Hi. My name is Tarja Peltola and I am an Bachelor of Agriculture and Forestry. I turned 40 years old last year which means my hair is getting greyer by the day :-)
My family is my husband, Veli, now that all of our children has moved to their own homes. We live in Kankaanpää, to where I moved from Turku in 1998.
My former dogs have been Leonbergers, German shepherds, mittelspitz( I've bread a whole litter), Dalmatians and Finnish lapphund. When growing up, we've also always had dogs.
My first Swedish vallhund, Hanska,  ended up with me by accident. After that I've brought home three dogs from their home country, Sweden. The first one, Andy, I picked up with Oili Helenius in -03 and he lived with us for three years. But sadly, because of irreconcilable differences with Oili, I sold her my part and Andy now lives permanently with her.
My second dog, Manu, I got from Sweden in -06 and he lives with his other owner Pia Ahlroos.
My third dog, Saku, we got from Chipsmakers-kennel in the beginning of June -07 and he is staying with us.
I am an educated breeder and have the Finnish Kennel clubs amprovement. I've also, for seven years, worked with animal protective services.

Acouple of words about my breeding work
My bitches, those at home and those who are living with their co-owners, all have healthy hips and elbows. And all of them have full dentition. They are all very open and forwarded in their behaviour, and lives as family dogs.
My requirement on the dogs I use, are not only their distinctive look, but a good character and personality. I make sure of this by getting to know the dog myself. A dogs character is utterly important as you have to live with it for 365 days a year. It is not enough that the dog looks nice a couple of times a year during a dog show.
Their race definition says: "The Swedish vallhund is a shortlegged, strong and fearless little dog who's carriage and expression shows alertness, liveliness and energy".

The dog must want to mate willingly, I don't use artificial insemination as a solution to any mating problems. The bitch has to have good maternal instincts and take care of her puppies, as all of my bitches has done so far. If the bitches maternal instincts are poore, I would never let one of her puppies grow up to be a possible candidate for breeding. From every litter I am prepared to take the dogs myself, and often one of them does stay.
The breeding would almost be impossible if it wasn't for the co-owners because, as you know, we can't possibly keep all promising dogs at home. So a huge Thank you to all of our co-owner "fairys" with whom it always is a pleasure to take care of our "doggy-business".

If you want to read more about these visit "Litters-pages".
The goal with my breeding is to produce healthy, good characters and breed typical Swedish vallhunds, with whom it is fun to be and exercise with. If they happened to be beautiful to look at, then what could be more wonderful?

The puppies are sold as pets and family dogs. If you are only looking for a show- and breeding dog then you'll have to look elsewhere. An unconditional requirement for a puppy buyer is to get his/her dog hip x-rayed, because I want to know what my dogs leave behind them. To attend a couple of shows or breed examinations is also a way to get to know how the dog is build and its qualities. I also want to keep in touch even after the purchase, in good as in bad times. I strive to be at service if there should be any problems and if there is something we don't know, we'll find out the answers together.
The communication is also very important before you come to pick up the puppy.
I don't sell puppies to people I've never met and sometimes I don't although I've met them.
If you want to buy a Handskes-puppy, make contact by e-mail or telephone and tell me something about yourself. I don't bother answering e-mails saying "are there any puppies left, and how much do they cost?" or "I wanna put aside a puppy". :-)
I neither answer to text messages.

I arrange get togethers (Handskes-days -06 -07 and -08) and group-health check-ups for my puppies. I hope that the puppy owners have time to attend these occasions or whenever just peep in at our door to show up their dogs. Photo greetings are more then welcome.
So far I've been lucky with my buyers, most of them keeps close contact and the rest a little less but still, they keep in touch :-). Hopefully this will continue in the future.
I will occasionally attend shows with my dogs but in the future I won't waste my weekends on them, I'll rather spend them with my family and our dogs.