Summary of dogs owned or bred

I chose Miska to sire Lempi's second litter (her first litter was registered under the Jäkäläkummun prefix) because of his breed type and pedigree. There were five puppies in the litter, however, one was born with a cleft palate and had no tail or anus, and was therefore put down immediately. The entire litter had numerous health problems, the origin of which remained a mystery. Only one of the puppies lived a normal, relatively healthy life. This litter was kept out of the breeding pool.

I wanted to breed Hertta to Orso-Farm Dielku (pet name Tilkku) because of his interesting pedigree. What is more, at the time it looked as though the bloodlines of Tilkku's sire Rurru would become extinct among the breeding stock in Finland (later on, Tilkku sired a number of litters). Three puppies were born, however, one was born with its intestines out and was put to sleep. The lines of this litter are present not only in Finland but in different parts of Europe in the form of Leijonamieli's progeny. His sister Lounatuuli, who I placed out on breeding terms, unfortunately never conceived.

I went to see the litter born to Lempi's brother Jäkäläkummun Esim-Erkki and Jenni before they moved to their new homes and fell in love with them. Later on I tried to breed Hertta to one of the three brothers (Tupu), however, she did not conceive easily and we did not get any puppies. So when my friends promised I could borrow their Fidelis Unikko for a litter, I knew I wanted to use one of the brothers and this time it was Lupu. Unfortunately the prcd-PRA gene test was not commercially available when I was planning this litter (it was launched when the puppies were a few weeks old). Later on, the bitch puppy that I placed out on breeding terms (Tupasvilla) turned out to be prcd-PRA affected. The bloodlines of this litter are carried on in central Europe.

I acquired Ronja when it was getting obvious that I was not going to have anything out of Lempi to continue breeding with. Leijonamieli from the L litter had turned into a lovely specimen of the breed, so I was glad I happened to have a suitable bitch for him (especially when it later on turned out that I would not get any puppies out of his litter sister Lounatuuli). Unfortunately the bitch line stopped as Ronja's only daughter Kesäheinä only ever gave birth to one single male puppy, however, Kodinonni has done his share of passing on the genes of this litter.

The extremely happy and easy-going Mimmi (Lapinlumon Lapinloru) came to me from Denmark for a litter. I decided to breed her to the equally happy and easy-going Robbie (Jäkäläkummun Jänkäjustus) that I had known ever since he was a puppy. The bitch line from this litter did not get very far either, when Mimmi's only daughter Mielitietty only had two sons.

I was offered to get a litter out of the beautiful and extremely typey Tanhu (Orso-Farm Tanhuvilla). Things did not go quite as planned when the sire of the M litter (Jäkäläkummun Jänkäjustus aka Robbie) managed to mate Tanhu (who was not even health tested at the time) while she was just a couple of days into her season. I was out of town on a business trip and the dog sitter had left the door separating the two ajar. A mere two minutes later Robbie had done the deed - there are indeed male dogs that are too good at mating! I witnessed all of this myself as I happened to be on the phone with the dog sitter when it all happened. As a quick fix I decided to breed Tanhu also to Orso-Farm Atninbeaska (pet name Peski), a stud dog I had been planning to use for another bitch. Tanhu was health tested in due course (fortunately with good results), and the puppies were naturally DNA tested, all turning out to be sired by Peski. Two dogs from the litter have carried the line on.

Fidelis Unikko (pet name Oona) was an excellent mother and when Doris, my pick bitch from Oona's previous litter, was excluded from breeding because of her prcd-PRA affected status, I asked my friends if I could get another litter out of Oona. Once given the go-ahead, I decided to breed her to the furball of a dog called Dagolas Duutsoni. Neidonkenkä and Noitarumpu had one litter each.

When the breeder of Jäkäläkummun Jasmilla (pet name Moona) said he was unable to breed from her and asked me whether I was interested, I did not hesitate to jump at the chance, especially considering Moona's co-owner is a childhood friend of mine and I had known Moona ever since she was a baby puppy. I had tried to breed Peppi to Dagolas Bullero earlier, however, we never got any puppies so I thought why not breed Moona to him instead. Moona is not a particularly large bitch and as she was carrying a big litter, her uterus muscles were already stretched to the limit and there was no room for contractions. So she had to undergo a C-section (my first ever) due to primary uterine inertia. There were seven puppies, however, one of the bitch pups tilted her head back, whined constantly and would not suckle, so she was given sleep the next day. The overall health of this litter leaves a lot to be desired and the litter is excluded from further breeding.

