Friday 27 January 2006

Yesterday Nikita went to her new home too - she's going to be called Lummel from now on.
Today her owner rang, she's doing very well, she'd slept well. She's with the owners all day long, and of course she enjoys the company.
We're very happy to have found such good homes for our puppies, and we're always pleased to hear from the owners how the dogs are getting on.
It's even better when they send us photos!
We're convinced the new owners will thoroughly enjoy their puppy and that the puppies will have a good and happy life - they deserve it.

This is the last report for now. We're going to concentrate on Ozzy's and Chiena's training, and we're going to enjoy having them. We're very grateful to still have two of Izzy's pups.

Kind regards,
Paul and Angely v Cooten

Our Harry has left too, he's gone to Spain. It's strange that I've brought back dogs from Spain, and now one of our puppies has gone there!
But Harry, now renamed Jack, has gone to live with a Dutch man, an American lady and 3 children.
Last Monday they came to pick Jack up. Jack got on very well with their daughter, and the feeling was mutual.
On Tuesday they were flying back to Spain. Of course I was having kittens - would everything go alright, would they be gentle with him at the airport?
Yes they would here in The Netherlands, but in Spain? I'm rather mistrusting where Spaniards are concerned - which is of course not always completely justified.
But today I rang them and he's doing very well. He survived the flight and has settled in well and they all like him. No wonder - he is a lovely dog.
It's a strange feeling having him so far away, but hopefully that will pass with time.
We still have three puppies. We'll keep two ourselves, so we've just got to find a home for Nikita, our black bitch.

Kind regards,
Paul and Angely v Cooten

It's getting quiet here. Last week Saturday the 'light-blue' male dog left, he's now called C.J. He shares his new home with a bobtail - it's fun for them when there are other dogs too. He's doing well.
Last Tuesday the 'green' male dog was picked up. He's now called Hugo and lives with a yellow brindle Dane and three cross-breeds. His owners sent me a photograph that they'd taken here, of a black puppy on the window sill with the curtain over his head. We liked this photo so much that we've added it to the site.
The pups see the poodles sitting on the window sill (only in the dog room!) and copy them.
And last Wednesday I was called by people looking for a black male dog, and Bartje is one, but we hadn't planned to rehome him yet. Bartje needed to convalesce for another 4 weeks, although the canine chiropractor who straightened his backbone, has declared him healthy. This couple had had to say goodbye to their male Dane on Tuesday and wanted to get another friend for their Dane bitch as quickly as possible.
We told them all about Bartje and they wanted to go for it, we also think he'll do better with them where he'll get far more attention than with us, but it's never easy to let go!
Their Dane bitch Fleur seemed to like Bartje, of course it'll take her some time to get used to him but I'm sure they'll be fine. We added a photo of Bartje on the site, he's sitting there looking at me with his harness on.

When Bartje's new owners left for home, we started making our oliebollen (doughnut balls for New Year's Eve) - making batter and leaving it to rise by the wood burner. Paul thought the puppies could also come into the living room but of course they started en masse on my batter. With the batter still on their ears they were chucked back into the dog room, and they weren't let back in the living room till the oliebollen were safely on the plate.

Next Monday the blue male Dane Alfa will go to his new home. Alfa is going to live on a ranch with lots of horses, so we're already trying to get him used to our ponys.

Kind regards,
Paul and Angely v Cooten

Izzy's puppies are now 12 weeks old and we can see more and more differences in their characters. Of course they're all lovely and they all demolish everything in their path. Their favourite game is pulling on a plastic bag.
Chiena, 'our' harlequin bitch, loves warmth and doesn't like cold and rain. Especially in the evening I have trouble convincing her that it is much better if she relieves herself outside!

We've taken Ozzy and Chiena to dog classes, we think it is important that they meet other dogs and see other places.
Ozzy thinks it's exciting and barks a lot at other dogs - I'm not entirely happy about that.
We take Ozzy shopping with us as much as possible, for lots of new experiences.
To be on the safe side I take a big plastic bag with me - just in case he does his business in the high street.........

