Good friends helped us to find our way in the UK. Mary Aikenhead of the Powhatan kennel offered us our first English puppy: Powhatan Black Dee. We still do owe Mary a lot. We never had a better working dog than "Powie". We even gained "best retriever" with her on an all retriever working test. Her offspring was good and sound, but the desired show results didn’t come along with the working performance.

In those days Gwen Broadley was already the grand old lady of the Labrador. Her Sandylands kennel was famous all over the world. So we thought, quite naive, that she might be willing to sell us a puppy. We never had expected to be put on a waiting list. It could have taken many years before we were at stake. We were quite happy to get in contact with Gunilla Andersson of the Aroscas kennel in Sweden, who in those days owned famous Sandylands offspring. Without her help our start would have been even much more difficult than it already was. We bought several dogs from her and with her help in the UK, but one after another failed to be that top quality we were looking for. A lot of time and money later we finally succeeded. Gunilla didn’t give up and sent us Strega, a mature and pregnant bitch. Strega was our sixth dog. Nowadays people tend to think that one’s first dog should always immediately become a champion or perfect brood bitch, but it was never easy and it never will be to breed your own champion. 

Strega

After so many years it is hard to remember how hard it was to make a proper start. We spent all of our spare time, we spent more money than sensible, in no time we had too many dogs, and the so desired successes stayed away. Nowadays I am in the lucky circumstances that I can help many starting breeders to find their way, but it is always a very difficult and hardly accepted story when I tell about our own very difficult beginning. Nobody seems to have the patience anymore and everyone seems to find it normal that the first or at least the second dog brings a world famous success.

And then it started… Strega never became a champion herself, but she delivered 12 (a very big number to cope with, especially when it is your first litter) wonderful puppies and one of them was Fogel Hlara Gulliver, our first Dutch Champion. I almost sold him to a Belgian guy, but I didn’t trust the man and at the very, very last moment and very intuitively I decided to keep him. One of the first times I learned to trust my intuition, what I later on would do many, many times.

NL CH. Fogel Hlara Gulliver by Rien Poortvliet

My kennel name is more or less the most literal translation of my maiden name into mediaeval Dutch. Since nobody abroad seemed to understand our Dutch habit to use both the name of your husband and your maiden name (Pieta van Dee-Vogelaar), there always was some confusion about my name. We decided therefore just to use "Pieta van Dee" and transfer my maiden name into my kennel name. Fogel Hlara has a lot of meanings, and they all have something to do with me, my name, or the dogs, or the place we used to live. "Vogelaar", my maiden name, means "bird-catcher". Fogel means little bird, but also "group of warriors", or "folk". The second part of my maiden name "laar" means open space in the wood. In 855 there was a villa near Rheden, a place we used to have our summer home, called "Villa Hlara" (pronounce [la:ra]), originally, many centuries ago, written as "hlâr". So we thought, if they refuse to understand my maiden name, why not call my dogs "Fogel Hlara"? Do you understand? A strong folk of warriors in an open space in the wood. A rather complicated way to define your kennel name, but nevertheless still a lot of fun. 

When my children were about four and five years old, I was surprised by a visit of Rien Poortvliet, in those days one of the most famous Duch painters of animals. He was at that time working on a book about dogs, he was living in our neighbourhood and he asked whether he could paint our puppies. In his book "Braaf" you can find our children and the dogs. His portraits of the dogs and the children were brilliant. He was a nice man, but when we tried to prevent our children from being published as sex objects all over the world, he didn’t comply with his agreements. We found our children, later on, on calendars, agenda’s, Happy New Year cards, dishtowels, cake-tin’s and what you can think of more. We didn’t like that at all.

Our children & Rien Poortvliet 

A few weeks ago Fogel Hlara Forever Young became champion number 11, more than twenty years after the first one. During all those years I learned a lot about breeding. But I also learned to develop a special "eye" for a beautiful exterior, but perhaps even more for a good and sound movement. In the beginning I was surprised that so many of the successes were gained by elder ladies. In the meantime I have also learned that patience and perseverance are probably the most important aspects that determine one’s successes. 

