Great results again

So it was time for another show, this time in Västerås. Turned out to be closer to home than expected, according to all navigations we should have over 3 hours there, but only took a little more than two.
Judge for the day was Marja Talvitie from Finland and there were 22 lapinkoiras entered.
First up in the ring was junior boy Lapinlumon Xensaatio in a junior male class with 5 entered dogs. Tio´s last show in Mora he did not have time to collect himself after the drive, he got very carsick as a puppy and still does not enjoy driving and in Mora he went straigth from the car to the ring and so did not really want to show. This time however even if we were the first breed in the ring, he had had time to settle and walk around for quite a while as we were there in such good time. It paid off and he felt much better in the ring. We were really happy when he won the class with an excellent grading (the only excellent in the class) and was also awarded a CK quality ribbon. Next up was Ilolas, Lapinlumon Elämänilo, who won the champion class and the it was time for best male. Ilolas won and Tio was third and was also awarded the CAC not even one year old. Nice result! We were even more proud as only 3 males were awarded the CK ribbon qualifying for the best male competition and two of them were our boys.
Next up in junior bitches was Lapinlumon Xaana who repeated her brothers act and won the class with an excellent. She however was not graded a CK. Second in the class was her and Tio´s sister Lapinlumon Xaaga also with an excellent grading.
Last up from our four dogs entered was Lapinlumon Yllätys who did it with style as well, won the champion class, won best bitch, was awarded the Swedish CAC and thereby also finished her Swedish champion title!!!!!!!. Her and Ilolas met for best of breed competition were Ilolas was BOB and Totti (Yllätys) BOS. Waw what a result, winning both best male and best bitch and both CACs! Only 5 dogs in total were awarded a CK and 3 of them were ours. We brought 4 dogs and all 4 won their class. We also showed the four of them in our breeders class and won BOB breeders class with honory price.
However this was not all. At the end of the day we entered the group ring and were deligthed when Ilolas was picked out among 6 final dogs. Even more deligthed when he was placed as 3rd in the group!!!!! Only beaten by an American akita and a pharaohound, both excellent dogs and fair winners we felt very happy and proud. Esther was extremely happy with him winning some nice flowers and she did not let go of them untill we reached home. It helped a bit on her disapointment with her dog Xaana not getting a CK. She wanted to show her herself and I said no, but promised she could show her for best bitch if she was going to the ring again and she was really sad she wasn´t, but got to show Totti for BOB competition instead and the flowers made up for her disapointment. In the car on the way home she fell aslep, but still held on tigth to the flowers waking up every five minutes to check they were still there.

Ilolas winning BOG3, photo by Cattlin Marques

Mixed emotions

As a breeder life can sometimes be a rollercoster. Things go up and they go down. Last year we thought our special girl Ämmi had had her last litter, it was her third and she was soon 8 years old. She had been a showdog with numerous titles and wins to her credit and so had been a lot in the showring and not always had time for litters and so "only" had 3 special litters for us. We were sorry she did not have more, but happy with the puppies we had from her accepted that in Denmark you can not mate a bitch who has turned 8 years old. However after moving to Sweden I noticed several other breeders were mating older bitches and so I asked our vet who said that up here it is not the age of the bitch which count it is how many litters in total and most importantly that a vet makes a health certificate on the bitch stating she is fit for pregnancy. As Ämmi really is a special bitch both for us but also in our modest opinion for the breed we decided to go for it and mate her again. Vet checked proved her to be fit and healthy as a junior and we could go ahead. And who would be better fitted than our most special boy Ilo. He too an old star and very special dog it had always been in my heart to mate the two of them. I did not announce the mating anywhere as I am always so supersticious and felt sure something would go wrong if I told too much about the mating. I had a feeling Ämmi was pregnant, but not untill the last weeks did I feel completely sure, but she was not big so we did not expect it to be a big litter.

