After these three years living abroad there are many people that I´m so grateful to and want to thank for all their help.  I would like to mention them here in order to when I met them.

First is Lillian on Amager Hundesalon where I got to take my first "steps" in learning to become a dog groomer, she tought me all the basics and I had a lot of good time there with her and her lovely giant schnauzer Buskis.

The summer 2004 me and my best friend Auja went as kennel girls to Riitta Aho, Punapaulan kennel in Finland.  Riitta breeds afghans and poodles so I thought it would be a great oppurtunity for me to learn about poodles (which was the breed I wished to have)  even though afghans were not so much a breed for me...or so I thought!  I went home from there a two and a half month later, not only with a great experience but also with an afghan hound!  I had totally fallen in love with Riitta´s afghans and one afghan in particular and that would be my Ollie.  Like I said it was a great experience to live with Riitta and I learned so much from her.  On the last weekend we were in Finland, Riitta gave us a lecture about anatomy and movements which she has been giving to a lot of people around the world.  It was more like a "refreshment" because we had obviously been getting that lecture in small parts all over the summer, along with many other things.  Riitta always answered our questions with good explaining answers, whether it was about breeding, health (Riitta is a vet) or dogs in general.

After coming back to Denmark with Ollie I met another great person, Marianne Nilsson, Abicas afghans that has also helped me a lot.  She introduced me to Lone Wendall, Pointbreak american cocker spaniels which has been so kind to give me grooming lessons on her beautiful and patient american cockers.  Marianne also introduced me to Sue Oakley, Nanaks afghans and bichon frise.  Sue has a grooming salon in England where I was so lucky to get lessons from her and her daughter Nikki for 5 weeks and I learned so much from them.  I lived with Sue, her husband Howard and their four dogs and had a wonderful time, they are such a nice family, I really felt like at home there.  Tassie (bichon frisé) also has to get special thanks for her patience while I practised on her.

My last four months abroad I spent in Sweden at Candygolds kennel with Margot Hörnqvist.  I was originally only going to be there for 2 and a half months but I had a really great time so when Margot asked if I could stay longer I decided to do so and was fortunatly able to make changes for the quarantine (and convince my boyfriend it wouldn´t be so much longer).  It was really great to finally work on a kennel with my own and favourite breed, papillons.  To live with such a nice dogs and experienced breeder is a great way to learn more about your breed.  My youngest girl Ída, is bred by Margot and both parents of my Amber are also bred by Margot so it was also a great opportunity to learn more about my bitches relatives. 

But that was not all, Margot introduced me to her friends, Fredrik Nilson, Callevys pomeranian and Mikael Nilson, Kudos poodles, it was always nice to visit them and their beautiful dogs.  Micke was so nice to give me poodle grooming lessons, that was for sure a dream coming true!  Micke is a great teacher and I´m so thankful to him for teaching me everything he did about poodles and hope I can learn more from him in the future. I also learned about the pomeranians from Fredrik and I also have to mention that he is a great cook ;)

I´m for sure going to miss all of you living so far away but I will come for visits that´s for sure and you know you are always welcome for a visit to Iceland!