UPDATES / NEWS 2002

   DECEMBER

• 31.12.2002        31.12.2002 Happy 9th birthday Olga !
• 28.12.2002        New pictures of African Paavo.
• 27.12.2002       

  Siiri is pregnant ! She was scanned today and there are plenty of new Harjaselän puppies "cooking".

• 17.12.2002        Finally little Paavo has landed !
• 11.12.2002        We have done some new pages: HEALTH ISSUES is a page with links to important health issues, also the "old stuff" such standard and hip classification can be found there. LOVE STORY is also a new page, there you can see pictures of Siiri and Yankee in love. J-LITTER page has new pictures of Yankee. Puuma's puppy, Saba, has one new pic on her site. Thousand thanks to Minna, once again, of her huge help in updating the site !!
• 10.12.2002        We re-newed our health section and decided to add some very nice articles. You are most welcome to have a look ! I'd like to thank Cyndy Burton and Vicki Moritz of these nice articles - thank you !
• 08.12.2002        At Helsinki Winner Show we did have fun. 39 rrs were entered and the judge was a dalmatian breeder Mrs. Paula Rekiranta. All our breedings got excellents and the placements were: Mortti 1/2 (intermediate), Rico 1/3 (intermediate), Simba 1/4 (open), Niki 1/3 (intermediate) and Oona 1/- (open). Iita's progeny group was second with HP and also our Harjaselän breeders group was second with HP. Siiri made our day - in tough competition she placed as second best bitch with reserve cacib. The title was close, but maybe next year ? Congratulations to all winners and thank you to the owners of our breedings for being there with us !

• 30.11.2002        Few new pics on J-litter page. Outdoor pics will follow soon.

I'd like here especially to thank family Lauridsen (Henrik, Helle, Kristoffer & Sophie) for taking such a good care of us. THANK YOU !
Especially Henrik's cookings were fabulous. This was more than a holiday for both of us and I also believe that Siiri felt like a part of your family there.
• 28.11.2002        Late in the evening we were finally safely at home. Siiri and I were very tired, but also happy.
• 27.11.2002        Maybe Yankee knew that we were going to leave in the evening because she mated Siiri three times ! He would have done it even more, but I wanted to give Siiri some rest and also wanted to spend time with Puuma (Siiri's sister). In the evening we started our trip back home, this time we decided to take a catamaran (=fast ferry) from Århus to Själlands Odde. This way I saved some time and it costed as much as if I had taken the bridge + driving. When we got to Själland island I realized that there was a lot of fog. And this fog ended just before Stockholm, so the trip was rather tough. We stopped to sleep for an hour, because my eyes were so tired.
• 26.11.2002        Now Siiri was interesting again and they mated twice. It was time to start planning our trip home.
• 24.-25.11.2002        Yankee didn't find Siiri as interesting as the day before so they just played a lot and had fun. Siiri also had time to meet rest of the pack-Lauridsen; cats, pigs, sheep, chickens and ducks. This was a nice experience for her as there was always a fence between Siiri and the animals. Eventually she got used to the animals and didn't care anymore (she didn't even notice the free chicken anymore !). Helle was kind to take me to see Århus' old town (all houses were transported from around Denmark to this place and it was built like it was few hundreds year ago = very nice indeed !).
• 23.11.2002        In the afternoon we arrived to Kasted (small village near Århus). Yankee decided to mate Siiri right after our arrival. Rest of the day dogs played and slept. They made this special connection, like they had known each other for ages. Very cute to watch. They were totally in love.
• 22.11.2002        Early in the morning we hit the road and took a ferry from Turku to Stockholm. In Sweden we had about 580 km ahead to the next ferry between Sweden (Helsingborg) and Denmark (Helsingör). Rest of the trip was just highway and few beautiful bridges.
• 17.11.2002        Siiri's season has started, so very soon we'll hit the road to Denmark to visit Yankee.
  Saba (Harjaselän Ijumaa Imani) has a new fresh layout on her site, now also in English.
• 16.11.2002        This time we slept 2 hours before hitting the road to Jyväskylä international show. On the way we collected dalmatian Taavi, Oona and Minna, Niki and finally Rico. Again the dalmatians' ring started at 9, so that's why we left so early. Taavi placed 5th in his class. Ridgie entry was 10 dogs and in males only 3 dogs were competing, 2 in intermediate class and one veteran. Ibu won over his brother Rico (his first indoor show) and got cq. And when the veteran didn't receive cq, Ibu became best male and got first CACIB. In females Niki was second in her class, so was Siiri and Oona got her first blue ribbon (=very good). 2 months ago this same judge considered her worth of cq (bb-5 in Porvoo). This is what makes the shows so exciting, you never know what will happen ! In the finals Ibu was BOS. Congratulations !
• 02.11.2002        Lewanika Bulikani (aka Saba) was BOB-puppy and BIG in unofficial puppy show in Espoo. She has now own page at our site. Congratulations to owner Minna and breeder Helle Lauridsen !
  Also we have added few new pics to Sonja's page.