The 14th of April she delivered 3 lovely puppies, one girl and two boys and naturally we were really really happy with this for us special litter. Everything went by the book however when the second puppy was delivered Ämmi was very fast to bite the cord and the placenta did not come out. I expected it to come out with the next puppy which it didn´t. Ämmi did not seem done after puppy number 3 and for a while I wondered if there was a 4th puppy, but after taking her out and feeling her through I concluded I thought there wasn´t and imagined it was the placenta acting up. She really was restless, scratching and moving around all the time and could not find rest neither for her of the puppies. I contacted the vet to get an injection, but he advised to wait a few days as they normally come out by themselves. In Denmark my vet has always been very quick to give an injection to make sure everything was out and we have always used this, but I thought to myself maybe it was hysterical and thrue enough after two days the placenta came out by itself. However those two days Ämmi did not find rest at all :-(
The result of her scratching around, moving, jumping in and out of the box was that the puppies started to be stressed too, they were getting colder as they did not have their mothers body heat and they did not eat enough as she kept moving. I am a firm believer of not interfearing too much and letting nature go it´s way, but on day 3 my gut feeling was this was going wrong. One boy was completely normal, big and fat and warm, but the other boy and the girl were getting weaker, did not eat enough and seemed colder than I wanted them to be. By that time the placenta had passed and Ämmi seemed to settle down and rested in the whelping box with them, but by then it seemed like the two of them had become more passive and cold, did not eat enough simply kind of like they got used to not being full so now they did not care to really eat. This resulted in Ämmi stressing again as she did not know what to do with them - an evil circle! Even if I rarely do this I decided to step in and help and so the search in Sweden for formula began!

We went to the pet shop in Rättvik who did not have any formula for puppies, they did have for kittens however and told me I could just feed them that! I really did not feel like that and told them and let´s just say there was a discussion and I think we won´t be shopping a lot there again. We then went to the vet in Rättvik who is not a vet we have otherwise used more than once, but she was extremely helpful and checked out the kitten formula situation for us and spent her time (and no - she did not find it a good idea either......). They were sold out on formula though so we had to drive to Mora to the pet shop there. Stressing! Finally home after 4 hours driving around the two pups were even more cold and seemed a bit dehrydated so they spent some time on my stomach to get warmed up and then got some formula. Shortly after the boy died. Really sad, but it seemed like his body had just closed down some how. The girl however got warm and was eating and putting on weight. She was a real figther and the two of us started a struggle for life. Every second hour day and night I was feeding her and at the end she seemed more attached to me than Ämmi. First I had placed Ämmi in the kitchen in my mum´s house so she could have peace, but when we stepped in to help we moved her to outside our bedrooms where it was warm and we could keep an eye on what was going on all the time. The reason she was not there from the beginning was because Mia and Killi are always there and I thought they would stress her, but I was proven wrong. Feeding the little girl became our mutual project and soon she did not only have one mum, she had 4, me, Ämmi, Killi and Mia. The three girls were sitting in a half circle around me both in day and nigthtime when feeding her with their heads tilted to one side looking how she was doing and each time she was done eating they all three gave her a good licking and made sure she was okay. Her brother was still managing just perfectly on his own and the last two days she started eating by herself with ämmi too and she was putting on weigth so my hopes were up. After a week of hard work I was starting to be worn out as this was hard work, specially as I am also blessed with a human baby who thinks he can not sleep without his mummy so to have him on one side and then wake up every second hour with the puppy on the other was hard, but when I felt her little body cuddle in to me and rest when she could smell me I felt it was worth it. This morning I got up as usual after having been up with her in the night. Checked her and Ämmi on my way down to the kitchen and made her bottle. I could then hear ämmi bark upstairs and when I went up to see what was wrong I found the little girl dead. She was lying just as if she was sleeping next to her brother. People who say animals have no feelings are so wrong, Ämmi was devastated and no doubt she knew what had happened. Puppy was still warm and soft and was alive few minutes earlier when I checked on them, but Ämmi clearly knew things were wrong. She was so sad and whining and trying to push her to live again. I sat down to hold the puppy and could not help to cry and Ämmi and Killi and Mia all came to sit around me and looked so sad too. When I carried her out they all three jumped and wanted to lick her and they all pushed their noses on her just as if they were saying goodbye. Ämmi was clearly moarning and if a dog could cry that is what she did. I took a deep breath and went for a walk in the forrest with the dogs hoping she would be alive again when I came back knowing very well that of course she would not.