This morning I went to see Claudia, another Dane fanatic, they have two. The blue male is Duc, he's Kyon's brother and very good with puppies. Their other Dane is called Desmo, he is 5 months old and wild and clumsy - just as a 5 month old Dane should be. Desmo is very special, he's from the kennel Liberte, where Izzy came from too.

I took a few more photos, and Ozzy was very good and laid on his back for Duc and then chased him - another learning experience for Ozzy.

I also took photos of Chiena, but she's often asleep, and she doesn't even fit on the chair! If you look carefully you can see that she's resting her head on the Dane magazine.
And snuggled up to her foster mother Laika, of course in front of the wood burner.

Kind regards,
Paul and Angely v Cooten

We have rehomed 3 puppies, the two blue sisters Sisi and Zsa-Zsa live together.
We're of course very happy about it, it's fun for the pups and double the pleasure for the new owners.
And Gizmo, a blue male, has also found a fantastic new home. This makes it much easier for us to say goodbye to them.
We love hearing from owners how the pups are getting on.
So we still have 8 puppies, we will keep two so we have 6 left to rehome. I'm hoping more will go together, it's fun for the pups.
The puppies here are all doing well. We often take walks in a local wood, they know the way and are very good about waiting by the car. They're very clever.
Last week I had to rescue 'brown', he'd landed in a ditch and couldn't get out. There was a bit of water in the ditch, but he was smart enough not to go in.
I also had trouble keeping my balance on the slope and tried to get him without getting my feet wet, and kept calling with my sweetest voice 'come on puppy!!'
Finally I managed to get hold of him, he was actually having quite a good time with me in that ditch.
Quickly lifted him through the brambles and back in the car. Safe at last!

There's never a dull moment here with the dogs and puppies.
They've also learnt how to steal bread from the horses. They just have to watch Shuka and Kyon, those two are very skilled.

With kind regards,
Paul and Angely v Cooten

The first puppy left last Saturday, of course to very nice people, but it's never easy when they leave.
Sometimes we still prepare 11 bowls of food by mistake.
The puppies love playing in the barn, running through the straw, so every afternoon we let them play there for a while.
They also take turns coming in the living room. When it was Ozzy's turn, he snuggled up to Shuka to gnaw on a bone.

With kind regards,
Paul and Angely v Cooten

Today we had puppy visitors: Anita and Suzanne. Having visitors is a big party for the pups, and especially today as they brought a bag full of bones and knuckles.
As promised lots of beautiful photos. Thanks Anita, you're a fantastic photographer and you always send them really quickly! Now you can all enjoy them, especially as Jeanette, our web master, puts everything on the site within no time.

It was difficult to choose from the photos, they're all great.
First a few photos of home. Our harlequin, who's going to be called SADARO'S CHIENA, is very photogenic.
And 2 photos of mealtimes, the puppies always polish off the meat. They really prefer it over the dried food, although they finish that too.

In the dog room the puppies now try to climb the sofa, which they can't quite manage yet. It won't be long though.

A photo of Denice covered in puppies in the van on the way to the wood.
They love the woods. They're getting very adventurous and I keep having to count them to make sure they're all still there.
One day we met some cyclists, they all chased them. Fortunately the cyclists stopped so we could take the puppies in the right direction.
Meeting a labrador was another adventure. They all stayed close to me. In the end a few of them dared to go and say hello.
In short, lots of new experiences for us and the puppies. A great day.

With kind regards,
Paul and Angely v Cooten

All puppies have been chipped and vaccinated.
Every time I'm amazed that they hardly seem to notice being chipped, only one or two react, even though the needle is quite thick.
Now they've been vaccinated we can take them outside on the street.
Their first trip was to the wood, they all enjoyed themselves.
First in the car but they're not overly impressed. So Denice and Laika join the puppies in the back and then they don't mind.
Last week we took the black ones to the wood, they were vaccinated a week earlier and I've already taken two black ones to school. They're very good on the lead. I don't take more than two each time, I have my hands full as it is.
It's funny to see them be puzzled by cyclists and barking dogs. They've already worked out that those don't form part of the pack.
This Sunday Anita will come for a puppy visit. Anita and I went to Spain for GINN twice. She takes great photographs. She also took the photos for the travel story about GINN and she's going to bring her camera, so I can already promise that next week we'll have lots of beautiful photos.

