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Katariina Roiha's Blog (46)

Heaven on Earth?

Sunday the 15th of February was by far the prettiest ever up here in Lapland

the scenery was breathtaking

and our setters had the time of their lives...as always

I tried… Continue

Added by Katariina Roiha on February 16, 2009 at 5:40am — 15 Comments

Old pictures of setters who belonged to my grandparents

Me too! I want to show you all pictures of setters that belonged to my "ancestors", my grandfather and my grandmother.

This Irish Red Setter was my grandmothers and the picture is taken the first of May 1940in Helsinki. Sadly I have not found his registration papers yet.

In the summer

And here is my grandmother with her dearly loved setter…

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Added by Katariina Roiha on February 6, 2009 at 5:16am — 21 Comments

Frustrated setters and owner... but we enjoyed the scenery instead...

No birdies what so ever though my setters worked their hearts out

The weather was mild, +3 celsius and windy. Very strange temperature for finnish Lappland in the beginning of February...

Old lady is still going strong

Woitto is a veteran too, he turned 8 years in October

Sirius is a serious hunter,… Continue

Added by Katariina Roiha on February 1, 2009 at 8:17am — 8 Comments

Finnish Lapland has recovered from Polar night, sun came up today...

...for the first time since November.

The weather was pretty freezing but still we had to take ourselves and our setters to see this wonderful sight. At the same time we gave our setters the wonderful opportunity to find grouses...

Even though the sun came up there was not enough light for the best pictures

Old mama is still going strong...…

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Added by Katariina Roiha on January 25, 2009 at 12:40pm — 16 Comments

Season´s Greetings from Finland

Added by Katariina Roiha on December 10, 2008 at 10:57pm — 11 Comments

Finnish Lapland is covered with snow,part 2.

Today we were walking in wonderland, so it felt. The weather was a m a z i n g. The main reason for a walk in wonderland was to hunt for grouse but none was found, even though our "wide rangers" were working their hearts out.

Rastegaisa, one of Norways beautiful mountains. Picture taken from Finland…

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Added by Katariina Roiha on October 31, 2008 at 8:43am — 8 Comments

Finnish Lapland is covered with snow

Finally we have it, snow. Everything looks like we live in a dreamland. The wild animals that have changed their feathers and furry coats to match the snowywhite color are in much better hide-away from the predators...

May I present to the first pictures of setters in snow for this fall... first my sixpack :)

Woitto is sniffing the wind coming from the river Teno

Sheriff looks like… Continue

Added by Katariina Roiha on October 30, 2008 at 2:12am — 16 Comments

We found paradise...full of grouses

We left civilization with our offroad vehicle, grouseseekers best friend The Range Rover to search birdies for our dogs. We drove far enough into the deepest lappish mountain areas, actually my husband takes all his clients there to hunt every year. This place has never let the hunter down, so it didn´t this time either.

At first we saw this eagle and I was prepared to say"the only thing with wings was an eagle"

.… Continue

Added by Katariina Roiha on September 13, 2008 at 11:00pm — 8 Comments

Nature at its best

I spent 3 wonderful days in the mountains(hoyfjell) with our youngest setters. We were giving a tour de mountains to a young gordonsetter with her owner.

Still the grouse are missing so we had no moments of joy for the dogs. They worked amazingly well even though nothing was found. True hunters never give up!…

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Added by Katariina Roiha on September 8, 2008 at 8:30am — 15 Comments

Grouse situation looks bad... :(

We have been counting the game for the Ministry of Forestry with dogs.This is done before the season starts. Large areas in northern parts of Finland have suffered from total failure of brood. This is mainly done by cold summer. I have been hearing the same happen in Norway.

This is a catastrophy for the trials as well...

In this scenery we started

Here are my workers…

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Added by Katariina Roiha on August 17, 2008 at 1:39am — 10 Comments

Summer activities - part 2

Our training to become excellent retriewers has come to a point where the owner starts to have faith in her dogs :)

Evita has been trough out the whole training set a 100% perfect in everything. I tried to do hard tasks for her this time like hiding the grouse behind a house. But she found it there with no difficulties what so ever.

I can… Continue

Added by Katariina Roiha on August 6, 2008 at 11:22pm — 4 Comments

First trainingday of hunting

I have noticed that the grouse youngsters are well developed and in good flying condition so I thought we might go for a little spin with Evita.

I have managed to keep my dogs in good shape all summer and so is my little girl.

Her style was pretty good and her speed nice. I like her fire-in-the-eyes gaze when she is running

All of a sudden Evita took a cataleptic point. I… Continue

Added by Katariina Roiha on August 3, 2008 at 10:00am — 6 Comments

Date with reindeer

Because of our northern situated home and yard, it is not impossible to have reindeer sometimes come to eat on our yard. I always take this as an opportunity to make my setters feel comfortable and at ease among them.

It it forbidden for the dog to chase the reindeer here up north. The reindeer owners are allowed to shoot your dog if it is found chasing the deer. That is why our dogs have to be totally in control and they have to know that… Continue

Added by Katariina Roiha on August 2, 2008 at 7:00am — 5 Comments

Summer activities

We haven´t been all lazy and swimming during summer. Like all out-of-hunt-seasons I activate my dogs by training them with obdience and retrieving.

We have had the opportunity to join trainingsession held on the Norwegian side with labradors.The training place is by stables so for my dogs there is a lot of distractions. Horses and lots of people. And that is good! And have we had a blast!

I… Continue

Added by Katariina Roiha on July 29, 2008 at 12:28am — 8 Comments

Last training weekend for this "winter"

The weather here in the northern part of Finland is changing fast to warm spring/summer to catch up with the rest of the world . The meteorological changes here up north are tremendously fast. This weekend the 26.-27.4. we still had the best conditions ever to train with our dogs. Today the 28.4. now as I´m writing this the warmth wave cought up with us so all the snow has started to melt.

Some pictures of our dreamy weekend

The sunset on saturday…

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Added by Katariina Roiha on April 28, 2008 at 10:58am — 15 Comments

Easter hunting

We have been spending absolutely wonderful times hunting with friends from all around Finland. March weather has been perfect and we have found lots of grouse. At the upcoming weekend we´re having high mountain trials here in Utsjoki of which I will report as soon as possible.

Pictures of our days of hunting below...

my Evita on her way to a pack of grouse

the grouse did not… Continue

Added by Katariina Roiha on March 27, 2008 at 12:33am — 5 Comments

A beautiful mid day hunt in a superb march weather

The best moments of spring-time hunting is right here with us. The weather was awsome and we did find some rock ptarmigans

here is our old lady on point , daughter Evita is behind

the old lady had her day today

and yet another point

here are the rock ptarmigans

and… Continue

Added by Katariina Roiha on March 19, 2008 at 8:50am — 4 Comments

First hunting trip for the year 2008

Actually today the 17th of January the polar night ends here in Finnish Lapland. But these pictures are from sunday the 13th of January. The weather was brilliant, just a few minus degrees(-3) light wind and a hint of snowflakes came down. We found grouses well, every dog expcept our youngest was working beautifully. Stood on point perfectly, flushed the birds with perfection and we did shoot some birdies down ;)

Our youngest, the english setter, was making progress though and he showed… Continue

Added by Katariina Roiha on January 17, 2008 at 7:17am — 11 Comments

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Added by Katariina Roiha on December 22, 2007 at 2:59am — 2 Comments

Hunting in the middle of winter

Polar-night time has taken away all the daylight there is. Pictures are taken at about 10.30 am. It is very hard to shoot the birds but with a camera you can always succeed in capturing the moment...