With huge thanks to his owner, who has been a pleasure to work with, we have the opportunity to utilize a fantastic foreign stud in Boele (pronounced: “boo-leh”) for this breeding! Boele is a handsome and sweet boy from excellent Belgian, Danish, and Dutch hunting pedigrees, who participates weekly in hunting training with the renowned Bezelhonk kennel in the Netherlands. Iris is a lovely female Drent with the performance talent to match, so far achieving great success in her AKC Scent Work career out of San Diego, CA, as well as dabbling in canicross, obedience, and field work. We expect puppies from this pairing to align with our preservation breeding philosophy.

Conformation: Boele brings to this pairing lovely coat and substance, a great balance for Iris who has a lighter coat and bone. Both display superb Dutch type, with wedge-shaped muzzles and heads, broad skulls, and ears set high – building blocks of the good-natured, intelligent expression of a typical masculine and feminine Drent. Both have a correct, sound, powerful, and athletic structure, built to hold up to long days in the field. They both have breed-typical markings and the soft, low-maintenance coat we love. Boele has received multiple “Excellent” show ratings under Dutch judges, and placed first the the Intermediate Class at the Dutch Club Championship Match in 2023. Iris shows rarely, but has consistently received compliments from judges on her expression and movement.

Overall, we expect puppies from this pairing that are very conformationally correct to the Dutch breed standard – the form that follows function, and the look that makes the Drent uniquely beautiful.

Working Ability: Both Iris and Boele display wonderful natural working ability as hunting dogs. Iris started training seriously in field work just this year. She has been excelling in searching for birds before and after the shot; has an intense, convincing, and productive point; and a excellent natural retrieve fine-tuned by completely force-free training. She hunts at a moderate range, always out in front of her handler and within eyesight. Her search drive also shines in competitive AKC Scent Work, a sport based on the work of real-life detection dogs. She searches with confidence, joy, clarity, and independence, at a lovely efficient pace, where it’s clear that the work itself is the reward (though she’ll happily accept treats for a job well done!). Iris is now competing at the highest level of AKC Scent Work (Detective class) and has received many compliments from long-time exhibitors and judges, and has the results to match (42 top-10 placements, 24 top-4 placements, and three “High-in-Trial” designations as of this writing). Iris has also been successful in many other performance sports including Rally Obedience, Canicross (trail running with a dog pulling you), AKC Fetch (retrieve testing with a bumper on land), and the Canine Good Citizen programs.

Boele trains weekly with Christel Schulte of the renowned Bezelhonk kennel in the Netherlands. His paternal line consists of generations of Belgian and Danish hunting Drents, while his maternal line is largely from the Dutch Bezelhonk kennel where Boele now trains. He is a strong swimmer, and runs big when tracking game, but always comes back when whistled and keeps a close eye on his “boss”. We are thrilled with the opportunity to pair these two dogs with natural and proven working ability, and expect puppies from this pairing to be great prospects for hunting, scent work, tracking, or any other scenting activity, true to our goal at Meliora.

Boele

Temperament: Typical of Drents, Iris and Boele are both exceptionally happy dogs that are a joy to have in their homes. They both represent well the three pillars of the breed. We are told Boele is enthusiastic, friendly, and endearing. He is very playful and loves to run & swim. He goes on long walks with his family at least twice per day, where he is curious and appropriately social with all people and other dogs.

Where to start with Iris? Iris is incredibly intelligent, playful, active, tenacious, joyful, and affectionate. She’s my partner and best buddy – she’s matured into such an intuitive dog who seems to always know what I need. She would rather not be handled by complete strangers and will alert bark to visitors to the house, but she is friendly with anyone she’s known longer than 5 minutes, and adores the people in her circle. She is passively social with other dogs – likes to play when given the opportunity but can also ignore them when asked. She is extremely clever and picks up new concepts quickly, and will work for food or toys or the opportunity to use to her nose.

We expect for puppies from this pairing to be similarly joyful, intelligent, neutral-to-social with people & dogs, trainable, and overall lovely companions, with medium to medium-high drive & energy that can be channeled into almost any activity and a nice “off switch” in the home.

Iris

Health: We are fortunate to have an excellent pairing of two healthy and active Drents in Iris and Boele. They have across-the-board passing hips, elbows, and eyes, and are backed by dozens more healthy dogs in their pedigrees. Besides that, they are also both mature dogs in their prime that run hard and have remained injury-free, a testament to their health and sound structure. We are confident that this pairing brings together as solid a genetic background for health as one can find, and expect puppies who can hold up to their active natures!

Pedigree: We are thrilled with the opportunity to utilize a foreign stud of Boele’s quality for many reasons, not least of which for what it means for the domestic population of Drents in the United States. With less than 120 Drents in this country, only a handful of whom are in the breeding gene pool, carefully selecting foreign pedigrees to incorporate is critical to the viability of the domestic population in both the short- and long-term.

Based on 10+ generation pedigree analysis via Dogs Global and ZooEasy (the two major online registries of Drentsche Patrijshonden), the Coefficient of Inbreeding of this litter is 22.87%, better than average for the Drent population. The calculated Mean Kinship, which measures the relatedness of a dog to the rest of the Drent population, is also better than average at 21.43% (note that this looks at the entire Drent population worldwide, not only the population in the United States). The biggest single influencer on the combined pedigree (inclusive of 8 generations) is Siep Muffty v. Selihof at a 9.38% contribution, a lovely male from the influential Selihof kennel (see below).

Through Boele’s sire Kenzo are both Belgian and Danish lines known for excellent hunting qualities; and through his dam, Luna Lynde, we have a lovely Dutch pedigree full of Bezelhonk dogs in recent generations and Groevenbeek dogs further generations back (two of my personal favorite Dutch kennels).

Iris herself is a lovely combination of first-generation US-born (from her dam, Tule, who was born in the Netherlands to Kennel van’t Dreske Kwinne) and third-generation from her sire Fen, who is from Two Gun, Rainshadow, and Meadowbrook lines (all North American kennels). Iris’s maternal grandmother is Blossom van’t Suydevelt, the beautiful matriarch of Kennel van’t Dreske Kwinne, who has blessed her descendants with her strong influence. Iris’s maternal grandsire is the 2015 Dutch club winner, the handsome Tinus Jinte Basco van’t Stieckleholt, who has also produced himself extremely well in his descendants.

We have high hopes for puppies from this pairing, who we expect to be as beautiful, successful, healthy, and beloved as the many generations before them!

Some of the many notable dogs in Iris and Boele’s pedigrees:

This litter will be born, raised at, and picked up from our home in San Diego, California. They will be raised with a mix of Puppy Culture and Avidog protocol, including Early Neurological Stimulation (ENS) and Early Scent Introduction (ESI). They will be matched with their families around 7 weeks old by us based on evaluations of each puppy and the desires and goals of each family. Puppies will go home at 8 weeks old with detailed health and evaluation records, AKC limited registration, an extensive digital photo album from birth to pickup, a “go-home bag” of necessities and keepsakes, & a lifetime of support. For more details, check out our Puppy Purchase Process & Application page linked below.