Doug, Doris and their son John are devoted to their Swedish Vallhund, Vikka, a northern herd dog best known for ‘herding’ the children on their street.

Pets names are fascinating.  Vikka’s name is not short for Victoria, or Viking, as she is a Swedish Vallhund, but in honor of a saying Doris’s Swedish Grandmother used.  

“At meals,” began Doris, “when a child asked for an item that was right in front of them Granny would say, ‘Vik under näsan’ which translates to ‘Fold/look under your nose’.

The saying is perfect for Vikka because as a herding and tracking dog she leads her life by her nose.

Vikka is four-years-old and her stomach is our alarm clock! She sleeps snuggled up to my husband, Doug, and every morning, at 6 am, she wakes up, stretches, shakes her head and dog tags. The tags ring like an alarm clock, im-paws-ible to sleep through!  Doug feeds her and then as I am getting up, she comes back to bed and promptly falls asleep.

Doug and I met while driving buses, so buses are important to us and a lot of our friends still drive them.  Vikka on the other hand detests buses, paws-ibly because they sound like a huge growling animal?  As a puppy she would apply her brakes, and not walk up a street if she saw a bus on it.  If a friend drives up and opens the bus doors to chat with us, there is no way Vikka will consider hopping aboard.

Swedish Vallhunds are a healthy breed with no genetic weaknesses. They are an ancestor of the Welsh Corgie which is the Queen of England’s purr-fur-ed breed. 

This rare breed was saved from extinction in the 1940's after the war. The adults weigh 30 pounds. They are excellent cattle and reindeer herders and because of their small stature they have a high-pitch-sharp alert bark for their safety. 

For practice, as a puppy, Vikka insisted on herding our neighborhood children.

When someone rings our doorbell, she barks and charges the door like a vicious watch dog. But she can’t put her bum on the floor because her tail’s wagging so much!  

Vikka’s diet is raw food. On this diet, she is healthy and has no issues like hair loss or skin issues.  We check to see where her food is made. We were giving her some chicken treats and discovered they were made in China which we were not comfortable with since we'd heard they might contain heavy chemicals and plastics. We now only buy USA or Canadian made products. 

‘Real food’ is something you cook for your family -  including the dog.  Vikka loves cauliflower, carrots, and broccoli but she’s not an apple lover.  Her diet keeps her weight in check.

John is a fire fighter and he is training Vikka to be a sniffer or search and rescue dog.  We hide ‘treats’ around the house to hone her skills.

After supper Vikka brings me her hug toy to play with her.  After playing and then relaxing, she looks at me with pleading-exhausted eyes announcing it is bed time.  And if we don’t go, she takes herself to bed.

Being a herding dog, Vikka takes pride in protecting her charges. When she was a puppy, I dropped a glass jar and it shattered. Ever since, if I have a glass jar she reminds me to be careful by barking. 

When we climb a ladder Vikka barks telling us to ‘be careful’. After Doug’s operation, Vikka barely left his side. She had a deep look of concern on her face, she knew things were different. Her pet peeve is the vacuum hose, even with the machine off. She hates it so much she barks at ‘the snake’ in the closet - telling it off.

Now that we are retired we are enjoying our time with Vikka. She’s a loving friend always at our side. What animal can you get that greets you with joy and a tail wag of unadulterated happiness?”

“To socialize Vikka as a puppy,” said Doris, “we had a ‘Meet Our Puppy Party’! We probably did not have to do this but she loves people and we wanted to show her off. It must have worked because she jumps up onto park benches to grace strangers with her company. We ‘know’ that she certainly isn’t waiting for a bus on the bench!

My son, John, read that if you get down on a dog’s level to greet them that the pet won’t jump up on you in their enthusiasm. John still lays on the ground and goes nose to nose with Vikka.

One of her strange habits is smelling our breath to see what we’ve eaten.  We laugh and wonder if she’s part Eskimo because she also likes to rub our noses.

We always include a game of ‘fetch’ on our walks in the enclosed tennis court, so she is safe from blindly chasing balls onto a road.

We still have her puppy bells on the back door. I sewed four Christmas bells onto a strip of cloth and she knocks it with her paw or nose to summon us. She then sits and waits for us to come open the door. This musical system works for both of us!”

*** Write and tell us if your pet plays jokes on you!
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Mary Ellen's Silver Persians swam their way into readers and viewer's hearts! They have appeared in International magazines and newspapers around the world. (France, England, Canada, China, Germany, USA, etc.)

Also, several National and International TV shows feature the swimming felines as they taught pet-water-safety.