History

The first dog came to my childhood family when at the end of 70's we "inherited" my grandparents' long-haired tax bitch "Bella". Soon after that, in 1980, we bought a welsh terrier male puppy "Lurvi" (Black Spot Xtronie) from Gitta Ringwall's Black Spot kennel. I was 12 years at the time, and with "Lurvi" I started to participate in all kind of dog activities; for years I trained obedience and even took part in a few obedience competitions with good results; I was in a dog summer camp of Helsinki kennel juniors, I showed "Lurvi" a few times and we took part to some junior handler competitions (at that time they were quite new thing and not so professional as today) and I learned how to trim.

Cherished memories of my youth dog activities are Messukeskus shows (the biggest international shows in Finland twice a year, in a big fair centre in Helsinki), when my "doggy friends" and I spent there the whole weekend in a show fewer. Sometimes I worked in those shows as a board girl, which included writing the results to a black board in a ring.

One pleasant memory is Hasse's (allround judge Hans Lehtinen) friendliness and encouragement. I took one-year-old "Lurvi" to his trimming salon, and mentioned that I was going to take part to a junior handler competition, after which Hasse asked if I knew how to handle a welsh terrier. Obviously my performance was very poor, and Hasse showed me carefully how to do it, at the same time giving valuable encouragement to an unsure but eager girl.

My best education for the breeder's reality were the times when I worked as a "kennel girl" for Irmeli Salasmaa (Dixie Sound welsh terriers), when she was in show trips. Taking care of pups and a couple of welsh terriers and airedales besides normal school days taught that breeder's work is tuff but rewarding, and so my desire to be a breeder myself was built already early in my life.

Occasion, which even affected my breed choice, was the Stockholm International Show in 1984. In that show there was the first agility performance in Nordic countries, the sport had just been invented and was something totally new for me. The performance made me a great impact, and I decided I wanted to do agility with my next dog. Until then I had wanted a Norwich terrier, but the demands for speed and agility forced me to reconsider my breed choice.

After leaving home I started my studies and therefore having an own dog was postponed for some years. It was like a destiny when at the end of 80's I accidentally met Anna Nurmio (kennel Top-Knot) in my present neighbourhood. She was walking with her four aussies. I was sold in that minute, her aussies had just the qualities I wanted from my breed: they were agile, social, friendly and obedient. I went to shows to watch the breed, and talked to some breeders. In winter 1991 I finally wanted to buy a pup, but couldn't get any from Finland. Little bit pissed off I decided to buy my pup from Denmark, which was famous for its high-quality aussies. I managed to reserve a bitch pup from Jill Grenaae's next litter (kennel Tatong). On August 1991 Jill came to Helsinki to European Winner show and brought with her my pup "Jyrä", Tatong's Blue Breeze. The same autumn I made a reservation for another bitch pup from her next litter sired by Tatong's Silver Moondancer, and on autumn 1992 I went to Jill's to pick up my "Jopo", INT&FIN&DK&S&LV CH LVW-97 Tatong's Emperor's Jewel. With these two wonderful girls I started my life with aussies and in "the aussie world".