We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The day before we arrived in Sweden it started snowing for the very first time this season! I had been hoping so much for snow - Yatzie loves it, I mean really loves it, and I was also very curious to see how Moët would react. This is a film from Moët's very first minutes in the snow. She was very excited and followed her mother into yet another adventure as she always does.

It was a cold but sunny morning and the dogs were enjoying a walk in a new area by some canals full of coots - Yatzie's favourite bird. She was swimming after them and Moët was watching her, running back and forth between me and Yatzie. This part is what you can see in the movie. Then comes the dangerous continuation: I suddenly see Moët in the water - she had thrown herself into the canal to get to Yatzie on the other side. I had seen her get into water before and was not worried until I realized that her method of swimming did not bring her forward, she was swimming but on the spot. I encouraged her to come towards me but it did not help. After a minute or so she started to sink just a little and I got very worried and immediately stepped out in the canal with one foot, believing I would reach the bottom - but there was no bottom. Somehow I got a hold of Moët and threw her onto safe ground, then lost balance and was now with both my legs up to the waist in the muddy, cold, smelly water. I managed to get myself out of there - but what a sight I was! At the same time I tried to make Moët feel good, so that she would not be traumatized by this dangeruos event. Conclusion: Water dogs also need to take swimming lessons. Tip: Keep your puppy leashed by deep water!

We are planning to buy a new couch so today as we were looking around at a fashionable furniture store the dogs thought it was a good idea to quality test it for us... After some serious doubts (I wiped their paws first of course...) I came to the conclusion that there was some sense to their testing - if you have two Barbets the couch must be of very good quality and bouncy enough to be fun to jump around in! According to the dogs the couch passed the test!

This weekend Santa Claus and his pixy arrived in Holland. Moët, who had never met them before, was a bit suspicious at this strange couple. But Yatzie, a true Swede, having met him every year, told her not to worry, and that if she obeyed her mama perfectly, Santa Claus would bring her many gifts on Christmas Eve. At the Christmas market was also a magnificent black horse offering the children a ride in his sleigh.

Quite some snow has fallen in Sweden and in this video you see puppy Clifford (Cliquot) enjoying the sensation of cold, wet amd white!

When Yatzie was a puppy she did not naturally enjoy cuddeling. I had to teach her that by cuddeling in front of the fridge feeding her at the same time! But she quickly started enjoying the physical contact and since then has been the most cuddely dog, loving to lie in your lap and in your bed hugging. She comes to me, putting her head in my knee, asking for love and attention several times a day. Now she has a strong competition in Moët who likes cuddeling already. Maybe because she was born and brought up here and we always cuddeled the puppies a lot. I am so glad I have cuddely dogs (not all dogs are) since I am such a cuddeler myself.

I took the dogs to a nice park tonight, parked the car neatly along the road. After 20 minutes or so, around 17.15, I heard a big bang, thinking "Who is doing fireworks around this time". The dogs reacted too. Yatzie and Moët had a lot of fun, Yatzie swimming after birds in the lake, Moët admiring her a little worried when mum went far away. When we got back to the car some men were standing nearby. I was worried that they were upset about me parking near their houses, but they pointed to my car and said - it was hit by a van who took off. I could not believe my eyes. How damaged can a car get when standing alongside a road in a quiet area? This must have been a lunatic. A car race or something. It was our new big Volvo, bought for the dogs and kids all to fit in. I am heading for Sweden next week for Christmas, so everything is now a big question mark. Imagine if Yatzie had not taken off on that hunt, and I would have been back by the car 10 minutes earlier? Thank God nothing happened to us.

Had some news from Ayala who is now called Teddie. She started puppy class, it is all going very well. She runs after the birds and likes to eat a lot - not yet the birds :-) ! When she wants to rest she crawls under the chairs. She is very happy and sweet and everyone loves her. Good to hear dear Pinky - we miss you! See more pictures on Ayala's puppy page.