This was hard even if she was so small because I put so much time in her and she was special to me. I have been in this game for years, but I will never become tough I guess.......Now she is burried with her brother and Namu under the birch trees we can see from our kitchen window. It is 3 months since Namu died, but I had not been able to burry her before now. We had her cremated and brought her home as it was too cold and frozen to burry her when she died. The last many weeks I was thinking that now we should do it, but I just couldn´t, I felt somehow she was still here if I didn´t. But now it was time and her and the two puppies could keep eachother company and I dedicated the day to saying goodbye to some special ones.
This is the really hard part of being a breeder. I normally don´t interfear much in either matings, whelpings or caring of puppies and am lucky to have healthy natural bitches who take care of everything themselves and it is very rare we lose a puppy. However nature is cruel and it is survival of the fittest and in my heart I know that even if it is difficult. I don´t know if we were just unlucky with the different circumstances or if something was wrong and we can´t know. But sad it was and a rollercoster week, first so happy to get three beautiful puppies out of this special combination and then to lose the two. But I have collected myself and find joy in looking at the boy who is left, fit and healthy and hope he stays that way + Säde delivered 6 big and healthy puppies two days after Ämmi and all of those luckily (knock on wood!) look big and fat and doing well. Teir father too is Ilo and apropriately they were born on his birthday which also happened to be the birthday of my old Uuriel as well as the Danish queen so it has been a week of ups and down here for us. We have to find joy in the living instead of thinking what if and what could have been done differently about the past. But specially the girl will have a place in my heart and the love I saw from Killi, Ämmi and Mia will have a very special place for me. The way the three of them cooperated and really felt for this puppy and eachother was touching to see. The fat boy left does not have one mum now but three as either Killi or Mia jumps in to lie with him when ämmi is out to pee and after losing the girl they seem very nervous to make sure all goes well with him.

Life goes on even if it did not feel like it for a short moment this morning and so on a less dramatic note the spitz club had a club show in Denmark yesterday with good results for Lapinlumon dogs. Lapinlumon Bohjanpoika won best male puppy, Lapinlumon Zulo won best male out of a big entry and BOS, Lapinlumon Merirosvo won the open class males and Lapinlumon Quunloiste won the open class bitches. Lapinlumon Lapintähti won the res. CAC. Great results and we are happy with our great puppy buyers doing a good job there.

Another exciting thing is the planning of a very special lagotto litter which has also become possible with the help from another great puppy buyer. Mating was done yesterday which made me happy in the middle of all this sorrow and we hope there would be a result in nine weeks time, but let´s wait and see.

So the morale of today will be that life goes on even if it is sometimes difficult and that big joy can be turned into sorrow fast, but that is life and I decided after saying my goodbyes to look at all the joys and positive things in our lives with the beautiful puppies around me who are still here, all the adult dogs and then I spent a nice day with my two lovely children and my great husband.

What a day!!!!!!!

What a weekend we had! Started out a bit rocky as our Mia turned ill. She was rushed to the hospital with a strange looking tongue and what we believed to be a uterus infection. Such things always happen on bad days. Esther had a play date with a friend from school so was not home yet and we had a visitor coming from Norway so someone had to be home when he and Esther arrived. So I shipped Jesper off to the vet and stayed home myself waiting to hear the news. Turned out she was simply missing a piece of her tongue. Best bet was she licked something frozen and got stuck and pulled :-( Not so very nice. The good news was the uterus infection looked less bad than first expected and she was put on penicillin and her and Jesper could return home in decent time. I can happily report that she is much better already! Her tongue has healed and althought she strugled getting used to eating and drinking the first couple of days she seems to be fine now even if there is only 2/3 of her tongue left.....

We had a pleasant visit from Norway all Saturday and on Sunday we were then ready to head off for the Swedish lapphund club specialty in Mora. 134 lapphunds were entered of the 3 Lappish breeds with the Finnish lapphund being clearly the biggest with an entry of 97 dogs including puppies. Naturally we were excited to see the Swedish dogs and also to see how our own would do. We had a humble attitude towards it all, being new in the country and everything......

