My passion for borzois started in 1984 when I was 10 years old and
our first borzoi, a red and white puppy boy, Sergej, moved to my
childhood family. Sergej stole my heart completily and I brought him
with me everywhere I went. I wanted to enter Sergej to a dog show in 1985
as the show was held in a sighthound racing center close to horse
stables where my family used to go riding every day.
The first
show was all about "Hmmm...what's happening here..." and "Ok...if I do
the same in the ring as the other handlers do I can't go wrong very
badly...". Sergej was fourth in his class. I decided to start
show training with him to hit the rings again, maybe with better
success... More about that story and about our other borzois in
the Rainbow Bridge in the section "Past borzois".
Since my early years in borzois I have been very intrested in pedigrees. My grandfather used to analyze and collect race horse pedigrees and he taught me the same passion. A pedigree can tell hundreds of stories when you "open it up", start carefully searching for more information about the dogs in it, about their siblings, about their offspring from different combinations, health data, pictures etc. A dog is not only a combination of the qualities of his parents but the qualities of his whole pedigree.
My ideal is a strong, agile borzoi who is an excellent representative of his breed. Not only meeting the requirements of the breed standard with his beauty, but also those important details in the body which makes a borzoi a fast hunting dog has to be correct.
Being able to catch the wolf and being able to hold the wolf down on the ground when it's fighting for its life. That's what the borzoi is originally made for to do - and that requires a lot. Both physically and mentally. I think a borzoi should always be measured keeping it's history as a wolf hunter in mind.
And thinking about this, a beautiful show stopper is not necessarily an excellent borzoi.
In my opinion a borzoi has to have steel hard self-confidence. It think borzoi shouldn't be stressed easily and it shouldn't be aggressive unless it gets under an attack. There is no excuse for aggression in any other situation.
In 2007 I chose Goshaga as my kennel name and I started to plan the first litter. Now, five years later, the plan is ready and published. My philosophy of breeding is that the future of our breed is all about the choises the breeders make today. 
Goshaga is a small hobby kennel situated in Southern Finland. We will have very carefully planned litters every now and then, maybe every third or fourth year.
The litters will be bred in our country home in Sipoo as there's lot of space and the big, fenced garden provides excellent possibilities for versatile excersise. My family consists on my husband, two kids and two borzois. As all the Goshaga litters will be home bred and as we have two kids, the pups will get used to kids from the early days on.
All dogs I use for breeding have to have excellent temperament, they got to be totally sane individuals. I was a member of Finnish Borzoi Club's breeding committee for some years and I'm very intrested in borzois' health matters. All dogs I use for breeding have to pass some basic health clearances. A borzoi looking healthy outside is not necessarily a borzoi healthy inside.
If my own dogs are used for breeding in any kennel or breeding program, at least their thyroid and heart will be checked. I feel it as my responsibility for the breed. The hearts are always checked by cardiologist using ultrasound and EKG as those together are the only reliable ways to find out the first possible signs of cardiomyopathy and other types of cardiac problems.
My own dogs are also tested for DM (Degenerative Myelopathy). If both parents of future Goshaga litters are not tested DM (N/N) healthy the pups will be tested to find out the DM status of each one of them. At least one of the parents have to always be DM (N/N) healthy in each Goshaga litter. I'm a member of Finnish Borzoi Club and Finnish Kennel Club, and all the results of the health clearances of my borzois used for breeding will be sent to their public databases.
I hope that with every Goshaga litter I can also bring some new, hopefully valuable blood to Finnish borzoi gene pool. I will select all the combinations keeping also that in mind.
Welcome to visit our sites!
Nora Vilva
Feel free to contact me: goshaga (at) gmail.com
