Kennel Barowiak

The Family

My name is Lena Insulander and I live with my husband, Lucas, and our daughter, Linda, in the countryside some 30 minutes from the city of Eskilstuna and about 10 Swedish miles west of our capital, Stockholm. At present we have four dogs with us at home; Molly and her offspring Malte and Gaia and a Silken Windhound, Nessa. In the house live two cats as well.

My first borzois

I bought my first borzoi, Ermolaij's Fanya Feron in 1981, and two yeas later, my second bitch, Ermolaij's Kyra Tamara. When the ladies grew elderly, I bought my third borzoi; Ivegill's Lord Moonwalk, nicknamed Gorby.

Fanya had to be put to sleep at the age of 12, and Tamara a year later at the age of 11, so now I only had one borzoi left.

In the summer of 1995 I fell in love with a Norwegian bitch which I'd come across at Skokloster Summer Show. Fortunately, the owners told me that they had only recently discussed parting with her because they were plannning a litter from her sister. What luck! In the pedigree I could see that Nadja shared bloodlines with my first borzoi, Fanya, so maybe that's why I had instantly fallen in love with her!

And in the fall of 1995 we went over to Norway to bring home my fourth borzoi, Ch Nor-Castle's Nadesjda.

Our foundation

Nadesjda, or Nadja,  became our foundation bitch and, in 1997, whelped her first litter. Sadly I was only able to have one litter from Nadja, because, at the time, we didn't have kennel facilities, but I retain one bitch from that original litter: Barowiak's Anna Pavlova (Fanny). Fanny was the mother of our B-litter from which we kept two puppies at home. Of these Barowiak's Bronislava Nijinska (Betty) became dam to our C-litter, from which we kept Barowiak's Chagall and Barowiak's Chatara Chaos. Chatara became the mother of our D-litter from which we kept Barowiak's Dronina Ballerina (Ina) and Ina, in her turn, became the mother to our E-litter From that litter we kept two femlaes and one male. Barowiak's Extris Black Molly (Molly) gave birth to four puppies in 2020, our D-litter. 

Obedience/Lure Coursing

I have trained in Obedience to varying degrees with all my dogs. With my first, Fanya, I trained and competed to the highest level, although, at official competitions, she was only ever entered in Class I (in the days of Classes I, II and III). She received an Obedience diploma (LP title for the three first prizes).
Tamara I trained up to Class II, but she was never entered into any official competitions.

When I bought Gorby I began to train him at once and he gained his LP with ease. My goal with him had been that he should have competed in Class III, perhaps even higher and become Obedience Champion, but we only managed to make it to Class II because Linda was born and we had puppies to look after.

Gorby crossed the Rainbow Bridge in the summer of 2005, at the age of twelve years, two months and one day. He's the one I shall misss the most - my Favourite of Favourites.

Nadja wasn't interested in Obedience, but she did prove a marvellous tracker, which I have found all borzois to be.

Given my interest in Obedience, I trained to become an instructor, which I have been since 1989, though not active anymore.

Due to lack of time I don't train so much Obedience nowadays but, instead, we have tried some game/blood tracking which the dogs really like (and it's so easy...).

We have also tried Lure Coursing and Track Racing.

Of course we attend shows as well. :)

Check the links  "Our dogs" and "Past dogs" to see pictures of, and read more about, our beloved dogs!