I know a little bit about finnish retriever world because very good friend of mine lives there. They have three kind of competitions: working test, cold game and field trials. Most of dogs compete in cold games.
The reason why you have got lots of puppy enquiries might be, as earlier said, need for "new blood", puppies are cheaper than in Scandinavia and also the colour. Fox reds are now in fashion and there is a big demand for them.
As jane said we do have three different kind of tests:
Field Trial (with warm game, according FCI regulations)
Hunting Test with cold game (we call this also B-trial)
Working Test with dummies
Only about 6-8 Field Trials are arranged yearly. I think we have only 2-3 dogs that are FTCH (which we call KVA-FT).
Most working champions are from cold game tests, we call these KVA. You cannot become a champion from working test.
Traditionally we have had more showlines here, but in about 10 years the FT-type has become more and more popular. We doesn't have so many FT-breeders yet and the demand for FT-puppies has grown a lot. Also the population of FT-labradors is still small in Finland so we are in constant demand for new breeding material.
We do not have a separate Club or register for hunting dogs like danish have. All are registered in Finnish Kennel Club. Swedish have some kind on separate register, but that kind on 'business' is in much smaller scale in Sweden compared to Denmark. I think that some dogs in Sweden are even registered in both systems.
Thanks Jane and Suski I think I have a clearer picture in my head of how the competitions work in Finland now.
And I can see that the combination of the Fox Red colour and that my dogs are fully health tested is bringing in more puppy enquiries from the Scandinavian countries.
Good homes are more important to me than anything else though.
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