With kind regards,
Paul and Angely v Cooten

Lots of photos this time, because the pups are lovely and very photogenic.
We take them outside several times a day, which they really enjoy. Fortunately the weather is still good.
It's a challenge each time to get them through the hallway and utility room without them weeing and pooing everywhere. They're doing better every day.
The black ones weigh about 7 kgs, so they're growing well.
This week we had a visit from the Great Dane club to check the nest. We have been approved and are now on the club's puppy list. They thought the puppies were beautiful - which they are of course!

With kind regards,
Paul and Angely v Cooten

The puppies now all eat cereal, they love it, especially if we mix in some meat.
We had quite a few visitors today, the puppies don't mind, neither does Laika.
Today Izzy's pups were digging in the sand like real dogs, they had a great time. They also take things in their mouth and start shaking it, which is fun to watch.
Laika's puppies now get in and out of the puppy box and have started to explore.
When they have eaten, they can barely walk because of their round tummies.
Laika doesn't really lie down anymore to let the puppies drink. She only wants to sit or stand. I can imagine how she feels - they have rather sharp teeth.
We feed the puppies 5 times a day, alternating between meat, cereal and dry food. They love the cereal - they finish it in no time.

The puppies and Laika are doing well.
Today Izzy's puppies went outside, the weather was so nice that we put them outside for a while. Normally puppies are quite taken aback, but this lot was discovering the lawn within a minute.
The poodles and Shuka (our youngest Dane) love the puppies and stay near them all the time.
The puppies now come into the living room too, new experiences for them and fun for us.
It also means more work, as their poos are beginning to take on the size of those from Great Danes!

Laika's puppies are doing well too, they are venturing within the box and had cereal for the first time today.
A few of them thought it was fun to lie in it, but they all enjoyed eating it.
They're all growing as they should and we're really enjoying them.

We've had some nerve-racking times with the dogs. First of all Laika had a very high temperature, just as Izzy. She got put on other antibiotics, and we had her blood and milk tested. We found out that Laika had an e-coli bacteria. This is a very nasty bacteria which in effect poisons the dogs. They develop a very high temperature and only Baytril can kill these bacteria off.

We are convinced Izzy had the same bacteria.

After Laika started on Baytril, she recovered very quickly.
After that we had to take a puppy to the vet because it wasn't eating enough. The vet gave the puppy an injection and now he's doing much better.

Laika had some continued bleeding which really worried me as she's now spayed.
They checked her over very thoroughly and gave her another scan, but the vet said I had nothing to worry about.
She did suffer from anaemia so she had an injection for that.

The pups are doing really well, they're growing very fast.
We started weaning Izzy's pups. Normally I don't start weaning on cereal until the pups are three weeks old but we wanted to relieve Laika a bit and also make sure that her own puppies get enough milk.
What a mess, as usual, but they do all enjoy it.

Izzy's pups are already walking in the box and they all have their eyes open.
Laika's pups are also opening their eyes, and two of them are trying very hard to start walking, and they're not doing too badly. Despite our sadness we do enjoy the puppies.
We have had an incredible number of reactions to Izzy's death, it made us feel a lot better.

Thanks to all of you

As soon as they open Laika's abdomen, we see amniotic fluid - not a good sign.
One by one they take out the puppies. There's seven of them, but one is dead, probably the one we had seen earlier.
We're very relieved that there aren't too many, 6 live puppies, 4 males and 2 bitches.

When the vet checks Laika's womb, she discovers a tear, which explains the fluid in her abdomen. Because we don't want to breed with Laika anymore, we decide to have her spayed straightaway.

Around 8 o'clock we're back home with Laika who's only half come round yet.
We put her back in the puppy box. We latch the puppies on straightaway, so they'll get the all important colostrum. They all suckle well.
We put Izzy's puppies in the box with Laika's pups. We also put a towel in the box which we used for drying Laika's puppies, so Izzy's puppies will have the same scent.

Laika came round well and accepted all the puppies. We hope that from now on, all will be well.