2 days older and many experiences richer. Life for a puppy really rushes by.

Yesterday the puppies where chipped. They were very brave and hardly made a sound when the chip was injected into them.
It’s kind of like meeting old acquaintances once every few years when the “chipper” people come. They have chipped all 4 of my litters and come in saying how long its been and how nice we have another litter.
I think they know all the thousands of litters they do. Many years ago we were check out to approve our request to start a kennel and they were the ones to do that. I wanted to breed Lagotti but also had a castrated Estrela male here. Well this was a problem as all dogs that were at that moment in your care had to have a pedigree to prove …. Well I’m not sure what, they wanted proof he was mine I guess. But what that has to do with wanting to breed Lagotti Ill never understand… anyway they deviously asked all sorts of questions about my Estrela when he was a puppy at his breeders and in the end they were satisfied he was mine as they remembered tattooing him 6 years earlier!

It’s always impressive to see how big the needle is where the little chip lived in.

I admit I wouldn’t volunteer to get one of those things placed under my skin.. yuk!

Today I took the pups to get their puppy shots. 2 of the vets assistants kindly helped me carry all 6 puppies into the surgery. We placed then on the floor where they had lots of fun investigating everything and christening the floor with wees and poohs that they apparently had saved up to embarrass me.
While the vet checked the pups the assistants had lots of time to sit on the floor and play with the puppies who thought this was great fun and after awhile they all settled onto the assistants lap and fell asleep. I only wish I had had my camera with me to show you how sweet this looked. Someone took some photos via a mobile phone but I don’t think I can get this.
But anyway all the pups were given the thumbs up, everything was beating properly and any balls that were supposed to be somewhere were there.
We brought the pups back to the car and I drove them home. Then these 6 happy pups were greeted with huge enthusiasm by all the 5 girls that I had left at home. Zanna jumped into the car to welcome them first, Tieka waged her tail like a flag welcoming the babies back from the front door. Kiwi rolled them over the ground once she was reunited with them in the back garden. Vaglie and Dotje ran around the garden making sure all pups were in working order. Pfff thankfully all was ok and it was back to normal life as it should be.

They pups did a bit of sunbathing.


Why buy expensive toys when you can entertain your pups with ice that you have cleaned out of your freezer?



Have I mentioned how time is flying? :-/

Today we took the puppies into my town centor to kick off their socialisation. It’s a 5 minute walk from where I live and each owner that could come took his/her own puppy. I think they all looked pretty proud :-)


It was still such nice weather that it made the walk alot of fun.


At first it wasn’t very busy and we had plenty of room.


But within minutes people started to stop and cuddle the pups



And very soon the babies started attracting the crowds!



And they all took it in their stride and were more bothered about having to wear those darn collars rather than care about all the strange new things like so many people, or shopping cars rushing by, or people with crutches wobbling up to meet them.


They charmed the public.

They learned to shake hands/paws.

They learned it was pretty darn cool to sit in a walker.

They learned to look at life though the legs of a stranger

And how to walk so nicely on a leash.

And to sit together when a rowdy Jack Russel comes to greet you.


And walk with your family and be ready to stand guard should anyone mess with them

Pffffff if only there wasn’t those silly collars to break the concentration.


And then we went home with extremely sleepy puppies resting in our arms. One would think they would sleep till next morning but once home they all sprung to life again and had a huge dinner of chicken mince with pieces of calves liver, then rush to their mother to drink their dessert. And they had the BIGGEST bellies!!!
And then they played some more, annoyed the older dogs and after quite some time they finally feel asleep.
That was my cue to walk the big dogs. Some puppy folks came with us, including Luna and her owners. As you can see it was what we Dutch folks call very “gezellig”.


Just one more photo of my 4 Lagotti girls. Back is Dotje, front from left to right Vaglie, Tieka and Zanna.

A girl friend of mine and her boy friend do a very noble thing in life. They take in dogs that have to be rehomed… and not just any old dogs but HUGE ONES!!!!
First they got Floyd (right), a 4 year old Great Dane who thought/thinks he is still a puppy.
A year later, 2 weeks ago, they took in Manon (left). She is a 7 year old Great Dane with a sad story about her owners. Manon is also such a lovely girl. Both Danes have perfect characters. Perfect dogs except for one bad point…. They can produce a bit more saliva than the average dog LOL. We are always dodging the stuff and wishing it to be stuck to each other LOL.
Tiba (middle), a daughter of Tieka that needed a special home with Saskia and Ben, has to wrestle herself between the big bodies to get to the best spot to look out of the window. Tiba is a girl that knows what she wants so she doesn’t let these Danes get in the way of her plans ;-)


Today Tiba, Manon and Floyd came to visit the puppies.


Manon showed us what a lovely gentle girl she is. Aussie had a wonderful sleep on her back leg. Cute eh!!! And Tiba, on the right, has her “summer hair do” is also very nice with the puppies.


The pups spend a lot of time outside now, even to sleep as the weather is so great. There favourite place to sleep is under my washing line thingy.


My kitchen door is like you see on farms, it is in 2 halves. Really handy so I can close the bottom and keep out what I want to keep out but can hang over and talk to the “unwanted” :-))).

Sometimes I can hang for ages watching the playing of all the dogs in the garden.