As usual we left home later than planned. It just always takes longer than planned to get two children ready and into the car. I think Christian was the only ready one at set time leaving the Brandes family with the blame for the delay ;-) So when arriving at the show there was only 25 minutes till judging started and Tio was first up in the ring. Took time to get in too as there was a bit to walk and I can reveal that it is not that easy balancing two kids, 4 dogs, crates, tables, chairs, bags and all the other stuff on sloping hills covered in ice! Dogs pulling, kids running away, stuff being heavy. SIGH! So when finally arriving at the ring chaos was the word coming to my mind and there was just few minutes till judging started and I could see Tio was not feeling his best. He used to get very sick when driving and always needed a couple of hours to settle down before he was himself again. Luckily this time he did not throw up, but he was clearly not feeling good either and would not really lift his tail. Jesper and I had a fast chat debating if we should show him or not, but agreed it was good training for him so decided to go ahead. He would not really lift his tail so was only graded a Very good which was fair enough - he will be back ;-) I took it as nice training for him. Below is a photo of him in the ring

photo R. Ylen

Next up in the ring was Ilolas. It was a big open class males and we had no idea how it would go so we were very proud, happy and surprised when Ilolas won the class! While the 8 champion males were being judged we were waiting and then entered the ring again for best male together with all the others who had had a CQ grating. The judge was very keen on movement so we were running and running and running for what seemed like forever. He slowly narrowed down the field and finally we were just 4 dogs left. When looking around I could see the top winning male in Sweden last year as well as another from the top 3 in the ring with us so I was so happy when the judge Hans-Åke Sperne chose Ilolas as the winner. Even Jesper was so happy that he entered the ring which is a rare sigth :-) Ilolas was awarded the CAC which made him a Swedish champion as well. Below a photo of Ilolas in the ring.

Photo P. Magnusson

Then it was time for the bitches. First up junior class in which our two girls Lapinlumon Xaaga and Lapinlumon Xaana entered the ring in a big class of 15 junior girls. Needles to say we were pretty proud again when winner of the class was Xaaga and runner up was Xaana and those two were the only of the junior girls to be awarded a CQ. We had a short break in the intermediate class with no dogs entered there and then entered the ring again with Totti aka Lapinlumon Yllätys in the open class bitches. Again a big class with 14 bitches and I am repeating myself I know, but were we proud when Totti won the class!!!!!! Yes we were.....

 To bring so few dogs and still win so much was amazing. Totti has not been shown for several years in Denmark and entered the ring again at the Nordic winner show in December in Stockholm were she won too so she has really proved that she wants to show some more. For best bitch both Xaana and Totti had to enter the ring so we thank Christian for the help with showing Xaana. The two of them did a very good job and were in the run for a long time. Funny for me was to watch Xaana from a distance as she just 9 months old really has both her mum and dad´s attitude and desire to show off. However at last the judge was down to five dogs and for a long time had Totti as his number one. How sureal if we had won both best male and best bitch with so many dogs entered! However sadly Totti pulled her lead and stopped her airsupply and started coughing and due to that the judge asked her to leave the ring. Fair enough and we can not say we were disapointed knowing how well everything went in general! Of course it was a pity knowing she would likely have won had she not been coughing, but it did not really have anything to do with her health or her looks so we took that with a smile. Below is a photo of Totti moving in the ring

Photo P. Magnusson

It was now time for Best of breed and the judge did not think long before chosing Ilolas as his best of breed. Ilolas along with his 4 kids there also won BOB progeny group. They were also BIS progeny group and we were then ready for Best in show. Ilolas entered the ring with the BOB Swedish lapphund and laponian herder and made the day perfect by winning the ultimate price BEST IN SHOW!!!!!!  We were so proud, we had so few dogs there and still they all placed so well and then the final result of Ilolas taking it all home at our first specialty in our new country. A long weekend and we were tired, but so so happy. Ilolas too seemed to enjoy and thought the idea of a crown of victory was great :-) Finally somebody saw him as the king he always believed himself to be.

Photo: P. Magnusson

I have been lazy with updates and it is not just us who have been doing well. Also last weekend out in the world Lapinlumons were out and about strutting their stuff.

In Holland last weekend Lapinlumon Tähtisilmä won CAC and best bitch and finished her Dutch junior champion title at the international show in Gronningen. A photo of her below, congratulations Thea and Lianne.

At the same show Lapinlumon Guovsahassat won the res. CAC and res. CACIB so congratulations to Cisca as well. Photo below

The same day at the spitz specialty show in Denmark with 25 Finnish lapphunds entered Lapinlumon Kuuraparta won best male and CAC as well. Pictured left on the photo below by L. Sørensen

All in all we can only say our dogs do us proud and we as breeders feel honoured and happy that the work we do gets apreciated by judges and other enthusiasts around the world.

