Many people wish to own a pet but postpone their plans due to their hectic life. I was always planning to take a dog in my early retirement days since then I'd have enough spare time and energy to grow a pup.

I was only finding excuses since I actually wanted a dog much more than I dared to admit. Definitely a pure breed dog.

I had specific wishes regarding the dog's breed. It should be friendly, it shouldn't shed hair much and it should preferably be smaller. The dog's size was an issue since I seriously planned to get involved with dog sports and that ruled out too small dogs.

With my mind set, I eagerly started surfing on different Estonian and foreign web pages and by chance came upon an interesting breed - the griffon. To be honest, based on the pictures it was not “love form first sight”, but something kept on bugging me. I searched for more and more pictures and reviewed them for hours. For a long time I couldn’t decide whether I liked the small Brabant or the Brussels griffon more. And so I set off to the „Winner 2004” show held at the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds in order to become acquainted with the small dog. After the show I decided that I wanted a Brussels griffon for sure. I was finally charmed by the pup’s tiny beard.

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I contacted the Brussels griffon breeder Natalja Tabujeva from kennel “Volfrad” and a year later we had a small griffon girl at home. Although she has the fancy and complicated name Volfrad Ellin’s Golden Catlyn, we just call her Kätu.

In 2008, Kätu had four lovely puppies – one boy and three girls. Choosing a father for the pups was difficult and we finally decided on Leo Belgicus Good-Morning living in St Petersburg whose offspring I had seen in several shows. Good-Morning comes from the Dutch kennel Leo Belgicus. He is a beautiful compact male with no previous litter in Estonia.

I had decided long before mating that I wanted to keep one girl for myself as I was eager to have yet another bearded lady at home. That’s how we became to have our second dog Wendy who comes from my own kennel.

It’s said that two is company, three’s a crowd. It took me quite a while to decide whether I had enough free time to share with three dogs. By the end of the summer of 2008 my mind was set – I want another Griffon. I contacted breeder Natalya Gryaznova of kennel “Union Grif”. In the autumn I travelled to St Petersburg to collect my new little-one, officially known as Union Grif Unique Victory, but at home known as Tondu.