Part of my luck is the fact that I owned a few very well inheriting stud dogs. Nobody however seems to recognize that even that is a matter of hard work and constant attention for what is going on in the dog world. Of course I have been lucky, but it was also a matter of hard work, constantly keeping up your connections, being permanently in contact with important breeders abroad and trying to keep everyone dangling who could be of any influence on your own breeding activities. My stud dogs were in good health. They did help to get further and they did make it possible to have that next, hopefully successful, generation. 

I have always been striving for a dual purpose Labrador. In my opinion however dual purpose does not mean a maximum of successes in the field only. Sometimes Labradors that do perform excellent in the field, hardly deserve the name Labrador. And sometimes Labs with a truly excellent exterior seem to have lost almost all the characteristic behaviour and temperament. Dual purpose means a dog that meets the standard from an exterior point of view and also fulfils one’s expectations concerning the character. And character nowadays seems to get more and more important. One of my personal standards is e.g. that my five males, all of them have been used as stud dogs every now and then, must live together without any problem. They are not in separate kennels and even when one of the dogs just met a nice bitch, I can immediately put them together again. No barking, no growling, no biting or what so ever. And our cat Harry is the leader of the gang, in that important position without any hesitation accepted, even by the males. 

Our cat Harry, the leader of the gang

Over the years I developed my own strong ideas about how a nice Labrador should be. And I succeeded sometimes in breeding it myself. Nevertheless I have always been looking around for possibilities to improve my own breed. One knows that constant renewal and the input of "fresh blood" is absolutely necessary to keep up your performances. I used dogs from all over the world. I imported sperm from the USA and the UK, used a dog in Sweden, a dog in France, a dog in Germany and I have been importing females from the UK, Canada, the USA, Finland, France and where else. Every time I was judging abroad I was also looking for anything I thought I could use myself. A lot of my successes are based upon the idea that you never should be stuck in your own kennel blindness, but always be open to whatever happens in the world around you. 

The maximum number of dogs I ever owned at the same time was, many years ago, 18. And I found that far too many. Sometimes you are more or less forced to have more dogs than you would prefer, but I am quite happy that I reduced the number to 11 at the moment and will further decrease the number during the years ahead. Four of them are retired (Balnova Sultan is almost 16 now) and that gives me a far better opportunity to spend enough time with the others. We bred 58 litters over a period of 22 years. I never wanted to own a puppy farm, and I never will. 

One of the things that irritate me more than average is the fact that some people seem to think that breeding dogs is a very profitable business. Even in the current discussion between many breeding clubs and individual breeders this issue pops up every time again. I never wanted to make a living out of my breeding activities. It was and will be just a hobby, but unfortunately a very expensive one. When I look back and sum up what I invested and what the "benefits" were, I can not avoid the conclusion that I spent a lot more money than I gained. Even though I owned several rather successful stud dogs over the years. I am always a little bit upset if anyone suggests that all my breeding must have enabled us to pay our mortgage. All the travelling abroad, all the necessary building and construction activities at our house, all the receptions of so many people from abroad, all the surveys, the medical examinations, the official paperwork, the entry fees, it never costs less than the profits are. We, for example, owned for a longer or shorter period more than 28 males, out of which only five were really successful as a stud dog. 

Many people ask me what my secret is. And the honest answer is that there is no secret. Or it might be that permanent selection is the secret. It was and is always very hard to part from a dog you like or even love, but if you want be able to go on, you should be able to part from any dog that doesn’t fit into your breeding programme. No matter how sweet, nice, good looking or affectionate he or she is. It’s difficult and sad, but if you want to be successful as a breeder, you do have to judge your own dogs constantly and honestly. Does he or she fit into my program, is he or she sound and healthy enough, is he or she a promise for the future or not? 
Hopefully we can go on for many more years. Owning, breeding, showing and judging Labradors will never be a boring activity. And, I must admit it, in the meantime I truly became an addict. Two litters per year will be my maximum, and always aiming at a permanent improvement of quality will be my destination.