Who am I..?

My first self-bred silverbrindle longhaired in the spring 2003,
the bitch Lissunmustan Gizela Casha

I am Liisa Kukkanen, a longhair-breeder from far North, Finland. This far I have bred nine litters since 1996 under the prefix Lissunmustan. That means Lissu's (a nick-name of Liisa) Black's, as I got the kennel name for Belgian Shepherd Groenendaels in 1992, but have never had any Groenendael litters. In my puppies there are several show champions (this far 27 national and 4 international championship titles and only 62 of the 70 puppies are old enough to become show champions yet. Also several winner titles are received.) Some have also done well on the working fields. Lissunmustan Blitz Harald become the first Agility Champion in the world and Lissunmustan Casser Buffel is the first HH in Finland (obviously in the whole world also) who has taken part in skijorting trials. More working merits will come soon as most of the Finnish and Swedish longhaireds which have passed the BH-exam (VZH in Holland, needed for being able to enter working trials) are Lissunmustan dogs.

I have been lucky in choosing the parents for my litters, the puppies are healthy and what comes to the hip scores, 44% of the examinated are with A hips, 48% B and the rest are with C-hips. Compare with the statistics of the whole world: A or B 73% (the Lissunmustans 92%), C 23% (the Lissunmustans 8%) and E or D 4%. My puppies are living in addition to Finland in Sweden, Norway and France. I have imported in Finland ten HHs; from Holland, Belgium, Denmark, France and Norway, which is about 27% of all imports in Finland. About half of all Finnish breeders have used a Lissunmustan pup or import in breeding, and the first litters born abroad after a Lissunmustan bitch is already born in France.

When I first got interested in HHs in the beginning of the 1990s there was not many information sources available. The old books (all in Dutch) were all sold out and the new ones not published yet. Thanks to many wonderful persons abroad I have been able to gain a good collection of second-hand books, press cutting copies and fotos around the world. Thanks to all of You!

Since the beginning of the 1990s I have several times visited Holland, but also some other countries for showing my dogs or meeting HH breeders or for mating my bitches. Thanks to everyone who has let me to photograph their dogs, my foto collection seems to grow nicely. After some years of show-ring photography I have gone over to prefer taking fotos in the nature when the dog is free. Some of my fotos can be seen on the fotopage of this Longhairworld. One of my dreams is to publish a foto book on longhaireds some day.

I've come a long way since I succeeded to get the first prints on the breed. Today the internet has become a good media to share information and with this homepage I hope to be able to give someone new information on the loveliest dog breed I can ever imagine, the longhaired Hollandse Herders!

Sincerely Yours,
liisa . kukkanen (at) lissunmustan . net   from Lissunmustan Hollandse Herders from Finland.