I try to give the puppies some new experiences every day. A pineapple was very interesting to smell and chew. But "the sponge cake with a knife beside it experience" was not planned by me but by Amaro himself! (We were right there so don't worry, we kept an eye)

Today the puppies had their 6 weeks' vaccinations and got their passports! It was an exciting experience for them -  and for us, to bring them along in a small car, but fortunately I had great help from my two nieces!

Dear Yatzie woke up this morning with a swollen paw. She could not lean on it. The vet had to puncture it (oh my did she scream,,,, my heart broke for her) and it was full of pus. We have no idea where she has this from, but most probablythere is a foreign object like a straw or so in her paw. We rae treating her with soda water and of course antibiotics, poor thing. 

The puppies are already 6 weeks old! Time flies! They are all gorgeous!

You don't want the little bodies to get cold after tha bath so we give them a good rub and then made a huge fire downstairs. There they all fell asleep around us! What a wonderful moment!

The puppies also got a clean up with a special mild puppy shampoo. We put them in a small bucket so that they can sit. This is Merveille during her shampooing experience. She is so sweet and quiet. 

Last night the puppies had their first bath! They did so well! They were all quiet, and a bit surprised about the feeling of the water. We also let them try to use their paws to swim. When you first let them sink down in the water, giving them support from under their belly, thet don't move their paws. But when you slowly let go of the support they know what to do! It is amazing. They all swam! Great water dogs these Miracle puppies!!

In order to reduce the amount of milk that Moët produces and get the puppies totally over on dog food Moët gets a little less food these days. But when the puppies have had all they want from the puppy bowl Moët gets the chance to finish what is left over! She is happily waiting for it! She still feeds the dogs a few times a day though, and it is good for them to get her nutricious milk on top of the dog food for a little longer. 

The puppies are still sleeping on the top floor, where they were born, and every morning we bring them downstairs, two by two. They are getting really heavy! The two biggest boys already weigh almost 4 kgs!

With such smart puppies as Merveille around our strategy with the dog vest does not always work ;.) !

Moët finds our  couch a great place to both play with the puppies as we place them there for a moment overviewed, to reach down to the puppies and play while they are on the ground or to simply relax on!

The puppies are so happy now that they can be outside a little every day. Very often they stand by the window asking for us to open the door. Our back garden is full of interesting things to discover, like this big water bucket.

I took a moment this morning to look through and edit the photos from the last days and found these favourite ones! 

Here some photos from the last days in the garden with some puppy owners visiting! 

Today the puppies were all chipped by the Dutch Kennel Club Raad van Beheer. Their routine is to chip at the kennel, so that  they also can do a check of the kennel status -  we got a Top Mark! Nowadays the puppies' DNA is also taken during this visit, which is very handy of course. The chipping is a very simple procedure, the chip is njected with a needle, and only one of the puppies peeped a little. 

This week the puppies (and me!) are very lucky to  have a very playful friend around - my niece Anna from Sweden is here to enjoy the puppies (and help me in between :-) !) I don't know anyone else that knows to play with the puppies like Anna. They have such a lot of fun together and of course I am very happy to get some help with all the duties involved in taking care of these sweet and naughty little Miracles!

It is difficult for a bitch to be able to play with the young puppies since all they want is to drink from her. Now that they are being weaned I for some periods of the day put a dog vest on Moët to cover her teats. And today for the first time she was on her back playing with the puppies. You can see how much she enjoys it, her tail wagging happily!

Even though the puppies now get solid food three times a day they leap from joy when their favourite milkbar comes around!

In this video all the puppies are neatly eating their evening meal from their own bowl. They love their meals!

Moët seems to agree totally with my timing that now the puppies should start eating solid food. Tonight after having prepared the puppy box upstairs for the night I came down to the living room and saw Moët sitting very content on her big pillow in the puppy area and the puppies were busy beside her doing something else. Strange I thought, they usually never leave her alone when she is with them. Then I saw the big mess! Moët had vomited her food for the puppies. Does not sound so nice but this is what the bitches do to teach the puppies to eat other food and stop drinking from her, thus natures own weaning process! I am very proud of her. The food was perfectly fresh, I had just served it to her. Fortunately the puppies had been trying the same food two days ago, it was a wet version of the same brand of dry food they had this morning, so I think their bellys will agree. We will see in the morning.... Puppy stomachs are very sensitive and one must be very careful with what to give them to eat this early period of their life. 

Benoit is the first to appear on your lap when you sit down by the puppies. He loves to be held and cuddled and seems to shout out: Pick me up first mum!!

Today was the first day that Moët played with the puppies. Yatzie started two days ago. Moët's problem is that when she is on the floor with them all they want is to drink from her, so that does not work. So she lays on the sofa and sticks her head down to them to play! It is so cute! Yatzie did exactly the same with her puppies! It is so amazing how nature governs all these behaviours and how the mother knows that time has come to playfully educate the babies! Or simply enjoy them! But the puppies do not really understand the game yet, but it will come. 

It was almost two months since Moët was allowed to run loose at her favourite place, since both before the pregnancy and during the first period with the puppies (and still) you must be careful with meeting other dogs because of the risk of infections. I walk with the dogs in the grass where they don't meet the other dogs being walked there. And Yatzie and Moët are more interested in searching the bushes for whatever hides in there anyway! 

