News 2011

26.10.2011: Kassu had another official eye check to ensure he had not developed any eye diseases during the years from the last check 2007. The results show the age related iris atrophy but still no hereditary eye diseases.

24.10.2011: Our lure coursing and racing season is over for this year. The last LC trial was already on September and now we had the final fun runs. Next year also Puna and Martta are old enough for real action. Tytti took a nice photo on Kati and the girlies :)

27.9.2011: Martta and Kitts are now qualified to oval track! They have both passed the three qualifying runs required for the licence and are ready for a real action next year. Yay! Lassa was there to help them.

20.8.2011: International Lure Coursing trial at Mustiala. Keva ran beautifully again and won, Kitts wasn't too bad either and also Lassa ran really well the first part of the course, then he got bored and ran back to his mom. There were 5 silkens coursing, here are the results of our dogs:

1. Keva Double M 235 + 236, total 471
3. Allagante Windspirit St. Kitts 227 + 215, total 442
5. Lassa Double M 0

And here are some photos, taken by Irene Vinha.


4.8.2011: Our A girls Mila, Martta and Puna are 1 year old! Happy birthday little beauties!

31.7.2011: The annual Finnish Silken Windhound Club specialty at Tuomarinkartano Sighthound Center in Helsinki. Here are our results, you can see the photos and written critiques (unfortunately only in Finnish) at www.silkkivinttikoira.net:

Kassu: Excellent + CQ (certificate quality) + Best Male 3
Keva: Excellent, 3rd in Working class bitches
Lassa: Very good
Kitts: Excellent + CQ, 2nd in Open bitches
Puna: Excellent + CQ, 3rd in Junior bitches
Martta: Excellent, 4th in Junior bitches
Mila: Excellent
Tsaarikon breeder group (Mila, Puna and Martta) was 5th with honorary price and Kassu's progeny group (again with Mila, Puna, Martta) was 4th with honorary price.

We had guests from UK and I wish to thank Gill and Hilary for a visit, I hope you enjoyed as much as I did, we really had fun! Hopefully we'll meet again soon. Also Meeri came with Mila and it was so nice to see my little Ice Princess again! Her colour is pure gorgeous! This was our pups' first show and I was really proud how professionally they behaved and showed. Well done girls!


14.7.2011: In genetic tests silkens are found to carry an eye disease called CEA (Collie Eye Anomaly). There are some silkens globally who are CEA affected, some more who are CEA carriers and many many more who are CEA clear. This disease is inherited as an autosomal recessive trait, and with selective breeding we are hopefully able to eliminate it from our breed in the future. Carrier dogs will not get CEA but they can pass the mutant disease gene to their offspring.

All Tsaarikon silkens who will be used for breeding will be tested for CEA if they are not proven clear by heritage, in the same way as we handle MDR1. Our current dogs have now been tested and the results are:

Allagante Windspirit St. Kitts: clear
Keva Double M: carrier
Lassa Double M: carrier
Sarafias Asrai 'Kassu': clear
Tsaarikon Aatelisfrida 'Mila': carrier
Tsaarikon Ambassadora 'Martta': carrier
Tsaarikon Aristokreetta 'Puna': clear


21.5.2011: Keva and Lassa were at lure coursing trial again, this time in Jyväskylä Derby LC 2011. Both did beautifully: Lassa was 2nd with points 208 + 225 = 433, Keva won with points 260 + 262 = 522! Silkens coursed on Saturday and Keva scored the highest points of the day being Best In Field! And it turned out that no other dog did better on Sunday either, so she actually got the highest points of the whole weekend, out of 200+ dogs, hooray!!!


14.5.2011: Second LC trial of the year. Keva, Kitts and Lassa were lure coursing in Lieto. We had
6 silkens coursing and Keva was 2nd with points 231 + 242 = 473, Kitts was 4th with points
206 + 237 = 443 and Lassa was 5th with points 210 + 217 = 427. This was Kitts' first trial here
and we are happy how well she did!


6.5.2011: Happy birthday to Kassu, he is 8 years old now!

25.4.2011: Kitts had her eyes and heart checked last week and both were normal. We are awaiting for the results of her thyroid tests.

I was visiting Mila and Meeri up North. It was so good to see Mila after a long time, she has grown from a cute puppy into a really pretty young lady. Her colour is gorgeous and she is happy little girl, much calmer than her rascal sisters in here. I uploaded some new photos of her, please see Mila.


13.3.2011: Keva and Lassa attended to the Winter LC organised by the Finnish Borzoi Club.
Keva won silkens by 476 points and Lassa was 3rd by 223 points. Nice start for the season!

5.2.2011: Tellu had her 5th birthday late January and Mila, Puna and Martta are already 6 months!