Show year starts at Kajaani international....

Year 2013 could not have started better!!

The first show of the year is traditional Kajaani Int. The judge was mr. Ralf Campbell from Norway and we had 3 basenjis to show.

Junior male Ruuti (Hi-Lite Saturday Night Fever) showed himself like a pro and was BOB-junior with a faultless critique!

Tico (Hi-Lite Honky Tonk) won best male with a cacib and a cc!
Sister Hertta (Hi-Lite Hula Hoops) won best bitch with a cacib and a cc!!
This time Tico was given BOB and Hertta BOS, how great is that :)

So both Tico and Hertta became Fi & No champions at the age of only 25 months, first try out!

Congratulations Niina & Pete and Mari & Timo, and thank you for loving our "babies"!

In the finals Ruuti almost hit the biggest jackpot being Best In Show-2 junior dog out of something like 40 bob-junior dogs! He moved like a dream in the big ring. Our warmest congratulations to his owners Tuija & Aki!
Thank you judge mr. Harri Lehkonen.

We are over the moon of this success, let's see what the rest of the year will bring for Hi-Lite :)

Happy New Year 2013 to all our friends all over the world!!

Our puppies are growing up beautifully - they are 5 weeks today and we love them to bits <3

Crowning of the year - Helsinki shows

The end of the show season here in Finland has (I guess) always been the Helsinki show in December. This year it was Helsinki Winner show on Saturday and Finnish Winner show on Sunday.

We had absolutely fab time with all our friends and the results were at least pleasing as well:

Mr. Christian Leneuf from France was the judge on Sat and our super lovely junior boys Ruuti and Raisu were shown first. Raisu was, for some reason, a bit too chubby for the judge but gorgeous Ruuti did great and was 2nd with excellent and a cq out of 9 junior males! He was the best Finnish junior dog :)

In intermediate class we showed brothers Rocky and Tico as well. They both got excellents with cq, Rocky 1st and Tico 2nd.
In the best male competition Rocky was beautifully 2nd best with res-cacib and res-cc!!! This was great news.

In bitches we only showed Rocky's gorgeous moving sister Hertta. She did great job with Janne and was 3rd best bitch that day; both Rocky and Hertta were the best Finnish dog and bitch of the day and we are very very proud!!

Thanks to our dear puppy owners, we could show Hi-Lite breeders group for the 2nd time ever. There were 3 groups entered and 2 shown, our group won!! The feeling was also great to be able to show this group later on in the finals :)

This is the critique of our group:
"Harmonic group with homogenous head type, bodies, size and colour. Beautiful harmony in movement. All dogs shown represent excellent quality."

Photo: Anna-Maija Issakainen

Our huge and handsome Central Asian Owtcharka Faruk was also shown and the result was another title for him: he was best male with cacib and HEW-12 title :)

On Sunday the judge was mr. Hans Lehtinen, a world famous Finnish all rounder judge.
This time it was 10 junior males!! We are extremely proud of our youngsters; Raisu 2nd and Ruuti 3rd!! Again, they were the best Finnish bred dogs, how great is that!!

For Rocky, the result was the same as on Sat; 2nd best male with cc and res-cacib and was the best Finnish dog. Handsome brother Tico got res-cc!! Tico had faultless critiques both days <3 In bithces, Hertta upgraded her placement to BEST BITCH with cc and cacib and the title FIW-12!!! She truly is a beautiful mover and we are very happy about her <3 The breeders group competition was a copy from Saturday, and we are thrilled to publish this critique of our winning group: "Very even group of dogs that have beautiful outlines. Typical, healthy built specimen all over. Proud movement. Good toplines." So far we have been able to show our breeders group for 3 times resulting 3 x BOB!

We want to congratulate and thank our dear friends and owners of Tico, Ruuti, Rocky, Raisu and Hertta for being there for us and taking your lovely dogs to Helsinki shows. It means the world to us <3

Thanks also to Mama Bulldobas and Ari & Janne, and Helena just for... you know. You are the best!!

Puppies are here!!

Yesterday, Sunday evening, Maisa finally gave birth to her beautiful puppies! Actually, it was the expected day, 63.

We have now 1 handsome boy and 4 beautiful girls. It took only 1 hours 45 mins for Maisa to deliver them. They all were very even in size and are extremely strong and healthy! Maisa is being a lovely mother producing milk :)

Thank you all for you congratulations, we are very happy indeed!

Huge Jyväskylä Int Show on Father's Day

After a pause of two months from showing, we went to this big and traditional show in Jyväskylä.

This time we had with us only young kiddos, Rocky and sister Hertta, then the 10 month old brothers Raisu and Ruuti who were for the first time in official classes.

We were thrilled after junior males as Raisu won and Ruuti was 2nd, both with cq! The entry of junior males was 5, so this was a big thing for us.

