Icelandic Sheepdogs

I am Anita de Geus, born in 1963 and mad about dogs all my life. I grew up with a German Shepherd. He died when he was 17 years old. Later on I had an Belgian Shepherd who died
too young due to an auto immune disease.

1992 - 1993 * Boomer & Kvika
I rescued my first Icelandic, Boomer, from a dogshelter. He was limping due to a car accident and and people from the shelter told me he was a real runaway. But it was love at first sight both ways.
I spent a lot of time, patience and trust in him and within a couple of weeks he turned out to be a wonderful companion and a great family dog. He never ran off again.
In the meantime I wanted to have another Icelandic Dog. I gathered all the information I could get, contacted the breed club and that's how I found Kvika.
She came to live with me in 1993 after giving birth to two litters at her former owner and
was now retiring.

1997 - 2000 * Gúdrun & Skjalla
Unfortunately Boomer died in 1996 and we were having a hard time dealing with losing him. We started thinking about another dog. This time I chose to have a puppy. I got more and more interested in the Icelandic Sheepdog, its history and breeding. In January 1997 Gúdrun came to live with me and she helped Kvika cheering up. In 1998 I had the opportunity to buy another Icelandic puppy, this time a black tricolor, Skjalla. From that moment on I was the happy owner of 3 Icelandics.

May 2012 - Me and Mýsla 3 months old

But sadly I couldn't enjoy my three dogs as long as I wanted, because Kvika died in 1999.
At that time Gúdrun was 3 weeks pregnant. Although I had lots of fun with the puppies, losing Kvika made me very sad and it overshadowed this period.
I decided I didn't want to keep one of the puppies, I still was too sad about Kvika's death and it didn't seem fair to Kvika as well.

2000 * Grímur
Fate decided otherwise. Although I didn't want to keep one of Gúdruns puppies, her son Grímur came back to live with me in June 2000 when he was 9 months old.

2002 * Valli
August 2002 I imported a male Icelandic puppy, Valli (full name Töfra-Hvutti Valtýr) bred by Monika Karlsdóttir from Kennel Töfra at that time in Norway, now Iceland. Valli's father (Skessu-Skolli) comes from a very small familygroup on Iceland and is allspori (double dewclaws on all four legs).
Valli lives with a family in Zaandam where he gets all the attention and training he needs.

2006 * Iduna & Disa
March 26, 2006 Valli had his first litter with Kella frá Gull Lyklinum (she's a littersister to my Skjalla). Out of this litter I got Iduna. Iduna lives with friends in Veenendaal. She had a litter October 30, 2008.

Disa came to live with me by the end of 2006 because her owners decided to find her a new home. Disa is a littersister to Iduna. She lived here for 8 weeks but there was some tension between Skjalla and Disa (both headstrong dogs) and I decided to let her live with friends of me in Groningen who also own Brími, a son out of Skjalla and Grímur.

2009 - 2011 * Glanna
Disa had her first litter December 11, 2009 and I decided to keep Glanna. Glanna lives with me.
May 20, 2011 Gúdrun died at the age of 14,5 years, which leaves me with only 3 dogs at home; Skjalla, Grímur and Glanna
Disa's second litter was born September 15, 2011.

2012 * Mýsla
April 13, 2012 Mýsla came over from Finland where breeders are required to carry out more stringent health testing on all their breeding dogs than in the Netherlands. Mýsla lives with friends in Zeeland. Should all future health tests turn out positive then I hope to have a litter of puppies from Mýsla.

July 11, 2012 Grímur died, leaving Skjalla and Glanna behind. It's hard to lose 2 dogs in 14 months and we all miss him terribly.

September 7, 2012 Blida came over from Finland together with her brother. They were born just 6 days before Grímurs death. Her brother lives in The Hague, Blida lives with me.

An occassional litter
For me the most important issues in breeding are character and health. Appearance is important too,
but not as important as health and temperament. That's why my puppies will always be temperament tested at the age of 7 week. That way I can make sure I place the right dog with the right owner.
I spend a lot of time and energy in socializing the puppies and I think it's very important to help the
new owners wherever and whenever they need me.

Of course all my dogs are being X-rayed and will be tested for hereditary eye diseases before breeding.
Needless to say I don't breed dogs with (hereditary) diseases or faults in character and temperament.

I am a member of the Icelandic Sheepdog Club (IJslandse Honden Club) and only breed according to
the club's breeding regulations.

For more information about the Icelandic Sheepdog please visit the website of
the Iceland Sheepdog Club or contact me by email

March 2010 - Skjalla, Gúdrun, Grímur and Glanna as a puppy