Trip to Holland


My daughter, Tiffany, and I arrived in Amsterdam on October 1st with six labradoodle puppies!  We were met at the airport by  the puppies new families.  It was so nice to meet these kind people.  We knew the puppies were in good hands.

We headed over to Belgium, to the medival city of Brugge.  We had both been there before, and were excited to have some more time exploring.  We walked the city, rode the canals, took the bus tour and trotted along the cobblestone narrow, winding streets in a horse drawn carriage.

Brugge

After a couple of days in Brugge, we caught the train to Bruseels where we were met by our favorite Belgian, J.P.  J.P. spent some time in our home as a foreign exchange student, 9 year earlier.  We had a wonderful time visiting with him and his mom, Anne.  We enjoyed seeing familiar sites of the city.

Early Sunday the 5th, Tiffany and I took an early train to Amsterdam and then to Heerhugoward.  Here we held the first Pine Lodge Labradoodles Round-Up!

We had a hard time counting the dogs that attended… but we think there were 18 of our labradoodles there.  We have sold a total of 27 puppies to Holland and Belgium.  We had 55 to 60 people come with their doodles.

It was an amazing day for me.  I never thought I would ever have the opportunity to meet these Dutch families, let alone see my puppies again.  It was totally a dream come true!  The people were all so friendly.  And the dogs were hilarious!  They played and ran and barked.  By the time the round-up was over, there were some very tired puppies!

We held the round-up at the dog school of Yvonne van den Meer in the town of Heerhugowaard.  It is a lovely facility that held us all very comfortably.  I am so greatful to Yvonne for opening up her wonderful building to us.

 

I would like to also give a BIG thank you to three wonderful ladies who helped at the labradoodle round-up.  These very lovely ladies helped serve refreshments and also helped with the dogs.  We could not have had such a successful time without them.

I also owe Tiffany a huge thank you!  She put together our cute western packs that we gave to each dog.  These were purchased from a great company we found called Pawsitively4pets (www.pawsitively4pets.com)  They included a bandana that you can see on the dogs in the group pictures, a horsey toy and a cowboy boot name tag to put on their dogs collar.  Tiffany was also a lot of fun to travel around with.  We had fun!   She did an excellent job navigating the train systems.

I feel very blessed to have had this opportunity to meet “my” Dutch families.  Though we have no relation by blood, I feel a very strong bond to these wonderful families, through the dogs.  Thank you so much for coming to the round-up and thank you for being such great families for my doodle pups!