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UK Breed Articles

Finnish Lapphunds In Australia

In April 2000 Col and I began to look for a different spitz breed to the Siberian husky, we came across one of the most beautiful dogs we had ever seen. This picture was of Sulyka Echo at Elbereth. After researching further we were hooked!

We began the process of asking our state canine control body about how we would go about registering a new breed. When I told them what breed, I was informed that there was already some here in Australia. So we began our search within Australia for the person who had introduced them.

At the same time we searched in Finland for breeders with a look of what we were after.

We used a Poodle breeder there who had purchased a toy poodle from us. She went to shows and looked at the type she preferred. I searched the internet. Fortunately we came up with the same kennel - Staalon.

We located several pups over time and as many of you know the heartache we went through as time after time, for one reason or another, we had to turn the pups down or the breeder declined sending them as they had not come up to their quality standard to establishing the breed in another country.

Finally at the start of 2001 we had purchased our 2 babies from different kennels and Annika Leskinen kept both for us. They were due to arrive here in May.

In the meantime Easter of 2001 saw me doing a canine control ring around. I was lucky enough to finally locate where the first lapphunds were as the owner, Kylikki Eronen, was bringing in her puppy registration papers for the first Australian litter. How lucky could I be? Kyllikki came in as I was on the phone and I was able to speak with her directly. I got her details and purchased our brown girl, Asha from this litter.

May came and went and no pups arrived (adolescents by this stage). I was getting desperate and Dee Muzzle gave me Clive’s phone number in Finland to ring. After I did this I discovered that money owed to me via the poodle sale had not been transferred to Annika which delayed the export of our kids. Through Clive, this was amended and our first 2 kids arrived early August, 2001.

Grand Ch Staalon Bestseller and Ch Tositouhun Eve Example lying around the day after coming home from quarantine.

Australia now saw its first litter born and the 4^th and 5^th adults arriving in the country.

1995 - The first import being a female- Sulyka Sisko arrived. Efforts to import and impregnant via semen was to no avail.

1997 - Kylikki sought a natural male importing a brown boy, Ch Staalon Kolumbus, from Finland. Again no success with litters arriving.

2000 – Early in the year Ch Lecibsin Heissulivei arrived in the country.

Now we have come to my pair arriving from Staalon kennels. Wow was my first thoughts on seeing our boy Grand Ch Staalon Bestseller. He was everything we wanted and more. The little bitch Ch Tositouhun Eve Example was not quite what we had expected but boy has she done us proudly. She has the BEST temperament and produced some of the nicest kids.

After a scare with snakes and paralysis ticks we decided to breed this young pair before we lost either of the dogs. Hence the second litter born and our first dominoes in the country.

Text Box: Ch Theldaroy Wild About Me

Text Box: Ch Theldaroy Wild Wild Ways

This gave us now a grand total of 15 animals of which 10 were youngsters.

From our first litter, we sold pups to some very adventurous owners, who were prepared to work with us to establish this breed within the show scene. Some of these first pups gained baby in group awards as soon as they hit the show rings.

Brambleway litter at their first show in which Aku (middle) won Baby in Show.

Cabel photography

Most of these adventurous new owners then began to make plans to import for themselves from Europe.

2002 saw our next importing of semen from Ch Fihtolas Sasli.

2003 saw the importation of another bitch form Finland, Ch Viksalan Jiella.

2004 we gained another 2 males, Fjallfarmens Ramio, Sweden and Ch Fidelis Ursus, Finland and imported semen Fin Ch Chelville Tapio, from Clive Muzzelle in the UK.

We had only 1 litter, bringing our numbers in December of that year to a grand total of 38.

Show wins over that time were not recorded fully but we maintained an increasing quantity of wins – enough to have some of the judges sitting up and taking notice. In that short time we had one of our young pups, Grand Ch Theldaroy Wild Not Me, at just 9 months of age win Reserve to Best in Show. We had several Best In groups as well around the country to brag about. We were on our way!

Grand Ch Theldaroy Wild Not Me.

2005 - The beginning of the year saw us planning to import our first bitches in whelp. This eventuated only through the help and support of Fidelis kennels and the painstaking effort of Eeva Niemi.

One of these litters was actually born in quarantine and released with their mother to Watersedge Kennels, at a week old. My own litter was lucky enough to hold off until we got home.

