It is with great joy that we can announce that the Flatastic B litter has arrived.

Deep in the night on the 22nd of January Lotte had a textbook welping process and delivered the absolutely perfect nummer of 8 puppies in 5 hours:

Males: 🖤🖤🖤🤎

Females: 🖤🖤🖤🤎

We are deeply in love with the beautiful puppies who are very lively and strong.

Lotte is doing very well – she has a strong maternal instinct and Kaspar and Rumi are only allowed to have sneak previews around the corner:

The puppies are gaining weight and enjoying the service of mummy, meanwhile we have contacted all future owners bringing them the good news.

Our B litter is called “Flatastic Beasts” inspired by the J.K. Rowling film “Fantastic Beasts”. Attentive followers may have found the hidden clue on our mating announcement already.

Thank you Yvonne for providing outmost professional medical and emotional support throughout the welping process. 🖤🤎

Het is met grote vreugde dat ik de voorgenomen verloofde van onze Kaspar mag voorstellen:

TRICKSYWOOD’S FLICKA LIV roepnaam Indy.

Geboren 11.06.2021

HD A Patella vrij ECVO vrij (m.u.v. distichiasis) ICAA (Gonio) vrij

Show:

Uitmuntend

Werk:

Clubdiploma C – working test C – workingtest Talentenjacht starters

Indy is een heel mooi vrouwelijk teefje. Perfect formaat en heel rastypisch. Ze heeft een heel fijn karakter – ze is heel toegeeflijk en meegaand. Ze bezit in hoge mate will to please en markeert werkelijk subliem. In het werk is ze vlot en gemotiveerd met een vrolijke inslag.

Indy komt uit mooie dual purpose lijnen – haar moeder is bejaagd en beide ouders van haar hebben mooie MAP B diploma’s. Haar vader is niet alleen Nederlands en Belgisch show kampioen maar ook internationaal show kampioen (link naar pagina van Bamse https://www.winchmore.nl/in-memoriam/bamse). Haar moeder en zus ken ik persoonlijk heel goed van diverse jacht en trainingsdagen. Indy is gefokt door Yvonne van Houten – kennel Tricksywood’s (https://tricksywoods.nl/)

Het fokplan van Kaspar & Indy is onlangs goedgekeurd door de FRC en de pups zullen onze kennelnaam Flatastic gaan dragen. COI is via Zoieasy berekent op 0,0 % op 5 generaties en 1,19 onbeperkt.

Zowel Yvonne en ik staan Jan van Heeren bij in het begeleiden van het voorgenomen nest. De puppy’s zullen bij Jan en Alie in huiselijke sfeer opgroeien.

We verwachten een mooi dual purpose nest met werklustige pups met een zeer vriendelijk karakter – honden die toegankelijk zijn maar wel uitdaging en beweging nodig zullen hebben hun hele leven. Beide ouders zijn bescheiden in formaat en hebben een zeer sociale insteek.

Voor meer info over Kaspar zie zijn eigen pagina op de Flatastic website. Voor vragen en/of opname op de wachtlijst voor dit nest neem a.u.b. contact op met Jan van Heeren via email janenalievanheeren@outlook.com

Grootouders van dit nest:

Brösel vom Timeloberg x Flow of Spirits Silver Skipper

Winchmore Bet Your Bottom Dollar x Flatcastle’s Indy Brown Girl

We verwachten het nest in het voorjaar van 2025

As we are entering the 8th week of the pregnancy of Lotte things are getting busy here at Flatastic headquarters.

Getting everything ready and feeding our sweet girl several times a day whilst still caring for the other dogs, communicating with possible puppy buyers and doing our regular stuff on the side. One thing is sure – breeding puppies is not a “walk in the park”.

Even though we are busy setting up for the B litter I manage to take many moments to cuddle up with the future mom. She is so sweet and she enjoys all the attention. Since this week we can feel the small puppies inside her belly moving and kicking. They are very lively. Lotte seems somewhat bothered by the strange feeling of the puppies and she gives me a certain look of disapproval. She is getting tired of the weight load.

Hopefully everything will go according to plan when the little ones arrive.. after birth we will reveal the theme of our B litter.

Through the years of experience bringing my dogs out to retrieve at different hunts I have gained a lot of insight how they work and how I can handle them. Having full attention on the dog and the retrieve allows a very effective execution of the work.

This past winter season certainly changed the game for me as a handler completely..

Being focused with my own gun and a dog or two at the same time is really not the easiest job – especially when there is a lot of action. My dogs do not need a lot of encouragement to fill in any blanks or use opportunities so to speak..which has cost some of their steadyness and calmness. Enough work to do over the summer to reinstall these skills.

Having said that – I realize that being out in the field – especially being an inexperienced hunter – we rely on the game finding abilities of our gun dogs to minimize suffering and to maximize the harvest of Mother Nature.