For Kukka I chose Black Blossom Mr Unique who is sired by the fantastic Tarukallion Noppe. Unfortunately Kukka was bred a tad too late and ended up carrying just one single puppy. The puppy was huge and would not come out on its own, so again a C-section was in order. The resulting singleton has sired three litters.

It is no secret that Kivimarjan Suopunkityttö, a Staalon Usvapeikko (pet name Ransu) daughter, is one of my great favourites, so I wanted to breed one of my bitches to Ransu and the choice fell on Miina. It turned out to be a difficult whelping as Miina only managed to whelp one puppy by herself, after which a C-section was necessary. Three out of the five remaining puppies were dead by the time we got them out, and one was very weak and died the next day. So the result of the difficult whelping was two healthy, vital male puppies.

I had seen the Lempi great-grandson Viksalan Rabas (pet name Mikki) as a youngster and he stayed in the back of my mind, however, his first two eye tests came back with suspected cataracts. However, two later consecutive eye tests came back as perfect, so Mikki was cleared for breeding. I happened to be looking for a stud dog for Netta just as the second clear eye test appeared in KoiraNet and my search was thereby over. Four puppies were born, however, unfortunately one bitch puppy got into a weak shape at the age of about one month and was eventually put down (see details in the table below). One of the male puppies had health problems as well but he got better for a while, however, unfortunately it was only temporary and he had to be put to sleep at the age of six months (autopsy report linked below). Unfortunately we never found out what the root cause of the problems was. The genes of this litter are preserved in Varpu's progeny.

Kielo's breed type is pretty much what I want from the Finnish Lapphund, so I decided to put type to type and bred her to Murustiinan Aamos even though I was not particularly familiar with the dogs in his pedigree. Conformation-wise I indeed got pretty much what I expected, however, this was destined to remain Kielo's only litter because of epilepsy and other problems in her progeny. Sadly the only male puppy (brown wolfsable in colour) was stillborn, however, one of the bitches has carried the line on by having a litter.

Sylvi was bred to an older gentleman Kuurakuonon Caskikettu, who had only sired one litter previously. His pedigree is quite different from today's pedigrees and contains some of my old favourites (such as Jäkäläkummun Balddonas and Orso-Farm Runo). All dogs from this litter have made a small contribution to the Finnish Lapphund gene pool.

Plan A was to breed Vuokko to an old male with no previous progeny, however, that went out the window and so did plan B as well for various reasons. So plan C was put to use and Vuokko was bred to a stud dog that I had planned to use for her some time later. Kontioharjun Kaamos had the looks and a pedigree to match - his major "fault" was his young age. The health test results of this litter have been excellent so far, and there has been some success in the show ring as well. Many dogs from this litter already have progeny of their own.

Ever since Sylvi was a puppy, her co-owner Matleena dreamed of one day breeding Sylvi to her own Sulo (Jäkäläkummun Ällintälli). The dogs thought the time was ripe in the summer of 2015 (even though we human beings thought they could have waited a bit longer!). The illicit romance resulted in a litter of five puppies, lovely both in looks and in temperaments. My role was just to take care of marketing and registering the puppies, everything else was done by Sulo and Sylvi's family.

At some point I was going through Hertta's close relatives in the hope of bringing some of her lines back into my breeding programme and thought of Orso-Farm Kobmi, a dog that I had known ever since he was a youngster. Fast forward a while and Miska was eye tested clear, so Papu's boyfriend-to-be was thereby decided. Despite his best effort Miska did not manage to mate Papu (one of the few downsides of using an old virgin male), so after much deliberation I ended up going for artificial insemination so as not to waste the genes of an otherwise excellent dog. I got three lovely puppies and am very pleased with the way they turned out.

Halla's owner wanted her to have a litter, so we agreed on the stud dog and decided to register the litter under my prefix. Lady luck was not on our side with this litter: after Halla was mated it turned out that the stud dog we had chosen for her throws poor elbows, and the whelping itself was a bit of a nightmare. Halla gave birth to her first three puppies without any problems, however, had to be assisted by a vet to get the remaining three out. The fourth puppy was stuck in the birth canal in the breech position and had to be pulled out with forceps. Unfortunately he lost the tip of his tail and a toe in the process, and as the puppies grew and started walking, we found out that another male puppy had damaged his toes during the whelping as well (he had two dislocations and two fractures in his left hindfoot). And then, on top of everything else, Halla was poorly and had to go on antibiotics for a while. Fortunately things have been going better after the rocky start!