Watersedge litter in quarantine

Also imported was another brown dog Fjallfarmens Ummiko from Sweden. That year was a massive year for puppy litters with 9 born through the course of the year around Australia. Our total now standing at 88. We had more than doubled in a single year!

Show wins that were recorded showed us with 50 classes in group, 2 classes in show, 8 Reserve in groups, 2 Best in groups, and 6 passes at obedience or agility.

2006 seemed to be a quiet year with only 4 litters born and 2 bitches imported from Finland, Ch Luminturpa Emmi and Terhakan Utu Leena who was put into whelp but this sadly did not eventuate. Our total is now 109. We had reached triple digits.

This year we had achieved a remarkable 56 classes in group, 5 classes in show, 1 Runner Up to Best in Show, 6 Best in groups and 4 Reserve in groups. Added to that we had some further passes at herding, obedience - companion dog, agility and jumping dog titles.

2007 saw another 2 males imported Teelikamentten Iikka from Finland and C'est Louis Armstrong des Chelaloupsgreg from France via the USA, as well as another 6 litters of pups including the world’s first frozen semen pupsicles.

From left Ch Theldaroy Green With NV, Siberian frozen baby, Ch Theldaroy NV Is A Sin, & Ch Theldaroy Follow In NV.

December 2007 saw us with a total of 154 Lapphunds now in Australia.

Our show wins for 2007 blew me away with a staggering 107 wins from Reserve in Show to classes in group, including the first Lapphund in Australia to be Endurance Tested. Some of the most prestigious wins would have had to be the Royal wins along with the Winter Classic in WA. Ch Brambleway Aslakka won Best in Group over 180 exhibits in March, this great win was followed with a young 7 month old pup Theldaroy Follow In NV,

taking out Opposite Sex Puppy in Show at the Brisbane Royal in August, a month later winning Best in group as well.

Then in September Ch Lumiturpa Emmi won Reserve in Group at the Perth Royal.

2008 – currently sees us with 4 litters already, another ready to whelp as I write and 2 further in whelp. We are now at 178 in total.

Show wins are beginning to be too many to record accurately with class in group wins regularly around the country.

The breed within Australia should be extremely proud of the type, quality and health of our foundation breeding stock. The puppies that we are producing, I believe, are of type and equitable to anything in Europe. At least this is what we are being told by the European judges who visit here.

I think that for our foundation decade we have done well to establish the breed with so many imports already. Breeders here are looking to continue in this vein with the importing of semen and animals from Europe.

We can only thank those breeders who have done their homework on our behalf to provide the excellent dogs that are allowing us to develop and grow in the manner that we are.

Ros Seare

Theldaroy Kennels

As mentioned in the previous issue we became hooked on Finnish Lapphunds after we found a picture of Echo in a UK Dog Magazine. Our research and investigations led us to join the UK yahoo group some several months before we became owners of our first lapphunds.

Those few members that we had in this chat group (all 20 or so of us) know the heartache that Col and I went through as one pup after another was purchased and then denied for one reason or another. (I do like this as these owners were being very fussy with what they would let us have as our foundation stock.)

Finally in 2001 through the assistance and intervention by Clive and some support from Toni, we became real live owners of the two lapphunds that we had purchased a year earlier.

Ch Tositouhun Eve Example (Fin)

Grand Ch Staalon Bestseller (Fin)

I cannot believe how lucky we have been in establishing our own kennel with typey, healthy and PRA clear dogs. This can only be through the support of the breeders that we were in contact with, insisting that we were sent healthy specimens as this was to be the foundation of our breed within the country.

Whilst we have not come out unscathed with some of our breeding combinations producing hips of a higher score than we would have liked. We also made a choice to go down the line of desexing and not using any of the dogs that we owned that were PRA carriers. This was our choice and whilst it has caused dissatisfaction and conflict with others who I had sold dogs to – it was our decision as we thought it best for the overall health of the breed within Australia. Again this was our decision and not that of all breeders over here.

Ok where do I begin our story?

Our first two lapphunds were of good type representing the breed well. Our male Finn gaining numerous Best in Group awards in his short life here. He was not the best show dog, as he had to be encouraged all the way there but he did produce some wonderful examples of the breed that have in their own rights done some wonderful winning.

