~ Litters Bred ~
Since Kiva's first litter in 2010 there have been 13 Lumikoira litters (plus one TabanyaRuu litter of 3), producing 50 Lumikoira puppies, there have also been 3 other litters involving Lumikoira bred dogs producing another 19 puppies, so as a result to date there have been 72 Finnish Lapphunds that can trace their roots back to Kiva.
Ben and Amy, owners of Eedi (Kassi's sister), were keen for her to have a litter and the owners of Halla were more than happy for him to be used as stud again - timings being the way they are it meant that I could take Eedi to meet Halla at the same time as delivering Otso (from Kassi's Maverick litter) to his new hufamily (and his dad, Halla). The pregnancy went well and Eedi was scanned for 4 puppies. Shame she couldn't count because in the final hours of New Years day she decided to go into labour and over the course of the next 5 hours delivered a litter of 6 puppies, 2 black tris, 2 wolf sable dominos and 2 brown dominos a split of 3 boys and 3 girls. So welcome to the world to our New Year litter (Uusi Pentue).
Their litter page will be uploaded soon.
Having had our Kiva Legacy litter in 2024 it was only right that we would honour our first Lappy Mylo with a litter named after him. He was a one off, and to many he was a true independant, so our 2025 litter would be designated as our Maverick litter, however they were initially named after Top Gun characters.
We took Kassi the short distance to Kenilworth where she met and enjoyed the attentions of Halla, a lovely black tri boy that we were familiar with through his stays with us as a guest.
The pregnancy went smoothly and produced a litter of 3 including our very first domino offspring
The Maverick litter page is still to be created.
February 2024 saw me undertake a couple of trips to Stourport on Severn to meet up with Tom and Lauren Green, owners of Tiia and Matleena and Chris Haywood owners Otso for a couple of matings between the 2 of them. Neither of them had been mated before but they took to it like ducks to water (or Lappies to Loving).
The result of their mating was a litter of 6 born in April - 5 girls and a boy, the Lumikoira Ccino litter of 3 wolf sables and 3 black tris.
The litter page is still to be created, but when it is I'm sure it will make you smile.
Breeding brings a mixture of highs and lows and Kassi's 2024 Kiva's Legacy litter gave us both. The mating was a repeat of her previous (2023) litter with the wonderful Teemu as the sire. The matings (there were 2 over 72 hours) were easy - I think that they were a little enamoured with each other - and the result of the matings was a litter of 6, 3 girls and 3 boys born on March 14th and we named the pups after the characters in the TV program Friends.
Sadly 2 of the pups (Phoebe and the Monica) passed away within the first 10 days, however the other 4, Chandler, Rachel, Joey and Ross thrived and went on to live with 4 fabulous families.
The litter page is currently under construction.
The sire of Kassi's 2023 litter was a black-tri TabanyaRuu boy called Teemu. He and Kassi hit it off immediately (literally) and to say we were hopeful would be an understatement.
True to Lumikoira form Kassi went into labour a few days early and popped her first pup out, without a sound, on the pillow next to my sleeping head! He was quickly followed by 2 more black-tri boys.
Sadly one of the boys of our Joki (river) litter faded away after a few days :-( but Mario and Luigi thrived and are now known as Mara and Obi.
You can find out more about this litter here.
In the spring of 2021 I took Ohra on a road trip to Wiltshire to meet Bandit, a stunning wolf sable. I had been hankering for another wolf sable, as had a number of people on our enquiries list, and a mating between a cream and wolf sable could well produce what we were hoping for.
Unfortunately nothing is guaranteed to go to plan and though Ohra did fall pregnant there was only one pup in the litter, a clone of her mum that would be the sole member of our Hunaja (Honey) litter. Her owners to be, Jay & Sharon knew that they would be calling her Isla so that is what she was named - though I referred to her as Valerie ;-)
You can find out more about this litter here.
Lockdown restrictions in the latter half of 2020 meant we were able to again think about breeding. We were able to bring together Sura (one of the Bake Off litter) who is owned with Amy Godfrey and family, and Lupo (previously used in 2016 for our Trikolori litter). The pregnancy went well and in late December, just as snowflakes started to fall, Sura went into labour and delivered five healthy pups, four boys and a girl. It was only right that we themed the litter for the weather so Lumipoikue (snow litter) it was. The pups are now known as Xena (black-tri girl), Odin and Zorro (black-tri boys), Taisto and Tuli (brown-tri boys).