Varpu's owner was hoping to get a litter out of Varpu and while planning the litter, we agreed to register it under my prefix (just like Halla's litter last year). I had been planning on using Nasti at stud for a long time and now the opportunity finally presented itself. The pedigree of this litter is very special to me in that it has home-bred dogs in three generations on the sire's side (and two on the dam's side), making this the first fourth-generation Cantavia litter. What is more, the pedigree combines my very first Lappies Lempi (maternal great-great-great granddam) and Hertta (paternal great-great granddam). Unfortunately Varpu had to undergo a C-section and we lost three puppies out of six in the process.

I wanted to find a typey, older stud dog for Kira. He should only have a small number of previous offspring and a pedigree void of today's most common bloodlines. He should, however, preferably have some experience in mating considering Kira's long interval between seasons - there was not much room for misses before the co-ownership contract would run out. Orso-Farm Kisälli ticked all the boxes, and as an added bonus her dam is Orso-Farm Tanhuvilla, the dam of my P litter. Three puppies were born, however, the second one (a domino-coloured girl) was stillborn after having been stuck in the birth canal for too long.

Sylvi's owner was hoping for a third and final litter for Sylvi and I was given the task of finding a stud dog that would meet the owner's specs. My initial choice turned out to be a DM carrier, and at that point Sylvi was expected to come into season very soon, so the stud dog had to be chosen from the (currently rather small) pool of DM clear males. I am, however, pleased that I was able to find a stud that more or less fulfilled both Sylvi's owner's and my requirements we had for the minimum vs. maximum age of the dog, and for the number of previous offspring, for example. Kössi's temperament and conformation complement those of Sylvi's nicely, and, what is more, I am very pleased with my L2 litter that is sired by his litter brother Kontioharjun Kaamos. Just like the A litter a couple of years earlier, this litter was taken care of by Sylvi's family while pretty much all I did was register the puppies.

Rassi was actually a back-up plan as things did not work out with the first choice I had for Usva. But boy am I happy about this litter, even though it consisted of just one single puppy (there was a male puppy as well, however, weighing almost half a kilo, tiny Usva was really struggling to give birth to him and he was dead by the time he finally got out). Rassi is such a typey boy with an absolutely brilliant temperament. His pedigree also brings a blast from the past in the form of his maternal great-grandsire Fidelis Miska, the sire of my very first litter born back in 2001!

I wanted to use Otso for one of my bitches to make sure that I get to keep both his dam Sylvi and his sire Kuurakuonon Caskikettu with his rare bloodlines in my breeding programme. Pedigree-wise Nuttu was the best option, so a hot date between the two was set up. Sadly Bella, who I had placed out on breeding terms, had to be spayed before she had any litters.

I met Samuli at the traditional Kuopio Spitz Specialty in early 2019 and fell in love with his fantastic temperament (the only downside being the fact that he reacts to gunshots). Also interesting was his pedigree with its somewhat rare bloodlines. Throw into the mix the fact that Samuli's maternal granddam was a half-sister to my first Lappie Lempi and I was sold! Samuli has not been hip or elbow x-rayed, however, two of his litter siblings have hip scores of A/A (and one of them also an elbow score of 0/0), and most of his half-siblings have scores of A/A. This litter has been granted dispensation from the hip scoring requirement by the Finnish Kennel Club (supported by the Lapphund Club of Finland). I chose to put Samuli together with Kira, whose immediate family and herself have excellent hip and elbow scores. We got just one puppy, but one is still better than none!

After a couple of unsuccessful attempts to get a second litter from Vuokko, I decided to find an experienced stud dog for the final attempt. Not only would he have to be skilled at mating but also be tall enough since Vuokko is definitely not a small girl! I met Vanilla's Honey Hope You Like aka Tosca in a chance encounter in October 2019 and quickly realised that he had all the right qualities: he was tall and handsome, and most importantly had an awesome temperament. A quick check on his DM status (Vuokko is a carrier) and I put the idea of this breeding out there. I was given a go-ahead a bit later, and the mating was carried out without any problems in due course. Ultrasound revealed three puppies, while an x-ray later on confirmed that there were actually four. The first puppy was born effortlessly, however, pretty much nothing was happening after that, so off to the vet we went. Puppy number two was born with the help of oxytocin, however, the remaining two required a C-section. Unfortunately all three were underdeveloped in one way or another (their skulls were underdeveloped and one had its insides on the outside of its abdomen), so we were left with just the first-born puppy. Luckily he was robust and alert the whole time, and grew up to be a tailwaggingly happy and lively youngster.