In my opinion Flatcoated Retrievers are the best in finding game – wether it was a mark or a blind. The will use their nose and will power to continue.

We really enjoy being out in the fields, I love witnessing Nature and observing the flora and fauna. Doing my best to harvest in the best possible way – a clean and deadly shot and if that does not succeed as wished I am glad that the dogs are quick and work efficiently. But the whole goal of me hunting is not merely to “enjoy” the outdoors. I notice that obtaining my own meat created a deeper and more profound respect for living. I am developing a bigger sense of value of what I take from Nature. Meat is no longer something I buy without notice of the fact that an animal lost it’s life for me to eat. I also like the fact that the meat me and my family eat has come out of animals with a very good well being. Here are some pictures of what deliciousness came to our table through my dogs good work and my own efforts to obtain my license. Of course none of this was possible if it was not to the generosity of the hosts. Thank you so much Lieuwe, Piet, Frank, Roel, Gerlof and Lars.

Finally I would like to share some beautiful pictures of our Dutch nature:

Thank you for a Flatastic 2024

Our Christmas is as good as it can get as a gundog lover. Yesterday I managed to hunt a full Christmas dinner that I will prepare myself for the family in law. I will tell more about that later because we are totally consumed with happiness as the ultrasound this morning showed that Lotte (Flatastic Red Strength) is with pups. We expect a normal sized litter – thank God it will not be a as many as a football team. We are looking forward to a wonderful time and so thrilled to welcome the puppies at the end of January.

Check out the heritage of this litter on Lotte’s own page here on the website.

It has been busy days with several invitations to go hunting with the dogs the last couple of weeks.

Some were far away – others closer by. The advantage of having to drive a bit is that I get to see places and areas that are unknown to me. Last week I went to Drenthe and the small game was low in numbers. We did get to see a beaver enjoying lunch and Rumi found a rubber balloon in a waterway. Of course we took that one to the bin where it belongs. I hope that people realize that it is potentially harming nature to release balloons in the air.

Last week I got a call from an unknown number: “I heard you have great working gundogs and we need someone to assist us hunting in the thick cover”. I was of course flattered but saying that my dogs are great somewhat puts the pressure on. I might feel they are good working dogs – but the factual judgement to that is the amount of game that is retrieved and if necessary rescued.

Anyways, I promised to come and help out at this hunt. It was in the south of NL where a lot small game can be found, especially hare.

Keeping the number of hare at a certain level is important to have a healthy population which also allows farmers to grow our vegetables.

A hare hunt is extremely exiting for the dogs. I therefore keep them on the leash if there are many hares around. I do not want to take high risks.

A hare was shot but not to death unfortunately. The hunter reacted promptly by giving the hare a second shot and called for a dog loudly. Injuring an animal is what all hunters try to prevent – and even though we spent many hours practicing on the shooting range this do happens occasionally. That is the reason why it is a responsibility to have a well trained gundog who can quickly run out and retrieve the hare. I send Rumi as soon as the hunter called for a dog and she ran a perfect and efficient chase and retrieved the hare. It may have taken less than a minute and the suffering of the hare was reduced to a minimum. I am really proud of my girl – she is such a keen worker.

Later she managed to push out a fox together with Kaspar and she tracked down a pheasant runner. Wauw Rumi – there is really nobody like you.. so yes today I can truthfully say that my dogs were great. Of course we keep on training to remain in shape. For now we all need a bit of rest. Expect Lotte – she is enjoying her “maternity leave” and she gets some recreational walks where she simulates her own hunts.

Friday morning the 22nd of November we had Lotte’s progesterone tested for the 3rd time. It showed that she had just had ovulation and the vet predicted best mating moment to be Saturday and Sunday. It took some deliberation as Kaspar was supposed to run the WFRG Trophy on Saturday. The weather forecast was too bad for me to dare risk any delays.. we decided to cancel the Trophy and drive to Germany.

Lotte was lucky to have Rumi to accompany her and we were all staying in the lovely family cottage of Cajus’ owner.

Lotte resembles Rumi a lot – knowing what she wants or not. She did not want any hanky panky from Cajus on Saturday. In fact it left Maike and I rather depressed that she was that rejective.

Sunday mornings are always something special, don’t you think? Well Lottte thought the same and pulled me right out the door turned her behind towards Cajus and we had a very good mating with almost half an hour coupled. Cajus had some leg support from his owner. The two lovers had a sweet after play licking each other and rolling in the sand together.

After that Lotte had had enough lovemaking and was back to saying no with a deep bark. No more hanky panky for my little red monster.

We are happy that we got a good mating out of our trip and are looking forward to the ultrasound in about a months time.

On Sunday afternoon I had the joy of training with a couple of young gundogs – lovely time we had. My deepest thanks to the Marschke family for the “gastfreiheit”.

The waiting list for this litter will be open until birth.

As the title suggests I feel called out to talk about my love and passion for working my dogs and the joy we share in nature.

