Our group consisted of Heli Virtanen and her dogs Into & Jorma, Heidi Hautala and her dogs Siru & Simba and myself with Irina, Zoni & Alise. This trip was done with Heli's RV. Here is a photo of our crew.

Heli arrived already on Thursday night. We started immediately to get the dogs ready for the shows. Only Zoni was left to be taken care of on Friday morning, or so we thought. The inside heater of Heli's RV started to make trouble on Thursday evening so we needed to go the repair shop on Friday before leaving or otherwise we would have had to sleep in a cold RV. The other cause of concern were the constipation problems of Heli's dog Jorma. We would need to take Jorma to see the vet at Seinäjoki's animal clinic. Thank god they had a cancellation. Jorma had his rectum flushed and the fragments of bone that were causing the blockage were in this way removed and he started to feel better slowly. A warm thank you to Seinäjoki's animal clinic for their good care. The RV was fixed in Matalamäki's car company by a nice repairman. Thank you also to them for their good work.
 
So after a desperate Friday day, the car was packed and the dogs were ready to go. We were finally ready to go with good spirits. The first stop was going to be at Konnevesi, the home of Anne Granström and Hannu Vehniäinen, kennel Black Wizard's. We went there to take Äijä home. He is our co-owned male who stays with us from time to time. For now he is staying in Konnevesi. I can assure you that meeting Anne and Hannu was the highlight of the trip. It was such a pleasure to meet them after a long time and to see Vappu's and Into's daughter Nuppu, who certainly is a beautiful and strong, happy young lady. Huge thank yous to Anne and Hannu for their hospitality and for the bottle of bubbly they gave us which was supposed to be taken either for joy or for sorrow. ;) We left Konnevesi late that night and headed for Eno. The trip was long and the weather was really bad. It was snowing very much which slowed us down and we arrived in Eno three o'clock in the morning. We stayed the night at the RV parked in the parking place at the show place. When the dogs were walked we finally got to sleep. Well, we didn't sleep for long because the snow ploughs started their work at five am. So much for sleeping.
 
It was Saturday morning and time for the first show day. The judge for American Akitas was Leni Finne, she would also judge the Icelandic Sheep Dogs. First in the ring was Zoni who was right away at home in the ring even though this was his first show. He got the honour prize and was Best of Breed puppy, there were no other puppies at the show. Into was next. He got an excellent from the open class and won the class. He was second in the best dog competition and got a reserve certificate. It was so close that he would have received his final certificate to finish him as a champion! Irina was up next. She got an excellent and won the open class for bitches. In the end she won all the bitches, got the certificate and with that finished her champion title. We were overjoyed! Heidi's Icelandic Sheep Dogs were in the ring next. Simba (on the right) got an excellent, won his class and was best dog and also best of breed. Siru was feeling energetic and didn't concentrate so well. She got a very good and did well in the end.

After our dogs had been to the ring we went to take a nap at the RV because we hadn't gotten that much sleep the night before. We went to the group ring for group number 5 before we headed to Keuruu. The judge was Pekka Teini. Simba unfortunately did not make it through. Irina did but she didn't place in the group. There was also a small accident in the ring as the rug slipped from underneath me while we were running in the ring. I landed on my back but luckily I wasn't badly hurt. The first show day was over and we felt tired but happy. We started our drive towards Keuruu right after the show and were happy that the weather was nice. We arrived in Keuruu early on Saturday evening. After taking the dogs out and spending a couple of hours to enjoy the evening we went to sleep.

On Sunday the show started in the morning. Heidi's dogs were judged outside, luckily the American Akitas were inside. Our judge was Riitta Lahtovaara. We didn't get to see Heidi's dogs in the ring but soon she arrived with a BOB ribbon and a smile. Siru also did well as she was second in the best bitch competition and got a reserve certificate. So it was a great day for Heidi again, congratulations! The American Akitas were up next and Zoni (on the left) was in the ring with two other male puppies. Zoni won the male puppies and got an honour prize. We waited for the female puppy to be judged, but as she didn't receive the honour prize, Zoni was automatically awarded best of breed puppy. In this show there was a third American Akita shown who was bred by me, Midian's Mr Mic Mac. He got a very good an won the junior class. He did well considering he didn't have the best coat on. Next in the ring was Into. There was a lot of excitement in the air as we were hoping that Into would finish his champion title in this show. The judge examined Into with a smile and we were holding our breaths. Then a lady come to us and told us that a white puppy had left his show cage to explore the show place. Luckily some kind people had caught him, thank you to everyone involved! I had to go see how he had managed to get out of the cage and right at that moment when I was gone Into received his certificate and became the champion of five countries. I didn't get the see this great moment but I can imagine Heli's joy! Irina went to the ring last. She got an excellent from the champion class but was second in the best bitch competition due to the weak coat she had at these shows. A Lepoparta female won the bitches, her sire is a Midian's dog. Congratulations for the certificate, she is a great girl. Into was awarded best of breed American Akita at the end, what a great result! Congratulations to Heli and Into and also to Heidi, who got BOB wins on both days!

I showed Into in the group ring and we made it through but didn't place. Heidi and Simba also showed at the groups but they didn't place either. We had had great success without the group placements and two new Midian's champions were finished. Into, Midian's Intense Dragon, Fin, Rus, Lt, Ltv & Est Ch, EstJW-06 (on the right) and Irina, Midian's In Your Hope, Fin & Rus Ch (on the left)!

From Keuruu our trip continued towards Nurmo in great spirit. We were exhausted but so happy. The dogs were also tired but we didn't have any problems with them during our trip. They travelled nicely and even our puppy Alise knew how the behave, she acted like she had been doing this for years. We travelled for 1100km altogether and our super driver Heli drove all of them. Thank you to Heli and Heidi for this unforgettable trip! We had a great time even though we had some troubles in the beginning. Thank you also to the judges who had the eye for the beauty of our dogs!

 
 
  
Alise