Marina Markio

Finland

My dream breeds as a child were Giant Schnauzer and Gordon Setter. Luckily my mother understood, that I could not cope with either of them, so she bought me a silver Miniature Poodle. The breeder insisted and tought me how to groom the dog and soon I was kennelhelp in a Poodle kennel. When breeder went to dog shows, I washed and groomed Poodles untill late night. Due to this working experience, at the age of 13, I worked in a grooming salon during summer holidays. The owner of the salon was Sirkka Henriksson-Pasanen, a show judge and Schnauzer-Pinscher breeder. In 1972 an adult Miniature Schnauzer came back to the breeder and it moved to our house to accompany our Poodle. I went with it to dog shows and it became show champion. At the same time I had the possibility with Sirkka to get to know famous legends of dog world like Hans Lehtinen, Olavi Pasanen and Kari Järvinen. I was “pushed” to judging course and became judge in 1987. I was lucky to have the possibility to judge Schnauzer in a Specialty show soon after that. The FCI approved my prefix Prinzlands in 1978 and I bred 18 litters of pepper&salt Miniature Schnauzers. I have been awarded the Vuolasvirta-prize, the highest award of the Finnish Kennel Club for succesfull breeding.
Those days I was active in the Finnish Schnauzer-Pinscher Association and I had a grooming salon until 1989. Then life changed its direction and I moved abroad and did not have any doggy hobbies although I had one Schnauzer and two Miniature Schnauzers at home. In 2003 I changed the breed due to the fact that Miniature Schnauzer had become too popular. The new breed was Petit Basset Griffon Vendeen and Yamastha Crocodile Dundee cam to us. A bit later came from Canada Amonvhars Ultimate Snowprince, the dog of my life. So far I have had only one litter of PBGV. I like walking in forest with my dogs and sometimes we do some tracking. I like also classical music and reading. I am juding only breeds I am interestedin and have been judging Schnauzer-Pinscher breeds and Basset breeds in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Russia and Poland.