The Road Runners Team was established in 1999, when Tarja and Riitta met each other. At that time Tarja had two pumis Joska and Nemes, and Riitta was living with her boxer Melli. Agility was our common denominator. At that time Tarja was an experienced agility competitor; Riitta was a novice. The team started in agility training and extended later to exercising, hiking and traveling. Within the new dogs, Zoco (spanish water dog) and Nadas (hungarian vizsla), our hobby expanded greatly!. Zoco began training in tracking and Nadas in hunting. Also obedience was added to the list. A new puppy, Szep (hungarian vizsla), joined to our team in August -06. The latest member of RR-team is bordercollie Zici who joined us in February -07. As a sad part of story Nemes left us September -05 and Melli November -07. Both of them will always have a place in our hearts.
In agility we have at the moment three competing dogs. Zoco and Nadas are competing in the highest class (class III) since spring (Z) and summer (N) -05. Szep started her career in November -07. Zoco was selected to be the best water dog (spanish and portugese) in agility in Finland 2005! Zoco and Nadas are again preparing them to the coming Finnish Championchips. In year -07 Nadas was in placement 34 in Championchips. Zoco was not competing because of nail accident just day before of this weekwnd. Joska retired from agility at the age of 11 and Melli at the age of 10. Joska is now mostly barking on the sidelines. Nemes we lost unexpectedly in autumn -05 and Melli left us in autumn -07. We are pining them both a lot
In obedience, the pumis Joska and Nemes are Finnish Obedience Champions. Melli has never taken part to the obedience competition, but Zoco and Nadas are up and coming in this sport. Zoco is competing in "Elitet class" and are eagerly hunting for the third 1st price result in order to become Finnish Obedience Champion. Nadas is competing in "winner class". Zici and Szep will start their obedience cateet in spring -08.
With the new dogs came new hobbies. Zoco, the Spanish Water Dog, has started in blood tracking and is doing well. He has a very good nose and he enjoys doing this work. As a working dog, Zici is also training tracking and searching. He is also very eager in this. As a viszlas, Nadas and Szep belongs to the group of pointing dogs and are training for hunting trials. Both dogs took part to the youngster's class "Junkkari" at the age of one year. Later on Nadas earned his first important price in hunting trial in autumn -07. Two prices in open class are needed for show champion title.
Conformation shows are a big part of our schedule, and we go as often as possible. Joska has had a very successful show career. He is a genuine multiple champion, having championship titles in five countries, in addition to his international title. Zoco and Nadas have got their Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Estonian certificates as well as their international certificates. Zoco has already earned his INT, Nord, FIN, S, N, DK, EST Ch titles. Nadas was selecter Finnish Winner in -05. Up to now, Szep has earned two certificates from Finland.
One of our passions is traveling. Since 2001 we have explored continental Europe with our dogs. We have visited Vienna, Rome and Barcelona. Every trip is, however, finally found its way to the Alps. Also in summer 2005 we were targeting our trip to Tirol. The two weeks trip started in the end of May, and went through Sweden and Germany to Austria. After European Winner Dog Show in Tulln, we stayed one week in St Anton in the Alps. That week was great and it was dedicated for nature and hiking. In summer 2006 we stayed mostly in Finland. Couple of short trips to Sweden was done in July. During summer 2007 we were forced to stay in Finland. Zici was so small that he had not yet papers to travel. So the summer was dedicated for training.
The majority of our Road Runners Team web pages are written in Finnish. Only this short summary is translated to English for our foreign friends. However, photos are multilingual and you will find some collection from the photo gallery (kuvagalleria). If you like to send greetings for us, you can write to our questbook (kirjoita vieraskirjaan). Thanks for leaving your message!