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Valkrista Swedish Vallhunds operated by Rose and Hans Madsen, is situated in Skibow Lane, off Moir Street, in Mangawhai Village, Northland. Our Kennel name was arrived at by combining the Val of Vallhund with the Krista of our First Lady, Wynrik Christa. The Vallhund (Group 5, Working Dogs) has had Show successes in this time, with 12 of our dogs achieving Champion status. Margie and Harold Prue of Waimate in Canterbury, have taken their bitch NZ.CH. Valkrista Valkyrie through to her 50 Challenge Certificate Gold Award, and their dog NZ.CH.Valkrista Picasso has also reached this very significant level. More recently they have guided Valkrista Candy Floss through to Champion, and are now working with Valkrista Jumping Jellybean (Jellsea) towards that same end. Jellsea is showing great promise and after scoring 2 Puppy in Group wins she has now achieved her C hampion Champion status - in May 2005.
We have a Scandinavian connection through Hans, who was born in Denmark, which is just across a narrow strait from Sweden. He has been a Kiwi for more than 48 years, and is a builder by trade. He designed and built a very successful Barn for our growing family of Vallhunds, which once stood at 10 and is currently 7... The Barn is about 20 metres from our house.
The main room is 6 metres by 6 metres with a half-round style roof, and on each of its two sides, is a 2 metres wide verandah. One of these verandahs has been closed in and is our Maternity Annex, although in truth, almost all pups are born and spend their first 2 or 3 weeks in the livingroom with us. . A portion of the other verandah is now closed in to create an ablution room for bathing the dogs in their own bathroom. So much easier than taking them all upstairs to be bathed in our en suite!! No matter what the weather, there is always a door to the barn, which can be left open without the rain or prevailing wind, getting in to the main living quarters. It is beautifully cool in summer which suits these little dogs from northern climes. There is a woodburner if needed for winter comfort, so the dogs and their caregiver, are well catered for. A 29" TV completes the ambience for dogs and carer! Our two acre block has mesh fences and is split into 7 areas, so there are numerous places where the dogs can be securely confined when they are not able to be in and around the house, and we are assured of peace of mind at those sometimes awkward occasions when girls are on heat. |
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In the beginning......... |
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 Valkrista Miss Milenium, daughter of Wynrik Christa
and NZ.CH.Steppenwolf Zip
playing alongside her daughter, Lili Marlene, who was sired by Drammericans Echo(imported from UK).
Our foundation pair of dogs were Wynrik Christa who came from near Melbourne, and Steppenwolf Zip (seen with white soccer ball above), who was a Murray Bridge lad. There were very few Vallhunds available in Australia, and very limited breed lines.
Finding an available bitch was not easy and only came about as the result of another breeder’s personal tragedy. A terminal illness was the reason why we were ultimately able to adopt our Christa. She was 20 months old when she arrived in NZ, and we were then living on our Dairy Goat Farm in the Hokianga. Just as she was arriving in her new homeland, a litter was being born in Murray Bridge, one which held her future mate. Steppenwolf Zip arrived in the Hokianga at the end of February 1996 and on the 10th of March that same year, we moved to our present idyllic home in Mangawhai. We are now more than two hours by road closer to Auckland, living in a delightful small community which offers everything we might possibly want, and sharing our lives with the sweetest little dogs under the sun. Life is good.
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Gohan from Kanagawa, Japan |
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 From our first litter, we retained the two bitch puppies and christened them Valkrista Miss Milenium and Valkrista Iceland Poppy. The following litter added Valkrista Valley, and with 3 of Zip’s daughters growing on, the time had come to find a husband for them. Enquiries in England turned up a 3 year old dog , Drammericans Echo, whose Scottish lady owner had died and he was back with his breeder awaiting a new assignment.
Echo had won his class at Crufts as a two year old and had a litter brother, Erik, who had gone Best of Breed at Crufts, a feat which he has since repeated.. We were encouraged by all of that, and imported him to put over the young ladies. This lovely lad sired several Valkrista litters, and we kept two of his daughters. The one out of Poppy, we called Popinjay (Jayjay) and the one from Millie , is Lili Marlene on paper, but is known as Spud. The name Lili was so similar to Millie, that a change of name became necessary to avoid confusion.
