Degré" - her pass mark 113/120. Meaning that she is now officially a Dog Trainer and enables her to teach dog training classes voluntarily in local Dog Clubs. She is also qualified to be an examiner for the Certificat d'Aptitude à l'Education Sociale du Chien (at officially-organised events within the Dog Club structure) . On Saturday, 7th February 09, Gracie and Elaine were successful in passing their Certificat d'Aptitude à l'Education Sociale du Chien. This is a new requirement in France and necessary to be able to compete in agility. The test was similar to the Kennel Club Good Citizen Dog Scheme Gold level standard (a bit easier, in fact!). The test is designed to confirm that the owner is capable of training a dog to the necessary standard and only needs to be taken once and not with each new dog. It involved walking to heel on and off the lead at 3 different paces, sit and down, recall, out-of-sight down stay, meeting a stranger, walking between other dogs and their handlers, allowing a stranger to look at teeth, ears etc (the dog's!) and then a test on the requirements under French law specific to dog ownership. We did several demonstrations of obedience, agility and doggy dancing in the region during 2009. Strange as it may seem to British people, very few French people have ever heard of such sports - our neighbours enjoy watching the training sessions, but I think they think we are very eccentric!

Our house and holiday cottages (or gites) are set in one and a third acres of land in the heart of the picturesque Morbihan countryside. Each self catering cottage (or gite) has its own private garden. There is a large play area also, but this is only for people.

Every day we walk along quiet lanes and through the woods to the banks of the river Vilaine. We have trained Paul and Elaine to collect fir cones along the way and throw them into the river for us to swim after (during warm weather) - by the time we have walked back home through the lanes (about 20 minutes) we are clean and dry and very happy.

Some days we jump in the car and head off to walk along the coastlines and play on the beaches (restrictions apply on some beaches). If we are pleased with our owners we take them into one of the many restaurants, crêperies or cafés around which allow well-behaved humans to go in with their dogs.

One of our favourite treats is to go for a row in a boat through the marshes at La Grande Brière - followed by a long walk following the way-marked routes. There are lots of way-marked walks around here - we will let you know where they are and will do our very best to test as many out as possible (life's tough you know!).

To see some of the animals and plants we find in the garden - Click here