• 27.10.2002        Our Seinäjoki trip was rather tough, but nobody else to blame than me... Minna stayed over and after midnight, I got this very "wise" idea... we decided not to sleep at all. Something positive - the whole world is now a better place, at least we think so. Pasi woke up at 03.30 and after an hour we hit the road (360 km ahead). He drove all the way there in very bad conditions, when we left the rain was plain water, but after 60 km it started to rain wet snow after that the road became very icy. We were at Seinäjoki 8 a.m, an hour before dalmatians were to start. They both got cq's and Charlie placed bm5, Taavi didn't place this time.
  Our turn was after dalmatians as the judge was same - Arne Foss, No. 10 rrs were entered and one was missing. Ibu won intermediate class and got cq. In finals he placed between open class males as bm 2 winning his second certificate. Congratulations !
  In females Oona and Siiri were only competitors in open class. Siiri won with cq (only cq in females) and Oona was second and continued of gettin' excellents. Siiri ended up as BOS.
• 26.10.2002        Ibu's "dad" called to us and asked if we could take Ibu to Seinäjoki, because most of his family was sick. We agreed and he dropped Ibu to us late in the evening. I still cannot believe this dogs temperament (I'm writing this on Monday and he will be picked up today). Ibu has never been away from home and he is here just like he had always lived here ! No crying, no nervousness, no nothing. Also our girls don't mind at all. Ibu's family has done a great job when raising him - well done ! Oona also stayed with us with mom Minna. Last summer Oona was with us 2 days (and nights) and she managed just fine. And that time we slept in our van as we were "on the road".
• 24.10.2002        Finally remembered to develop the film - new pics updated to pages Mortti, Wilma, Siiri's roots (Siiri) and Friends. Now the site is TOTALLY ready (until I get some more ideas...). But all pics and texts should be found and all corrections have been done. I couldn't have done all this without Minna's enormous help - THANK YOU ! I owe you a lot...
  "Don't mention it! Minna
  
• 23.10.2002        We have finally also created a Finnish site. You can easily click the flag to choose the language. Also some minor changes has been made in many pages such as new pics added. Thanks Minna for your great help !
• 18.10.2002        New pics of Wilma, our Northern girl. Thanks for the pics Petteri & Katja !
  
• 13.10.2002        After 1300 kilometers we are finally safely at home. 12.10. at Oulu international show Mortti was second in his class and Siiri was best bitch 2 with res.cacib. Finally we met Wilma near the show ground and took few pics of Wilma's and Mortti's play. Our trip was a lot of fun, thanks to Jonna (dalmatians' owner) and Jussi (Mortti's owner).
  We have created a new page (again..). It's in our picturealbum and called RRs in work. At the moment there're pics of Numa and our friend Veikko, but new pics will be added in future. The page is not only for our girls/breedings, it's for RIDGEBACKS.
  
• 10.10.2002        More pics added to I- and K-litters pedigree = greetings from AU. Thank you Cyndy !! New pics also of Numa working.
  
• 08.10.2002        We ended up with 2 Africa pages (I'm very proud about it), you can access them from main menu: SIIRI'S ROOTS (part I & part II). And new pics updated to pages: Kubu, Mortti, Rico and Topi.
  
