Pectus Larissa, Ronja

Giant Schnauzer, black

born 11-28-2001

breeder: Eeva-Liisa and Pertti Lankinen

owner: Leena and Jyrki Hirvensalo

Ronja came into our world over five years ago and charmed our socks off with her huge, 7-week-old ego and endless curiosity. She was the result of a determined "Mum, I want a dog, I really do!" -campaign, and turned out to be even more than anyone had expected. She is The Dog, with a very big D.

Communicating with a young, highly energetic giant schnauzer can be challenging, so obedience training was the key right from the start. We took part in several different classes, and at first we enjoyed it. The little rascal was a quick learner, and even though we had out setbacks we did just great. But I wasn't interested in competing (which seemed to be just about everyone's goal), so we decided to continue practising on our own time. Later we tried agility, which turned out to be "the thing" for Ronja, but as well as with the obedience training, we prefer independent practise sessions.

Agility practise

Ronja did also take part in junior handling with me, but she never enjoyed it. Nowadays she is happily "retired", which means she can spend her days doing what she likes the most: running in the woods with my parents (who are at least as into it as her ;)), chasing rabbits and birds, swimming in every puddle she finds and doing tricks and occasionally practising her agility jumps. She hasn't complained yet ;)

Ronja isn't the easiest of dogs, but has given us so much more than she has taken. To me she is a teacher more than anything else, and I think it has been a huge gift to get to work with a dog like her. We are very much alike, me and her, we both like to do things our own way and there's no arguing. That may have caused us to have our issues, like situations when I told her to do something, she just didn't feel like doing it, and we could stand on a field for hours because neither one of us would give in.

So this is our Ronja: smart, sweet and stubborn. Definitely worth meeting :)