Today the puppies got to try dry food for the first time. Well not dry, but mixed in a blender with puppy milk and luke warm water. It is the puppy version of Moët's regular food. A high quality product, with salmon and potato and with no grains. When mixed with water it becomes like a porridge so you can imagine how dirty theeir little aces got! I gave each one individually from bowls in order to control that they all got the same amount. They loved it and ate with great appetite! They are also getting good at drinking water now, after having used the waterbowl for walking around in the first days! From now they will be getting food 3 times a day. They still drink from Moët of course but she will appreciate some help in the feeding their teeth are sharp and must be hurting her a lot. 

The puppy box is not the prioritized place to sleep any longer. The puppies have their own ways and choose other spots!  The tighter the better!

The puppies are happily roaming about in their new living room area! They are busy dominating each other and trying out who is the strongest of the siblings. It looks quite rough at times. If one puppy is too often under the others I sometimes intervene. The puppies listen a lot to all the new sounds. And they are very creative! In video 2 you see the very first escapee disappear under the sofa!

The living room is ready for the puppies! Merveiile checked out the couch and it was very nice to chew oh  - GRRRRHHH! And then "Let's poop a lot and walk in it and make it really cosy here!" Ha ha, now we  have a lot of fun -  and a lot of cleaning - in front of us! Luckily some puppy owners come to help!

Here they are again all posing nicely! They grew so big and can now sit nicely for the camera. 

We have started the make-over of the living room where the puppies will be spending a lot of time the coming weeks. They need more space and it is very good for them to get used to all the sounds of a normal family life during these early weeks of their life. 

Saturday night we prepared a little area on the ground floor for the puppies to get used to it there before they move down next week. They were very surprsied and curious, a little afraid to start with. We put one of the huge bones in the middle of the blaanket for them to discover, but they were more interested in the surroundings! Eg the fotball game on television!

I thought the big girls would appreciate a special treat now that there is such a puppy focus in the family and what could be better than a mega shoulder bone to spend hours chewing on? 

I gave the puppies some extra milk from a soup cup and Merveille dipped half her face in it! So cute! The puppies are getting better at licking liquid now having had milk twice from a bowl. The water bowl they still just splash around in!

Today the puppies got to taste a little bit of fresh meat for the very first time. Some were sceptical to start with, others dived into it our hands at once. It is time to slowly start the weaning so that the puppies around the age of 6 weeks can eat full meals. Even though Moët only has 6 puppies to feed she is getting quite thin, she lost 2 kgs as compared to before the mating. I feed her constantly throughout the day and night strong protein rich food but still.... They are hungry these little puppies and then the bitch always takes from her reserves. Rule of thumb is that the bicth should not loose more than 10 % of her normal weight, so she is just  within the limit. 

I put the little bench too close to the heap of newspapers... So Osher was quick to climb up! He made it all the way! Gotta start watching out -  they are getting more and more creative! 

Some use the teddy bear as pillow -  others their sibling!

More puppy owners came to visit today! Marianne fell in love with all of the cuddly little Miracles!

When the puppies turn 3 weeks the puppy owners are welcome to visit and cuddle with them for the first time. This weekend and beginning of the week we had many visitors here and they all adored the little Miracles. 

After their last meal around 23, just before the night's sleep, the puppies always seem to have a lot of energy and play for a long time with each other. Here you can see them in action!

Here are the sweet faces of the 3 weeks old MIracle puppies!

With the help of a small fence we today created an area outside of the box where the puppies can start to expereince new things; new materials to walk on, water, new teddy bears etc. Slowly I will introduce new things to them there. When it is time to sleep they will still rest in the box. 

Here are 3 videos of the most daring puppies that explored this new area the very first time we opened it. Carefully they walk this new surface (a yoga carpet, perfect to avoid the slippery floor) and sniffed around everywhere. Moët found it a little bit restless to see her puppies move around like this and joined them in there. 

Time has come to enlarge the puppies' world. While I was reworking the puppy box (removing the safety bars and the "ceiling") the puppies stayed in their cane basket. But they are getting so large that they can climb out. Yatzie does not like that, and oversees them strictly, together with my sister. If they get too enthusiastic in their attempts to climb out Yatzie starts to bark and pushes them back!

My younger sister came to visit from Sweden this weekend and the puppies find it very nice with some new friends in the puppy box. Yatzie and Karin are very good friends, since Yatzie saw her a lot in her youth in Sweden, so she is enjoying having her here very much and gets a lit otf attention - something she otherwise gets less of these puppy days!

The Icebear was always a good friend of Yatzie's  puppies and had waiting to get to know these little ones. He got very popular at once!

After their breakfast this morning the pupppies are exercising their walking abiilities and starting some playful fights with each other. See how Benoit is trying to get a playsession going with Merveille but she is not so interested this time. 

Merveille and Peliyah found a new way to sleep today - both of them! And on top of the newspapers where they are not supposed to be sleeping... Does not look so comfortable to me :-) ! As you can see the puppies have now gotten real puppy collars, so it will be easier for you all to keep them apart on the photos and films. 

Since Benoit's eyes were the last to open, and not there for the two week's photos, you must be curious to see them now! So here he is! Benoit is a real cuddeler and already gives me a lot of kisses in my face. He is always around and loves to fall asleep on my lap!