Tallivahdin year 2017 had again some historical highlights: 2 year old Jauchzer was FCI2 group the 3^rd and almost 10 year old Englein made FH2 with 94 points!

Year 2017 had mostly joy and fun with our hovis & hobbies but also some sad happenings. We had a long lasting happiness again in puppy summer with 2 lovely L-girls and 7 wonderful M-puppies. And I am very proud to say that now there have been born 101 Tallivahdin puppies. And it was a nice co-incidence that this year 2017 we celebrated also Finland´s 100 years of independence. But let us start with the saddest news.

Two just 6 year old G-puppies died suddenly and Finnish Hovawart Club torpedoed my dream of show judge career for good

In spring 2017 an excellent working dog FH2 HK1 BH Tallivahdin Gewinnerin was having problem in her mouth. And her vet researched her and found that she had a tumour in her upper jaw. It was so large and aggressively growing that it could not be operated. She lived couple of months after diagnosed and then in Midsummer the tumour was so big that she was euthanized. We got another very sad news from his brother Gebleter in May. He had suddenly died on the arms of his owners in their garden. Because his owner was a nurse and had seen that kind of a death before she thought the reason for his death was a broken vein, perhaps aorta. So two very nice & beloved black G-puppies were gone and it was and still is hard time of sorrow for their families. We lost in May also one older hovawart Chorleiter. He was dna tested to have DM and just 2 months before he filled 11 years they had to let him go to the rainbow of hovawarts. So our beginning of summer was very sad despite of two lovely litters of new born hovi puppies.

One more sad midsummer news for me personally was that Finnish Hovawart Club did not recommend me to the show judge course of Finnish Kennel Club. This was my second application for that course. At the first time 4 years ago Finnish Hovawart Club (FHC) did not recommend me because they said that they did not know me well enough. This time they claimed me to be too critical for the dog shows in general and therefore they do not recommend me. I was and still am deeply disappointed to the government of our club. That was my last chance to apply because now I am too old for that, 51 years. What I have seen as a vice cynological knowledge has our club decided to be too critical. But I know that I am not alone with my critical thoughts.

Before Xmas the Finnish Kennel Club Magazine Koiramme also wrote very critically about the World Dog Show 2017 in Leipzig Germany. According to the article this WDC showed clearly that dog shows are nowadays more of an entertainment than a breeding measuring event. Paradoxically the writer of this critical article is an allround judge and also long term member in FHC government. So some people are paid and thanked to be critical and some punished for the same kind of criticism. But afterwards I heard that I am not the first breeder in FHC history that the club government has not recommended to the show judge course. That is not a relief to me but it shows how history repeats itself and what is the culture and values in FHC.  I have understood that show judges that are very active and successful breeders are valued in their breed organizations but that seems not be true at least in Finnish Hovawart Club. As a nice and powerful gesture to me & protest to FHC the owners of Tallivahdin hovawarts decided together, and without my influence, not to take part in Tervakoski FHC Club Show. And instead of nearly 20 Tallivahdin hovis that has been normal amount of our dogs there you found only single one in that FHC Special Show 2017. But there is nothing for me to do than cope and adapt. And also I must remain being a member in FHC if I want to continue international hovawart breeding. I tried to find out if it would be possible to be a member of f. ex. Swedish Club but it is not possible in FCI you must live in the country you breed. But let forget these sad themes and go to the highlights!

We had 7 working hovis with 8 test results and all results in the highest working test classes

We also got a new highest class working hovi this year when just 3 year old Irrlicht made a nice FH2 result of 87 points. Almost 10 year old grandmother Englein made her first very good result 94 points in FH2 and became the sixth Tallivahdin hovawart that has an option for the valuable Finnish Working Champion title. Good working dog test results made also Emanze, Freiberufler and Gauner. Seven Tallivahdin hovawarts were totally 18 working-dog test and had 8 results, so the result % is 44 %. 14of the tests were in FH2 and 7 of them led to result. 2 year old Kaiser made BH test and is now ready to start his working-dog test career. Forscherin made people surching rescue test in dark and can continue her rescue dog career in helping police in official surches. Totally every fourth hovawart that took part in working-dog tests in Finland was from kennel Tallivahdin.

