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!