Finland lies in the Northern Europe, between Sweden and Russia. We are only some 5,5 million people in this quite large country filled with forests and lakes. We like to believe that Santa and definitely his Rudolf are Finnish. As are sauna, the worldīs best mobile phones, the most skillful electronics and the most "green" paper mills. We are also champions on the global list of internet dencity and most personal ski jump gold medalists...

Bouviers we have had some twenty years the first Finnish bouvier litter being born in 1981 (kennel Kwispel). Today there are well over twenty breeders, over 100 puppies registered yearly and little less than 1000 bouviers living in this country. Bouviers we have had some twenty years the first Finnish bouvier litter being born in 1981 (kennel Kwispel). Today there are well over twenty breeders, over 100 puppies registered yearly and little less than 1000 bouviers living in this country. Finnish bouviers have today natural ears and a looong tail; since July 1996 the cutting of the tail has been illegal in Finland, the cropping of the ears was banned already in 1968. 

We are middleaged breeders of bouviers with the kennelname Naavaparran (which means "those who have a beard like tree lichen"). Jorma is Senior Judge of Working Dog Trials and a Character Test Judge. Piukku is at the moment the trainer and instructor of our JK1 (tracking) Sisu von Gewdraa Oel and Naavaparran Überalles for working dog search and also the one who would all the time just love to live in the middle of a Naavaparran bouvierbabyboom...In these articles on The BouvZine all the views and opinions we represent are our own, if we show any results or statics they are all official ones based on The Finnish Kennel Clubīs or The Finnish Working Dog Associationīs statistics and results. Our point of view is and will be the one of a working bouvier fancier.

The present of the Finnish bouvier pack is in principle good. We have a very high and sofisticated kennel culture in this country, we have good, open relationships functioning with all kind of international kennel associations. We are found to be thrustworthy enough to host the World Dog Show ī98 and during 1990s we have been able to send successful representative teams to different kind of  international trials all over the world of canine sports.

Concerning the bouviers the sun is shining especially in the sky of show bouviers. After we got rid of the quaranteen regulations in the late 1980s there has been a continuous flow of imported bouviers to this country. Most of the imports are from the Netherlands as are most of the foreign sires used in Finnish bouvier breeding. We do not think it would be exxaggeration to claim that one of the most quaranteened show careers of a bouvier puppy is to be found with a puppy bred in Finland. There are many breeders producing high quality show bouviers and no longer our bouviersī foreign trade balance include only imports from this breeds homecountries...at the moment the long tail may be the fact that slows down the exports of our bouviers... 

But now, now comes the saddest part of this story, so take out Your handkerchiefs... In only a couple of years of time the Finnish bouvier has tumbled down and back to the same situation as we already once lived trough during the early days of this breedīs short working dog history in this country.  If there are already any cycles to be seen in this subject this breed is now definitely on the bottom of itīs depression concerning working dog activities in Finland. There are now as many working dog trial entries of bouviers as there were ten years ago when we had just got the right to participate in working dog trials of this country (1989: 43 entries/1997: 44 entries). Only a couple of years ago the total amounth of trial entries was triple as high (1994: 118 / 1993: 121 / 1992: 93).There are only two Working Champions in Finland, the first one was qualified in 1993, the second one in 1994.

Unfortunately the quality of today has not replaced the quantity of yesterday eighter the bouvier is now on the bottom of the ranking list of working dog breeds (altogether 30 breeds) gaining working certificates. Only 16 % of bouviersī trial entries did end up in getting the working certificate (I, II or III) and only 57 % of bouviersī obedience entries in these trials did surpass the required 70 points out of the maximum of 100 points.

If You find a bouvier in a trial he is probably taking part in tracking or in search. The messanger dog trials were popular some years ago but those bouviers have already retired and there are only a few younger ones in this sport. In General Trial, a kind of canine pentathlon, only two bouviers have ever taken part in in this country and both of them do not compete anymore. Until now the defence trials has had only a few bouviers taking part in trials. There are people interested in biting but as in many other countries, too, for various reasons only this one Dutch import has ever entered an official trial and done the certificate IPO1 and continued last year with the Germain version of defence trials with SchII. 

IPOR, the international trial and it's national forms of search and rescue are quite new in Finland. Last year there were two entries in SAR Search trials in Finland and one of these two bouviers passed the test. There were no bouvier entries of SAR tracking. Once again, a couple of years ago the Disaster Dog training was up and rising with bouviers, now the trend follows the above written ones.  Only one of the older ones have maintained his competence in disaster dog functions and passed the required trials without exceptions. The culture of disaster dogs did not continue extending and developing into a national field of working bouviersī activities.

Hopefully You have a new and dry handkerchief  near You ...letīs start the same story concerning Obedience activities. There are three Obedience Champions in this country, the last one qualified in 1995. At the moment there are none actively competing in the highest class IV out of which You still need three first prices to be qualified as an Obedience Champion. Just like with working bouviers the total quantity of "obedience bouviers" in this country does not reach half the quantity it was a couple of years ago.

Today Agility is often lift up to the highlights of bouvier activities. From Finland there are no specially good news to tell about Agility eighter. There are bouvier groups training, yes, and also taking part in unofficial agility happenings aiming at presentating and earning publicity to this sport in this country but in officail trialsī reports the bouvier show no special  success. There are no Agility Champion bouviers in this country.

To be continued in the next issue with official information on the Finnish bouvierīs state of art in hips, elbows, eyes, heart etc...and character test results.