A heartbreaking day

Namu at a show

Today it is very very hard to write a post, but our policy is to always be honest and so we will be and we also feel it is easier to write this now so people know than to later have to explain.

Last nigth we lost our Namu. We have many dogs and love them all, but of course some are special to our heart. Many years ago I saw a little puppy I really wanted to buy, but the breeder did not want to sell her to me. When I saw Namu starting to move around 3-4 weeks old I saw that dog and I knew I had to keep her. People who know me know that already when Namu was 4 weeks old I saw just her. She was a special one. Few puppies could move like her. She was small, some said don´t keep that small puppy, but I had no doubt I wanted my Namu.

Namu 3 months old

Namu grew up a beautiful little lady with a wonderful character. She looked just as that dog I saw many years ago and in my mind I thought what will be wrong with her. She had A hips, was optigen clear and had healthy eyes. People know I was joking and saying what will go wrong, it can not be a dog this great has everything rigth. Last nigth it went wrong. At dinner time we heard barking outside and Jesper ran out. Some dogs had started fighting. Our dogs don´t normally figth and they were only four girls out together who are normally good friends. We don´t know what happened. Two days ago the wolf was here and upset the dogs a lot. He was only few hundred meters from our house and the dogs were of course really upset. Yesterday we saw the footprints again in the morning. Maybe he was there again and upset them? Maybe it was the stress with moving and a new place and new routines?  Maybe it was because Pilvi started her season two days ago and Namu was coming into season too? I don´t know.

Namu 1 year old

Anyway fighting they were and Jesper told them to stop and brought Namu inside as she would not walk on her leg. I looked and saw a wound and called the vet. He was not here, but 150 kms away and said if it was a bite wound and the dog was otherwise healthy we could wait till next morning when he was back. He calmed me down and said normally a bite wound is not that bad it looks worse than it is. And first we thought to do so - to wait. Namu was happy, looking up, eating treats, licking our hands. I washed her to clean to wound and see if there were other wounds I had not seen and she enjoyed it, licked my face each time I was bending over. But she would only lie down, she would not stand up. It worried me. After half an hour Jesper and I agreed to call to Falun as they had vets on call. I wanted to be sure she could wait and even if it was now 8 in the evening, minus 18 degrees celcius outside and overtime for the vet our gut feeling told us we had to go. 

Namu 1 year old

And so we did. We arrived at the clinic in Falun where we had never been before and have to say the staff was so kind and proffesional. As us first they thought it was not that serious. A bite wound, some penicillin and some pain killer and we would be amazed to see how quickly dogs recover. Namu was lying on the table looking around, licking everybodyes hand looking happy. But after ten minutes the vet as us started to wonder why Namu would not stand up. He tryed to pinch her toes. First a bit, then harder and harder. No reaction. I could see in his face that this was not good. We decided to do an x-ray and the heartbreaking news, Namu´s lowest part of the back was broken. She would never walk again. My beautiful little girl who moved like nobody else. There was no choice for us than to say goodbye.

Namu 1½ year old

It is not possible to describe how bad Jesper and I feel today. So unfortunate that destiny could make this. She could as well had just had a wound and been okay. We feel so guilty, we blame ourselves, we think what could have been done differently, but know we can´t turn back time. This is without doubts the worst possible way I ever lost a dog. As a breeder it is heartbreaking because she was a bright star for the future, a beautiful healthy dog who had so much we had worked for years to get and my Kiiski´s little girl. As a dog owner it is undesribable. She was my dog, my pet, my companion who loved to go for walks and I will miss her happy face and character and for always feel guilty for the way she had to leave.

Below here are the last photos of Namu taken at Christmas with her enjoying her daily walk in the snow in the forrest. This is how I try to remember her.

My sweat little Namumus I am so so sorry...

