10.12.2019

Result Review of Tallivahdin year 2019 and some plans & hopes for next year 2020

In breeding it is common that you use the bitch but choose the male. That is especially the case when the breeder uses only bitches that live at her/ his home, in the kennel. In this case bitches are chosen already as a puppy and they usually are used for breeding even though they might not be so good. There are many reasons for this: we are only humans, that means we are mostly quite subjective in our opinions and what we like or dislike. When breeding is not validated with objective tests and criterion the risk for using a dog with just subjective criterion is very big. That can also happen with father candidates too if the breeder has seen the male first and consider the criterion afterwards. As a matter of fact it is much more objective to evaluate planned males without seeing them as far as you can and then first meet the candidates. Finnish breeders have quite common a system that we own partly or make a leasing contract of the bitch that lives elsewhere. This really helps the breeder to maintain objective criterion and gives the possibility to choose also the bitch. As a subjective example you can hear many breeders talk about how they fell in love with the dog and with good marketing they can get naïve puppy buyers to believe their own fantasies. They can say that these puppies are good for several hobbies like for shows and working even though there is no evidence enough of test or show results in the pedigree dogs of the puppies. Then it is pure imagination and dreams they really are marketing. Nowadays every experienced dog owner knows that the pedigree is more important than the individual (mother or father) in breeding and the fact really is that you get what you breed. You can see all used breeding criterion in the pedigree of the puppies. The more systematic logic you find in pedigree the more sure you can be about that the aim / criterion / hopes of the breeding will come true.

Last summer was the summer of Tallivahdin O-litter with 9 beautiful working puppies. O-litter represents already the 5th generation of my working breeding and almost all of them have already taken part in working dog trainings and I have heard a lot fantastic feedback of their working capacity. Their owners seem to be the most active puppy owners in Tallivahdin history and I am of course very happy. The father IP3 FH2 BH Enzo vom Bergishcen Löwen represents successful German RZV working breeding and their motherline Cremefarben – Forscherin - Irrlicht is also very convincing: 3 generation of Tallivahdin excellent bitches that are Finnish Champions and have made several results in the highest class of working tests. That is rather rare in every breed.

My best tool to choose the males according to my criterion is www.working-dog.com site and other official dog databases. I have used www.working-dog.com site actively since 2010 and there are all working hovawarts around the world represented with their results and often with a lot of photos and videos too. All working bred dogs tend to have a lot of information also from their health and in order to success in working tests a dog must be in good condition and health. Health information of the dog’s relatives is maybe the most difficult thing to get because all info is never in official databases. When I have found interesting males I ask from their breeders and breeding club contact person more especially about the health risks there are in their pedigree. I am used to analyse very complex information, that has been both my natural gift and the strength that I have systemically trained in my 26 years as a psychologist in personnel selection and psychological testing. The more information I get the happier I am. But in dog breeding business there are still very strong traditional beliefs that are often stronger than facts and the evidence based logic. That for sure makes it at least difficult for a new puppy buyer to decide who to believe and it can also mislead many breeders. It will for sure make the co-operation between different institutions difficult. It also can make an unfortunate braking effect into the use of health results.

Health breeding paradox: the more you know the more difficult it will be?

This is one thing I have seriously faced now with my future breeding plans. As well as I know Finland is now the only country where we have taken it seriously to make official spinal roentgen in Spondylosis (SP), Lumbosacral Transitional Vertebra (LTV) and Vertebral Anomaly (VA). This has been possible for all breeds in Finnish Kennel Club for five years now. The amount of hovawarts that have official spinal röntgen result is now about 90 and 14 of them are from Tallivahdin H, I, J, K, L and M litters. I recommend it to all Tallivahdin puppies as well as HD and ED roentgen. In order to get official Spondylosis result the dog must be at least 2 years old and therefore I recommend to take all roentgen photos when the dog has become 2 years old. So far in Tallivahdin 14 dogs there has been one SP1, one LTV1 and one LTV4. As I wrote in my blog before LTV4 is used only in Finland and it means that the dog has some other number of vertebra than normal 7. All vertebras can still be very symmetrical and in that way normal. This anomalous amount of vertebra is quite normal with us humans too, almost 10 % of us have more or less vertebras than 7. And there is no genetic nore health risk evidence to LTV1-4 so they all can be used in breeding according to Finnish Kennel Club recommendations. But when there is the result LTV4 instead of no spinal roentgen result at all, people tend to think that no result means no risk. We want to be blind if it suits our own means. I prefer controlled risk taking that means that it is better to know than not know even though it makes decision making a bit more difficult. Hopefully spinal roentgen gets more and more common also abroad, which has happened with Degenerative Myelopathy genetic testing in our breed. Nowadays DM tested hovawart in breeding is more common than not tested one. Yet there still is some resistance against DM tests in our breed from very conservative people. Maybe there is several fears behind it like a fear of loosing some breeding material. One fear usually relates to that some people easily make negative generalisations which will influence for instance the reputation of the breeder or the male which will make it more difficult to sell the puppies. Health information can also be used as a weapon. In that case the harm will finally be caused to the whole breed: the real risk is that people do not want to use health examinations if they cannot trust that their dog is handled fairly and with the same breeding criterion than other dogs that do not have same health examinations done at all.  