2 year old Jauchzer is our newest show star

Jauchzer started to shine in just 2 years and 2 months old when he became BOB in Turun Elonäyttely national show in August and Irrlicht became BOS and Tallivahdin became BOB breeder with HP (other 2 dogs were Hauptmann and Journalistin). So already for that great success our team had a nice little celebration with sparkling wine in the show place. But that was not all! There we had some luck in that show too because the same judge Bulgarian Torsten Lemmer was the judge in FCI2 group final. And he really loved Jauchzer and placed him to the 3^rd place that is rather rear in our breed also in Finland. NOW we really had an extraordinary fine reason to celebrate, and so we did then and also in our training weekend in September.

In 2017 totally 14 Tallivahdin hovawarts took part in 53 dog shows in Finland, Latvian, Norway and Russia. Hauptmann, Hasselhoff, Ideenreich and Jauchzer won together 4 BOBs. Hauptmann and Irrlicht became BOS. We got together 11 other BM/BB placements, 2 CACIB, 4 RECACIB, 3 CAC and 4 RECAC. All together out of 52 show visits there were 34 EXCellent judgements (65 %), 14 Very Good, 3 Good and 1 could not be judged because of limping.

We presented 3 times breeder group and became BOB breeder with HP each time: in Turku INT Show in January, in Turun Elonäyttely national show in August and in Jyväskylä INT show in October. All groups were beautiful golden groups with 4 of the dogs Hauptmann, Irrlicht, Jauchzer, Journalistin and Kaiser. 

Our new puppies made also history already in unofficial Winner Puppy Shows in Helsinki. Löwin got promising judgements both days. Meerschaum won BOB among 5 hovawart puppies and Finnish Puppy Winner 2017 title and brother Meisterwächter was BOS and also won the title. Mirakelmann became BOS puppy and won Helsinki Puppy Winner 2017 title. Minaya won HP with nice judgement in Finnish Puppy Winner show. We made history also by having our first Puppy Breeder Group that became BOB with HP. M-puppies Estonian brother Musterschüler started his show career also as a little puppy with promising judgement. So Tallivahdin show success in the future shows also very promising!

Tallivahdin hovawarts were active in otherwise too in year 2017 and you can read more about us in our websites and look at also many videos & photos in Facebook and in working-dog.eu in Hovawart Kennel Tallivahdin site. For example we had again kennel weekend camps both in spring and in autumn. And both times our theme was playing with official IPO helper. Our autumn camp lasted for the first time 3 days and had 22/23 Tallivahdin hovawarts with trainings! You find videos of our trainings in camps also in our sites. Some of our young hovawarts continue their IPO trainings in their local training groups.

May the New Year 2018 bring us many new working-dogs and also some more FI CH titles and some other wishes

Year 2018 I believe we will be more active in different hobbies than in year 2017. We may have totally 9 young dogs in BH tests and 4 new Finnish Champions. Tallivahdin hovawarts are already famous for their FH results and tracking capacity and in year 2018 we may have 4 – 6 new young dogs with FH1 results. We hopefully get our N-litter with FH2 BH Tallivahdin Irrlicht & German IP3 FH2 BH Enzo vom Bergischen Löwen in the spring and O-litter with JV-15 Hoffen-Haus Penrosa & German GER VDH & RZV CH IP3 FH2 Fpr3 BH Caro von Xamilou in summer. Interest in our becoming litters have been again very good and you can read more about our litter plans in our website and in working-dog.eu site.

I have also some new hopes for my own activity because I have a new training partner – Tallivahdin Mirakelmann, “Miro”. He is friendly, clever, proactive and nicely dominant boy and we really have fun together while we are training!

Have fun with your best friend and HAPPY NEW YEAR 2018!