Introduction

My history as a dog lover follows ”the ordinary story” of a girl who just wanted to have a very own dog. In my case the breed was chosen already as a youngster, when I used to go to obedience training - “the doggy school”, as it was called at that time - with a crossbred bitch called Manta. At the training place I was very fascinated of a noble Tervueren male dog Otto. At that time I decided, some day I would have a dog like him. I managed to talk my parents to buying a dog but there was one thing they insisted on: the dog had to be small. So, after few discussions, I got a Shetland Sheepdog puppy called Peppi.


When I moved away from home because of the university studies I wanted to finally take a Belgian Sheperd Dog. After all I however decided to put off this purchase until I would have ideal conditions to offer for a lively dog like a Belgian Sheperd Dog: a garden and enough time. When the time of finishing the studies was coming closer the dream of an own Belgian Sheperd Dog bursted into flames again. Only the colour of the dog of my dreams had turned into black during the years - from Tervueren to Groenendael.

I started to look for an interesting breeder and litter about a year before I wanted to have the puppy. I visited training places to get to know Groenendaels and their owners - and made many good friends already. While looking for information I formed a clear picture in my mind of the kind of dog I wanted to have: it should be above all healthy and it should have a lively character and the qualities of a suitable dog for hobbies. On ground of this I became interested in a coming litter of Kennel Valkohampaan (s. Wintergame Enrico, d. Valkohampaan Enigma). I visited the breeder, got to know the dam and as many related dogs as possible. After that I felt very happy getting to know I could have a female puppy of this combination.

There were two males and two females born. Because one female was going to Germany, I knew I would get the one that would be left in Finland. As I went to look the puppies I secretly hoped that I would get the little girl that seemed to be calmer and behaved nicely - as the other girl was growling when I lifted her and bit anything and everything. Well, everything doesn't always happen as you wish in the life - and sometimes the things turn out even better you could ever expect yourself. The calm female flew to Germany and the little beast moved to us. And nothing was like before.

Halla came into the house

If I had had a slightly expectation in my mind that a Belgian Sheperd Dog puppy might be a little bit shy and cautious, Halla showed me from the first moment she didn't match that picture at all. After the first week together I felt like a wet rag and having a nervous breakdown, since Halla had caused me many extra heart beats every now and then by rushing into her own expeditions without any self protection. Because Halla used to prey everything and anything that was moving I learner very fast to always carry a toy or titbits to get Halla's attention when needed. When Halla met other people she always first kissed them to death and then made an attack on a sleeve, trouser leg or anything she could catch. And the more the target was resisting, the more fun it was for Halla. For some reason our guests liked her the most when she was sleeping.

Of course it was on the other hand very easy to go around with Halla, because she wasn't afraid of anything. And after I learned to direct her energy and attention into the right things, I had a puppy that was very eager to please me and that learned new things very fast. Originally I had thought of starting agility with Halla. However, with the help of a very good friend of mine, Erja Juvakka (Kennel Eloisa), I started to teach Halla the first steps of tracking. Halla seemed to be very talented as well in tracking as in obedience, and since there's nothing that motivates you better than succeeding in something I noticed very soon that I had fallen for this new hobby. We performed the BH-Test with a great obedience part when Halla was a little over a year old. A couple of months after that we performed the tracking trial JK1 with high scores. Our first performance in obedience was when Halla was 1 year old, and half a year after that we had the obedience Titles TK1 and TK2. It was obvious, that I was very lucky to have a great dog for hobbies - and especially a kind of dog that suits for me. Although not even I could have believed that, that at the end of the summer 2007 we would stand as the gold medallist on the podium of the Finnish tracking championships for all breeds. That was a dream I hadn't even dared to dream about.

Becoming a breeder

The elder Belgian Sheperd Dog owners use to say: “First you have only one Belgian Sheperd Dog, and then you'll have them several.” Because of Halla I got so absorbed in the dog world that I every now and then found myself thinking about suitable males for Halla. Breeding started to interest me more and more, and when I soon wanted to have another Groenendael I wanted to look for not only a good dog for hobbies but also a male with an interesting pedigree. In the spring 2006 I brought a male puppy Eico von der Simmeringer Haide from Austria. The future will show us, if he'll be a male for breeding. As a family member Eico is so far as much worth of gold as Halla.

I passed the exam for getting an own breeder's name in the spring 2007 and the name of Talvihallan Kennel was approved for me in the same year. In the autumn 2007 I brought in co-operation with Erja Juvakka and Sari Nieminen a groenendael male puppy Udo des Cretuz Neufs from Switzerland. The first Talvihallan groenendael puppies - Talvihallan B-litter - were born in July 2008 and from this litter we kept the only female Bilehile.

The goal

My goal as a breeder follows the criteria for my own dogs. The most important thing for me is health that I consider as the basis for everything. Unfortunately hardly not any individual is entirely healthy as far as the genotype is considered, and unfortunately also in the breed of the Belgian Sheperd Dogs there are plenty of disorders that have been spread out. It's impossible to plan a litter without any risk, but I believe, though, that it is possible to resist the hereditary disorders and control the risks by doing breeding plans carefully.

My aim is to breed possibly healthy litters by collecting information about health as widely and as carefully as possible. I myself constantly increase my knowledge of genetics and the hereditary diseases. I only use healthy dogs for breeding. Because many of the hereditary diseases only burst at the age of 4 or even later, my principle is to use for breeding dogs that are at least 4 years old or elder. That is my way to ensure that I have possibly much information about the health situation of the breeding dogs and their litter mates. I x-ray my own dogs and have their eyes checked at least twice. I encourage the owners of the dogs of my litters to do the same. For the whole Groenendael population I try to plan litters that'll do their own part of keeping the gene pool wide and resistance for the hereditary diseases.

Another main goal for me is to breed Groenendaels with a good character. For me a good character is as much like the Belgian Sheperd Dog standard as possible. In my opinion a Belgian Sheperd Dog has to be suitable for working trials. As having working trials as a hobby myself, too, I consider strong drives, courage and desire to fight as the most important qualities. These are the basis for that, that the dog himself is motivated to work and that the training is also rewarding for the owner. Of course a dog should also be stable for the every day life. An individual dog is always a sum of his qualities. For me an ideal Belgian Sheperd Dog is a sparkling “package” with high drives and an inexhaustible desire to work - yet everything stable and well balanced. It is this kind of dogs that I try to achieve with my future litters. The starting point for every litter is that I myself would like to have a puppy of the litter. In that way I believe that the litter also could fulfil the expectations of other Belgian Sheperd Dog lovers.

Meeting us

I work as a teacher in a comprehensive school in Tampere, and my husband Jani is self-employed at the field of construction. We live in an old country house in Ylöjärvi, near the city of Tampere. For us the dogs are family members; they live with us in the house as well as they're keeping an eye on our big yard. Dog-related hobbies for me and my husband are also jogging and hiking: we have for example spent a wonderful summer holiday hiking in the Swiss Alps with our dogs.

The puppies grow up inside the house so that they get used to the every day life from the very first moments of their lives. We want to offer them plenty of possibilities to study the world so that they can move into their new homes as lively, energetic and stable Groenendael puppies.

The kennel name Talvihallan is in honour of the dog of my life, Halla, that is the stud female of my kennel. I hope that the great character of Halla will always live in the future Talvihallan Groenendaels and that the Talvihallan puppies will bring their owners as much joy of life as Halla has brought to me.

Anne Kilpi