Yesterday saw us heading down to KCC for the annual Finnish Lapphund Club of Victoria Open Show and a Sprint Dog trial!
Our mother-daughter duo, Winter and Autumn, were entered in Sprint Dog, where both of them happily completed both their runs and earned their third Qualifying certificates, putting them both on 90 points out of the required 100 for their first Sprint Dog title. Just one more “Quallie” each to go!
Meanwhile, indoors, we had Anarchy’s only son Alfie entered into his first show, where he took out Best Baby of Show. It was fantastic to see him and see how confident he is, strutting his way around the ring and up the examination ramp. He received some lovely compliments from the judge and we look forward to watching as he continues to mature!

Best in Show was taken out by Toph from Varulv kennels, the lovely granddaughter of our imported boy, Aslak. Congratulations to Toph and the team at Varulv!

Afterwards, Anarchy, Winter and Mischa were treated to massages by the talented Jess. We regularly treat our girls to massages and chiropractic appointments to ensure they are in their top physical condition before and after competing in shows and sports. Although Mischa is very much retired now, she isn’t left out, being checked all over and stretched out gently to ensure she isn’t in pain and remains comfortable during her twilight years.

Mischa also had a lovely catchup with her breeder, Jacqualine from Armahani kennels. Mish is the oldest surviving Armahani dog, from their second ever litter, and it’s so lovely to see the bond she still has with Jacq.
 

Winter had a sleepover last night at the house of her daughter, Autumn, so she could head off today for the Geelong Obedience Dog Club’s sprint dog trial. After a long drive and some great sprinting through wet grass, both girls were awarded their second Sprint Dog Qualifying Certificates and a personal best time for them both!
Both girls are absolutely loving Sprint Dog, being allowed to run as fast as they can in pursuit of a lure. It’s also wonderful seeing the bond that Winter has with Autumn, happily wrestling with her and snuggling together on the couch.
As this sport is taking off across Australia, demand exceeds capacity and so for now the entries are capped by owner. So, we elected to let Winter go first as she's the oldest, and it was easy to have her and Autumn compete together. Anarchy will need to wait her turn.

Our first Lapphund, Mischa (Armahani Bloodstone Bilaidit) hit Fifteen and a HALF during the week. Once you get to fifteen, all your milestones get celebrated, so we took her out for a walk at the local community garden with her favourite adopted daughters, Winter and Autumn, and then to the pub for lunch with some of her favourite humans.
Our old lady was very tired by the end of all her walking and treat-chewing, but after a good nap she was back to barking at possums that night.
Mischa is still doing great, loving her retirement out on the farm with Autumn. We love her madly.

A quick update to let everyone know that our next litter plans have been postponed.

I'm planning to attend World Dog Show in Helsinki Finland in August and need to plan around that so we don't have puppies here at the same time.

You may receive similar information from other Finnish Lapphund breeders. Especially those who don't employ staff to attend to their dogs and raise their puppies. Most breeders I know are heading to Helsinki. Last time the World Dog show was hosted in Finland there were 500 Finnish Lapphund entries. Breeders from across the globe descended on Finland to meet so many dogs and to meet each other in person and I'm so looking forward to this opportunity.

It's going to be tough enough looking after my 3 adults and the house without the additional stress of raising puppies, finding and preparing owners and getting puppies off to their new homes. I should know, I do it all the time. Wouldn't wish that craziness on anyone kind enough to help me get to Finland.

When is our next litter? We have no idea.

It will of course depend on the girls timing from here on in to determine when we can plan for our next litter. Autumn was just in season so she's probably at least 8 months from having a litter and 10 months from puppies being ready to go home.

Nala, I suspect her season was delayed due to excitement of a house move and staying with extended family when we expected her in season. Either that or it was missed. Usually our girls are very clean so it can be easy not to notice.

If it was stress of the move we'll find out when she next comes into season as it will be out of sync and could be anytime. If it was missed she'll possibly be back in season in June and we'll have to postpone her litter plan until the next season in December, with puppies born approx 2.5 months later and home 2 months after that...so possibly April 2026.

There's a small summary of canine reproduction on my website caleebra.com/puppies.

If you're happy to stay with us, we'll send out updates as events unfold but we can confidently say we won't be having any puppies born before the end of August at the earliest, and only available once they're 8 weeks old. So that's looking like leaving for their homes no earlier than the end of October.

If you go elsewhere, we wish you the best of luck.

Picture of Muffin learning some impulse control. She's ridiculously cute

Yesterday we made the trip to KCC for the Golden Retriever clubs Sprint Dog trial for Winter, Anarchy and Autumn!
All three girls had a great time, completing both runs and getting their first points towards their Sprint Dog title.

Winter was our fastest of the day, with an average time of 11.9 seconds and a Speed of 30.25km/h
Autumn has probably found her calling with this sport, with an average time of 12.05 and a speed of 29km/h
Anarchy will no doubt find her feet in future trials with an average time of 13.56 seconds and a Speed of 26.55km/h

Sprint Dog, known as FastCat in the US, is a new sport in Australia, and involves the dog chasing a lure (usually a plastic bag) in a 100m straight dash. A few of our Caleebra Lappies have already done fantastic in Canberra, and with Winter already having a title in lure coursing, we knew she'd be a given. Autumn had missed out on the previous trial as she was in season, but she'd had a practice run before the day so we knew she'd also chase the bag. Anarchy was the surprise. She wasn't quite sure what was going on, and probably didn't really find the bag all that exciting, given her history of hunting and herding. But she was happy to run fast and i'll be excited to see how well the girls go as they continue trialing!

Anarchy and Winter were post whelp/post phantom naked with crazily short coats but here's a photo of Autumn making a fast dash down the straight looking for Alice and trying to gain on that bag.