I happened to glance through some puppy pictures of Yatzie. Look at the two, Yatzie and Moët, don't they resemble each other a lot?  You tell me, who is who?

More news from Clifford in Sweden, he has a new white friend! See his puppy page!

This was the video I wanted to post under Playful mum and daughter (I choose the wrong one)  - a wilder moment when they are chasing each other in the living room:

Yatzie saw hundreds of birds on the other side of the canal and were already far away when Moët followed her. Moët took off from the shore of the canal and threw herself in the water! Scary it seems - look at her frightened eyes! - but how brave of her! I was not prepared that she would jump in, I thought she would walk in there, but fortunately I was fast enough with my camera to catch the moment! We had a super walk with friends and Moët followed Yatzie wherever whe went. So cute. I carried Moët in a back pack on my front from time to time, but she was not happy with that at all, so I put her down rather quickly. When we got home she had a bad pain in her paws so next time I must keep her in the pack back despite her complaints! We met a group of golden retrievers - the family had 8 I think - and they were interested to say hello to the little puppy sticking her head out of the bag!

Watch the videos on Cliffords puppy page. The ground is frosty and he is so happily running freesly on the fields with his family.

Yatzie always played very nicely and carefully with her puppies. Now that only Moët is here the two of them spend a lot of time playing together. As the days go by and Moët grows older the way of playing gets rougher. Sometimes I get worried it gets too wild and feel a need to interfere. In the first video they are chasing each other in the living room, in the second playing more carefully and then Moët plays by herself with her favourite peeping rubber toy.

What a joy for Moët to find a play mate exactly the same age here in the neighbourhood! Lucca is a tervueren, a Belgian grazing dog. They play very nicely together. But Yatzie gets jealous and wants to interfere all the time so I have to keep her on a leash a lot, poor one.

News from Annemiek in Champagne-land (who is now called Basil): "Here we're still happy and proud. We keep laughing a lot: Basil can be so naughty; he already drank Arno's beer and pulled my heavy bag off a chair, he licks the dirty dishes in the dishwasher and so on. Everybody loves him. Slowly he becomes more used to everything and also more naughty. I now discovered that, when there are more people, he gets as we call it "the crazy five minutes". He jumps, runs and bites on every thing and every one. Again, he makes us laugh the whole time." Sounds exactly like that cheeky Champagne I know!

See more photos on his puppy page

Clicquot, who is called Clifford, loves the forest around his house. Dennis, his dad, sent a link to a film made from his first forest walk. The house cats are also around. Snow started falling in Sweden and Clifford has already been chasing snow balls!

The "puppy party" is a light form of puppy class for puppies that are between 7 and 12 weeks old offered by a dog school called Care4dogs. The puppies play with each other or the toys and the instructors oversee and give some instructions for the puppy owners about upbringing and training. It is difficult to choose where to take your puppy for training. The methods of puppy training differ a lot. I choose for positive methods. At the moment I want to prioritize that Moët gets to play with a lot of different dogs. Some basic training we will do at home slowly slowly. She is still a baby!

A sunny day we went back to look for the dummy we lost last weekend on the sandy beach. We did not find it but the dogs had a lot of fun as always, digging and splashing along the water banks. Moët was so brave she went very deep into the water. Her front feet lost ground for a moment and she started swimming movements. When Yatzie was a puppy it took quite a while for her to get used to getting into the water - Moët seems to be very relaxed with it. Great! IN the second movie Yatzie and Moët are digging together. Saar is around too and Moët, just like her mother has a habit to do, lures on her and attacks! Then Yatzie attacks Moët back!

Henriot is doing very well in Julianadorp. "He brings a lot of joy into this house", the owners Gert and Monica reports. "We all love him very much and get great reactions from friends and family and the vet, who didn't know the breed, is very enthousiastic." Henriot sleeps in his bench all night and when he needs to go out he síts in front of the door. There are some cats in the house and he is picking up some of their ways of playing, with his foot in hitting mode. But the cats are still a bit scared of him. He has a good friend in the neighbourhood, the white labradoodle in the picture, and they are getting on very well together.

