How it all got started

I have more or less grown up with dogs and have had a few other dogs during the years. A mixed breed as a child as well as an Australian Shepherd dog, my sister had Irish setters and I´ve lived with Dobermans as well. My very first dog of my own was a German Shepherd dog named Sámur who fathered one litter of puppies but died much too young because of the Icelandic dog ban in Reykjavík. It´s a long and sorted story, the important thing is that Sámur was a lovely dog and I miss him dearly.

Hólmfríður frá Kolsholti (called Hófí) was my first Icelandic. Lived her last few years on a farm with a very nice man in Norway. She was born November 5th 1988 out of Baldur frá Ólafsvöllum and Skonsa frá Kolsholti.

Snubbur is a son of Hófí out of her first litter that I kept for almost 4 years, he travelled back and forth to Canada with us and was registered with the Canadian Kennel Club along with his mother (the only two registered dogs at the time). I loved him dearly but when he came back to Iceland through the 3 months quarantine he had become so stressed and barked so much that I had to make a very hard decision to rehome him to a working sheep farm here in Iceland, he is still alive, still works around the farm (doesn´t go on the many day trips to the mountains anymore) and lives at Þorkelshóli.

While I still had Snubbur I had not planned on getting another dog but there was a sweet little puppy that had other plans! I used to go to visit litters with my girlfriend just to keep up on what was going on in the Icelandic dog world. We kept a very detailed list of all litters and felt that it was always better to see for ourselves what colours the puppies were, took photos etc. This little sweetheart that caught my eye and has never let go of my heartstrings since is Foldar-Freyja and she was born June 11th 1994 out of Spori Sámur frá Ólafsvöllum and Íslands-Garða Röskva. She is a very special character and once you´ve met her you´d understand what I mean.

The two dogs I´ve had the longest now are International Nordic Norwegian Swedish Icelandic Champion Foldar-Freyja. Nordic Norwegian Swedish Danish Champion Norwegian Winner 1999 Töfra-Frigg born February 21st 1997 out of International Icelandic Champion Íslands-Tanga Ás and Norwegian Champion Hólmfríður frá Kolsholti. I got her back at the age of two years so it took awhile for her to realise that she was indeed back with me to stay! Frigg is a very gentle soul with a very sensitive nature who genuinely gives of herself when she knows you well enough or when she feels that you need her company.

I used both Frigg and Freyja as companion dogs at an old age home in Oslo. This had not been used as therapy there yet so we were gineau pigs of a sort. I had no idea what to expect and I started out doing it as therapy for Frigg because she needed sosialising that she lacked her first two years. Unfortunately I only got to go about half a year or so  because Frigg and Freyja had litters and soon after that we moved back to Iceland. I do know that it seemed to work so well that a few other dogs (a golden retriever among others) took over when we left.

I will never forget the difference in their "approach" and it seemed they always knew best. Dogs never cease to amaze me. Frigg had her special friends that she had to visit and Freyja had different friends that she felt needed her special attention. And they seemed to go directly in the direction of their own different "friends" each time we arrived. The first time I took Freyja she got to visit a lady who was bedridden and couldn´t talk clearly so never talked much at all. She had very shakey hands as well and I had not visited her with Frigg so I didn´t know how I was to go about letting Freyja "talk" to a bedridden woman because the bed was so high up that it was difficult for her to get at her to be able to pet her.

Well Freyja KNEW how to approach this case and before I could blink she had hopped up into bed with the woman lied down and started licking her hand. I gasped and the woman started crying hysterically, right away I tried to tell Freyja to get off the bed. At that the woman talked to me for the very first time and said "please let her stay!" I realised that the reason she was crying was because she felt the love from Freyja and she missed her dog that she had to leave when she got sick. I let Freyja stay on the bed and the two of them had a special time together, the woman spoke endlessly to Freyja and petted her with her shaking hand. The nurses were amazed! This was a moment I will never forget and I learned that sometimes we have to just let the dogs do their work without human interferance. That day it was hard to leave. I thought how I would so love for someone to bring a dog to visit me if I were in that situation.

I encourage anyone who can, let your dog be a therapy dog. They do so much good that it can never be measured but I know it´s true because I have felt it firsthand.

In 1998 a German Pointer came to our home and 2002 her daughter as well, but you can read about them on the
GSP page.
 

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