Yatzie and Bart both like to cuddle! 

Today I took Yatzie and Moët to new waters - a picturesque canal with lots of water lilies and trees hanging low. They found it so exciting! 

A sausage was left over at the barbecue by a river in Gargellen, Austria. The dogs understood they would finally have a bite and lined up in front of the sausage. We could not resist filming how their heads turned with the sausage and then film a performance where the dogs barked on command to get their piece! "Skall" in Swedish - "Blaff" in Dutch!

Moët was tired when we sat down at the Piazza della Signorina in Florence and laid her head so sweetly in my lap, while we together enjoyed a choir performing Hallelujah! This video also gives an glimpes of the tender and loving contact one may have with a barbet! It is the most loving and sweet breed in the world.

"Back home from vacation is also ok", says Princess Moët, resting softly after our jogging round this morning. I found her this way in the sofa. How she placed that last pillow so perfectly on top of herself stays a mystery.

Want to continue feeding your dog raw meat during vacation? K9 Natural, is a freeze dried raw meat, in "kibbles", that keeps for months. I used this during the whole vacation and the dogs love it and had perfect digestion and stools - no grass eating (only through the paw!). You just add a little luke warm water and it is ready! It comes in a family pack of 4 kgs or smaller 500 gr bags. It is a complete food, with minerals and vitamins, totally pure, no grains or wheat added. I totally recommend this product for those of you that like to feed raw meat. And for those who do not - maybe this simple formula would make you want to try? It is recommended to also give the dog a chewy bone now and then for the teeth and for the fun of chewing as well. Comes as beef and lamb. www.k9natural.com

We started our trip back to Holland early in the morning. Fortunately the bakery opened just as early! Got some delicious Austrian croissants and sweet cakes to last through the trip of 10 hours. Yatzie and Moët asked for a baguette with ham which they also had! Bye bye Austria! Hope to come back soon!

Two dogs, two kids, two beds - that is cosy! Tomorrow we are leaving...

As you can see Moët is still wearing a head tube what do you call those things in English?) night time. Yesterday we went for a final check up at the vet. Unfortunately the simple anti biotics was not enough to stop the inflammation so Moët got a wide spectrum injection that is effective for 10 days. That should hopefully take care of the upset paw... 

On our last day in Austria it was raining for the first time. We dressed up in rain coats and climbed some mountains to enjoy a waterfall. It was steep and slippery but we made it. Both dogs and kids enjoyed the adventure!

This poor alp cow was thirsty and left his group to drink in a pond near us. Yatzie and Moët do not usually bark at cows, but this one I guess was very different... After this event Yatzie decided to get in real close contact with the cow - in another way - and rolled around in fresh cow feces...  First I cleaned her with moss and grass, and when we came to a water Bart balanced her on his arms straight up and dipped her in the water! That is what you get when you play with an alp cow!

Another cabin trip today. While the rest of the group continued to the last alp station, Margot and I got off on the first stop with Yatzie and Moët. We took a quiet walk on the fields and found a small stream hiding under high bushes - a shaded spot where the dogs could drink and Margot build stone dikes. Going back to the cabin we found this picturesque church. 

Today we took the cabin up the mountain and made a short walk all together. It gives me so much joy to see the dogs running free on the mountains! They are so much enjoying this! Moët is still limping a little so I keep her on the leash periodically. Actually dogs are not allowed to be unleashed where there are walking paths, but they do nobody any harm. Sometimes people make comments. Dog owners say: Come on, let your dog loose. Non dog-owners the opposite...

A sunny evening by a nearby river we took with us a bag of coal and a bunch of sausages and made a very simple but tasty barbecue. Wine and beer to go with it of course! The dogs got their share of the meat and had a lot of fun playing as well. The kids loved attending to the fire and playing in the river. So relaxed, so much togetherness and so close to nature. The favourite evening for many of us!

For some days now we have been enjoying the picturesque village Gargellen in west Austria. We have been very lucky with the weather. In the mornings I take Yatzie and Moët out on the fields in the valley where they can run freely. Moët's paw is still infected so I clean it daily, treat it with antibiotic cream and cover it with a shoe-sock when outside if the ground is dry. The infection does not bother her very much and she runs around as happy as ever as you can see!

Great news - the grass came out of Moët's paw! As I was cleaning it I saw something sticking out of the hole in the infected area and pulled. The grass was 2 cms long. It was just one single straw from a full Forasacchi which can have up to 10 straws. See the photo of a big one stuck in Yatzie's face. The grass went into the skin on top of the paw, between the toes, 7-8 days ago and has travelled some 6 cms inside the paw. Now I am extremely happy! My sweetest Moët will soon be well again! You can see how swollen her foot still is in the photo. She needs to wear a head collar, to prevent licking, and she is totally confused about that thing around her neck. She does not want to walk around it with but stands still, head hanging. She is very tired from the antibiotics so I think she can sleep well after all. 

There are lovely rivers everywhere in Austria. Yatzie and Moët love to wander on the banks of the water and take a dip here and there. We took a 45 minute walk today, not longer, since Moët can not walk for too long with her inflamed paw. The vet said it is ok if her paw gets wet as long as the water is clean and it is so clear and fresh!

Moët's infection yesterday spread inside her paw and the lower part of her wrist filled with pus despite regular dipping in salt water. So today we visited a vet and Moët is now on antibiotics. Her spirit is fine though! She can not yet make long mountain walks but an hour or two daily on flat ground is ok. I am trusting in a quick healing progress.

Moët has been wounded by a lethal grass called Forasacchi. This dry grass has a spearlike top that penetrates the skin of the animal. Moët had 6 of them between her toes and one has caused an infection. Today we will see the vet for a second time to decide if we need to operate. If not removed in time, the grass can start to "walk" inside the body of the dog and penetrate lungs or heart which could cause death. Poor Moët cannot longer run freely and she has a lot of pain in her paw. Tomorrow we leave for Austria, where we were planning to take long walks with the dogs in the mountains. This is really sad and shitty!

In Florence the dogs caught a lot of attention. People stopped us asking what kinds of dogs are these and wanted to take photos and make films with them! Made in Italy I explained about Moët!

Montecatini Terme is located inland in Tuscany and one day we wanted to experience the salty water and the beach on the west coast near Pisa. All the dogs came along, but oh, my - it was hot! Fortunately the wind was blowing quite hard which made it bearabe for both dogs and humans. The waters were quite wild, and the dogs did not want to swim in there. I took them to the rim of the water and splashed them once in a while. Under the parasol they  dug deep holes in the sand to lay in, which also helped to keep the body temperature a few degrees lower. But the sand was all over the towels and us! :-( Dogs and sandy beaches do not go that well together...