At one point I was working heavily reduced hours because of the Covid-19 pandemic and kept thinking what a shame it was I did not have a bitch to breed as I had plenty of spare time for once and could drive anywhere without having to squeeze the trip into a busy schedule. We had talked about a possible third litter for Kira with her owner Mervi earlier on, and just as I took it up again and we agreed to go ahead with it, Kira, as if on cue, came in season. Around that time I had laid my eyes on the pretty-faced Peski Karvalalli, whose pedigree contains some of my old favourites (such as Jäkäläkummun Balddonas and Smith) and who had recently been health tested with excellent results. Not to mention the fact that my own Kielo is his auntie! So I decided to find out more about him and liked everything I heard. Off to southern Finland we went and got two matings. Looks like the timing was better than with Kira's previous litters as we got five puppies (with a C-section), out of which one male sadly died when he was one day old.

I have been keeping an eye on the Katajavaaran M litter ever since it was born - the pedigree was right up my street containing my first dog Lempi, second dog Hertta and an early co-owned dog Ronja. Menninkäinen aka Sammu often made the shortlist when I was considering stud dogs for my bitches, however, his hip score of B/C and the fact that he was a DM carrier kept ruling him out. Thankfully I finally had Ruusu, who had an excellent hip score and who was clear of DM. The fact that it took me this long to use Sammu was also a blessing in that Sammu had aged nicely in the meantime and was still the picture of good health. The resulting trio of puppies is a happy and lively bunch and I look forward to seeing them grow up.

When the subject of Noki's first litter came up, it turned out that Niina the co-owner and I had exactly the same stud in mind, namely Famolas Qstone. Bred by Niina, he has a more unusual pedigree looking at today's lines (and the lovely Jeppe in the pedigree is always a plus for me). The entire process from mating to whelping was textbook and Noki was an excellent dam (and Niina an excellent nanny and cleaner!). I hope this litter will contribute to the gene pool not only in Finland but in the US, too, as one of the bitch puppies moved all the way to Utah.

In 2021, I bred Bella to Taigahaun Pakkaspeikon Polkka aka Rihtu, but according to a progesterone test the mating took place rather late and Bella did not conceive. We never got to try again as Bella came down with pyometra before her next season and had to be spayed. My next best option for Rihtu was Alma and I was thrilled when she gave birth to five puppies sired by this excellent dog with an interesting pedigree. Alma turned out to be as great a mum as her dam Sylvi. Just like Sylvi's litters, this litter was taken care of by Matleena's family. One of the bitch puppies was exported to Norway.

The decision to use Loihakka Lokan Rauta-airo aka Joiku on Alma was made on the fly as my original plan just would not work. However, I did not mind the turn of events too much since I had been the mastermind behind a couple of his previous litters and now finally had a chance to use him myself. After all, Joiku's pedigree is not your average Lappie pedigree of today, and the joint x-ray results of his earlier progeny have been excellent overall. Just like last time, Alma was a brilliant mum with Matleena's family taking care of the rest. One of the bitch puppies is hopefully heading over all the way to Australia if everything goes as planned.

Kerttu was acquired with the idea that I could one day breed her to one of the Cantavia boys. At a fairly early stage I decided that Pessi would be the one as I had been itching to use him for quite some time already. I was thrilled when Kerttu's health test results turned out suitable and the plan was put into action. This was the first fifth-generation Cantavia litter and everything from the mating to the moment the pups left for their new homes went really well - let's hope things stay that way!

Alma ended up having a third litter as her owners wanted to have an Alma daughter of their own. We chose Hiittanan Koda to sire this final litter since the two were a good match in terms of the pedigree, health test results, temperament, and conformation. Like Alma's two previous litters, her family handled everything to a tee and kept one of the girls (C Oravanmarja aka Armi) as planned. Onnenapila lives in Sweden and will hopefully make his mark as a stud dog when he grows up.