Solakan Dandies

We use the name Solakan Dandies, and not the usual one which would be Kennel Solakan - why?

The simple answer is that we are not a kennel. We have bred only two litters for our own kennel name. The first litter born at our home is not registered to our kennelname. We think that this does not make us a kennel. We see it so that a kennel or else even a breeder is the one who has bred many many litters and many generations of dogs. And who knows a lot about the breed and who is experineced. We are not like that and that is why we are just "Solakan Dandies" and not "kennel Solakan". Our first dandie came to us at the end of year 1997 so we only have experience about this beloved breed since that.

During that ten years time we have tried to learn more about the breed. It´s origin and history, character, developement of how it looks, breeding standard - well, everything that has something to do with the breed. We have collected books, pedigrees and photos. And we have tried to learn how to trimm a dandie. In the other word - we have been trying to find out as much as we can about the wonderful secret called Dandie Dinmont Terrier. And even though we have got ten years time to do so yet we think that we only know a little about it! There is still a lot to learn but that is the fun part of it! One can never know it all but one can always learn someting new. :-)

Nowdays we meet quite many dandies owned by our friends. Most of those dandies come here for trimming. There are plenty of them and everything from beloved pets to show stars. It has been an honour to trimm all these dandies of different ages and types. With different kind of coat qualities. That has been a great way to learn more about trimming. On our finnish pages there are simple trimming pages - those friends of us who have wanted to start to learn how to trimm their own dandies asked for those pages so we made them :-) Not that we would know it all but we think that all the knowledge we have (even though there would be only a little of it) is ment to be shared. :-) But those pages are only in finnish if you want to see them you can find them here: First page - Second page. Pages open into different windows which you can close when you looked at the pages :-)

During these more than ten years we have got many friends around the world. Some of them have bred dandies for dozens of years and some of them have just got their first dandie. They have been priceless help in difficult situations and helped us through difficult times. And thanks to them we have been able to write some articles to our finnish pages. They are about few very rare deseases which also dandies have had. The other one is called Juvenile Pyoderma and the other one is Eosinophilic Granuloma. But - unfortunately - those articles are so far available only in finnish.

Few words about our kennel name "Solakan" then.
That is not at all usual kennel name. The word is finnish and it means "some one / some body who is willowy or else slim".
We wanted to have a finnish kennel name because we come from Finland. We tried many many different suggestions but all those were already excisting. And then we finally got this one.
It did not came out of nowhere but it has a history :-)

It comes from Aatu. Our first dandie. He has always been slim and willowy. He could eat more if he would like...actually he can eat every day as much as he wants to...but he eats what he feels is enough for him and then he says no thanks to the rest of the food. During Aatu´s first 5 years Minna got to hear quite often that he is too skinny. But what could she do about it?! He just refused to eat more. Minna tried to give him food with more fat but yet he stayed skinny. So at some point some of our friends started to say that he is not skinny but he is just slim - solakka. So that is where this word come from - Aatu - and how he looks like. Solakka´s would perhaps give the very good idea of what word Solakan means.

And yet few more words about us :-)
We live in Helsinki area. Vantaa is a city around Helsinki, a kind of big suburb. We live in a little village called Pahkinarinne. This is a perfect place to own a dog! Lots of nature near our home. The nearest little woods is on the opposite of the street and to get to the bigger one we have to walk only 10 minutes. In this area there are woods, rocks, hills, fields, lakes, pools small roads....anything one can think of! And that is why here lives lots of people who own dogs or else people who like outing a lot.

We live in a flat. Our dogs and cats are family members. They share the home with us. They sleep on soffa and bed but they ofcourse have their own beds to sleep in....those they don´t have to share with us. ;-)

They watch tv with us, help us to cook in kitchen but at our home there is one place they don´t like very much to be in and that is a bathroom. They hate to be bathed! Important things and places are ofcourse bed and soffa. And especially the pillows which are soft to sleep on. In our photoalbum you can see how our dogs love to sleep! We would say that they are typical dandies - the softer place the better!

And then toys are important also as well as chewing bones. Especially toys which make sounds are very much liked. Oh, and ofcourse soft toys and teddy bears with soft material in them are very much loved also! Our dogs play with us plus they can also play by themselves. Well, maybe photos tell more than thousand words so when you have looked at all the photos we have on these pages you know more about our dogs and their lives.