Back again

So finally a small update here from winter wonder land in our new place. The snow fell in the beginning of December and has been there ever since

The dogs are really enjoying themselves and we are too. It is wonderful to finally live by ourselves again surrounded by forrest and mountains. All dogs can run free all day and we can go for long walks in the nature from our own home. That is really a gift we enjoy every day! As seen from the photos below the dogs love it too :-)

Lapinlumon Yllätys "Totti"

Aslan

Lapinlumon Miamaia "Mia"

Lapinlumon Namupala "Namu"

Lapinlumon Xaana

Xaana again

Unfortunately moving to Sweden has proved more difficult than we thougth. This is the sixth week we are here and we are still waiting to get our Swedish social security numbers which seems to be the key to everything up here. This also means we can not get a tv connection, phone number or internet line set up. SIGH! So it has been hard to keep in touch and reply people. Hopefully you will have patience with us a little while yet. Besides from that we love it here and celebrated a lovely peaceful Christmas with the family as well as Valdemars first birthday.

But it was not all about realaxing. As we were already here we decided to do a show in Sweden and entered the Nordic winner show in Stockholm in December. It was a bit exciting to finally show our dogs among "real" competition, we have been in Denmark for so long knowing which other dogs would enter the ring and mainly competing against our own breeding so it was fun to meet completely different dogs. We have not had the chance to travel so much the last two years due to first our pregnancy and then the fact we had an infant baby so when we got the papers from the show and saw there were 86 Finnish lapphunds entered we looked at eachother and though okay, now our dogs will have to prove their worth! :-) Years back we did a lot of showing (and winning if we may say so :-) ) out and about, but the dogs we are showing at the moment had mostly been shown in Denmark.

But they did prove their worth! Well in Stockholm after driving through a horrible snow storm we saw in the cataloque that many dogs from Finland were entered and not just any dogs, but dogs who have won a lot there. Even the judge was Finnish, Saija Juutilainen. So naturally we felt so proud and humble and grateful when our dogs did as well as they did. With entry numbers like this each class had a number of dogs between 10 and 20 so just to place was great. But we did more than that!

Lapinlumon Elämänilo "Ilolas" won a big open class and even beat Finnish champion males in the class and we were so happy, also with the words we got from the judge about him. At the end out of all these dogs he finished as third best male rigth behind his dad Lecibsin Macce and he won the res. CAC and CACIB as well. Next up was my old favourite "ilo" Orso-Farm Ötömöttinen. In his days he was practically unbeatable and has won at both world and europe winner shows as well as at the breed specialty in Finland. however we did not show him for 4 years at official shows as he really could not win any more. But he loves showing and we decided he deserved to go again and so he did with style winning the veteran class and getting the title Nordic veteran winner 2011. Finally Lapinlumon Yllätys entered the ring again also after some years break doing it with style too winning open class bitches! She finished as 4th best bitch and she too won the res. CAC. WAW. To come here from Denmark at our first show here with such high entry numbers and so many top dogs there from Finland both males and bitches and then to win three classes each class with among 15 dogs in them was amazing. To make it even better the winner of the class of youth bitches was a puppy from Lapinlumon Elämänilo and Lapinlumon Davvebiegga and the winner of the junior class males was a puppy from Lapinlumon Esimerkki. So even those two winners we take a bit of credit for. 5 class winners with 86 entered dogs is not too bad....

We are excited to see what the new year here in Sweden will bring and we wish you all out there a happy new year and finish this post with a few more shots of our personal paradise.

NEW ADVENTURES

Sometimes in life you have to take a chance and dare to do something different.
As it became clear to us that we wanted to move and we could not find what we were looking for in Denmark we started searching across the border and found what should be the perfect place. We hope Sweden will welcome us and that our family will enjoy it there.

We start the travel tomorrow and don´t know when we will be up and running with mails and so on, but you can always write us on sarahbrandes@hotmail.dk if it is urgent, our Danish mobile number is also still working

WE DID IT!!!!!!!!!

So most of the year we have been in the lead of the competition for dog of the year in all our three breeds. However now after the last show this year it is official.
Lapinkoira: Lapinlumon Elämänilo
Lagotto: Lapinlumon Maximillian
Lapinporokoira: Lapinlumon Ensi-Lempi
all three bred, owned and shown by us are all dog of the year 2011 in Denmark in each their breed!
The "record" even made the frontpage of the Danish kennel club magazine hunden as you can see here:
http://www.hunden.dk/Hunde-nyheder/SeNyhed/?ID=629
(article in Danish)
We are PROUD PROUD PROUD and thankfull to all judges who thought so highly of our dogs.