So now the first two weeks have passed and all nine pups have by far doubled their birth weight, their eyes have opened. We start to hear regular barks from the bench, and we laugh as the sound they produce scares themselves. It is amazing how they are experiencing their balance as they try to stand on their four feet. They "wobble to and fro.." Soon they will be exploring their world a little more and discover that they aren't alone in the bench but with each other.

This weeks the pups were dewormed for the first time. This is important for their health and will be done again with 4 and 6 weeks. The mother dog was also dewormed with them.

Nine pups is alot for a mother dog and although she has enough milk and the puppies are growing well, it's time for them to start to learn to eat from a bowl. So we started giving some warm milk in their round feeding dish. We use the puppy milk from Farm Food, which is based on full goats milk. The puppies love it, but the first feedings are so messy, they climb through the bowl if we don't help them.

Cindy gets quite the attention now, but who can resist a scratch behind the ears when your dog looks at you like this.

Today the sun was shining brightly and it seemed like a great day to introduce the puppies to the outside world, starting in our backyard. Cindy was really excited to have her puppies outside for a few minutes. When they were outside you could see by her body language that she gets down low to invite her puppies to play with her. They were also excited to play outside with our grandchildren.

This week the puppies have been outside a few times. They react to my voice and come to me when I call them, as seen in the video below. I reward this by scratching each one under their chin and praising them as they come to me. They are playing with each other alot now, determining status among themselves and playing biting games. It is nice to see how they can bite each other, but when the one lays goes down on his back and whines, the other takes off and the game is over. Funny thing is the next time, the other one is biting. This stage is so important as they learn so much from each other now and their mom. This week they have also been dewormed for the second time.

I let the puppies walk around in the house a bit so they can get used to walking around on different sorts of floors and walking with people walking around them. Today we even used the vaccum around the puppies and it didn't bother them at all. Of course we took advantage of the beautiful weather and spent some time watching them play and learn the rules in a dogs world taught by mother and grandma dog. You can already see that these puppies love the outdoors, they get really excited when we take them outside and jump like little bunnies.

The weeks are getting more and more busy now. The pups have been dewormed the third time. Last weeks a lady from the Raad van Beheer came to our home to see the environment that the puppies grow up in. Each puppy got a chip in their neck via a sharp needle and each puppy has had their DNA taken to be tested via an oral swab. I have included a video of this moment. The pups all did very well, the one yelped louder than the other, but they were all soon comforted by mom. Also this week I hope to be welcoming professional animal photographer Ilse Wanner ( www.ilsewannerfoto.nl to make pictures of the puppies. For us as a family, because we cherish the moments we have with these dear puppies and we will so miss them when they go to their new families. I hope to post some nice ones on the site so everyone can enjoy them. This week we are also going to the vet for the first time. The puppies will get examined and get their first immunisation shots. It's going to be a whole job getting the nine puppies to the vet...I have already called them, and been busy this afternoon with the necessary paper work needed for the visit to the vet. Everything has to match of course, the names, the registration numbers, the adresses.

The pups are growing so quickly now. We notice that their bench is actually quite small now for 9 puppies. So we take them outside to play alot, but someone has to be there all the time when they are outside because I am afraid that a hawk will come and grab one, thinking that it is a rabbit. They do not drink so much by their mother now any more. It's more like a few sips for dessert. This means that the mother does not clean up after them any more. They are starting to do their toilet jobs on the newspapers in the bench, and when they are outside, they run and do a pee as quick as they can. ( see the video for this) So the potty training is well under way.

All in all, a very busy time for our family, cleaning, organising, and don't forget the important socialising of the puppies. We hope to bring them to an old age home next week and to some elderly people in town that would love to see them. We chose to do this after their vaccination

Last week I took the puppies to the vet to get them all checked up. It took more than an hour for her to check them all. Each heart was listened to, they were all well, no heart murmers to be heard, all their bellies were checked to see if they had umbilical hernias , there were none, and all their jaws and teeth were checked to see if these alined and were healthy. Furthermore she checked their ears, eyes and checked to see if they had fleas. No fleas,- thankfully - and eyes and ears were healthy. So they were all weighed and she said they were quite big for kooiker pups and that I could feed them less times a day, which I did from that moment on.

At this point the puppies play outside 4 times a day for a longer period of time. Mainly because the cage is getting too small to be in with all 9 of them for longer periods of time. They also walk around the house loose now, and pee outside instantly as soon as I place them outside of the door. Potty training is going really well.

Plans have been made with an old age home here to visit within the coming days. We feel it is important to let the elderly cuddle with them. Many of these people have had pets of their own that they have had to say good-bye to and of whom they do have fond memories. We hope to bring a ray of sunshine into someones life with this, knowing how much love can be felt by just holding a puppy.

Photographer Ilse Wanner came by and made some wonderful pictures. I have yet to make a selection of the ones she will work on, but she's worked out the group picture which I may share.

Holding a puppy can bring so much happiness. Just look at those eyes sparkle. These puppies have so much love to give...