Breeding

I have passed the breeder cource that the Finnish Kennel Club organises at 2007 and FCI has approved my breeder name "Reponi", which in English means "My Fox".

My goal is to breed Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers that have a good mental character, are healthy and work well in diverse hobbies. They should hold a good, natural ability to work as proper retriever. Also the appearance of the toller should be typical to the breed. We use our Kepe in practical hunting and I feel that it is important to give possibilities, in one way or another, to the toller to work the way it is bred to do. In addition to this many characteristics that make a good retriever make the toller also a great companion in many different hobbies.

I hope that the tollers I breed get to become beloved family members in active homes, where they will have diverse activities to keep them busy - without forgetting the original purpose of the retriever. My breeding will be in very small scale. Below I have very briefly listed some of my thoughts on tollers and breeding, I'm happy to tell you more by email, etc.

Character
Character and the mental health of the dog is one of the most important issues on any dog. Life with a dog that is social and has good mental health is simply easier. The dog needs to be able to work and function also in stressful situations.

Health
I'm using for breeding only dogs that have healthy hips (A or B ) and elbows. Also the eyes of the dog have to be checked as ok by a vet. Also the siblings of the dogs should be as healthy as possible. These issues I take for granted. There is a test developed for PRA, and the test should be utilized so that the puppies will not be affected by the disease. Tollers also have autoimmune diseases and the inheritance of those is still unclear. There are diseases behind every toller so totally "clean" bloodlines from autoimmune diseases are not to be found. Hopefully the ongoing researches will shead some light on this matter in the near future already and make breeding choices easier.

Versatility
The toller is above all a versatile dog for many hobbies. There are so many hobbies that are suitable for the toller such as retrieving and blood tracking, but also obedience, agility, search and rescue and so on. The most important thing for a toller is that it lives an active life. From the breeder's perspective I find it also important that the dog is taken in to different trials or tests and also is shown in conformation a few times. This way the breeder also gets important information from neutral sources how the choices done in the breeding are realizing.

Appearance
When talking about appearance in toller also health is to be included in the discussion. The structure of the dog needs to be healthy and not in any way overdone so that it is possible to function well in the job it was bred to do.