It was springtime 1995 when Birgitte’s family decided to get a dog. We did a little research on different dog breeds, but finally decided on getting a Golden Retriever from our local dog breeder, Jarle Koldal.

We got Jako’s King Cosmos, nicknamed ”Kasper” at the end of June. Kasper was the biggest in a litter of four pups; nice and chubby with pelt like a polar bear. It didn’t take him long to become the centre of everyone’s attention.

Our show debut was a non-official show in Sotra outside of Bergen. Jarle handled Kasper, while the rest of us sat on the sideline, somewhat confused. However, it didn’t take us very long to realize that applauding audiences and pretty awards for the dogs was a good thing. Kasper won the rank of 2^nd BIS-puppy and got brilliant comments from the judge. And so the dog show fad had arrived…

At the next show I got the handler job, and have handled Kasper at most of his shows since. The ultimate score was achieved in August 2002 when Kasper pulled off his third CC at the Norwegian Retriever Club show and became Norwegian Champion. Credits to Britt E. Hoff Koldal for handling Kasper in that show!

Kasper has been my mentor all the way, and we’ve tried and failed together. He awoke my interest for dogs and inspired me to learn more on the subject. When it was decided that Kasper was to be used as a stud dog I was determined to keep a dog puppy from the first litter. However, that did take its time… In 2002 I got my own dog, Jako’s Santo Kim. Santo was four years old at the time and brought along a whole new set of experiences. He was calm and careful and a huge contrast to Kasper’s energetic being.

It wasn’t until springtime 2003 that it became clear that Kasper finally was going to be a father. In July, Secret-Garden Forrest Gump, nicknamed “Frodo” moved in with us and, just like his father, he was full of life and ready for action! Santo welcomed the new company, and the two of them quickly connected. Frodo and I attended puppy classes and dog shows, and when the good scores came back, everything was looking very promising. Sadly, Frodo died late February 2004. After eating a sock, he had to be operated twice, which became too much for the poor little puppy.

We were aware that Kasper was going to be a father once again before Frodo died, but we hadn’t thought about getting a new puppy. After many weeks of mourning we decided to try again. When the puppies was born, it was a litter wit six little bitches, but only two little dogs… Finally, we decided to have one bitch and one dog; Iaka’s Baroness von Vafet, nicknamed “Froeya”, and Iaka’s Baron von Vafet, nicknamed “Balder”.

It was exciting and demanding at first, with twice the cuddles, twice the exercise, and twice the wiping of little puddles on the floor. Even so, it was a lovely time in which I could follow their development and they had the comfort and safety of each other. Hopefully, these two can be the foundation in my further work with this breed. In the long run, we might use these two for breeding purposes, but only if they turn out to be good representatives for the Golden Retriever breed.

Birgitte H.O. Skibenes