• 06.10.2002        We got our first snow yesterday in Lohja !! But we still decided to drive 200 kms to inofficial lure coursing competition (only for rrs) which was held in Harjavalta. Siiri ran really nicely and in the finals she was 3rd (=bronze). This was only her second time when competing, her first time was when she took part to RR camps lure couring competition and she made a nice debut by winning the competition. All lure course competitions are inofficial (for rrs), but we all hope that very soon we can compete officially. Special mention to Siiris' dad, Misango...his offspring won the placements 1-3; Congratulations !
  
• 05.10.2002        Well, a lot has happened again - We have a brand new page called "SIIRI'S AFRICAN FAMILY". You're very welcommed to have a peek. I've collected all treasures (=pics) to the same page and I wanna introduce Siiri's African lines better. Also (I've been busy) there is a new page called "MORE ABOUT THE STUDS TO BE USED". I felt like we needed to tell a bit more about the males to our next 2 litters. You can access to that page from Puppy plans, J-litter or K-liier page. Now I made a short cut from here...just click the "MORE ABOUT....
  
• 04.10.2002        Minna is still the master of this site ! I haven't had the guts to load these back to my computer, because I'm too afraid that this will crash down again. Minna there're no words to thank you.....
  
• 03.10.2002        All pedigrees are now pictorial ! Some dogs are still missing, but as soon as we get more pics, we'll update them. Have a look at Siiri's pedigree, many really nice South-African ridgies there. I want to mention Marié Potgieter especially, she has sent me most of the pics: THANK YOU !
  We have created a new section: RIDGEBACK. There will be issues to do something with health. Now there are two pages, the other one is about hips/elbow classification and the other one is the breed standard (how it is used in Finland), a little bit mixed with American and South-African standard, spiced with my own experience (from over 150 shows)
  

   SEPTEMBER 

• 30.09.2002        And again ...FINALLY - All the pictures are here and all thumbnails work!
• 22.09.2002        FINALLY - We updated this site ! Some pics are not here and all thumbnails don't work because my computer is out of order at the moment. Fortunately I saved the site before shit happened...All missing pics will be here very soon, be patient.
  
• 16.09.2002        All right - I'VE LOST !! We had a competition with Minna about who's site will be ready first. She sure has done a great job with Oona's site. Please take a look and enjoy: OONA ! 
• 15.09.2002        At Porvoo (entry 21) all breed nat.show Rico made his debut, at 16 months,  in the show rings. I must mention here that I'm really proud of Rico, he let the judge examine him just fine, he moved fine etc. and this rr has never shown before !! This is why I'm so proud of our breedings temperament. He placed as second in intermediate class and his brother, Kubu, was third. Oona did well again, she was second in open class, got cq and in the finals she placed as 5th best female. Congratulations to all and thank you for coming to Porvoo...to freeze with us !!
  
• 07.09.2002        At Helsinki (entry 18) all breed nat.show Mortti received his second CERTIFICATE and surprised us winning BOS ! Congratulations to Mortti's owners! Niki was 4th in intermediate class and Oona was 3rd in open class and received CQ. Siiri won open class and placed 2nd best bitch in finals. Our judge was Piotr Krol, PL.
  

   AUGUST 

• 30.08.2002        FINALLY !! A big step was done....This site is almost ready ! Special thanks belongs to Minna Nuotio who helped me 7 hours with awful mess with pages. It sure wasn't a joke when I wrote many of you that I don't understand much about making this site...I also wanna thank Monika Loda (in London) who designed me a new (very nice) logo and banner. Thanks also belongs to Gabi (in Poland) who originally created us a site and she took care of it till now - THANK YOU ALL ! Maybe I should laugh more when this entire site is in the internet...
  
• 25.08.2002        In Heinola show Mortti got a CQ and placed as 3rd best male. Siiri was again 4th best bitch. This time our judge was Helen Furber from Australia. Dalmatian Taavi was BOS in Heinola.
  
