Both us here at Meliora Drents, and Cooper’s owners, are thrilled with this pairing! Iris is a lovely female Drent with the performance talent to match, so far seeing great success in her AKC Scentwork career out of San Diego, CA, as well as dabbling in canicross, obedience, and field work. Cooper is a handsome and sweet boy living an excellent life going everywhere with his owners between homes in the Bay Area, CA, and Jackson Hole, WY, and hunting with his boss, displaying steady points and a natural retrieve. We expect puppies from this pairing to align with our preservation breeding philosophy – physically and behaviorally sound active companions and show/sport/hunting prospects.

We are hoping for the breeding to take place early Summer 2024 for puppies to be born in late summer/early Fall 2024.

Our waitlist is OPEN!*

*we are primarily seeking additional show, sport, hunting, and/or breeding homes at this time,
but welcome active family homes to apply as well.

Conformation: Cooper brings to this pairing a magnificent coat and plenty of substance (in both bone and muscle), a great balance for Iris who has a lighter coat and bone. Both display superb Dutch type, with wedge-shaped muzzles and heads, wide skulls, and ears set high – building blocks of the good-natured, intelligent expression of a typical Drent. Both have strong front and rear angulation, which lends itself to sound and athletic structure to hold up to long days in the field or on the trail. They both have breed-typical markings and the wavy (not curly), super soft, low-maintenance coat we love.

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.

Health: We are fortunate to have an excellent pairing such as this with across-the-board passing orthopedic scores from the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA). Both Iris and Cooper are also backed by dozens more passing hip and elbows scores in their pedigrees! We are confident that this pairing brings a solid genetic background to the table to stack the deck in favor of healthy joints in their offspring.

Epilepsy, being a huge concern in the Drent breed, was carefully researched for in both Iris and Cooper’s pedigrees and we are glad to have found zero direct ancestors reported to have experienced seizures in at least 5 generations. And finally, we are pleased to know Cooper has been cleared by Embark genetic testing for 215 known mutations that increase risk of genetic disease – including von Willebrand’s Disease Type 1, for which Iris carries one copy of the gene. While prevailing knowledge on vWD1 expression in the Drent at this time suggests that it is unlikely to present symptomatically even in dogs with two copies of the gene, Iris underwent a buccal mucosa bleeding time (BMBT) test for confirmation that her clotting time was normal as expected. Both Cooper and Iris have also had their eyes evaluated according to the OFA Eye Certification standards and passed with flying colors.

Overall we expect orthopedically and genetically healthy puppies from this pairing.

Cooper

Temperament: Typical of Drents, Iris and Cooper 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 Cooper goes everywhere with his family and is loved anywhere he goes. He is sweet, smart, and active, and just a little bit naughty (as all good Drents are). He loves people and does well with other dogs, living with two dachshunds, and is wonderful with children, too.

Where to start with Iris? Iris is incredibly intelligent, playful, silly, sassy, 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 is aloof to strangers, 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 training concepts quickly.

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

Working Ability: Both Iris and Cooper display wonderful natural working ability as sporting dogs. Iris has had some exposure to field work, exceling in searching for birds before and after the shot, and her pointing and retrieving are coming along nicely. She hunts at a nice moderate range, always out in front and within eyesight. However, her hunting instincts can more frequently be seen shining in competitive AKC Scentwork, a sport based on the work of real-life detection dogs. She searches with confidence, joy, clarity, and independence, at a lovely efficient pace. She is especially talented in sourcing – once she is on odor, she can work very challenging puzzles and through a lot of environmental pressure to get to source. Iris has received many compliments from long-time exhibitors and judges, and has the results to match (33 top-10 placements, 18 top-4 placements, and three “High-in-Trial” designations as of this writing). Iris has also been successful in many other dog sports like Obedience and Rally, Canicross (trail running with a dog pulling you), Tricks, and the Canine Good Citizen program.

Cooper loves being in the field and holds a point as solid as any pointing dog. He not only has an excellent steady point, but is also a natural retriever – his owner and handler only needs to take a knee and he brings the bird back, every time. Cooper has trained with Two Gun Kennels, who has more experience hunting over Drents than anyone else in North America, and Higgins Gundogs, a unique but exceptional bird dog trainer who started with falcons and utilizes as quiet, low-pressure technique to develop steady, confident, and productive hunting dogs. Based on Iris and Cooper as well as the pedigree of dogs behind them both, we expect puppies from this pairing to be great prospects for hunting, scentwork, tracking, or any other scenting activity, true to our goal at Meliora.

Pedigree: Meliora Drents is honored to be bringing together two fantastic pedigrees of dogs born in the States to Duck Creek Drents and Two Gun Kennels. While Iris and Cooper share a kennel name (“Duck Creek’s Two Gun“) and some paternal genetics a few generations back, their maternal lines (from their dams, Tule and Ember) are distinct. Tule and Ember were both born in Europe and brought key genetic diversity to the United States, sharing only one great grandfather in Siep Muffty van’t Selihof, a gorgeous dog from the renowned Selihof kennel.

On the paternal side, both Iris and Cooper are a few generation descendants of Esp.Ch Joksan Nabar the Gloucester (“Booker”) and Brookelyn van’t Wijdseland (“Brookelyn”), two Drents who have had a large influence on the American Drent population through being founding dogs for Two Gun Kennels and Rainshadow Drents, respectively.

Other Drents of note in the combined pedigree are Iris’s grandfather, Tinus Jinte Basco van’t Steickleholt (“Jarno”), who was the Belgian Drent Club Champion 2012, Dutch Drent Club Campion 2015, and performed well in the field in addition to the conformation ring. Cooper’s sire, Gray of Gray Timber (“Tycho”) was the first Drent to win an AKC Best in Open Show and as of this writing is close to achieving his Certificate of Merit (FSS equivalent of a show Championship). Of course, behind Booker, there are a few Gloucester dogs – one of the most well-known Dutch kennels, including Dutch champion females Nadezja and Kenzie. We are also pleased to have some Jasperspad females (Jana and Unique Tjieke) in Iris’s paternal line, one of the many across the combined pedigree who have long prioritized maintaining a strong hunting ability in the breed. Their combined 5-generation pedigree has a Coefficient of Inbreeding of 12.4%, well within a normal range for the breed, and a Mean Kinship value of 22.4%, below the average for the breed (which indicates that the puppies in this litter will maintain important genetic diversity for the worldwide Drent population).

This litter will be born, raised at, and picked up from our home in San Diego, California. They will be raised with Puppy Culture 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.