All in all I think the most important thing is to breed the strengths and not just to avoid weaknesses. That is why our breeding plans are still serious with Löwin who has LTV4. She is very nice, active and powerful working dog both in tracking and in protection (IPO/IGP C) and friendly & tested helper dog of FKC in little children’s schoolwork that she does regularly with her other owner. She has been very healthy her whole life and she will hopefully be the mother of Tallivahdin Q-litter next spring. Before that we will visit a nice German working bred male with Journalistin already in January. She will hopefully be the mother of our P-litter. For both blond bitches we have now ranked first black males and we wish to have more Tallivahdin black hovis into our kennel. Black is very difficult to breed and there is just 10 % of it in hovawart population. Our chances should be quite good with both of these bitches because Löwin´s mother is also black and Journalistin´s father is black.

Tallivahdin year 2019 was again a good working result year

Totally 10 Tallivahdin hovis out of 7 litters took part in 22 working tests and six of them made totally 9 test results. This year again every third Finnish hovawart that took part in a working test and made a result came from kennel Tallivahdin. In Finland there were totally 29 hovawarts that took part in 70 working tests that was almost the same as in 2018. We got this year 5 new young Tallivahdin hovawarts that took part in test and two of their owners made also their working test debut. Two hovawarts with experienced dog trainers succeeded to make a result but all others will happily continue training with their best friend for the years to come.

Tallivahdin Irrlicht was our most successful working dog this year: she made 3 IFH2 results and won silver in Finnish Hovawart Club IFH-Championship Games. And she made all her results in 6 weeks, only one month after her O-puppies had moved to their new homes. The second successful Tallivahdin hovi was grandfather Freiberufler, who made his 20th result in May and 21st working test result in Finnish Hovawart Club Championship Games where he won bronze. His son just 2 years old Mirakelmann made good IFH1 result. Another Tallivahdin working veteran Genie made also IFH2 result and her daughter Komödianten made IFH1. Two year old Tallivahdin Liebling made JK1, that is tracking in forest + IGP1 like obedience, with very good points in Finnish Hovawart Championship Games. Jauchzer, Journalistin and Meerjungfrau started also their working career but did not success yet. Kaiser took part in several tests but unfortunately changed track to the false track, so there is some real problem to train before next test season.

Show review and other results

Tallivahdin show activity was exactly the same in year 2019 that it was in 2018: totally 20 hovis from 9 litters F-N took part in shows altogether 49 times. Finnish hovawarts had totally 1217 show results in year 2019 so percent of Tallivahdin dogs was just 4,11. Hovawart is one of the most active show breed in Finland among working breeds. This year we gained more excellent results than before 32 (65 %) excellent and 22 times (45 %) certificate quality, CQ, 13 times (27%) very good and 4 times good (8%). Tallivahdin Jauchzer was the most successful Tallivahdin show dog: he won 1 x BOS, 3 x BM2 and 2 of them in Holland, 1xBM3, 1xBM4. He got CAC in Estonia and CAC and CACIB & BALTV-19 -title in Latvia and became the 4th best among over 40 open class males in Tervakoski Club Show. We got one new Champion title: FI CH FH2 JK1 BH Tallivahdin Irrlicht became also Swedish Champion when she won CAC in Gothenburg MyDog. Journalistin became 2 x BOB and won 2 x CAC. Mirakelmann became BOS and won CAC & CACIB and he was BM2 in Gothenburg Sweden and won there also CAC and RESCACIB that will become CACIB. In Tervakoski Club Show there were 10 Tallivahdin hovis and Forscherin became working class EXC4 CQ, Hasselhoff Champion class EXC2 CQ, Intellektuelle Open class males 3rd CQ and Jauchzer Open class males 4th CQ. Four N-litter junior sisters started also their show career with promising results: Noblesse EXC CQ, Nachbarin EXC, Nachteule VG and Niedlich also VG. Tallivahdin newest promising show star is Opernsängerin who was BOB among 7 hovawart puppies in Helsinki Winner show as 6 months old.

