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History |
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From my early teenage years I had Miniature Poodles, and learnt how to
clip and present them properly for shows. For a period of time I was the
only one in my part of Northern Sweden trained to groom poodles. I showed
my Miniatures with great success. When I moved to the nearest University
for studies, both the shows and the people became much more accessible. I
also started the Poodle Club in our region together with other
enthusiastic breeders. By this time I had imported my first miniature dog
from England. At 8 months he came via Mrs Nadia Howard-Price, Montfleuri
Kennels. My husband grew up with Elkhounds and shooting. In order to get a more versatile breed, I convinced him to keep away from Elkhounds and go for a retriever instead. Mind you, a poodle is historically an older retrieving breed than the retriever itself. Our poodles retrieved game and competed in blood tracking, despite people making a fuss. Unfortunately, there is no poodle in the family for the moment. I must say, that a poodle is one of the best allround breeds one can have! During my trips to England, visiting poodle breeders, I met our new breed - the Flatcoated retriever. |
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In 1972 I purchased our first flatcoat, Fiona, who went on to become NoFIN CH Gunhill's Fiona. She was chosen out of a litter of 11 puppies and was chosen like my husband would choose a horse! (He still has horses on his mind). She was well-angulated, harmonic, long lines and a long stride.mm |
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My next flatcoat was Halstock Romany, coming to us from
England in 1974. I had been in contact with the late Mrs Patience Lock of
Halstock Kennels and she
promised to sell Romany to me if she (she was referring to Romany) and I
liked each other. Now, knowing more about flatcoats, this would not have
worried me. I picked her up at Cruft's, where she was entered and placed
in a couple of classes. Romany was a very well constructed bitch with
excellent movement and she also really enjoyed being shown. She finished
NoFIN CH. |
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I got some other flatcoats from Mrs Lock over the years, as she
was beginning to realize that she was getting older, perhaps too old to
continue breeding. In 1978 Brenda Phillips, Exclyst flatcoats, phoned me
on behalf of Mrs Lock as Patience had had a stroke and wanted me to take
over two of her bitches, Halstock Maida (by Brenda's Ch
Exclyst Bernard) and Romayne Gypsophilia (by Brenda's
Wyndhamian Christopher of Exclyst). |
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| Again I left Sweden for Cruft's to pick them up. I showed them myself at Cruft's, both were placed. These two country girls enjoyed staying at the hotel (StJames, near St James Park) in London, they also spend some exciting minutes chasing cats in the alley by the hotel. |
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| On our way home we stayed in Newmarket, giving the dogs a
walk early in the morning before catching the ferry from Harwich. We saw
hundreds of thoroughbreds appearing in the morning mist from all the
racing stables in the village. What an Impressive sight!
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| Fiona, Romany, Maida and Gipsy still live in our lines. Maida produced in her litters with Int Nord FT CH Int Nord CH O'Flanagan Free as Air excellent dual purpose offspring, this has also been preserved in younger generations. |
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| In 1985 Mrs Evalis Johansson joined the prefix, but for the
moment she is very occupied with her horses, too much in my opinion! The
partnership with Evalis has been excellent, she has done a tremendous job
with her dogs. Her first flatcoat Obed and FT Ch O'Flanagan Maida's
Toblerone gained his working titles while at the same time being trained
as a search and rescue dog. He had also won his only ticket at this time. A great number of flatcoats from us have been made up in the Show ring, in Scandinavia, Switzerland, France, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Canada etc, 4 FTCH, 1 Working CH, a great number of Tracking Champions, some Obed CH and about 10 search and rescue dogs. All of the above has resulted in the Swedish Kennel Clubs prestigeous award for breeding excellent stock and on top of it all the Hamilton Award, for the breeding of excellent flatcoated retrievers. I am taking the opportunity to point out that without Evalis and our exellent dogowners - this would not have been achieved. My deepfelt thanks to all of you! /Lena |
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