My name is Iréne Sandström, and I can briefly be described as a dog maniac and a cookie monster from Västerbotten in the north of Sweden.
Born in the late seventies outside Vännäs (30 kilometers from Umeå). I had a great childhood in the country with two animal-interested parents who were the holders of the kennel name Wintertorpets, which is now resting. My dad had and still has Swedish elk dogs and has been judge for hunting tests for dogs for several years. My mother has bred Australian Terrier, which she was really successful at the dog shows with. There were some dog shows every year and I liked to follow on the trips.
A whole bunch of Australian terriers. Four out of five were or became show champions.
The number of dogs at home were always somewhere between six and twelve, plus puppies sometimes. We also had a Rough Collie, a Golden Retriever and a Pekingese. The Peke me and my mother bought together and it was thanks to her that it eventually became Japanese Chin for me. I loved the Pekes (her name was Selma) temperament but I wanted a little less fur and a dog with a bit more mobility. So perfect that there was such a breed! :)
In addition to dogs, we had lots of other animal species when I grew up. For instance, both me and my sister had horses (my sister stuck to the horses) and competed a little with them.
Me on our familys first horse, the Gotland pony Molly. About 1985.
"Career"
In high school, I went to the natural sciences program focusing on animal welfare and was looking for practicing as many nice internships as possible. During the summer holidays I worked on kennel and got a good fitness. When I graduated from high school I worked for a kennel with flatcoated retriever for half a year. Once again in Västerbotten again I received municipal youth practice as animal welfare service. One led to the other and I had three jobs for my ten years as a professional animal welfare worker before I was abandoned in March 2007 due to job shortage when my entire department was dropped.
I have tried to see the termination as a chance to do something else and the academic year 2007/2008 went to an education called "Dog as a profession - Step 2". A one-year full-time vocational education that made our students skilled in most professions that exist when it comes to dogs, actually a dog training course but without giving such a title. Very fun and very instructive. Among other things, we had to learn how to train our dogs to cope with guarding, preparation and protection. Our own dogs would also pass in either higher grade or obedience class 3 depending on what we did before. In addition, we were allowed to train rats, pigs for environmental reasons, follow hunting, learn a lot about breeding, dressage lessons and dog mentality, etc., etc. As my own profile, I chose to work with the subject of service dogs and trained Beatriz at different service dog moments. Me and my dogs went out with the highest marks in all subjects and I hope more than we will benefit from what I learned!
In parallel with the dog training, I studied mathematics at distance, and I joined the Bilkåren (home guard) 2007 and have already taken the TFU-G (March 2007) and have taken a driver's license and driver's license for the Swedish defence in the fall of 2007. Early in 2008 I have taken a winter class for heavy truck in Dalarna as well as a security guard training for the home army here in Umeå. During the summer of 2008, I benefited from my C-card when I worked as a driver in the summer and drove out goods in Umeå.
In the fall of 2008, me and my dogs moved to Skara when I entered the animal health program, which is a two-year (from 2009 a three-year) university education only available at SLU in Skara (from 2015 in Uppsala). Since I went out 2010, I was able to directly search for the new credentials in order to be able to titulate "legitimized animal nurse", which is now a must to carry out many of the duties at an animal hospital / animal clinic.
I worked at an animal hospital and a veterinary station until the turn of the year 2012/2013 when I actually started a new college education. This time to be a nurse. After a couple of years, I missed my "old" job too much, so I went to Vindeln to work as a registered animal nurse at a small veterinary clinic and I much enjoyed my almost four years there.
But everything has it's time and now I work on an industry in Vindeln that manufactures accessories for excavators, which feels very right for me now :)
"The Dog career"
After living in and outside Vännäs until I was grown up (when it is now?), I moved to Holmsund (15 km east of Umeå) where I lived for six years and there I discovered a nice little working dog club that I became active in. Although I lived in Umeå from 2004, I was still active in Holmsund's dog club until I moved south in 2008 and I am still contesting for Holmsund's dog club.
Having discovered how fun it was to train the dog "on real", I became interested in doing more in my dog club and being active with dog at all. It started with my training to be a ring secretary for the kennel club shows and then I went to an education called "SBK supervisor" (2001) at Holmsund Brukshundklubb, which corresponds to half of today's education to be a general obedience instructor. Not long after that, I learned to be agility competition leader (May 2003) and agility instructor (November 2003). Then I learned to be "SBK instructor B" (finished August 2004) and afterwards I went to be a freestyle instructor in 2006. In 2014, I became an educated rally obedience secretary.
In addition to having passed these courses, so to say "titles" to me, I have also done some other courses. Among other things, courses in tracking, search, report, obedience (eg Niina and Kenth Svartberg, Linda Rabnell), agility x many (including Camilla Brundin, Jenny Damm, Annica Aller, Malin Elfström) and included in training groups in different competition events.
In spring 2007, SKK's breeder's education was completed after three semesters. A very good education to go when you want to become a new breeder!
The courses I instructed was mainly general obedience, obedience for competition, agility (above all) and freestyle. After having held courses quite diligently for a few years, there was a break with the studies.
I have participated in the Holmsund Brukshundklubb board in 2005-2007 and 2007-2009 I was a secretary in the Japanese Chin Society. From 2017, I'll be back in the Japanese Chin Societet, as a member of the board as well as one of the members of the breeding committee.
