Darby had his surgery today, the vet said everything went well. They said he weighed in at 33 pounds. I thought he’d be more (he’s a solid little dog). He was neutered, microchipped and the hernia was repaired. They just commented on the fact that he was very scared, which I was expecting. His nails were also trimmed, he hates it when I try even though he bites his own toenails.

He’s still very groggy–he laid down on the lawn and tried to fall asleep on the way into the house but he still managed to eat all the cat food on the way in! He’ll probably have to wear the cone collar they gave me but right now I got him sleeping on my bed, he’s so tired. By tomorrow he’ll probably be bouncing off the walls again, and I’m supposed to keep him quiet for about seven days!

Darby at a year

Here are the newest pictures of Darby. He will be a year old next month. A kooiker is fully grown at two, and their coat is mature. Their black earrings will continue to lengthen, and their coat may grow a bit longer, but in most respects a two year old kooiker is a grown up dog!

At one year, Darby is still a puppy in many ways. His coat will continue to lengthen, and his body may fill out more, but he has reached his full height (when he is officially measured, we will post his height). When a male dog is neutered, his coat may grow longer and curlier than it was when he was intact, especially around his sides. Leslie plans to neuter him next month, and fix a small umbilical hernia he has had since birth.

Leslie took these photos on April 23, 2012. Darby’s birthday is June 10. He looks a lot like Yorick!

Darby right side, April 2012

Darby left side

Check out those ear-rings!

Look who got a nice pair of earrings for Christmas, they’re growing nicely. His coat is also growing longer and stays so clean. We went for a short hike where Darby ended up covered in black mud, yuck! By the time we got home the dirt just fell off and he was a nice bright red & white again.

I’ve had the flu for a few weeks so we’ve only been doing 1-2 short walks a day but he’s been demanding to play tug-of-war instead. I know that he’s going to make me play catch up as soon as I’m a little better. I also bought him a large bag of oxtails, I pop a few in the toaster oven and he stays occupied for hours.

Please, I'm begging, here!! What more do you want?

The new trick he learned is crawling across the floor, I still can’t believe he can pick up commands so easily. I need to think of some new ones to teach him. I’ve been making him do freestyle tricks, I hold up a treat and he runs through every trick he knows (then makes some up!).

Over the past few weeks he’s also been getting better with greeting people, not so scared anymore. He’s still a bit cautious but his natural curiosity eventually wins out.

"I'm so happy, I think I'll explode!"

My baby’s six months old today! He’s spending the night terrorizing my nieces but they love every minute of it. We’re going to a Christmas party at work tomorrow. He also now has more toys than your average five year old.

I still can’t believe how smart he is, he’s been picking up tricks faster that any dog I’ve ever had. In one of the pictures I was trying to get him to beg, but I couldn’t get him to do it exactly when I took the shot. I’ve heard that it can take months to teach a dog that, he’s got it but just needs to work on the balance. This week’s trick was learning how to crawl on command and he’s nailed that one too.

He’s still a little leery on meeting new people but if I tell them to let Darby come to them first he’s great and will lick their hand. I brought him into a local pet store chain, Daves’s Soda & Pet Food City, (mainly for socialization) and we met a woman who actually knew what a kooikerhondje is. She said she’s always wanted to meet one, and yes, now she wants to get one!

I hope you all enjoy your holidays, we’ll be enjoying ours!

Thanks again for such a wonderful puppy.

"Are you sure I'm not part Husky? I love this stuff!"

Darby had his final Lyme disease booster this week and weighed in at 20.2 lbs. He’s done with all his vaccinations for the year and is otherwise doing well.  I still have to schedule his hernia repair and neutering but the vet said it isn’t an emergency.  We’re currently having an early season blizzard right now and we just went for a walk.  I was just going to go across the street to the woods so he could go poop but he had so much fun we did the whole route.  And you’re right about being waterproof, he dried off faster than I did, which is a good thing because he’s now sprawled out all over my couch!

Yesterday we drove all the way down the Chatham on the Cape.  Darby is great in the car, even on long trips.  When we drove back from Georgia he curled up on my center console and slept; now he’s too big to even sit on it.

The beach had just opened up to dogs this weekend. I guess they don’t allow them during the swimming season.  He loves attacking seaweed and in one picture it looks like he’s trying to get a nice tan.

His black stripe down his back is fading, and I thought it was so cute too.  His tail is starting to get a nice little plume and he’s growing some shiny, red-gold hairs on his back.  He’s starting to look iridescent in the sunlight.

This vacation was so much more fun with Darby along!

We spent one day in Plymouth, even after Labor Day it was crowded.  We parked by the harbor and walked all the way up to Burial Hill and eventually made it back down to the harbor.  After that we walked all the way out to the end of the breakwater where Darby finally pooped out.  We stopped at Plymouth Rock and I swear that Darby had his picture taken more than the Rock, even with other dogs there.  I think I had to stop every five minutes to explain to everyone what a kooikerhondje is, I think we’re going to be getting a lot of hits on the website after this.  The majority of the people who approached him got a friendly tail wag and a sniff on the hand.  For some reason with a few other friendly people he got scared and shied away, but given a few minutes he was just fine.  As you can see, he’s a very photogenic puppy!

–Lesley Vanderpoel

This is my dad’s dog Bear.  Unfortunately he’s very “dog aggressive”.  As you can see that doesn’t bother Darby one bit.  They were best friends right from the start, Bear has never showed him any aggression what so ever.  Darby on the other hand chases him, bites him, pulls on his ears and hangs off his cheeks!  Bear even started playing back which I’ve never seen him do before.  Another large dog came up to Darby on the beach and Bear tried going after it.  It looked like he was trying to be an over protective, big brother.