Mallorn�s kennel

     I got my first labrador, a black bitch, 22 years ago, when I was still a schoolgirl. I got immediately hooked on dogs - especially labradors - and one year later I had a second dog, who became my foundation bitch CH Sandy. She was chocolate, but to be honest, I wasn�t first very impressed with her colour, I would have prefered a black but she came from a full chocolate litter, so I had to take her! Later I got very interested in chocolates too, of course, and I try to breed labradors in all three colours. My first litter was born 1983.

    CH Sandy was a nice brood bitch, and especially her first litter with Roseacre Madigan (a yellow English import) became important for the finnish chocolate labrador future. Her daughters Mallorn�s Applesauce and Aprilfool produced some very important labradors. Applesauce became the foundation of Loresho kennel, and again became mother of CH Loresho Oystercatcher, the foundation of Bubbling kennel. Aprilfool stayed in my kennel, and was mother to some lovely chocolates. Her daughter FIN CH Mallorn�s Jersey Sour was mother to FIN CH Loresho Ozzie, for example. All the Loresho lines go back to these two bitches: Applesauce and Jersey Sour.

    In the early 90�s I bought a black bitch from another line: CH Craneridge Andwella became the foundation of my black (and lately yellow, too!) line. She is behind all my important blacks and yellows. In her first litter with AM&CAN CH Beechcrofts Danish Skydiver she produced several successfull labradors, and two bitches (who both had 1 CC) were used once for breeding: M. Koh-I-Noor and M. Kiss Me Kate. Koh-I-Noor produced my FIN CH M. Opium, mother to Multi CH Mallorn�s Topgallant (living in Holland) and FIN CH Mallorn�s Shenandigan, a really handsome black who is living in my kennel. Opium�s litter brother is also a very well known dog, INT&FIN CH Nordic Winner�97 Mallorn�s Onassis. Kiss Me Kate produced FIN CH Mallorn�s Poison, who has produced some lovely puppies, too. Her daughter FIN CH M. Xanadu produced in her first litter 3 champions (1 Japanese and 2 Finnish) and one with 3 CC�s (just the working test has to be passed for the FIN CH -title), and they are only 2 ½ years. Now her second, very promising litter is growing - they are only 4 months old but I have high hopes! Her daughter M. Fata Morgana (3 CC�s) is the first yellow I have kept for years, and now I also have a yellow son by her, M. Blue Notes growing.

    With chocolates it�s always very difficult and complicated! My line descending from CH Sandy almost disappeared. I had some bad luck with Aprilfool�s children, and suddenly I didn�t have anything left from that line. This happens very easily in a kennel, if you can keep only a few dogs at the same time... But I was lucky to get a new start: I imported two chocolate bitches from England from the famous Boothgates kennel. The first one, a Boothgates Headliner daughter Boothgates Letter Writer, only had one litter in her life, with Loresho Tango (who is linebread to CH Sandy). She had a litter of 4 puppies, and I kept a chocolate bitch M. Chocolate Magic. She has had one litter so far, with 3 puppies. M. Cardamon (living in Germany) is Jugend CH 2001 and his brother in Estonia M. Coconut was BOB, Group-1 and BIS-4 in Tallinna INT Show, in his first show ever! I have their sister M. Cinnamon. 

     The second bitch I bought from England was my real pride and joy, FIN CH Bootgates Miz Showbusiness, �Coco�. She�s a super labrador with the sweetest temperament, and she seems to be a lovely producer, too. She has several CC -winning offspring in her both litters. Her first litter was with CH Loresho Ozzie (son to Mallorn�s Jersey Sour). From this litter a chocolate dog was imported to England, and several other puppies are living with breeders in different countries. I kept a choc bitch for myself: M. MMM Marabou. She just became 2 years old and I have started to show her. This year she has attended only two shows where we had very big entries (over 150 labs): our Club Show where she was Best Bitch and our Retriever Club Main Speciality where she was 3. Best of Bitches. I feel she has a great career coming!

    In Coco�s second litter with M. Shenandigan she has also produced really lovely labradors. They are just 13 months. I have a dog from this litter living in my kennel, M. Arcturus.I have shown him twice this year, too, at the same shows with her half sister M. MMM Marabou. In the Club Show he won his class and at the retriever Club Speciality he became 2. Best Dog, he was only beaten by his sire Shenandigan. I believe he is also going to have a great future. His brother M. Aldebaran in Holland has already 3  BOB�s from his latest 3 shows, and a sister in Finland has 2 CC�s, too.

    I also have some dogs bought from other kennels. At the moment, my black Dutch CH Dutch Clubwinner�99 NordicWinner�99 Trendmaker�s Tycoon is doing stud work in USA at Dickendall�s kennel, but he will be back home next spring. He is a swedish import and has some lovely offspring in several countries. In his show career, there is a special win I have to mention: year 1999 he won BOB at the NLV Club Match in Bennekom, Holland, which is a speciality with a huge entry, over 800 labradors from different european countries.

   At the moment I have also a promising finnish bred yellow youngster (13 months) Mailiksen Gentleman, who will be shown more next year. He is coming from a lovely line of labradors, and as my Xanadu made such a lovely litter with a Mailiksen dog of a very similar background, I hope he will be a nice stud for my bitches.

    I live very far north, in Lapland. My husband breeds racing Alaskan huskies (sleddogs), and husky safaris are also the main income for our family. Sled dogs are very fascinating and I have learnt a lot of new things about dogs since I met my husband! So we are a very doggy family. The distance to all main labrador happenings is very long for me, but I still try my best, I feel it�s very important to take part to Club Shows, specialities and most important INT shows. Showing abroad is just a bit of a problem, as I have to travel 1000 km first to get to Helsinki, a short trip to another country takes always a few days more for me than to the breeders living more south. The long distance has also prevented me to start studying to become an official judge, my children are only 3 and 4 years and I already spend quite a lot of time �on the road�.

    It�s very difficult to write a short story about the last 20 years! But I wish you all very good luck with your dogs and this hobby. Labradors are lovely, intelligent dogs, and I find labrador breeding very challenging and of great interest. It is sometimes very difficult and frustrating, too, and both ups and downs are definitely a part of this way of life. But it has been great to have so many new friends from different countries, and the dogs of course give me a lot of pleasure just in our everyday life. In Finland we have an exellent athmosphere and good sportmanship among breeders in this breed, and very open breeding policy. I think these two things have made the Finnish labradors so high in the quality and well-known worldwide.

 Anu Honkapirtti & Mallorn�s labradors