What a day!!!!!!!

What a weekend we had! Started out a bit rocky as our Mia turned ill. She was rushed to the hospital with a strange looking tongue and what we believed to be a uterus infection. Such things always happen on bad days. Esther had a play date with a friend from school so was not home yet and we had a visitor coming from Norway so someone had to be home when he and Esther arrived. So I shipped Jesper off to the vet and stayed home myself waiting to hear the news. Turned out she was simply missing a piece of her tongue. Best bet was she licked something frozen and got stuck and pulled :-( Not so very nice. The good news was the uterus infection looked less bad than first expected and she was put on penicillin and her and Jesper could return home in decent time. I can happily report that she is much better already! Her tongue has healed and althought she strugled getting used to eating and drinking the first couple of days she seems to be fine now even if there is only 2/3 of her tongue left.....

We had a pleasant visit from Norway all Saturday and on Sunday we were then ready to head off for the Swedish lapphund club specialty in Mora. 134 lapphunds were entered of the 3 Lappish breeds with the Finnish lapphund being clearly the biggest with an entry of 97 dogs including puppies. Naturally we were excited to see the Swedish dogs and also to see how our own would do. We had a humble attitude towards it all, being new in the country and everything......

As usual we left home later than planned. It just always takes longer than planned to get two children ready and into the car. I think Christian was the only ready one at set time leaving the Brandes family with the blame for the delay ;-) So when arriving at the show there was only 25 minutes till judging started and Tio was first up in the ring. Took time to get in too as there was a bit to walk and I can reveal that it is not that easy balancing two kids, 4 dogs, crates, tables, chairs, bags and all the other stuff on sloping hills covered in ice! Dogs pulling, kids running away, stuff being heavy. SIGH! So when finally arriving at the ring chaos was the word coming to my mind and there was just few minutes till judging started and I could see Tio was not feeling his best. He used to get very sick when driving and always needed a couple of hours to settle down before he was himself again. Luckily this time he did not throw up, but he was clearly not feeling good either and would not really lift his tail. Jesper and I had a fast chat debating if we should show him or not, but agreed it was good training for him so decided to go ahead. He would not really lift his tail so was only graded a Very good which was fair enough - he will be back ;-) I took it as nice training for him. Below is a photo of him in the ring

photo R. Ylen

Next up in the ring was Ilolas. It was a big open class males and we had no idea how it would go so we were very proud, happy and surprised when Ilolas won the class! While the 8 champion males were being judged we were waiting and then entered the ring again for best male together with all the others who had had a CQ grating. The judge was very keen on movement so we were running and running and running for what seemed like forever. He slowly narrowed down the field and finally we were just 4 dogs left. When looking around I could see the top winning male in Sweden last year as well as another from the top 3 in the ring with us so I was so happy when the judge Hans-Åke Sperne chose Ilolas as the winner. Even Jesper was so happy that he entered the ring which is a rare sigth :-) Ilolas was awarded the CAC which made him a Swedish champion as well. Below a photo of Ilolas in the ring.

Photo P. Magnusson

Then it was time for the bitches. First up junior class in which our two girls Lapinlumon Xaaga and Lapinlumon Xaana entered the ring in a big class of 15 junior girls. Needles to say we were pretty proud again when winner of the class was Xaaga and runner up was Xaana and those two were the only of the junior girls to be awarded a CQ. We had a short break in the intermediate class with no dogs entered there and then entered the ring again with Totti aka Lapinlumon Yllätys in the open class bitches. Again a big class with 14 bitches and I am repeating myself I know, but were we proud when Totti won the class!!!!!! Yes we were.....

 To bring so few dogs and still win so much was amazing. Totti has not been shown for several years in Denmark and entered the ring again at the Nordic winner show in December in Stockholm were she won too so she has really proved that she wants to show some more. For best bitch both Xaana and Totti had to enter the ring so we thank Christian for the help with showing Xaana. The two of them did a very good job and were in the run for a long time. Funny for me was to watch Xaana from a distance as she just 9 months old really has both her mum and dad´s attitude and desire to show off. However at last the judge was down to five dogs and for a long time had Totti as his number one. How sureal if we had won both best male and best bitch with so many dogs entered! However sadly Totti pulled her lead and stopped her airsupply and started coughing and due to that the judge asked her to leave the ring. Fair enough and we can not say we were disapointed knowing how well everything went in general! Of course it was a pity knowing she would likely have won had she not been coughing, but it did not really have anything to do with her health or her looks so we took that with a smile. Below is a photo of Totti moving in the ring

Photo P. Magnusson

It was now time for Best of breed and the judge did not think long before chosing Ilolas as his best of breed. Ilolas along with his 4 kids there also won BOB progeny group. They were also BIS progeny group and we were then ready for Best in show. Ilolas entered the ring with the BOB Swedish lapphund and laponian herder and made the day perfect by winning the ultimate price BEST IN SHOW!!!!!!  We were so proud, we had so few dogs there and still they all placed so well and then the final result of Ilolas taking it all home at our first specialty in our new country. A long weekend and we were tired, but so so happy. Ilolas too seemed to enjoy and thought the idea of a crown of victory was great :-) Finally somebody saw him as the king he always believed himself to be.

Photo: P. Magnusson

I have been lazy with updates and it is not just us who have been doing well. Also last weekend out in the world Lapinlumons were out and about strutting their stuff.

In Holland last weekend Lapinlumon Tähtisilmä won CAC and best bitch and finished her Dutch junior champion title at the international show in Gronningen. A photo of her below, congratulations Thea and Lianne.

At the same show Lapinlumon Guovsahassat won the res. CAC and res. CACIB so congratulations to Cisca as well. Photo below

The same day at the spitz specialty show in Denmark with 25 Finnish lapphunds entered Lapinlumon Kuuraparta won best male and CAC as well. Pictured left on the photo below by L. Sørensen

All in all we can only say our dogs do us proud and we as breeders feel honoured and happy that the work we do gets apreciated by judges and other enthusiasts around the world.