This year we got our first RallyObedience hovawart: 1 year old Noblesse made two results in beginner class. Tallivahdin Löwin took part in Finnish Mental test because it must be done before international breeding. She made it with nice points 172/300, that is over average. I do not value this Finnish Mental test as a breeding tool because it takes just about 10 minutes and is more or less very amateur level interpretation of a dog´s behaviour. Six Tallivahdin hovawarts took part in SmartDog test that tests the dog’s ability to concentrate, co-operate and make problem solving according to newest research results of dog´s cognitive processes. This test takes 90 minutes and has many test – retest – parts in order to get a valid information. You also get an evaluation report of your dog where you can see what is the ranking of the dog among other dogs + among the breed. The breeder gets total evaluation about her tested dogs compared to the general results in the breed. This was very interesting and I really can recommend this test process.

Tallivahdin 2019 year shall be remembered also with many training HIGHLIGHTS

We started our training year by training once a week together in a dog training hall Moukaripäät in Halikko near Salo. We were altogether 14 Tallivahdin hovawarts and their owners and our training season started in the beginning of January and ended at the end of April. In the beginning of February we had an obedience day with world famous trainer Mia Skogster. In March we had Tallivahdin IPO B & C training evening with also world famous dog professional Marko Koskensalo. There were 10 Tallivahdin hovawarts in both of those trainings and you could also take part in trainings without your dog, just see, listen and learn from the experts. And we really had fun in these top level trainings that made our training spirit high!

In May 3.-5.5. we had our spring training camp and we concentrated in tracking in fields and in forests. There were 13 Tallivahdin hovawarts in trainings and we enjoyed good company also without dogs in smoke sauna and chilling out together. Working dog test season starts in Finland in May and several Tallivahdin hovawarts & their owners belong to our little working test club Varsinaiset Hoffit. We organized 5 IFH tests this year, that was a little bit less than many years before. I think it is important to organize also working tests if you want to take part in tests too. Then you learn the whole process of working breeding and testing culture. In November 8.-10.11. we had our autumn camp and again with the famous professional dog trainer and helper Esa Tapio. It was the fourth time he trained us and now the aim was to learn all IPO/IGP ABC parts together. And that we surely did with a lot of fun and laugh! Now there were 18 Tallivahdin hovawarts in the trainings and we started the camp on Friday at 16 o’clock in the training hall with C-part training. A part, that is field tracking, started at 9 o’clock both Saturday and Sunday mornings and lasted to lunch at 13 o’clock. At 14 we went to the training hall and trained B & C parts in Saturday until it was 18 o’clock and time to go for dinner and after that to smoke sauna. On Sunday our camp ended at 16 o’clock. Many of us thought this was quite the maximum amount of training one could do and totally enjoy in 3 days.

THANK YOU ALL for the wonderful, fun and exciting Tallivahdin year 2019!!!

We really have learned to have fun with each other and with our best friends. Tallivahdin year 2020 will start again with weekly trainings in Moukaripäät training hall. Now there can be seen at least 17 Tallivahdin hovawarts with their owners! The hall is very big and convenient to share in two different arenas and we have 2 hours prime time every Friday evening at 18-20 o’clock. The bottom of the hall is so good that we can train normally also the jumps of IGP obedience. So there is couple of weeks time to wait for our fun time together to start again – meanwhile I will travel just before Xmas to Germany to mate Journalistin who started her heat today the 10.12.2019 one month earlier than we expected.

HAVE YOU ALL A MERRY XMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2020 and keep your fingers crossed for our P-litter!!!

Takaisin