Chandon, who is called Hunter, is already attending puppy class. "A cheeky little charming Barbet full of energy", his owners Martijn and Vanessa describes him, "who steals everyones heart!" He has learned the command "sit" and he gets along very well with the old poudle in the house as well as with the other dogs he meets. See more pictures on his puppy page

A new phase of our life started this weekend. Our little family now consists of only 3 dogs - auntie Saartje, mummy Yatzie and daughter Moët - and our two super kids Bas and Margot of course! It is more quiet here, we are slowly getting used to it. Yatzie is still crying periodically in the evenings looking for her puppies. We started taking long walks again, and are getting back to the normal routines. This is good and has to happen. Moët needs her special attention, just like her siblings in their new families. The two months with ten puppies were totally amazing. It was so intense that looking back at it, it almost seems like a dream that I woke up from - a very good dream! Thank you Yatzie, thank you Chico for the beautiful gift you gave the world. I am sure that our little family, through Moët, and all the families now caring for your children will experience many blessed moments of "the spirit of goodness, gentleness and loving kindness" (in French "l'Esprit de bonté" - our kennel name) over the coming 15 years or so! And of course KJ - I will tell you all about everyone always (!) here on the blog!

Clicquot quickly connected with his new boss Dennis. It was as if he knew. Last night he had a hard time going to rest, moved around 20 times until he finally fell asleep. He never used to do that. Maybe he knew that it was his last night here. Dennis brought a cabin bag and Clicquot was still small enough to fit in it and travel in the cabin. We had been rather concerned, especially since he was a big eater! He now weighed 5,5 kg. Cliquot will live near nature in Edsbyn in central Sweden. He will share a house with 4 cats, a rabbit, mum and dad and 2 children. He is a lively dog with a happy and sweet character, he loves to kiss and bite (!) your face so I have quite some scars from him as a memory! I enjoyed having hin here a little longer - and so did Yatzie who loved to play with him. He could be a bit too forward sometimes and I think Yatzie, just as she did with Champagne, needed to teach him many things. "We will come see you next summer Clicquot! Then you can show me and mummy Yatzie and your sister Moët the big forests around your house. But first tell Yatzie not to chase the cats and the rabbit!"

Yatzie wanted badly to play a last time with her beloved puppy Clicquot before he left for Sweden. So here they are on the floor in front of the check-in at Schiphol airport! They drew a lot of attention from the people around. Yatzie with her feet up in the air, rolling around with her puppy. So sweet! Then she started barking like she does when playing so we had to interfere. Nice good bye scene to our last puppy!

Our neighbour the beagle Tupak came to visit in the garden. It is interesting to see the body language of the puppies towards him and his towards them. Got some good shots of that. He is very gentle when the puppies are around - normally he is very wild! I am glad to see that the puppies know how to behave to another dog, they show humility and respect, licking the side of his mouth. But they are also inviting to play.

Yatzie loves to play with Clicquot. Here they are in the sofa tumbeling around. When Yatzie gets excited in her play she always starts to bark. It is very nice to see Yatzie so playful and enjoying her puppy in this way! But little Moët is not really invited to join in the play. She is walking around them, but never really joins in.

These are the last days for Moët and her brother Clicquot to play together. They are taking the chance and having a lot of fun in the back yard.

We are doing small excursions in the neighbourhood. Here we are at the water front by a canal near the vet, after the deworming of Clicquot who is leaving tomorrow. Holland is a highly populated country and in most places nearby us there are roads, so I must keep the puppies on a leash. It is a bit tricky with two puppies! They get entangled and half strangled. I did not have the chance to start the training for leash walking yet! So I let one off the leash at a time. At least I have som e control then :-) ! Both puppies followed Yatzie into the shallow water. Yatzie was totally focussed on a coot further out in the water. They got to walk on short reed for the first time. And heard and paid attention many bird sounds.

