Family video of Bichon Frise puppies gets 100,000 hits on YouTube

WHEN Simon Thompson decided to raise five puppies, he realised they had too big a sense of mischief for one house to contain.

So he set up a website to share it with the world.

Now, a YouTube video of the Bichon Frise puppies has gone viral – watched by more than 100,000 people around the globe.

It shows them charging around Simon's family home in Cottingham with their mum Poppy.

"You can see this herd of Bichon puppies piling out of the kitchen and into the room," he said.

"Poppy jumps onto the sofa and you can see them all jumping up to try to join her.

"There are people throughout the world watching it – people in America are looking at it."

Simon's wife Oracha

Outside the shops, her dog met Otis, another Bichon Frise – and it was love at first sight.

"It was just a chance meeting," Simon said.

"We asked and she said sometimes she studs her dog out.

"We did a lot of research about it before we went ahead and decided to do it, and took advice from the vet."

Otis came over to the family's garden for a first date.

"We invited him round for one afternoon and he spent a few hours in the garden playing," Simon said.

"One thing led to another. We let nature take its course."

It took about four weeks until he was sure Poppy was pregnant.

"I don't believe there are pregnancy tests for dogs but you just kind of suss it out," he said.

"The puppies were born at home. When dogs are ready to give birth, they start tearing up newspaper.

"She was tearing up newspapers with her paws and her teeth to make a nest ready for her babies."

The birth came off without any problems.

And the family gave all their new arrivals names – Melody, Otis, Jasper, Lola and Little Pop.

The family looked after them for eight weeks before passing them on to new owners.

Simon decided to launch a website with photos and video so the people who bought the dogs could get to know them.

"We wanted the owners to get fond of the puppies before they took them," he said.

"It started off just e-mailing pictures to the people who were taking them.

"And then I thought, 'Why not put them on the website?' and as the weeks went on, we thought it would be nice to do a video."

Simon's website shows the puppies growing up, from the moment they opened their eyes to their last week with Poppy.

"We thought it would be useful in the future for people who are thinking of breeding their own puppies," he said.

"I was very surprised to see one of the videos suddenly start to take off.

"We enjoy watching them all but I think the funny aspect of seeing all the puppies run around and the chaos they cause makes that one stand out."

It was a sad day when the dogs had to leave.

"We did make a point of not becoming too attached to them," Simon said. "It makes it easier for them to make the transition – we didn't want them to get too attached to us.

"If we were sitting there giving them a cuddle every night, they might have missed us."

But the family still found letting go difficult.

"That's why it's so nice to have the videos," Simon said.

Visit www.mybichon.co.uk to see the family's website.

The most popular video of the puppies – with 100,967 views last night – is on YouTube. To see it, search for "Poppy's 7 Week Old Bichon Puppies" on the site.