meet the dogs 1

This is Neka, my 4-year-old Finnish Lapphund. Her proper kennel name is Elbereth Onnekas ('onnekas' means 'lucky' in Finnish.) But Onnekas was a bit of a mouthful, so we settled on just Neka. I've been mad about animals all my life but she was my first ever dog and one of the best things that I've ever done is to bring her into my life.

Finnish Lapphunds are rare in England and typically you will have to wait several months to get one - and that's after you've jumped through a few hoops and proven you will give one of these great dogs a great home.

Four years ago they were even harder to come by and and before we had met one in the flesh, we actually struck them off our shortlist of breeds we liked because we thought we would have to wait too long to get one. I'm a bit of an instant gratification kinda girl and the idea of waiting upwards of 18 months for a dog once I had finally made up my mind the time was right to get one was just out of the question. So with open minds Mr J and I went off to the huge dog show Crufts for the first time to see some breeds and find out about them from the people who know and love them.

As far as looks were concerned, we were leaning towards Spitz types, and mostly quite rare breeds as well. In addition to Shetland Sheepdogs, we liked Chow Chows, Eurasiers, and Norwegian Buhunds. We wanted something fairly small and portable and quite strong emotionally in order to fit in with our rather chaotic lifestyle. Mr J was working part-time in the day and we were also performing in a musical duo 2 or 3 times a week. We could take a little-ish dog with us most places we went, so long as it was going to be happy staying in the van for a couple of hours at night. Dogs respond best to routine, but the only routine we could offer was a complete absence of one.

So we wandered around and around Crufts, wide-eyed at the crowds and the surreal sight of, for example, 100 Samoyeds all in one place. Then, without planning it, we rounded a corner and found the rows of Finnish Lapphunds. They were so engaging, meeting our eyes and eager to say hello. They were smaller than we had expected too. It only took one look and we made up our minds straight away to wait as long as necessary.

Well, as it happened we didn't have to wait so long. We got lucky, and 3 months later Neka came to stay. This is what she looked like at 10 weeks old. Cute, huh?

She was quite a handful at first and very demanding. She had so much energy and was very clever. We went to lots of training classes and she was a real star - very quick to learn and enthusiastic. They are a slow-maturing breed and by the time she was 2 years old she was the perfect dog. Happy, loyal, good company and with a great sense of humour. What more could you ask of a best friend?

Last year Neka had 7 puppies of her own. 2 girls, 5 boys - 5 brown and 2 black. How tough was it to part with these little hooligans? Well, frankly, by the time they were ready for their new homes, I was also ready for them to go to their new homes. It was wonderful to have them for the first 7 or 8 weeks of their lives but very hard work!

The puppies are now almost 10 months old and they are so beautiful and have such wonderful temperments that I'm even tempted to do it all again...

But how to fit a litter of puppies in with training for a hike? For both me and Neka!