Jaakko was born in Finland and brought to France by Valérie du Rétail when he was a yearling. He has been a major stud dog of her kennel Léva Nève in the french pre Alps (Vassieux en Vercors). He was notably father of Tolkien Léva Nève who is leader of Sarah Audetat's team and ran several times the Grande Odyssee.

Jaakko is Daika's father and has rejoined us when he was 10 years old. He was living with a profesionnal tourist musher and handled very badly his retirement (he didn't want to stay at home with the other retirees). We took him and he stayed with us his remaining 3 years. I will never be able to thank him enough for these years with him. Thanks to him I got to know a truely exceptionnal dog who taught me so much about what a dog can be capable of. He had an exceptionnal intelligence as well as charisma and a construction perfect for any sleddog discipline. Our breeding strives to preserve and reproduce his legacy.Ever since I have known Jaakko I dream of living with dogs like him. But contrary to him, to also grow up with us.

Surname: none

See Jaakko's pedigree

Date of birth: 04/10/1998

Date of death: 13/06/2012 at the age of 13 years

Heigth: 61 cm

Weight: 27 kg

Suitable for breeding

Position in the pack: the boss. He has been the boss of the Léva Nève pack (30 dogs) as well as our little pack. He only very rarely needed to show his power. He had charisma and good humour and everybody respected him. But on the rare occasions where he felt that it was necessary he could unleash hell in one second. He was a dog better not to pick a fight with.

Position in the team: wheel. Being powerful and big he has been wheel dog for most of his life. Valérie also had the philosophy that the same dog shouldn't be leader of the pack and leader of the dog team. Jaakko being leader of the pack she thought that he was under enough pressure already in his everyday life and it wasn't necessary to add to this the pressure of being leader at work. Thanks to his very good construction Jaakko was capable to continue run with the team until he was 12 years old. He had such a big stride when trotting at up to 18 km/h that he could easily keep up with the rest of team who was already loping.

Strengths:

• His presence. Jaakko had a very strong, soothing presence that was very impressive. Even people knowing nothing of dogs noticed it. At the same time he never put himself forward and was very reserved.
• His gait. When trotting he seemed to float without touching the ground.
• His intelligence. Jaakko understood absolutely everything I said even though he has not grown up with us like Daika for example. He learned very quickly just by observation. Just by observing and thinking, and all this when he was already 10 years old!

Jaakko 8 years old

Weaknesses:

Having grown up in a world very different of ours Jaakko always stayed a little distant with us, even if he appreciated contact a lot. Especially scratching his cheeks!

The wise one, the grey wolf, thank you for everything Jaakko!