I (Inga) have always had an interest in animals, and dogs in particular. When I was 14 years old, after many months of nagging, I was given a dog. My dream dog at that time was the German Shepherd but my parents thought Finnish Spitz was of a more agreeable size, so that is what I got. I was already seeing Salukis and Afghan hounds at dog shows, and thought they were magnificent and fascinating.

When I was in my twenties I came in contact with dog sledging, Nordic style, and began competing, at first with a Greenland dog, Stalos Mitek, which was a lovely yet also very sturdy and rough dog. After a couple of years I wanted a faster dog. This resulted in a Doberman, SBCH Benzonn. I competed with Benzonn in both as working dog and sledging. He was a very good sledge dog, and we won many gold medals in the Swedish sledge championships, and silver and bronze in the Nordic championships. Unfortunatelly, Benzonn died too prematurely, as he had cancer at the age of four. My other Doberman, Dobfancier’s Lupus, was no star at sledging but otherwise a lovely dog.

Hans also has a past in the sport of dog sledging, Nordic style. He has competed with German pointers. He also entered working dog competitions with his dogs.

Since we now, after years without dogs, once again had the opportunity to get one I thought, since dog sledging would not come into question, why not a Saluki. Hans was wondering what type of dogs I was talking about.

This breed that I had admired for so long finally became reality. We came in contact with Mary-Ann Axelsson who had a litter, and became the owners of Fonzie, a very cheerful little scoundrel. He is enjoying life, and has even more fun now that he is joined by Gorias.

We soon discovered that one Saluki was not enough, so when Mary-Ann had another litter we jumped at it immediately. The result was Gorias, a wonderful sweet dog who luckily enough is not as mischievous and full of pranks as Fonzie.