Our first litter of puppies here created quite a stir with judges throughout the country awarding them classes in groups and show.

Ch Theldaroy the Wild One –Jukki who took Baby in Show at his first show at 3 months of age.

And also out of the same litter came Blaze, Laani and Mojo.


Grand Ch Theldaroy Wild Not Me - Laani won her first Best in Group at a young age of 9 months and also won Reserve in Show at the same age.	Grand Ch Theldaroy Never Wild - Mojo is probably the most layback of dogs I have ever come across and he too has won numerous Best in Group wins.	Ch Theldaroy Im Not Wild - Blaze whilst not having won All breeds Best in Groups has won the most Best of Breeds consistently at a royal.

The next lapphund to join our kennel was a solid black man from Finland being Ch Miehtebiekka Ursus.

He held his own well initially winning over our traditional colours. His light footedness and easy flowing movement taking that winning edge. Whilst his head is correct it is not quite what I am wanting in my lapphunds as he lacks a little depth of stop and width of skull. This boy does have loads to offer the breed in correct coat type, good movement and great nature. His excellent hips and clear eyes being another added bonus. One of the reasons that we agreed to purchase him was that he came from some of the older lines still in use in Finland. These at the time, were showing to be free from some of the health issues that were becoming evident in the show lines. We have used Ursus a couple of times to produce pups but he throws blacks heavily and this is a colour not desired here by show or pet owners. He will be retained for further breeding to bitches who will benefit from his darker colouring.

Fin Ch Chelville Tapio (UK)

His son Ch Theldaroy Green With NV (AI)

We had produced some litters from the imported dogs purchased keeping a pup from each litter. We then looked to getting another pup. I loved Fjallfarmens Alaska and we began to negotiate with Fjallfarmens Kennels in Sweden to purchase a pup from him. We chose Sweden as we could import from there at only 12 weeks of age (this has now changed). We were also negotiating with Fidelis and Lapinlumon kennels as well at the same time. Whilst Sarah was living in Finland, together we were looking at collecting and sending semen to Australia from her own males and those from Eija at Orso Farm. Due to the distance for collections and the difficulties to collect, we abandoned this venture. However I did not forego it totally and was very pleased that Clive Muzzle was prepared to go through the process with me for this sending me some Chelville Tapio semen.

Live puppies became available at this same time. We commited to a bitch from Fidelis kennels, and to a male pup from Lapinlumon when Winnie offered me a male from a different mating than requested. I turned this pup down as he had lines which we had in Ursus, the pup from Fidelis and Lapinlumon.

The beautiful Angel from Fidelis Kennels

Ch Fidelis Gratia Finnica (Fin)

And the boisterous Manu from Lapinlumon Kennels.

Grand Ch Lapinlumon Mundus E.T. (Fin)

From these small beginnings we have gained and produced lapphunds that are typey and worthy of any in the world. We are getting excellent reports and critiques from European judges that visit Australia as well as from other international judges that visit and judge in Finland.

We do not want to rest on these laurels but want to continue the great beginning we have had through the help and support of breeders in Finland, Denmark and the UK. Without the support and advice we have gleaned from these wonderful people we would not be in the great position that we now find ourselves in.

We are extremely pleased to have several Finnish judges visit Australia within the next few months. It will be exciting to see what they have to say about our lappies who go under them.

Where do we go to from now? We are looking forward to the next few year of breeding which will incorporate combinations of our first lapphund imports with those of the latter ones. The boys Olli and Magnus are from Angel and Jukka.

The girls Whisper (Angel & Jukki) and Hannah who is from Manu and our older lines from Finn and Mish.

I would love to hear from anyone who is still happy to share their experiences with lines which are similar to those that we have. I am so totally aware that the only thing that I can guarantee with this breed is that we can expect the unexpected at any time. I also know that certain lines do not blend together irrespective of how great the specimens are. I am also aware that this wonderful breed that we all so love can and will produce back several generations pulling up the unexpected.

I hope that you have enjoyed our experience into this breed. We are only beginning our quest into this fabulous breed and hope that I will read some of your experiences in the future.

Please feel free to contact us to give us your opinions both positive and negative (but be gentle with me).

Yours in Lappies,

Ros and Col Seare