Valkrista Kiwi Magic, known as Gohan (translates cutely to Rice Pudding), is a son of Echo and Millie, and lives in Kanagawa, Japan, where he has become a Canine Good Citizen, thanks to the excellent efforts of his owner, Kiyomi, an award of which we are particularly proud. Here he is on a background of snow, wearing his Canine Good Citizen coat.
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A tale of different tails. |
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 We currently have a 4 year old stud dog, Leesway Man About Town, whose yard name is Wallaby. The fact that he is a naturally bobbed dog and has no tail at all, could be seen as a bit incongruous, I suppose. This big softy has made really significant improvements to our puppies. He has a lovely nature and is handing it on to his offspring. He has also added a little bit of size. Born in Sydney, his dam is a daughter of the Swedish imported bitch, Chatka Nora, and Norsled Disraeli. The frozen semen involved in his conception came from Canada, where his sire Vastgota Rudolf Valentino was born, after arriving in that country, in utero. Wallaby’s Granddaddy is still a citizen of the birthplace of the breed, Sweden. All of this has conspired to make him an excellent outcross to our original line. From his last season's litters, we kept a truly delightful bitch puppy, VALKRISTA CANDY FLOSS who is now 12 months old, and pursuing her show career in the South Island. She is out of one of our two Drammericans Echo daughters, V.Lili Marlene aka Spud. Candy has achieved her NZ.Champion title, thanks to the efforts of Margie and Harold Prue of Bellevue Kennels in Waimate.
This year, we have kept two more of Wallaby's daughters, Lollypop and Sweetpea. The importation of a new young stud dog(Paddy)from Castleavery Kennel in Northern Ireland, means that for the next couple of years, Wallaby will be redundant here in NZ. He is going on a 2 year working holiday to Victoria, where we hope he will work his magic at the Kennel from which we purchased the lovely little red Roo.
The Swedish Vallhund, which is known in Sweden as Västgotäspets (translates to ..The Spitz from West Gota which is a small area in South West Sweden} is one of a small number of breeds which can produce pups with a variety of tail types, from no tail at all, through stubs of varying lengths, to a full spitz tail. All tail types and carriages are within the FCI Breed standard and equally acceptable in the show ring. These two puppies above, illustrate the two extremes.
The latest imported additions at Valkrista, are a cute red bitch puppy, AUSLED CLASSIC CANGAROO (Roo) who arrived from Australia in September 2003 and a handsome grey sabled Vallhund dog puppy, Castleavery Storm Rider (Paddy) who arrived from Northern Ireland in October 2003. It is planned that these two will form the basis of our muchneeded second breed line.
Paddy's litter brother, at 6 months of age, attended his first show in December 2003. He was awarded first placing in a Puppy Stakes with an entry of 80 pups of a wide variety of breeds. He then went on to win SV Best of Breed, over his sire Falcon Flyer over Castleavery himself UK and INT.CH, twice Best of Breed at Crufts and once BOS at Crufts., and also over his older blood sister, the two year old UK.CH. Silver Secret. An incredible feat at such a young age, over such proven accomplished opposition.
We are delighted that our own Paddy, became a New Zealand Champion at a show in Hamilton in July 2005.
In 2007, Paddy suffered a severe Prostate problem and had to be neutered, leaving us with Wallaby to fall back on. It was necessary to quickly obtain another unrelated dog to put over those girls closely related to Wallaby. Ausled Ronn Chaz came to us as a pup, midway through 2007 and on 19.05.2008, his first 8 puppies were born to Valkrista Windflower (Daisy). They are 5 girls and 3 boys all with full spitz tails, and excellent Vallhund colouring and markings. Chaz goes back on both sides of his pedigree to a Swedish imported stud dog, so once again, the land of the breed is very close to our lines,
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Contact Details |
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