I have been involved with dogs as a hobby since I was a child. My mother raised and showed Pomeranians, and I grew up playing with the Poms like most children play with dolls or stuffed toys (except maybe gentler!). I saw my first Samoyed at a dog show when I was ten years old, and immediately fell in love. Of course, it took another three years of begging before my parents really believed my interest was serious and bought me my first Samoyed, a 9 month old female named Snowy. On our way home from picking up Snowy, my mother, who was convinced that such a large dog was going to be completely out of control, also bought a book on how to obedience train a dog. Snowy was congenitally blind in one eye, so could not be entered in dog shows. However, she was my first experiment in training, and with plenty of Pomeranians to practice on also, my interest and ability in showing in Conformation and Obedience blossomed and grew strong. By the time I left for college, I had put a conformation AKC Championship on one of Mom's Pomeranians, and multiple obedience titles on Pomeranians, Samoyeds, a Toy Poodle, and a Bichon Frise.
I first learned about Finnish Lapphunds from an article written in an American specialty Breed magazine, the Samoyed Quarterly, in Fall 1977. Bob and Dolly Ward had traveled to Europe to judge, and were impressed by the breeds which were similar to Samoyeds in type. Their article described the Lapphund (without specifying Swedish or Finnish) and the Karelian Bear Dog. I was completely fascinated with the Lapphund, and the accompanying photo of a solid black male. However, in those pre-Internet days, it took me TEN YEARS of making inquiries and finding contacts, before I was able to import my first dog, a male named Jesse, in 1987. Jesse was an absolute delight. Not only did he look, as I had hoped, rather like a Samoyed “in living color”, his temperament was truly impressive. He was easy going, easy to live with, and VERY easy to train. Quite a change from my rather stubborn Samoyeds!
When Jesse flew over from Finland, as a puppy, he shared his crate with a little girl puppy, named Fohrman's Ninni, later to be known more casually as Mocha. Mocha became the pet of a friend of mine, Karen McFarlane. When Mocha was two years old, she came to stay with me briefly, and she and Jesse produced my first litter of Finnish Lapphunds, in June 1989. As my interest grew, I acquired more breeding stock, both here and in Finland. In 1990, I imported a male, Pasifixin Vayry, and a female, Kutrin Elli-Noora, and in 1991, added an American-bred female, Tamerack Checkers O'Sugarok. Breeding progressed rather slowly at that point, because it was difficult to place the puppies of this unknown breed.
Pasifixin Vayry became my favorite show dog, and had many very nice wins in the few "Rare Breed" shows which were available to us at the time. However, showing in the United States was very difficult, because the breed was not recognized by the American Kennel Club, so could not compete in their dog shows.
By 1998, my original breeding stock was aging, and my homebred dogs were becoming too closely related. Although interest in the breed was growing, few people had imported any more breeding stock. In need of a larger "gene pool" I began to search for more dogs to import. I was fortunate to find some very nice additions and I began to import Finnish Lapphunds from several European kennels, so we would have a broad spectrum of genetic lines to work with. To date, these are:
In 1999, male Finnish Champion Fidelis Roastil (then 6 years old), and the female puppy, Fidelis Naruska.
In 2000, male Finnish Champion Staalon Halitulijalla (then 2 years old), and the female puppy, Orso-Farm Loddi.
In 2001, male puppy, Viksalan Falo.
In 2003, male puppy, Lapinlumon Joiku.
In 2004, female Finnish Champion Shacal Geisha (then 2 years old) and the female puppy, Viksalan Noaidi.
In 2005, male puppy, Orso-Farm Naappero and female puppy, Kastanjetorpets Izza,
In 2006, male puppy, Viksalan Kita
In 2007, male puppy, Ravrackans Charmtroll, male Finnish Champion Janmanin Aleksanteri (then 8 years old), female puppy, Jakalakuumon Oona, female puppy, Lapinlumon Willanella
What has happened from there can be best seen by browsing the rest of this web site!
