My name is Anette Johansson. My closest family is my husband, a daughter, three grand children and three Australian Kelpies. For a long time I had wished to have a dog, but it was not until 1979 that I had the opportunity to get my own dog. I had no problem choosing the breed – for me there was nothing else but the German Shepherd. During the period from 1979 to 2002 I had totally five German Shepherds. You will find a short presentation of each of them under “Remembering”. Today, I have no German Shepherd but I have two Australian Kelpies from Glimmergruvans Kennel: Uzak and Zmilla and a puppy of our own breed (after Zmilla) called Lilla Primtorpets Pixi.
Uzak was my first Kelpie who came to us in 1998. I had then been the owner of German Shepherds for 23 years and I still had two Shepherds when I decided to change to another breed. I still think that the German Shepherd is a wonderful dog, but I very much wanted to compete with my dogs and it was quite difficult for me to find a good enough Shepherd. Changing breed was quite a long process – actually it took me 10 years to decide to change to the Australian Kelpie. And when I had finally made up my mind, it very nearly did not come true anyhow.
I had contacted a breeder and made a reservation for a male dog, but when the puppies were born there was only one male and that one had already been booked. Of course, I was very disappointed since I had made up my mind at last to change to another breed, but I felt that I had to face the fact that I was not meant to have a Kelpie.
But, to my big surprise, the magazine Brukshunden (The Working Dog) which I received a few days later contained a breed special on the Australian Kelpie!!! There was also an article about Glimmergruvans Kennel where I could read that during the reporter’s visit at the kennel a litter of puppies was born – the Glimmergruvans U-litter. I phoned Olle Johansson (the owner of the kennel) and asked if by any chance he had a male puppy left. He told me that 4 male and 2 female puppies had been born and there were still 2 male puppies left. I reserved one straight away – only I told him I did not want a puppy who are kryptorchid. (Kryptorchid dogs are not allowed to take part in Dog Shows and can therefore not become champions.) Even if I was far from sure that my dog would be a competition dog, I did not want to take the risk that such a defect would make it impossible.

Four weeks later Olle phoned me and said that I was welcome to Svenljunga to see the puppies because now they all had their stones in place. We were in Värmland at the time and decided to go to Svenljunga right away. Said and done – we went and looked; and I have to admit that I did get somewhat concerned whether I hade chosen the right breed. After all, a Kelpie is very small compared to the German Shepherd that I was used to. Olle also asked me to think about a name starting with a U and after many suggestions we agreed on Uzak.

When the puppies were about 6 weeks old Olle asked which one of the puppies I wanted. I asked him to pick “my” puppy since I did not have the opportunity to go to Svenljunga again at that time. He asked me what I wanted to do with the dog and I answered that I wanted a working dog and I wouldn’t mind a goodlooking one. He told me that the puppy he thought would be the best working dog was the “ugliest puppy he had ever had in his kennel; he will never be a show dog”. As I thought that working dog competitions was more important than shows I decided to take that puppy anyway. On Midsummer’s Eve 1998 it was time to pick up “the ugly duckling” and I have never regretted it.  Knowing what I know today it is obvious that not even a very experienced breeder can tell what will become of the puppies when they grow up. As a matter of fact I got a very good working dog and also a most handsome show dog. Uzak is champion in Sweden as well as in Finland and in Denmark and since he got CACIB in all three countries, he is also International and Nordic Dog Show Champion. The breeder has certainly had all the reason to regret what he said about the ugly puppy.

In the fall of 2001 Olle told me that it was time for Solo Song’s last mating. I thought that she had many good characteristics and therefore I booked a puppy. It was a bit early because Uzak was competing a lot at the time and we still had one German Shepherd, who also required training, but it could not be helped – we really wanted a puppy. Later on there was another litter of puppies after all, but then we already had Zmilla and this is something I definitely never regretted.
Zmilla was born at Christmas 2001. She came to us at the end of February when the weather was very cold and there was a lot of snow. She charmed everyone. Our German Shepherd had not accepted Uzak until after 5 months, but Zmilla was accepted the verey first day. I wonder if it is because she is a girl?