I am the daughter of a man who has hunted his whole life. My father is a farmer’s son and his family had to work hard to have any food on the table after the 2nd World War being small farmers. He started hunting at 16 years of age – helping my grandfather to provide for his family. My father kept hunting and build his lifestyle around this “hobby”. As a child I ate more game than any other protein source.

When I was in the hunting cabin with my father I used to make little burial crosses for the individual animals that had been shot. I took great pride in thanking them and honoring their lives and natures gift to us. I remember how the hunters smiled at me and talking about the fact that I had a burial ceremony for their prey, their laughter never felt as if I was ridiculed but rather sympathetic instead.

Since then quite some time has passed. I have had periods of being vegetarian after learning how our society has arranged how we eat and use animals as production units and feeding ourselves with them, often offering them poor living circumstances. I have also learned about the cutting down of ancient forest grounds for having soy beans growing and palm oil. These products are used in many (vegetarian) food products. For some reason my farmer’s and hunter’s genes have been pressing me forward to have interest in food and our food systems- the so called “bio-industry”. Since many years I have my own biological vegetable garden and being non chemical has let our garden to become refuge for several bee swarms, insects and hedgehogs- next to our vegetable supply.

Even though I have not had the ambition to hunt from an early age, my love for nature and eating game has slowly grown over the years – via the horses and later the dogs.

Working the dogs when hunting requires focus and lots of training in advance, same goes for a hunter – it takes years to become a skilled and good hunter. In order to acquire game to the table – one puts an enormous investment in time and effort and this builds a certain value and respect towards the meat that in my opinion has been lost due to the fact that we too easily can buy meat from the supermarket at any time we wish. Taking a life yourself – will without doubt add weight to the value of the life taken and the respect it deserves.

The past weeks my dogs have taken me through at least 50 different shades of green so to speak. On different hunts in Belgium and in the Netherlands I have worked my dogs with and without the gun. All for the purpose of bringing home game for the table.

We are merely at the beginning of the season but I am already utterly thankful for the journey the dogs are bringing me. From learning to shoot and hunt, learning about nature and taking the first steps into hunting and preserving.

I am very grateful for the opportunities offered to me by hunters and friends, but most of all the all loving Mother Nature. She is giving to the extend one could consider it to be the ultimate love declaration for us humans. In humble thankfulness 💚🍃🍁☘️

Our wonderful little girl Flatastic Red Strength “Lotte” is enjoying couch time – favoring attention from the male part of our family. This is not without reason – she is in heat. ❤️

In a few weeks we will travel to Germany for a romantic visit with her one and only Arved von der Wichmannsburg “Cajus”.

We are very excited and thrilled to start our adventure…

Waiting list subscription is still open for active (working) homes. The pedigree of this litter is 8+ generations of working gundogs.

Thursday evening the 10th of October we received a heartbreaking phone call from the owner of sweet girl Fien, Flatastic Green Compassion. Fien had two days earlier had a collapsed lung that had been treated by the vet. Unfortunately her lungs collapsed again and she died on her way to medical treatment. We are heartbroken that this little gem of a Rumi daughter has left us far too soon. Even though our tears seem to have no end I feel the urge to pay this wonderful soul a tribute. I am forever grateful for her being a part of our lives – and as a breeder I am very proud of her. She was a fantastic flatcoated retriever.

Puppy Green:

Fien was as a puppy a little energy ball. She would run around with a toy in her mouth most of the time and she loved challenging the boys to do a play of chase. If any of the boys got to close she would jump up to a higher place and tell them off. In this manner she was a copy of Rumi – having the exact strong spirit and motivation as her mother.

When I met Laurine I noticed how their energy matched – even though it was Laurine’s first working flatcoated they proved to be a great couple.

Youngster:

Fien remained one of the smallest of the dogs of the Aura nest. Her charisma and energy was however one of the largest. Fien showed very early that she was very clever with a strong mind of her own. She was very quick to develop and learn – challenging her handler to be a step ahead all the time.

Grown up:

I had the pleasure of enjoying a couple of hunting days together with Fien and her owner Laurine. Fien showed great stamina and eagerness in retrieving and she worked very well together with other dogs in the field. She had a keen nose and kept her head calm even in a busy shoot. With her 24 kg she was at the small end of the scale for her breed – but her speed was on of a kind.

CV:

HD A EL free Patella free ECVO clear (except distichiasis) – Gonio mild height 54 cm

Show results: 

Excellent junior class WFRG KCM. Very good junior class FRC KCM

Working results:

SJP-C WFRG Heerle – SJP-C Wijchen – SJP-C Gieten 

Practical hunting experience in Belgium

Fien you have left us far too early leaving our hearts sore and sad. We will never forget your sweet, funny and energetic soul. Your name “green compassion” is a quality we need now the most to heal from our loss.

Run free sweet girl – run and chase those rabbits in the forever hunting fields.