Last autumn, Viveka Brännström's labrador Assar passed away. Shortly afterwards, she decided to buy a new labrador to keep her and her other dogs company at home on Möcklö in the Karlskrona archipelago. Viveka is 66 years old and she has been allergic to dogs and horses since she was a child. She has experience that some dogs give her allergic problems, while others can be had without allergic reactions, even though they belong to the same breed. She talks about this in the article " My one Labrador gives me a rash, the other gives me no problems at all ".

Now her new puppy, a yellow Labrador named Selma, has finally been allowed to come to her new home. The little puppy has been with Viveka for a week and so far no allergic reactions have been noticed, even though Viveka usually feels the allergy most when she spends time with puppies.

- When puppies misbehave and bite a bit, I always get itchy, but now I haven't noticed anything. She usually wants to lie in my arms, and I haven't felt any discomfort, she says.

The choice was between two puppies

Viveka then knew beforehand which breeder she wanted to go to to find a new Labrador. She also had other wishes that came into play.

- Assar, my labrador that had to be euthanized, was yellow so I knew I wanted the new puppy to be yellow too. Then I wanted a bitch because it suits me better.

The breeder Inga-Lena Djurberg had three bitches, one of which in temperament would probably not suit Viveka and was therefore selected. The other two puppies were tested with allergen test when they were six weeks old and the results were clear.

- For me it didn't matter which of the puppies it was, so I thought I might as well do the test to see if there was any difference between the puppies. And then it turned out that there was a big difference and then the choice became clear, says Viveka.

These results showed the allergen tests on the puppies:

Puppy 1 (Selma)

Puppy 2

The first two values ​​show the allergen levels in the fur and the last three levels in the puppies' saliva. The test results show that puppy 1 has lower allergen levels than puppy 2 in both fur and saliva for all allergens except Can f 2.

Inga-Lena Djurberg was the one who performed the allergen tests. She says that she encountered some negative voices when she described that she tested some of her puppies. Among other things regarding whether an allergy sufferer should really get a dog and also whether allergy friendliness should factor into a purchase.

- When I explained how the test would facilitate the customer's choice of puppy, people changed their attitude and said that it sounded like a good thing. I told them that there were dog owners who already had three dogs at home and now wanted to get another dog, and that the test helped her decide which puppy to buy, says Inga-Lena.

The puppy Selma is now just over nine weeks old and joins Viveka's other dogs Moltas, Tekla and Sigge at home. Viveka is super pleased that it was Selma who got to become part of the family.

- It feels fantastic that it worked! Now I think about what it would have been like if I hadn't tested the dogs and chosen the other puppy instead. Then I might have reacted very strongly now.

The puppy Selma.