• 24.08.2002        In Kouvola Mortti placed as 3rd in intermediate males class and Siiri was 4th best bitch. Our judge came from Hungary and was Miklos Levente. Pasi also showed a dalmatian (Kamilkan Väinämöinen aka Taavi) who was BOB and in the finals he placed as BIG 2 !! Straight from the show (actually in the evening) we drove to next show. On the way we had real nice swim in the lake. Mortti's folks also spent a weekend "on the road" with us ( they had rented a really nice camper).
  
• 15.08.2002        Iita was scanned today and the results was a HUGE SHOCK...she is not with pups ! Life still goes on...
• 14.08.2002        Siiri's INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP was finally confirmed by FCI. She got the title with 14 CACIBs from 6 different countries (only 4 is needed...) - Good girl !
  
• 10.08.2002        In Turku, national all breed, show Simba was second best male and Ibu won junior class with HP. The judge was Ritva Raita, FI
• 09.08.2002        Siiri was mentality tested in Orivesi by Swedish tester, Barbro Börjesson. She has tested hundreds of ridgebacks in Sweden and has much knowledge of these tests. Unfortunately this test is not official in Finland.
  
• 04.08.2002        In Somero, national all breed, show we had a BLAST ! We had entered Siiri and also 3 Iita's offspring (Niki, Ibu and Simba) and the total entry was 19. In males Ibu won junior class with CQ and received first CERTIFICATE. Simba also won open class. Ibu was best male and Simba second best male. Niki won junior bitches with CQ and received also first CERTIFICATE. Siiri won open class. In the finals Siiri was BOB and Niki second best bitch and Ibu was BOS. CONGRATULATIONS to the owners ! The judge was Nina Karldotter, SE
  
• 03.08.2002        In Valkeakoski, national all breed, show Siiri was BOB. The judge was Paula Heikkinen-Lehkonen, FI

   JULY 

• 27.07.2002        In Rauma Siiri became BOB and BIG 3 and Oona placed 3rd bitch in open class
• 20.07.2002        In Helsinki, national all breed, show we sure had a lovely day : Mortti won junior male class and got the first CERTIFICATE, Ibu was second with HP and Kubu third. In open males class Topi won (no CQ) and Simba was second. In bitches Siiri won open class (no CQ) and Iita was second. We also had second time ever breeders group and Iita's progeny group. Both groups were BOB and received HP, so this opened "the door" to the main ring. In the finals Iita's progeny class was BIS II !! And our breeders class was BIS V !! The judge was Jill Cronchey, AU. Doesn't need to mention that I was rather proud of "our babies". Special thanks to all owners who stayed with us to the finals. Rather nice birthday present for me... (and don't even ask....just too many years !)
  
• 14.07.2002        Next day in Kokkola international show Siiri was BOB with CACIB and Simba was second best male. The judge was Karl-Erik Johansson, SE
• 13.07.2002        At Mikkeli, national all breed, show Siiri finally made it to BOB. In the finals she was BIG !! The judge was Paula Heikkinen-Lehkonen, FI        
• 11.07.2002        Iita was inseminated finally, after a horrible mess, in Turku. Special thanks to vet Tiina Illukka (veterinary clinic Pet Vet) who inseminated Iita very late in the evening. Also Mäntsälä Vet Clinic is worth of mentioning as they gave me many invaluable advices : THANK YOU !
  

   JUNE 

• 30.06.2002        At Loimaa, national all breed, show Siiri was again BOS, now the judge was Rune Malmberg, SE
• 29.06.2002        At Forssa international show, Siiri was BOS and got one CACIB more, the judge was Helge Lie, NO
• 16.06.2002        At Virkkala (=Lohja), national all breed, show we had nice success : Niki was second best bitch and Simba was BOB and BIG 2 - Congratulations !
• 15.06.2002        We had our 2nd puppy meeting in Lohja. You can see/read more from the "puppy meeting"
• 09.06.2002        At Lapua, national all breed, show Siiri placed again as second best bitch (the judge was Ritva Raita, FI)    
• 08.06.2002         At Pietarsaari, national all breed, show Siiri placed as second best bitch (the judge was Lars Adeheimer, SE)  
• 02.06.2002        At Tuusula, national all breed, show Simba was BOS, got his last (=3 rd) CAC and thus became a Finnish Champion, this makes him a first Harjaselän champion - Congratulations !! Siiri placed as second best bitch. The judge was Diana Leigh, ES
  

