Puppies are 4 weeks old today!!!!!

[katiek0417]

Okay, I'm cheating a bit...these are from Sunday and yesterday:

[iluvk9]

How to you stand it?? One is cuter than the other!!!! Are their personalities showing yet?

[Mickle]

They are soooo cute Katrina!!

[katiek0417]

How to you stand it?? One is cuter than the other!!!! Are their personalities showing yet?

Trust me...it's hard! They are so darn cute...Every time i go out there I have to snuggle!

I'm definitely starting to see each of them come into their own. First, the big difference I see is that the malis seem to stick with the malis, and the dutchies seem to stick to the dutchies...of course, this isn't all the time...but a lot of times the dutchies will go off and fall asleep together...and malis will still be playing...

Individually, you can't tell it in this picture, but this little girl is a BITCH!! This is the same one that growled and snarled at me 2 weeks ago when I picked her up.
She was actually growling and snarling at Greg when i took this:


The dutchie female also has some of that same personality, but she's a little more laid back...


This little female is the run, but tries to act all big...she's really a little lover. When she was a couple of days old, her ear got cut (I'm still not really sure, although my assumption is that Dru stepped on her), well, I'm not sure her ear will ever stand b/c it's partially severed...so I think I have Greg convinced to let me raise her for a little while. See, there are alot of people, even in the working world, who won't buy a dog with floppy ears...but if I can raise her, and work her, and really foster her abilities, I can probably sell her later or - or donate her to a police department:


The male malis are all very dominant....I've watched them tackle each other, put each other on their backs, grab their necks and shake!

The dutchie males are much more laid back and chill...but very playful...

[madremissy]

I am confused why do you say the dutchies and the malis. You mean from this litter and the last.
They are adorable..

[katiek0417]

I am confused why do you say the dutchies and the malis. You mean from this litter and the last.
They are adorable..

The dutchies are the brindle ones in this litter...the malis are the ones with the black masks...

[madremissy]

gotcha. Well they are too cute.

[SisMorphine]

Awwww cute little fuzzballs.

[iluvk9]

The dutchies are the brindle ones in this litter...the malis are the ones with the black masks...

Now I will plead "ignorance". The Dutchies and the Mals are from the same parents and litter, right? Just different coloring gives them a different name?

[katiek0417]

The dutchies are the brindle ones in this litter...the malis are the ones with the black masks...

Now I will plead "ignorance". The Dutchies and the Mals are from the same parents and litter, right? Just different coloring gives them a different name?

Exactly...what is happening is that there is a very small number (relatively) of purebred Dutchies...and they've got mostly the same lines. This is true for the US, and even Europe where there are many more Dutchies. Well, this leads to genetic disorders, etc (like any inbreeding). So, breeders are trying to bring in Malinois (and even GSD in some cases) to mix up the lines and add some variety to the genes (mainly so that the dutchies stay a "healthy" breed like malinois; they don't want dutchies to become more like GSD - especially the American bred ones - with health problems).

And, while they're "mixed" working puppies, people in Europe refer to anything with stripes as Dutch and anything with the black mask as malinois.

[cheekymunkee]

I wondered why some of them looked brindle. VERY cute!