We are Christien & Antoon, a couple living in one of the northern provinces of the Netherlands, beautiful Drenthe with its forests and heath. We both grew up in a small village town nearby, both surrounded by German Shepherds. We are a family of (yet) four, with our kids Björn (4) and Jutta (2) and our third one on the way. Our pack contains three Rhodesian Ridgebacks Ringo (10), Halla (6) and Evi (4). So we have a quite busy family life!

Antoon has his own gardening company for over 20 years now and does forestry and tree working as well.

I, Christien, got my Master of Veterinary Sciences in Ghent (Belgium) in february'18. Now I am working parttime as a vet for companion animals in a veterinary practice nearby for 6 years.

From childhood on always being surrounded by German Shepherds it would have been odd to choose otherwise, but when we ran in to the Rhodesian Ridgeback by chance in 2013 we fell in love immediately. In 2014 we got our first Ridgeback Ringo, son of the magnificent Leo, because of whom we fell in love with the breed. It had to be this way.. nowadays we cannot imagine having any other breed.

My grandfather had a German Shepherd kennel (vom Glockensprung) in Mönchengladbach (Germany) in the old days. I often went with him to training with the dogs and he learned me a lot. Later I went with my mother who also got the dog-virus. She had multiple German Shepherds to train with and to try make her dream with her own kennel. Sadly there where always circumstances where she had to choose between breeding anyway or making the decision that the dog didn't stand up to her strict requirements for breeding. She choose the latter, being my example on how it should be done... do it right or don't do it at all!

It's because of this that we want to participate in more health tests than required and that we have a preference for working dogs/dogs with a healthy working mind but not loosing structure and esthetics out of sight. A Rhodesian Ridgeback should be even tempered, socially stable and confident, making his own descisons as the breed required in the past. This also means that we don't breed a labrador/labradoodle in a Ridgebackskin. Rhodesian Ridgebacks are strong willed (some may call it stubborn) independent hunting dogs. Their loyalty lies with their family. They will not naturaly stay playfull with every dog thinking the more the merrier. If you are looking for a dog to go to doggyparks and who has to always be oké with other dogs bringing in thery business, a Ridgeback isn't the breed for you. We strongly urge potential Ridgebackowners to do their research on the breed (see also Character description), its needs and requirements to asses if a Rhodesian Ridgeback is the right choice of companion. Fur sure we will when selecting future homes for our Immermoed puppies!

A healthy mind in a healthy body

We live on the edge of a small village with the forest in our backyard 'Heerlijkheid de Eese'. On our many walks we share the forest with a large number of small game and roe-deer. We always keep an eye on the forest edges for those, since Ringo and Halla are always in the mood for a game of catch ;).

A Ridgebacks favorite spot in the house is directly in front of the wood stove. If they aren´t there you'll find them lying in between us on the couch, never failing to hear anything approaching our doorstep.

In November 2019 we became one step closer to our dream by getting our F.C.I. kennel name: Immermoed (prefix) officially registered. In the progress of registration we were visited by a member of the Dutch Kennel club, Raad van Beheer, for a location check to see if everything was in order for breeding. Since January 2015 we are member of the RRCN (Rhodesian Ridgeback Club Nederland), the Dutch breed club for Ridgebacks. We honour their code of ethics.

Besides our Rhodesian Ridgeback we have two Irish Cobs.

A real life on the countryside ;)