   MAY 

• 19.05.2002        In our specialty, which was held in Aptus-show (Helsinki national all breed), we had a nice day. Siiri was best bitch (she has been best bitch twice in the specialty and last year she was second) being BOS. Iita was 3rd and Oona 5th in open class, Niki won junior class with CQ. In males Simba was 5th in open class and Mortti was 3rd in junior class. This was the first time ever for us, when we had a change to have a breeders class. Harjaselän breeders class was second and Iita's (Ikimba Marimba) progeny class was bob-progeny class. In the finals we went all the way to BIS I !!
  
• 18.05.2002        In Pori, national all breed show, Siiri was best bitch 2.      
• 03.05.2002        Topi's (Harjaselän Harubah) x-ray results are official, HD:A, ED:0/0 - Congratulations !
  

   APRIL 

• 28.04.2002        At int. show in Lahti, Iita, mommy of 20 pups, became 5th best bitch ! She also won over Siiri, who placed in open class as 4th. Simba was 3rd in open class and Sonja 2nd in junior class with HP. Unfortunately Kubu decided to "stay untouched", so the judge had no chance to evaluate him properly though she liked him a lot.
  
• 05.04.2002        At int. show in Warszaw, Poland, we had a blast ! In males Simba won his class (open) and Hekima placed as second. Saba (Harjaselän Ijumaa Imani) was 4th in her class (junior) and in her very first show she was judged as very promising ! Iita won her class (open) and Siiri also won her class (champion). In the finals Simba placed as 2nd best male with CWC (=CAC) & Res.CACIB, Iita placed as 2nd best bitch with CWC & Res.CACIB and our day was completed when Siiri was chosen BOB (with CWC & CACIB) and eventually BIG 3 !! Our judge was Elke Peper, DE. I wanna thank all Polish RR folk for great support - THANKS !
  

   MARCH 

• 30.03.2002        At nat. show in Lappeenranta Siiri was 5th best bitch.
• 17.03.2002        At int. show in Tampere Siiri was BOS with CACIB
• 12.03.2002        Ronja's (Harjaselän Hera) x-ray results are official, HD:C (B/C), ED:0/0. Our kennel union's vet told me that I should take her to new pics, because her hips were rather loose, we'll see...
  

   FEBRUARY 

• 16.02.2002        At int. show in Imatra Harjaselän Ijumaa Ithibati aka Kubu was BOB-puppy and Siiri was best bitch 5. Congratulation to kennel Dahari who had a historical BIS 1 breeders group !! First time in Finland for rrs. Way to go, Riitta !
  
• 02.02.2002        Siiri took part to Champion of Champions gala evening (a formal party) and she made it to the top 16 (out of 69 dogs). This was a show where the most successful dogs (from all breeds) of year 2001 were invited.
  

   JANUARY 

• 27.01.2002         At int. show in Turku we had few breedings in the ring - Harjaselän Hongo aka Simba placed as 5th best male, in puppy class Harjaselän Ijumaa Ilizi aka Niki was best female puppy and Harjaselän Ijumaa Ilimba aka Sonja was 3rd. Harjaselän Ijumaa Iburi aka Ibu was 2nd best male puppy and Harjaselän Ijumaa Inda aka Aatu was 3rd best male puppy. Siiri placed as 4th best bitch.
  
• 19.01.2002        Siiri took part in breeding examination and got the highest score for the day : excellent !!
• 06.01.2002        At int. show in Kajaani we had some success : Harjaselän Ijumaa Ithibati aka Kubu was BOB-puppy (chosen also among 10 finalists, but didn't place). Siiri was BOB & BIG3, winning CACIB.
• 04.01.2002       Some of H-puppies (& Siiri) have been x-rayed with results: Oona HD : A, ED : 0/0, Numa HD : A, ED : 0/0, Simba HD : B(A/B), ED : 1/1 and Siiri HD : B, ED : 0/1 - Not a bad way to start this year...