Awww, thank you all so much! I so love my Bobs

Corrina, I hope you can get some pictures Merlin pictures posted soon, I am so looking forward to seeing him.
As for all the breed standard stuff, it has all got me lost along the way I looked in my Springer book last night and it said weight is supposed to be between 49-55lbs and height at shoulder, UK around 20" for male and female, and US 20" male and 19" female. I measured Bob and he is 19" and I am now wondering if he weighs a bit more, it is quite a long time since the last weigh-in! And as for show and working, Barry always reckoned Bob was more a show dog, at least compared to his working girls! As we have said before, not that any of it matters anyway. I am just so glad I am not really into all that showing dogs stuff, it is great for people who like it I suppose, but all that competition has never tempted me, not even when I had my GSDs and Dobies, those and my mutts were all just as beautiful as each other to me.

Chris