News & updates

Last week Bella, Salli, Poca, Hanneliisa and I ventured out to Pello, Lapland for a weekend bootcamp of reindeer herding. As usual, our seasoned herder Bella was doing a great job once she had let some steam out. While Poca has tried sheep herding earlier, this was the first time she met any reindeer and she did get a tad overexcited at first. However, once she got the hang of it, it was a pleasure to watch her work. Salli may have provided the biggest surprise of the weekend though: she worked the reindeer like she'd done it loads of times before even though she'd never seen reindeer except through the car window. She was co-operating with me nicely and showed some clever moves such as fetching the stray reindeer that had separated from the herd. Salli was also tasked to empty a small paddock and she managed to do it even though I was not sure how she would cope in such a tight space with large animals everywhere. Thank you Hanneliisa for a super fun weekend (the car battery dying was less fun though, but we did make our way home in the end)! Pictured below is Bella.

Nuttu has been x-rayed and the results look like this: hip score C/B, elbow score 0/0, and spine scores VA0 (clear) and LTV0 (clear). The Finnish Kennel Club vets had included some remarks on the reports: Nuttu has shallow acetabulums and her last lumbar vertebra is short and set somewhat back. Thank you Johanna!

Photos from the reindeer herding weekend added to the galleries of Bella, Salli and Poca. Jiska's photos on her personal page and on Noki's progeny page updated (© Outi Uusitalo).

We have lost two much-loved team members since the previous update: first we had to say goodbye to Raiku in the middle of December, and just two months later I received the news about Netta passing away. My condolences to both families.

Health news has not been all that good either: Masi has been diagnosed with hypothyroidism, and Kielo had to undergo surgery recently to have some mammary gland tumours and a small fibroma on her thigh removed. Luckily it is not all bad news as the pathological findings turned out to be benign. Continuing on that positive note, Noki, Alma and Otso have had clear eye exams. What is more, Ellie has been PennHIP scored with a very nice result of 0.36 (which is well below the breed average of 0.44) and she has normal elbows, too (OFA scoring system). Ellie's sister Jiska was not quite as lucky in every aspect as her hip score is B/C, elbow score 0/1, and patella score 0/0. A big thank you to the owners of these dogs!

The Lapphund Club of Finland recently published their Top 10 lists for 2022 and I am happy to announce that Salli is Top Puppy 2022! As for this year's show results, Rasmus was shown at Kajaani 7 Jan under Pinja Hiltunen, who graded him Good. Arttu has attended his first shows as a junior with the following results: Good grading from Irina Poletaeva at Parkano 4 Feb, Very Good/3 from Kirsi Honkanen at Jämijärvi 25 Feb, and Good from breeder judge Esa Ruotsalainen at Jämijärvi 26 Feb.

We did not show any dogs in the huge annual Spitz Specialty at Kuopio at the end of January this year, however, Rasmus underwent a conformation examination and the panel of judges thought very highly of him! What is more, I was approved to perform conformation examinations for Lapponian Herders.

Ella's picture gallery has been updated.