Ambeloui, called Beli, who is now living in Poland, is setteling well in her new environment her boss Irek informed me. House breaking well, sleeping quietly near his bed and even showing obedience! She listens to her name and comes when he calls her! Beli has developed a very own use of her bed - instead of sleeping in it she gathers all her toys in the bed and plays there, as you can see in the picture. Creative girl!

Moët and Clicquot are both normally very interested in food. In this video they are amazingly uninterested in the bone Yatzie is chewing on and just play around her. But at one point Moët gets too close to the bone and Yatzie tells her off. The two puppies enjoy this last week that they can play together. On Friday Clicquot is moving to Sweden!

Yatzie today gave Moët and Clicquot a good lesson in how to dig on a sandy beach. They all had a lot of fun as you can see in their dirty faces! It was a very misty Sunday and I was afraid we would loose someone in the mist. We did not, but we did loose the orange water dummy that I hid in the sand for Yatzie to search for. She usually always finds the things and I knew exactly where I hid it, but despite digging for half an hour noone could find it... We will be back to search for it another day!

I think all of you know who the brown boy with a white chest and paws is. He carries the name of this whole litter and from the very beginning he stood out. Not only by his special colours but also by somehow always being around when the camera was on. He is a very active dog with eyes wide open all the time looking at you. He sleeps less than the others and whenever I came to the puppy room he was already waiting for me while the others were sleeping. From the very beginning he was dear to Yatzie. Not only did she work more with him than with the others, since he was dominating his siblings, she really enjoyed playing with and caressing him. I do not know who misses him the most - she or I? Our special Champagne now lives in Hengelo, west Holland, with a family with a lot of experience of dogs and who have been longing for an intelligent dog to be very active with. They have got it! "Bye bye my sweetheart Champagne. I know you will steal also their hearts and keep them very happy - and busy!"

The three puppies that are still with us had their 9 week vaccination today. The veterinary and the assistants always make the puppies feel very good about the visit, cuddeling with them and giving them some snacks. Our food master Clicquot quickly knew where the bowl with cookies was and tried to get up on the counter by himself!

To say good bye to the puppies going abroad has been the most difficult. Cristal is at this moment on the plane to Finland! Her new boss Juha works in a game farm and Cristal will be working with him there in hunting and herding of game. I spent much time picking out the right puppy for this special task and Cristal has proven herself to be clever, quick and very interested in things that move. She is a good retriever and brave. She is not afraid of noise which is also very important now that she will be working with hunters. I will tell you more about her work as I have reports from Finland. Cristal also has a very affectionate character and will be a very nice dog in the house as well. She is jointly owned by Paula Horne who is also a hunter and with her Cristal will be trained for Finish hunting dog diplomas. "Work hard my brave girl Cristal! Your life will be fulfilling, in your true hunting element!"

Ayala, in this house called Pinky, was the last puppy born. She decided that the difficulties she had the first two days of her life (to suck the milk) was not going to show as a weakness! She soon became very lively, dominating her siblings and showing off. Her true character is very sweet and cuddely and she has a very feminine cute face. All the children love her! She now lives with a nice family with two children in a house in Nieuwerkerk aan den Ijssel near Rotterdam. We miss your sweet face and your kisses Ayala! Come see us soon again!

This morning there was frost in the grass for the first time. Cristal, who is leaving for Finland tomorrow, got a chance to walk in the frost together with mama outside of the house. She was very curious. The water in the water bowl in the back yard had also frozen so the puppies got to try to hold ice in their mouths!

