Super proud of Rachael and Benni (Ch Armahani Heliodorr Hulivili (AI)) who today earned his ET title!

The ET is earned through a 20km run (most handlers on a bike) broken into three legs with strict vet checks before, after and between legs.  It requires a good deal of conditioning leading up to it and Rachael has been working really hard getting Benni ready over the last few months.

It is pretty daunting leading into it, and you really feel like you are going to never make it (I did my first last year) so I know how nervous Rachael has been.

Way to go.  It is an achievement to be really proud of.

The Lappie Border Challenge - a fun competition between the Finnish Lapphund Clubs of Victoria and NSW held at the Deniliquin Kennel Club's weekend of shows in Albury - is one of my favourite show weekends of the year. It is always just a good fun time where we get together, socialise, cheer each other on, pretend to booo for the other "team" and in reality completely break down the normal barriers that can spring up on occasion in the dog show world.  It reminds us all of what dog showing can be about.

I've had to miss the last couple of years, as puppies have been here at the time, so it was pretty exciting to be back again in 2018.  Even more special was Rachael being able to come over with Benni to truly make it a family affair, and Cherelle also making the trip with Taija.

We had a pretty good weekend results wise too.  Tortik (Ch Armahani Heliodorr Halu (AI) RN JC) was RUBOB twice and BOB once during the weekend, while brother Benni (Ch Armahani Heliodorr Hulivili (AI)) was BOB on one of those occasions.  Loki Bear took Best Intermediate of Breed against some serious competition all three days, converting it to Intermediate in Group (against some REALLY serious competition) on one of them.  Leevi was Junior of Breed all three days.  And Taija took home two Neuter in Groups for the weekend.

Most importantly VICTORIA took home the trophy again!  Proud to be part of it, even if Loki Bear was competing for "the enemy" ;)

The first part of the year seems to have been super busy, and as a consequence, I've got completely behind in the news.

So what has happened ..... from memory, Bennigan (Ch Armahani Heliodorr Hulivili) competed in Tasmanian show dog of the year for 2017 and Fleur (Ch Armahani Iolite Ilo) in puppy of the year - and have celebrated by making coming babies together (due at Zuleika Kennels)!

Tortik (Ch Armahani Helodorr Halu JC RN) earned his Rally Novice title under the very capable hands of Kat.  Veikko (Ch & Neut Ch Armahani Diamond Danust CCD RA AD JD SPD SD HT ET JC WPD FMX) earned her Agility Dog title with Shell.  And has just this weekend been competing in the Agility Nationals here in Victoria, going home with two JDX passes and a SPDX pass with lappie partner Thor.

And (pictured) Tortik and I headed to the Finnish Lapphund Club of NSW's specialty where he followed up last year's BISS to earn RUBISS under Finnish specialist Tapio Kakko, with his son Loki Bear (Armahani Jade Jylha) going Limit in Show and being taken down to the final 5 males.  He continued up the next day by going RDCC and RUBOB at the Sydney Royal.

Aside from that there have been shows, including several classes in group.  But a lot of our time has been spent in vet consultations and doing some fairly intensive rehab with Baby, who injured her shoulder late last year.  It has been a fairly emotionally up and down time, and hard to be positive at times.  Baby will still be out of the show ring for sometime, and out of performance work for sometime longer.

​In the meantime I will attempt to keep a little more up to date with the news!