This is my/our wonderful Dotje! She lives with Kiwis breeder, Siets,where she has a wonderful life with aprox 10 big dogs, many cats, goats, donkeys and many more animals. Dotje often comes and stays with us and is just as at home with us as with Siets. We both love her very much! So do all the dogs :-)

GO AND LOOK AT THE AWFULLY CUTE FILM OF LUNA AND THE PUPPIES AT THIS SITE http://home.wanadoo.nl/rgreive/Dono
Click on "Filmpje" and wait 30 seconds for it to load.
(if you have an apple computer bad luck HAHAHA)

We are so lucky with the wonderful weather. The pups can go outside any time of the day when aloud. Much time is spent playing outside, and an awful lot of time playing inside. They have boundless energy, quite amazing for such little dogs.
When outside they often appreciate being kept company by myself or one of the grown-up dogs. Ok, Kiwi isn’t totally grown-up but she doesn’t mind babysitting outside.



The pups are eating everything I present them and also still feed A LOT from Zanna so they now feel like stuffed balls of fur that are so great to “squeeze”. Poor puppies, but hay they will be leaving in a few weeks so I have to get in all the loving I can right.
In between the feeds that Zanna gives she is very strict with them. She will not let them snack from her and I’m sure the neighbours wonder what on earth is happening here. But its natures way and very affective ;-) .
Zanna feeds only standing position now. She stands with her legs far apart so that she is very sturdy and can’t be knocked over by her boisterous children. To see this really makes you respect such motherly love pfffff.

After a busy day what better than to gnaw on bones together till you fall asleep….


One more feed around 2300 hours from their mum and its just a question of waiting for them to do a last wee and pooh, letting them run around the house for a quarter of an hour and then putting them to bed. Starting 2 days ago I have to put a cover on the whelping box or the little _ _ _ _ _ flop out and would cause havoc in my unsupervised lounge. The pups accept this restriction and sleep pretty well right through the night.
Sounds really easy eh ;-)

Our days start at 07.00 when we go downstairs. Zanna goes outside first and waits for her babies to come running out after I have opened the whelping box and called them all to the garden. Some pee first before going to Zanna to feed, others rush to their mother and drink their full before going to the wc.


During the day I call them all outside after sleeps and plays and most do their business outside. They are still very young and don’t care if they do it inside, but it’s a good start for the rest of their lives. Soon they will start to understand.

We had to go to Rotterdam yesterday so my mother could visit a very sick cousin of hers. I didn’t have a “puppy-sitter” and decided to take all the dogs and pups with us. It was an hour drive, then I waited in the car with the dogs for mum to come back, and then back home. My 4 grown dogs don’t mind the car and were prefect. The pups were quiet first, then cried 15 minutes and then they totally accepted the whole thing and the following hours went in total peace. These puppies are just plain relaxed about everything, I’m so proud of them!


On the way home we went to a nice quite bush where all the dogs could run and stretch their legs after being so good in the car for so many hours.
This was the first time for the puppies to go for “a walk” in new surroundings. Even in this new “country” it didn’t faze them at all. They all came running to me when I called them, they are soooooooooooooooooo sweet!!! And Zanna could finally feed them again.


Sure would like to have what mum has but if we try to get closer she makes sounds like she’s going to kill us!


Play time.


Ummm please don’t be shy and sign my guestbook sometime. Like you like to look if there are new things in the diary I like to see if there are new things in the guestbook :-)

The “lounge babies” have reached the kitchen and in no time they will be going into the garden from more adventures.

I can’t believe how time flies, today the pups are 5 weeks.

Yesterday Zanna started to grumble when the puppies chased her around the lounge for food. Today she was even stricter. I took this as my cue to start weaning the pups. From the age of 3 and a half weeks they have been getting chicken carcases that they chew and lick madly but haven’t been able to consume completely yet. So to get the real food inside in a somewhat easier way they had their first chicken mince meal today. They loved it and did their very best to eat as much as possible till Zanna decided they had had enough and she came and consumed the leftovers while the puppies had their desert of “Zanna milk”.

You can all most hear Zanna thinking “Mum I think that we need a bigger whelping box…..”


Yesterday Luna came to meet the puppies for the first time. In time she’s going to have to choose one of the male puppies to be her curly brother. But in the mean time she is making it very clear to them that she is not to be messed with LOL


Ummmmmmm, errrrrrrrr… yeah well ummm… I don’t know if I’m cut out for this “mum stuff” yet.


Oh my goodness now all of them are coming to get me!!!


Pups are getting better and better at eating the real stuff. This evening they surprised me with really going to town on a big piece of lung. This stuff is sort of rubbery and needs quite a bit of chewing and tugging to break it up. And that’s when its good to have a big family to help each other do a grate job in making mouth sized bites. Zanna wasn’t too pleased as she saw that they were not going to leave much for her to “tidy up”.


And now for some very cute children-puppy photos! The kids that came today were lucky because the pups are now aloud out of the whelping box. All pups and kids were wonderful together.

Zanna sitting nice and safe with Willem. All those sharp teeth running around the lounge makes the couch a great place to be if you’re their mother.



Lieke keeping sleepy Saddle and Brownie safe and warm.


Marjolein with the biggest largest part of our 10 dog strong family. Cute huh!

I don’t usually write everyday let alone twice in one day. But today is the exception as the puppies had a very new experience today.

When I’m greeted by my puppies like this I think its time for them to start experiencing the big wide world of my lounge, starting with an half hour or so.


So I “opened up the gates” and I couldn’t believe how quick they all rushed out. They all have such confidence its just wonderful! They were so quick my camera didn’t have time to focus.


Tieka has seen it all before and found a quiet place on the couch but the other dogs all came and mingled and really enjoyed the time with the puppies. In the photo you can also see that 2 Spot was still having problems finding the way out of the whelping box HA, ha, ha, ha.


Love this photo of Vaglie and Saddle


Hmmm they got better toys on the outside.


No milk here….


And after all the running around they went back to their whelping box where Zanna fed and cleaned them. But still they had energy left to complain till I gave them some lambs bones to quench there chewing urge, what with all those teeth coming though I can’t blame them.