Welcome to the Capital Keeshond Club (CKC), like most pure breed clubs, some of our goals are:

- to promote understanding of our fuzzies
- to generally improve the quality and health of the breed
- provide help and information about our special dogs
- promote responsible dog ownership

CKC is foremost a pet oriented club, 99.99% of our members have their keesies (and other dogs) as house dogs, as apposed to kennel dogs.

As a keesie club we try to do things for the kees and their families. Most of our members are in Maryland and Virginia, so we alternate our club functions between the two states (MD one time, VA the next). We try to do something almost every month and the kees are usually welcome, BUT on occasion they're not (for instance at our annual meeting in February, we have it at a restaurant on Sunday for brunch, sometimes the club member who is "volunteering" their home for a club event is unable to have MANY dogs...no fenced yard, apartment/condo). In June we have an Annual Club Meeting/Picnic with Auction. Throughout the year we have grooming clinics, picnics, sometimes pool parties, agility play days, parade walks, photo days, anything we can come up with that's fun to do with our dogs. If you can think of anything else, we welcome suggestions. See our Upcoming Events Calendar.

We try to hold at least one and sometimes two grooming clinics . Grooming is not just for those who show their dogs; keesies need grooming weekly to maintain their health and appearance, so our grooming clinics are designed more for the average pet owner and "day to day" grooming. We will show you how to groom, how to do toenails, what brushes and combs are the best for Kees coats and how to make the grooming session a good experience. If we are able to sandwich an obedience workshop as part of the clinic is for any problems anyone may have with the dogs, whether we're working on an obedience title or just trying to make the dog a pleasure to live with.

If this is your first kees, whether puppy of older dog, we feel that there are some things that you need to be aware of...CKC's philosophy is that having a dog is a life time commitment (not until the kids leave home, not until the newness wears off, not until something better comes along, not until you start having kids and don't want to bother with the dog anymore); keesies are the equivalent of a five (5) year old child most of their lives (although the "terrible twos" can last until they are 3...or longer, that's what makes them so GREAT, they never grow up).

Keeshonds shed, it seems like forever, several times a year...just when you have a bagful of hair, you still find more coming out of them; they LOVE to chew...anything - wood and furniture (wood steps, molding, chair legs), walls (plaster, panelling), paper (newspaper, bags, tissues, toilet paper, paper towels), you name it and they can AND will chew it. To provide them with appropriate chew items keep LOTS of chew bones, hooves, etc. around. These traits and idiocrasies can apply to most dogs, if you should add any other dogs to your family (but why would you want any others than a kees). Even with all these things, we would not be without our dogs. Most of our members have more than one dog (either all keesies or another breed).

We are also involved in Keeshond Rescue, as the saying goes, "Some days are diamonds, and some days are stones." There are times that we have keesies in need of adoption and no homes, and sometimes that we have wonderful responsible new "parents" waiting for a rescue and none avaliable (that's the preferred days). We have a couple of members that do actual rescue. We have some members that will foster dogs on occasion too, BUT we are always in need of foster homes (a foster home takes in a rescue giving him/her love and attention until we can place him/her). If you're interested in helping with this please call us! To view kees that are available, click here.

Club members have volunteered to wash and groom the rescue dogs (this makes them more adoptable), we have had bake sales, make things to sell &/or raffle at the specialty, and at our June picnic and at our Holiday Party we have an auction. The funds collected go towards various club initiatives. We have a list of current rescues (and this is not necessarily the most UPDATED list, we may have some coming "in" or know of some that are waiting for a home, but staying in their current home)

The Capital Keeshond Club, as a member of The Keeshond Club of America, is required to put on a "specialty" at least once each year. A specialty is a "single" breed dog show that a club hosts, usually in conjunction with an all-breed club, and usually gets a very large entry; CKC offers trophies for all of the placements in each of the classes. Keesie clubs all over the country also put on a specialty, so there are specialties throughout the year. Our specialty is (usually) held in April.Click here for info on the show.

You are more than welcome to attend any of our club functions; if you have any questions, need directions or other information contact our Club Secretary (see info on previous page). If you'd like to talk to someone closer to you, check out our Sources of Information list on the previous page.

Don't forget to check out our Upcoming Events Calendar for fun times for you and your kees!


Thank you for visiting our site!

Last updated: 08/10/2004