Heli Virtanen,
the owner of Into (Midian's Intense Dragon), arrived on Thursday
evening here in Nurmo in order to continue her trip to Rovaniemi's
Internatinal Midsummer Show the next day. However the plans
changed and instead of her traveling there alone with her dogs she
talked us over into joining her. After thinking about it for
awhile we decided to go see the show with our family. We had not
signed up any of
our own dogs but six American Akitas bred by us were taking part.
There was also a chance for us to take part in the Breeder
Competition so that also made it easier to head for the show as I
really wanted to see how these dogs were coming along and to meet
with their owners. Before we left there was a question of where we
would get our 5-weeks-old Cockerspaniel puppies (six of them) to
care as it was unlikely that anyone would take them with such
short notice for the Midsummer weekend which is a special Finnish
summer festival. Together we decided to take the puppies and their
mother Kikka with us. Luckily Heidi Hautala promised to take care
of our dogs for the time we were on the road. Huge thanks to
Heidi!
On
Friday afternoon we headed for Rovaniemi with the following crew:
Tero my fiancé, our two girls Laura and Elina, Heli with her dogs
Into, Jorma and Pami and the six Cockerspaniel puppies and their
dam Kikka. Sounds interesting, doesn't it! We drove for about
seven hours and the trip went without any problems! It was about
530km from
Nurmo to Rovaniemi. Of course we did make some stops from time to
time as the dogs needed to take a walk and so did our children who
travelled very nicely even though it was quite a long drive. We
headed straight next to Ounashalli where to show
was going to be held and spent the night in the caravan.
After a well rested night we spent the next day at the show. We
were very successful even though the judge was Hans vd Berg who is
known to be a very precise and exact judge. He does not give out
the highest awards lightly. The show began with the puppies being
judged. The male puppy Midian's Mystery Man (owner Mari Kujala)
was shown by Mari's sister. Edi was awarded with Puppy Class 1
without the Honor Prize. We did not find out why he didn't receive
the HP even thought the critique was good and he showed nicely.
Maybe he could have been a bit more energetic when on the move but
puppies are puppies. In the next class there was two American
Akitas shown which were bred by us. Into (Midian's Intense Dragon)
was shown by me and Konsta (Midian's King Of The North) by her
owner Aini Lappalainen. Konsta was not fully matured yet and got a
Very Good and
was third in the Intermediare Class. Into won the Class and got an
Excellent. There were no other males in the show so he won Best
Dog with CAC and CACIB. Outstanding!
Viivi (Midian's Little Victory) was shown for the first time in
the Junior Class. Her owner Mervi Vesala showed her and she
received an Excellent and won her class. She went on to winning
the 4th place in the Best Bitch competition. In the Open Class our
co-owned girl Ilona (Midian's In Your Dreams, co-owned with Sanna
Niemelä) won the class and was shown by Sanna. She was 2nd in the
Best
Bitch competition and was awarded with CAC and Reserve CACIB. In
this case the CACIB will be confirmed as the winner of Best Bitch
is already an International Champion. Excellent result! The
Champion Class was won by Aiko (Midian's Dayshimmer Girl, owner
Mervi Vesala) who has been extremely successful. Mervi showed Aiko
as she won the Best Bitch competition and received a CACIB which
she won't need as she already is an International Champion.
Best
Of Breed was won by the handsome male Into and Best of Opposite
Sex by the beautiful Aiko. What a great result! We also showed in
the Breeder Competition and the judge thought our group to be of
high standard. He awarded us with an Honor Prize and BOB. I was
very pleased with the critique.
Heli
went on to showing her other dog, P.ter. Jorma. Jorma is already a
Champion in seven countries but had to settle for the 3rd place in
the Best Dog competition. It was a shame as the dog who won BOB
also won the Group, which is a rare treat for this breed. The
Group competitions started for the American Akitas soon after the
breed ring but this time we were not successful.
After
the show we headed back to Nurmo. On the way we stopped by to see
Benny (a Beagle bred by us) and his family in Kemi. Benny is a
very promising, nice male. He's got a strong hunting drive and we
are waiting to see results from him in the future. He looks
excellent and he will surely be successful at the shows. Thank you
to Benny's family for having us! We also visited shortly Mervi and
J-P (kennel Shimmerian) in Kello. We already met them at the show
but we just had to see the youngsters and their new kennel
facilities. They looked very nice! Thank you for letting us stop
by!
The
drive back home went well and there was not much traffic as we
were on the road in the night. We saw a few elks by the road, but
our trip went safely. We arrived home in the early hours on Sunday
morning. The children and the dogs travelled extremely well. The
puppies looked like they had been doing this for years! We were
very pleased with our trip! There was a few incidents of "smell
issues" with the puppies
but we were prepared for it. Also there was a bit too many
mosquitos for us in the north.
Thank you for a very nice trip Heli and everyone else for their
company. We had such a nice time that we will have to think about
maybe going back next year to spend our Midsummer in Rovaniemi and
with a bigger group!
Below are yet a few photos from the trip. Such a shame we did not
take any photos of the great scenery! Some of the photos from the
show are taken by J-P, thank you!