Meet the Pack Behind the Pack: Keldt

From Business School to the Pack

Born in 1999, Keldt studied Business & Entrepreneurship and did what you’re apparently supposed to do after graduating: he got himself a proper corporate office job.

That lasted a few months.

When the opportunity came along to temporarily take over the dog walking pack of his former Loetje colleague Leonie during her maternity leave, Keldt disappeared from office life faster than the speed of light.

Dogs instead of meetings?

Not a particularly difficult decision.

Perhaps we should have seen it coming. There are pictures of Keldt as a toddler with dogs, and he has always had a natural connection with animals.

His relationship with humans has historically been… slightly more selective. 😇

While walking Leonie’s dogs, clients regularly started asking him the same question:

"Do you know somewhere good where my dog could stay while we're away?"

Keldt had an idea.

His parents had a farm.

Plenty of space.

What could possibly go wrong?

"Maximum eight dogs, Mum and Dad. Really. Never more than eight."

In 2021, DoggyDogFarm officially became a reality.

Apparently, maximum eight now means 50.

🌅 7:00 AM – Keldt's Favourite Time of Day

Despite everything DoggyDogFarm has become, Keldt's favourite part of the job is surprisingly simple.

Early morning.

At 07:00, he lets the dogs outside, grabs a coffee and spends some time alone with the pack while the sun comes up over the farm.

The evenings, when everything becomes quiet again and it's just him and the dogs, are another favourite.

During the rest of the day, things look slightly different.

There are meetings. A team to manage. Fences to build. A vegetable garden demanding attention. New ideas to develop. Plans for another location, the walking service and the webshop.

And, of course, the ongoing challenge of keeping a family business running while managing his sisters Kaya and Brynn and keeping his occasionally slightly interfering mother Linne under control.

Good luck with that last one, Keldt.

🐕 The Dog Whisperer

There is something our team sees every day that is difficult to explain until you've witnessed it yourself.

Put Keldt in a field with 50 dogs and the energy changes.

It becomes quiet.

He doesn't need to shout. He rarely even needs to correct them.

He reads dogs incredibly well — their body language, tension, insecurity and energy — and somehow they read him just as easily.

It's natural leadership.

Our Pack Leaders can learn his methods and techniques, but that instinctive calm authority is almost impossible to teach.

Around here, we'd probably call him a dog whisperer.

Keldt would probably just call it another morning at work.

His favourite breed is the Welsh Springer Spaniel, and of our farm dogs Joy holds a particularly special place in his heart.

But there is one dog nobody is ever going to beat.

Bob.

His first great canine love and the dog who, without knowing it, helped start the whole DoggyDogFarm story.

❤️ The Moment That Means the Most

Ask Keldt about the most special moment of the past five years and, surprisingly, he doesn't mention growth, revenue or the number of dogs.

He mentions his family.

His older sister Kaya joining the business.

And the realisation that today his sisters Kaya and Brynn and his mother Linne all work within DoggyDogFarm.

Five years ago, he never imagined they would eventually be building it together.

For a man with a self-confessed preference for dogs over humans, that's actually rather sweet.

Don't worry, Keldt. We won't tell anyone.

🚐 “I Never Thought It Would Become This”

If someone had shown 2021-Keldt what DoggyDogFarm would look like five years later, he wouldn't have believed them.

A team of 10 people.

Up to 50 dogs at the farm on the busiest days.

Two full dog-walking vans driving through Amsterdam.

What began as a small idea had turned into something much bigger.

"It's actually pretty unbelievable when I think about it. But most of all, it's incredibly cool that it became reality."

😂 The DoggyDogFarm Blunder We'll Never Forget

Running a business with dozens of dogs inevitably produces stories.

And then there's the Labrador incident.

Keldt isn't naming names.

But once upon a time, two black Labradors were due to go home.

Someone on the team accidentally switched them.

Shortly afterwards, the phone rang.

"I think we may have the wrong dog at home..."

😳

Both Labradors were quickly reunited with the correct families and everything ended well.

The story, however, will live forever.

🚀 What's Next?

Five years in and Keldt certainly isn't finished.

First on his wishlist is a daycare location closer to Amsterdam.

Then there's a grooming salon at the farm, allowing dogs to be groomed during their stay and return home looking — and smelling — considerably less like they've spent their holiday digging through a field.

He also wants to continue expanding the DoggyDogFarm webshop.

In other words: plenty of plans.

Some of which, knowing Keldt, will probably be announced to the rest of the team approximately 24 hours before he needs their help. 😏

Which brings us neatly to...

🔥 According to the Pack: Keldt's Most Annoying Habit

Keldt admits it himself:

He's extremely good at solving tomorrow's problems.

Planning for something considerably further away than tomorrow?

Work in progress.

Which means he has a remarkable talent for suddenly appearing with:

"Soooo... I need someone to help me with something tomorrow."

Luckily, he has an incredibly flexible team.

They love him dearly.

Probably.

⚡ Quick Fire with Keldt

Early bird or night owl?
🌅 Early bird

Beach or forest walk?
🏖️ Beach

Puppies or seniors?
👴🐶 Seniors

Clean dog or muddy dog?
🧼 Clean dog

Favourite dog name?
🍪 Cookie

Favourite part of running a dog farm?
Quiet mornings and evenings alone with the pack.

Least favourite part?
Cleaning and picking up poop.

Apparently even dog whisperers have limits.

And finally: how many dogs is “maximum eight” nowadays?

Apparently...

50. 😂

“Maximum eight” really didn't age very well.

Five years ago, Keldt thought he was creating a place for a maximum of eight dogs.

What he actually created was a pack.

A business.

A team.

And, unexpectedly, something his whole family would eventually become part of.

And somewhere between the business plans, muddy fields, early mornings, vans full of dogs and thousands of paws that have crossed the farm since 2021, the young man who couldn't get out of corporate life fast enough found exactly where he belonged.

Preferably at 07:00 in the morning.

Coffee in hand.

Surrounded by dogs.

And with absolutely nobody asking him to clean up poop yet. ❤️🐾