Rocky was the winner in intermediate class, with a cq also and then there were all our boys in the best male competition. And they did great, as Raisu was awarded the 2nd best male prize with a cc and Rocky was 4th. This was more than we had hoped for :)

In the bitches we only had Hertta, who was beautifully by "Janne-the-hubby" this time. She is a gorgeous mover and this was also noticed by the judge as in the end she was 2nd best bitch with a cc!
(We also want to congratulate Ari for Siiri's win and her new title CIB!)

We were mostly excited to show our breeder's group for the first time ever. The result could not have been better as we were given the first prize and loads of praises from the judge, mr. Eddie Patterson from Ireland. Thank you judge!

In the finals our group of youg boys plus a girly-girl Hertta managed to make a cut to the best 6 groups of the show!!!!! We naturally still need to practise a bit more with them but overall we are over the moon! This is something nice to continue with.

Our thank yous go to the owners of Raisu, Rocky, Ruuti and Hertta, you love your dogs and keep them in the perfect shape. This was also noticed by the judge as in every dogs' critique it said: "shown in excellent condition" :)

Thank you also to dear Ari and Bulldobas-Tipi, for everything ever, not to mention for your help showing our group. Love you guys!

Here a photo of our cc-winner girl Hertta, taken in October. She is a very beautiful mover!

Photo by Mira Wagner.

Puppies, puppies, puppies on the way!

Many weeks since the latest update, but as you know, the fall with basenjis in season is verrrry busy!

First I have to share the happy news that our beautiful Maisa (ch Bulldobas Crown Jewel) has been mated to gorgeous Duke (ch Kimwitu's Duke E) :))
The next litter of Hi-Lite puppies is expected on 25th November!

Then our own precious Timon had also a girlfriend visiting him, "Tiltu" (Fi Ch DW-11 SuBaMM-10 Hanishan Reveal The Mystery). Timon fell in love with his bride right away and puppies are expected to kennel Hanishan on 10th Nov.

Here is the newly wed couple Timon x Tiltu:

Also our young mister Rocky got a girlfriend, all the way from Sweden! Lovely Märang (ch Touch of Razz Märang) had a successful visit and puppies are expected on the late November. We wish you lovely puppies Carina @ Touch of Razz!

Rocky will also have another date later on this fall with ch. Sternhimmels Laterna Magica. Inquiries of this to kennel Sternhimmels :)

A perfect, perfect weekend in Norway!

During the summer we made a decision to go to Norway for a dog show in the fall with Mari, the owner of Hertta.

So on Friday we started the journey with Hertta and her brother Tico. We drove almost all night, had just a couple of hours of sleep around 3 AM, and then in the morning we finally reached the northern city of Tromssa.

On Saturday it was time for a Tromssa Hundeklubb's national all breed show and the judge was mr. Pekka Teini from Finland. The entry was nice 6.
There were 3 dogs in intermediate class and Tico was the best male! He was behaving very nicely.

Hertta was also looking lovely and was bb-2 with a cc. The winner of the bitches was a pretty sister of our black Norwegian import Alli. Her name was Kingwanas Glory Of Spotlight.

Tico was chose as BOB and the judge told that both of the dogs were lovely representatives of the breed :)
But this just wasn't all. Mr. Teini was also judging the group-5 and Tico was the winner of it!!! I was on cloud 9 and almost ready to go to our hotel. I just couldn't believe when mr. Leif Ragnar Hjort from Norway chose Tico as BEST in SHOW!!! The happiness is almost indiscribable! Have to say though, that I absolutely think Tico was well worth it all as he is a very sound and good looking dog and he moved like a dream :)

Here he is winning the group 5 under judge mr. Teini:

Here is a photo of him on the First podium, judge mr. Hjort, BIS-1:

On Sunday the same 6 dogs gathered to the showground, and Tico won the males again, with a cc and a cacib!! Then it was very exciting to handle his beauuuuutiful sister Hertta and she managed to win it all too!! I was so happy :))) The judge mrs. Marianne Holmli gave BOB to Tico and gorgeous critiques to both of our dogs.

Tico's critique: "WOW! Fantastic balance. Elegant, super topline, well angulated. Super tail. Super mover."

Hertta's critique: "Super elegant. Feminine. Well balanced. Nice body and bone. A little bit unfinished in front. Super movement. Nice temperament."

Here are the 2 dogs that we are very proud of, Hi-Lite Honky Tonk and Hi-Lite Hula Hoops together with the breed judge mrs. Holmli:

Unfortunately we couldn't stay for the finals, as Mari and I had to go to work on Monday morning and we had to drive another 1100 kms... But we got more than we dreamed of and the whole trip was soooo much worth it!!

Thank you all judges, Ida for you company and your photos, Niina for loving Tico and Mari for being my friend and giving Hertta the best home ever! Not to mention the thanks of the whole journey we had, with so much laughter :)
Thank you also Momma Tipi @ Bulldobas for always being there when needed <3