When I got my degree, I started working at an outpatient clinic in Niinivaara, Joensuu in North Karelia. One day a week, I worked at the Paihola hospital in Kontiolahti in the same region. One time, I asked the head of economics if I could take Jysky to hunt in the hospital’s forest. He asked if I would like to join their elk hunting group. One spot from the hospital was available. Thus began mine and Jysky’s hunting career on large game.
Each autumn, we shot 2–3 elk that Jysky had barked at. At this time, Jysky stopped completely barking at squirrel. In the beginning of autumns, I managed to kill large capercaillies with the help of Jysky.
I took Jysky to a show. Viljo Kivikko awarded it a certificate at a show in Kuopio. Jysky did well at an elk hunting trial in Eno. The dog was already quite old when it barked at a bear in Hossa, near the east border. My father saw the bear run away.
I offered Jysky to be used by an elk hunting group in Hossa. Those men had experience of dogs starting to bark at elk and elk running to safety to the bordering zones. Today, there might be 3–5 dogs working at a time on a hunting day.
I had Jysky with me in Joensuu in the summers (at the cabin) and in the autumns. My father had the dog the rest of the time. When Jysky came to us to Joensuu for the first time, I let it out in the morning in downtown Joensuu to let it do its business – back then, dogs were allowed to be kept loose. I left for work to Niinivaara, thinking that my wife would take the dog back inside. Sometime before noon, the secretary of our outpatient clinic asked: “Do you have a big bear dog? It came over there to the waiting area and refuses to go outside”.
The rest of the day, Jysky lied under my desk in my office. Not one patient wished for it to leave. The dog had come from downtown, following my tracks along streets and bridges for a couple of kilometres. Many patients that day said that those kinds of dogs can be found in their village as well.
Jysky lived to become 14 years old. It was very healthy throughout its life.
In the late 1960’s, I started working at a hospital in Harjavalta, near the city of Pori on the west coast of Finland. I had read in a dog magazine that spitz enthusiast Jouko Paavilainen lived there. I went to visit him. Through him, I also got acquainted with Aati Mykkänen and Esko Nummijärvi.
I immediately attended the training courses to become a judge for bird and elk hunting trials. Later, I also became authorised to serve as chief judge at elk hunting trials.
My workdays were busy. I took part in demanding continuing education in Helsinki, and also had a private practice. Dog sports offered a nice break to my everyday life. I officiated six times as a judge at the Hirvenhaukut championship trials (Säkylä 1968, Kokkola 1969, Harjavalta 1970, Hyytiälä 1972, Kokkola 1973, Kangasniemi 1974).
My most demanding judging appointment took place in 1976 when I was the chief judge at the international trials in Kullaa. The winner of the trials was a grey Norwegian Elkhound named Jack from North Karelia.
In the mid 1970’s, I was awarded with the Finnish Spitz Association’s golden badge of honour in Paimio. I still have it.
During my time in Harjavalta, I had two Karelian Bear Dog females. Usvan Mimmi was an inbred offspring of Usvan Kirre, as was Usvan Mari, although from another sire, Pete. Mimmi experienced trauma at a young age when someone threw a firecracker to its pen by the hospital on New Year’s Eve. I tried to teach Mimmi to hunt in Hossa, but it had such deep traumatic fears that firing a shot made it run away recklessly.
The memoirs of Jouko Mutanen have been published in the Pystykorva magazine in 2014 in seven parts. The memoirs are now available online for the first time ever. Mutanen gave the original texts he wrote to the Finnish Spitz Association (Suomen Pystykorvajärjestö) in 2012.
