In March 2018 I welcomed the first Olphae litter into the world, ably assisted by my close friend Emma Watson, it was a very long night and Emma still managed to get to work on time in the morning!  This breeding was between my lovely girl Phae and a working pack hound called Charman. I look forward to them playing their part in the breeding programme in years to come. 

Breeding otterhounds is not easy due to them having a small gene pool, which means hounds in the UK can be quite closely related.  In late 2016 I decided to make contact with Ashka Gordon of Blue Fairy Otterhounds in the USA to propose a breeding and hopefully begin a programme of cross Atlantic breedings.  We knew this would be an expensive adventure and not without its risks, but felt the benefit to the breed took priority and the cost and risk was well worth it. Our aim was simple, to breed a litter of healthy hounds and give both sides of the pond a new genetic line to work with. Early in 2017 I met up with Ashka whilst she was in the UK and took Olly with me. Ashka got to know him, took lots of pictures and videos and took these back to America with her and set about choosing a suitable dam for him. Her choice was a lovely dam called Darby owned by Cindy & Ron of Con Cara Kennels in Illinois.
The magic of veterinary science did its work and in May 2018 we received the news that Darby was indeed pregnant with Olly's pups, then on 21st June we welcomed 6 beautiful and healthy pups into the world, 5 girls and 1 boy. Fast forward to November 2018 and one of those gorgeous girls Dayze flew from the USA to the UK to join the Olphae Pack.  I am absolutely delighted with the success of this venture and look forward to working with America again in the future.