You can find out more about this litter here.
Little did we now when we mated Ohra that 2020 would be the year when when our freedoms were restricted and our lives put on hold. To say we were fortunate with our timings would be an understatement as little did we know that within days of mating Ohra and Kissa the first national lock-down would come into force.
In May, and in spite of the difficulties in arranging scans and vet visits etc. we were able to welcome into the world the Corona litter (well what else could it be!) with the arrival of Dandelion, Burdock, Fizzy and Pop, two boys and two girls. The litter was eventually registered as the Sanaleikki (anagram/pun) litter.
You can find out more about this litter here.
2018 saw a litter to one of the Bake Off girls and sired by a wonderful TabanyaRuu black-tri boy called Kissa.
Mäyra had been scanned for a litter of three and in the early hours of a Saturday morning effortlessly delivered three girls - our Three Lions litter had arrived. Except an hour later out popped another girl, welcome to the Supremes litter.
Whilst Mäyrä nursed her litter we got on with our day. Louise headed off to the shops and I tidied up the whelping room after a hectic night, only to be greeted by the sight of a fifth pup in the whelping box - there was nothing else for it, The Spice Girls litter it would be!
You can find out more about this litter here.
Our next litter was in 2018 and would again be one for Lola, and our Kaksisävyinen (Two Tone) litter of Ebony (Kimi) and Ivory (Sebbe), sired by a wolf-sable boy (Shacal Mihkku of TabanyaRuu) popped out on due date in less than half and hour.
Sebbe went to live in London with some great friends of ours, Jon, Luke and Pippa. They already had a Lappy but were keen to get Harri a playmate - they are regular house guest here so we get to see them once or twice a year.
Kimi, who we get to see quite often, has recently been joined by his own Sebbe, but this is a two-legged one. Yes, Lappies really are great with children.
You can find out more about this litter here.
Simon and Bec, who owned Lola (originally Biscuit), were keen for her to have a litter and in 2016, after she had passed all of the necessary health tests, we introduced her to Lupo, a stunning black, tan & white dog owned by our good friends Nicola and Owen.
Lola delivered a litter of three pups, two boys and a girl; our Trikolori (three colour) litter had been born. Normally we would give the pups in a litter themed temporary nicknames, but as we knew to which homes the pups would be going we decided to give them the names that their owners had already chosen; so the black-tri boy would be Luti, the brown-tri Meeko, and the cream girl Ohra.
You can find out more about this litter here.
In 2014 we decided to do a repeat mating with Heikki as his previous efforts had brought about some lovely puppies.
Louise headed off to Suffolk again and, as with the first mating, the two of them got down to business a couple of times. Kiva was scanned at 4 1/2 weeks and we were told that she was carrying 4 pups (though I was convinced there was 5).
Lou and I waited in anticipation of what would become known as The Great Finnish Bake Off litter and Kiva effortlessly delivered 5 healthy pups, Biscuit (Lola), Brownie (Teemu), Cookie (Sura), Dumpling (Ziggy) and Muffin (Mäyrä).
You can find out more about this litter here.
Despite the traumatic experience of losing a couple of pups in our first litter we weren't going to quit, and in 2011 Louise and Kiva headed off to Suffolk for a romantic liaison with a stunning looking dog called Heikki.
There were two ties and we were hopeful that there would be a successful pregnancy. Which there was, a litter of three boys and a girl, our Phonetic litter comprising Alpha (TuukaTuu), Beta (Woody), Charlie (Viggo) and Delta (Sassi).
Sassi, the black-tri bitch, was our keeper and it was our intention to breed on from her after a few years, however an ongoing health issue meant that this was not to be.
You can find out more about this litter here.
In 2010 Kiva, along with Liz Mowatt (Kiva's breeder) and Louise, headed across the channel for a mating with a lovely cream male. The mating was successful and produced a litter of five black, tan and white pups, three boys; Dylan, Dougal and Zebedee, and two girls, Ermintrude and Florence.
The pups were named after Magic Roundabout characters and the litter was know as the Karuselli litter (Karuselli being Finnish for roundabout).
Sadly Dougal and Ermintrude, didn't make it through their first week - nature can be cruel at times, fading puppy syndrome especially so.
You can find out more about this litter here.