Choose a Friend

After we had decided to take care of a dog, we encountered several questions. Should we get a shelter dog? Or should we go to a breeder? Male or female? After doing some reading, we quickly decided to choose a female from a breeder. A female tends to be calmer, and if it’s your first dog, that works out well. Although you must be cautious with a female during her heat—as she might then want to find a mate—a big question still remained: what breed?

We delved into books and came up with several options: the Tatra (Polish mountain dog), the Heidewachtel, a Flat Coated Retriever, the Swiss Shepherd, or a Beagle. We know the last three quite well personally, since family and friends either have or have had such a dog. The Tatra and the Heidewachtel were somewhat less familiar to us, so we decided to visit a kennel.

In Elp, we arrived at the Tatra kennel and immediately heard a lot of barking—after all, these are dogs that want to protect their pack. After ringing the bell, the door opened and the dogs came to us. They sniffed briefly and then turned out to be real cuddle bears. They are incredibly sweet dogs, love attention, and are generally very calm. However, they are quite large, and in our terraced house that might be a bit challenging. After a pleasant introduction and a good feeling, we returned home.

On the way to the Heidewachtel kennel, Westpolderjagers in Ulrum, we initially stopped in front of the wrong house, where, coincidentally, several Flat Coated Retrievers were roaming. Google Maps let us down, but the owner of the farm told us we needed to go three houses further—about two kilometers away.

Once we arrived, we were greeted and served coffee in the kitchen. After chatting for about an hour, we walked over to the dogs’ kennels. They had a huge run outside, and the kennels inside looked neat. Since there were more dogs than at the Tatra kennel, it was a bit noisy at first, but they soon calmed down. With a good impression and after having seen some really great dogs, we returned home.

In the following period, we spoke with dog owners, attended the Martinidog Show in Groningen, read even more about the different breeds, and let it all sink in.

Ultimately, we concluded that we wanted a medium-sized dog—one with which you can go on long walks, a dog that challenges you and vice versa, but also a loving dog that is good with other animals and children. Well, nearly all these points relate to proper upbringing, but that comes later. The Heidewachtel meets all these criteria, and now we are on the waiting list in Ulrum for a puppy. Very exciting!

Related: Lacey, Nikki en Bas