This morning five puppies are still with us. Yatzie still likes to play with them. Cristal is very playful with Yatzie in the first video. In the second one there is a tug-of-war going on with Yatzie and four of the puppies! It is difficult for Yatzie that her puppies leave. In the evenings she walks around the house crying, looking for them, she wants to go out, in again and so on. It is hard to see, but it has to happen. On the other hand it is nice to know that she really feels for them as a good mother should. And there will be one left for her! We will keep Moёt! As you can see in the second video she already feels at home - she is the only one that gets up in the sofa by herself!

Chandon left today for his new family in Limburg. In the house is a 14 year old white dwarf poodle called Jeanny and in spring the family will have their first child. Therefore they asked for a calm and friendly house dog. Chandon has a very stable and social character. He is open to humans and plays very well with both his siblings, Yatzie and Saartje. As well as with other dogs as you can see in the movie here. Maybe he will be able to charm even the old poodle!

I of course had to take a picture of the couple Moёt & Chandon before Chandon goes to his new family! Just like their names their looks and characters match. They are both friendly and beautiful Barbets and they like to play with each other. In the video Moёt & Chandon patiently wait for grandma Saartje to let them try the bone she is eating. Believe it or not - she lets them! Bravo Saartje! Bravo Moёt & Chandon!

Before each puppy leaves I give them a bath. This is Chandon who is leaving today. They behave very well in the little bucket I put them in. Not that they are enjoying it that much, but when I talk to them and cuddle at the same time they are fine with it. Since they spend a lot of time outside, digging and running in the muddy grass, the water gets rather dirty! It is nice to know that they are clean on the day they leave for their brand new life!

The puppies like each other - in this video they are all kissing. The reason is that they just drank water with salmon oil in it and there is yummie oil left on their noses! Cute!

One would have thought that now that there are only 6 puppies left things would be a bit more quiet. That is not how it is! The puppies get more intense every day and at some moments you feel you loose control totally... In this nice movie Bas and his friend Tom surprise the puppies by coming home from school during the lunch break. They are all overwhelmed by joy and totally attack the boys with playfulness and biting.... Saartje is trying to calm things down without succeeding!

Chandon is a dog with a voice. You can hear it in the morning, when the food is about to be served and when he is playing. He is in general very good at communication, social and open.  In this playful video he is talking things over with Yatzie.

How to eat a sandwich in the couch with a hungry Barbet and her puppies around and a labrador grandma nearby!

Elyssia now lives in a big house in Amsterdam that she shares with the dog Luca and a Russian Blue cat. She was our little teddybear with her soft, curly fur. She is a naughty little girl - one day she stole the pizza from Yatzie's mouth and would not let me take it out of there! She is always happy and her tail is constantly wagging. "You be tough, little Teddybear, and have much fun over there with your animal friends and your big family!"

Hoppetossan is the name I call Tsarine by in Swedish. It is a sweet name for someone who likes to jump! She sure does! Tsarine left today to a lively family in Linne, Limburg. She is the liveliest of the girls so it is a good match! "Let us see how high you can jump when I come to see you one day sweet Hoppetossan!"

Ambeloui's new family drove all the way from Poland to Utrecht to pick up their longed for Barbet. The car was perfectly prepared for the long journey. There was even a little black teddy friend there for her! Ambeloui will be the fifth black Barbet in Poland, where brown has become the dominant color. She will have an active life and try many different kinds of activities to see what she likes the most. Maybe tracking is her thing? Have fun my sweet bird!

Henriot was the first to leave for his new family. He will love in Julianadorp, in west Holland, near the sea. Seeing how happy the new parents were to finally hold him in their arms soothed the pain in my own heart. I could never have imagined how difficult this would be.

I already received the first picture with Henriot in his new home, together with mini boss Martijn. They reported that the trip home went well, Henriot fell asleep in the car, and once at home he was doing very well. I am so glad to have good contatc with the owners and to get to know how everything goes. They are still my little babies... So long Henriot! Go exploring the world and have lots of fun! And please, come see us sometimes!