I mentioned in the last issue of the Husky Magazine that there are many kennels with nice websites. The danger is of course that a nice lay-out can obscure more than it reveals when it comes to dogs’ qualities.
One of the kennels I had noticed on the Net was Arctic Soul. It seemed like a kennel with dogs typical of the breed and bred for racing. After having made some enquiries my opinion of the kennel as serious was confirmed.
Since I still hadn’t reached the maximum number of dogs(the number is still somewhat unclear), I wished to contact Mari Pajaskoski. to ask if she had any dogs for sale. Her first reply was negative, she hadn’t anyone she would recommend. After a couple of weeks, I got a new mail from Mari. She had made some enquiries and could offer 2 males born in October -02. They belonged to Eastexpress kennel, which she co-operated with.
During spring we exchanged many e-mails with pedigrees, descriptions and pictures of the dogs. I also received a video of the dogs at Arctic Soul kennel. Mari gave an impression of being both honest and experienced. In the end we chose one of the males, mostly on the recommendation of Mari and Terhi from Eastxpress Kennel. A lot of paper-work followed with applications to the Swedish Jordbruksverket for importing the dog through Sweden. We would like to go and get the dog ourselves and at the same time visit the kennel.
To satisfy the whole family a visit to Moominworld was obligatory. From Turku we travelled about 300 km east towards Selänpää close to Kouvola, where the kennel is situated. This area is characterized by long stretches of pinebarrens. A perfect place for training.
We met Mari in Kouvola, and went with her to the kennel. The dogs are stationed with Ritta and Pentti Kesäniemi who are co-owners. Pentti is also the one who is training the dogs. They had bought the place a couple of years ago to have a better location for training dogs.
After an excellent lunch (Riitta works as a cook!) we went to look at the kennel area. The dogs are placed in yards with 2-3 dogs together on each side of a long pathway that leads out to a big fenced-in area the size of a soccer field. The dogs were let out there one to two times a day.Our first impression of the dogs was that they were big but not heavy. Pertii Liukkonen arrived with his Arctic Soul dogs. He had about 10 dogs and used them among other things to drive tourists.
The weather was on our side( pretty cold and wet), so Penttii and Pertti rigged the ATW so we could go for a training run. Before the last round our chosen male arrived from Eastxpress kennel. He had now become 8 months old and had just shed most of his coat. He had been tried in smaller teams and had showed willingness to go. We therefore put him in the middle of a team to see how he functioned. Perttii slowed down a bit on this round, and our new dog showed at least that he wanted to go forward.
The run had made us soaking wet, but after a pleasant visit to the sauna and another excellent meal, we continued the night by looking at pedigrees and pictures.
The next day we went to visit another dogdriver in the area, Penttii Piironen. He has earlier been very active in pure bred and open races, with good results. He had about 10 dogs, among them 5 males from the combination Ajatar Maksi×Arctic Soul Janka that he owned together with Mari. Mari and Penttii described these males as some of the best they had ever bred, and especially emphasized Jätkä and Uhku.
One day after we had arrived we left for Norway with a new dog. We had a stack of papers to be shown at the customs in Stockholm, but was told that there were no customs official present, so we could only proceed to the Norwegian border!? At the office at the Norwegian border they hardly looked at the dog and papers and said something like “ that’s probably ok”….After all the work it was pretty irritating.
Kari
