Two magnificent Irish Wolfdogs made an impression on both Yatzie and me today. Yatzie, who is a middle sized dog, seemed like a papillion beside these two. She kept a distance at first, not having met this large breed before, but took courage and got friendly with the older one, the father of the other. The breed's name Wolfdog could give a wrong impression. I asked the owner of the character of the dogs and she said: They are the sweetest dogs you can imagine. I believe her - just look at those kind eyes and the smile!

A good old cheese fondue can be tempting for both humans and dogs! Who said dogs can not eat from a stick? No problem for our Yatzie who finally got to taste that delicious smelling, dripping bread! But dear Marianne - in most families only the dogs are allowed to lick the pots... ;-)

Last Sunday the Dutch Barbet club organized a club walk in the great forest of Lage Vuursche. A grey day but we did not get wet. Apart from Yatzie who had a short swim in the cold water... Many Barbet families joined the walk, as well as some people interested in the race. We walked for two hours or so, in the most genuine forest I have experienced in Holland so far. Yatzie and I will definitely spend time there again! Two of the males got very interested in Yatzie who had a hard time keeping them short. But when I started throwing her dummy into the forest she liked retrieving it so much that she seemed to not notice that there was a guy on top of her back!

Our Saturdays always have a ball theme. Bas plays football, Margot plays field hockey, and Yatzie this Saturday played along with Margot and her hockey ball! By the football field Yatzie never looses eye on her flock whatever side of the fence they may be. She is never quiet inside when the flock is split. So when she gets a chance to show her affection to a flock member on the other side of the fence she does!

Yatzie feels reborn in her new outfit - so young she made an outing to the playground nearby to have some fun! New sides of Yatzie come out in this slim look. Or is it just me seeing things differently? She is more joyful and expressive. Have fun Yatzie, be a baby!

The mats were getting out of hand. On top of that the mats and the long fur were not pleasant for Yatzie, she started scrathing herself a lot. Yatzie very easily gets hot, even in wintertime she is never cold. So I decided to shave Yatzie. All that fur is now in a bucket! Yatzie smells the fur and thinks - I know that dog!

How on earth can groomers ever make a living? The whole process took me 8 hours: detangle the mats and cut off the ends of the curls: 4 hours Shower: 30 minutes Blow dry and comb: 1 hour Shave: 2 hours Clean up: 30 minutes. Puuh! But now Yatzie is happily running around enjoying her new, easy outfit! And I am happy too! There are nicer things one can do with one's dog than spending two hours every night detangeling its mats!

Yatzie loves when she is asked to perform her tricks. I used a clicker to teach her all these tricks when she was young. She still gets a click and treat for each trick and she is so happy and eager to do it right. Sometimes she starts doing everything she knows in a row and forgets to listen to the command!  That is so cute. But this time she listens well, and gets most of it right apart from the Pang :-) which takes a few attempts. These are the tricks Yatzie is showing in the video: Serpentine, rear, bow, around, back, play dead, hands up, bark.

Enjoy the video, recorded by Margot!

Yatzies fur is now up to 13 cm long! I have never left it growing this long before, so it is a little experiment. The fur ends turn more and more into brown. They form beautiful curls, but under the surface... MATS!!!!! Yatzie has the silky kind of Barbet fur, not woolly, and it does not normally form mats. But now, especially on her neck blow the ears and by her hips, big areas of mats are forming. Today I spent 2 hours combing through just four areas of mats! I use the front end of a comb to entangle them little by little. The result - a big heap of fur and a very woolly Yatzie. Yes, after combing through the mats the fur gets a woolly feel and look. In a few weeks I have an appointment to groom her, I am looking forward to it because these mats are hard work!

Lately is has been raining and raining and raining here in Utrecht. Yatzie really hates rain so the walks have been shorter than ever. Instead she and Saartje are being lazy in my new office in Maarsen, while I work intensely, as well as enjoy the company of my new, nice, dog-friendly, Dutch colleagues. For the evening walks Yatzie comes along for about half a minute, then heads right back to the house. Saartje and I walk all alone, and find Yatzie happily receiving us by the door when we return fifteen minutes later...

In Holland small farm houses are situated in the middle of housing areas. This little farm was a nice surprise for both Yatzie and me during a walk last weekend - rabbits, geese, hens, goats, sheep and even a donkey lived there. Yatzie begged with her big dark eyes: Can't you let me in for just a minute? She of course already knew the answer. Just imagine what an hilarious reality circus a yes would have resulted in!

Margot is showing dog training talents! Look how perfectly she is working with Yatzie in this training sequence. And when Saartje comes along she gets the right attention too.

After training - reward at the Rhynauwen pancake house! Holland is full of these cosy pancake houses. And in this one we met another young talent - the pancake cock who made Margot her favourite pancake with cheese and bacon on it!

Here in Holland all the snow is gone.... Yatzie is dreaming about the past weeks in Sweden, with snow everywhere, more and more every day! About her half sister Ruffa in the snow chase, the rolling around and around in the never ending snow, the deers outside the apartment... Was it real or was it just a dream....?

Today Yatzie made friends with a Friesian Stabyhoun during our walk at the Strijkviertel lake. Yatzie was not so interested in playing, she was very focused on me, but gave in to the sweet Staby's eager invitations. Then a magnificent, but dominant boxer bitch came along and the other dogs showed very low signals to keep her quiet! Even Saartje, who is not afraid of anything, looked a little more submissive than normally. Tupak, our neighbour beagle, came along aswell playful and fun as always. It was a cold, sunny day - great for motion pictures, as fast as 1/1600 sec on 200 ISO! Yatzie had a shower last night - see how her fur is shining!

Last year Bart and I by accident found the lovely Hyde Park in Driebergen. There is a great mix of open fields and forests of different kinds. This past weekend we visited again and I tried out my new 180 mm stable tele lens. I am now practicing to take pictures in motion. Still much to learn but sometimes I manage to catch a picture of Yatzie as she is flying past me!

The first day of the year was warm here in Utrecht. A lot of the snow was already gone when Yatzie, Saartje and I went for a walk in the Leidsche Rein park. It is dangerous when the ice starts melting on the canals and I kept Yatzie, the wildest of the two, on a long rope. The park is also full of rabbits and pheasants and I did not want to start the new year with a big argument with my Yatzie girl. In the video below you can see her with her long rope getting rather entangled in the bushes, still able to explore the traces but not chasing. Then the two dogs posed nicely before the camera.

Oliebollen is the most traditional Dutch treat at New Year. Yatzie was very tempted! She is more focussed on food than ever before in her life... Even the fireworks did not scare her, since I kept offering her nice treats as they cracked off - for like 45 minutes... Previous years she has been afraid hiding under the Christmas tree during the fireworks.This year she enjoyed the company of her labrador friend Luna as well as all the kids. Below you see Emma and Josephine.

The oliebollen are said to have been first eaten by Germanic tribes in the Netherlands during the Yule, the period between December 26 and January 6. The Germanic goddess Perchta, together with evil spirits, would fly through the mid-winter sky. To appease these spirits, food was offered, much of which contained deep-fried dough. It was said Perchta would try to cut open the bellies of all she came across, but because of the fat in the oliebollen, her sword would slide off the body of whoever ate them.