Natural History

Posted in Uncategorized, working dogs | Tagged beagle, dachshund, Norwegian elkhound, urocyon | 6 Comments

6 Responses

1. on January 14, 2016 at 5:01 pm Frida

   Aren’t norwegian elkhound a rare breed in America? Was yours imported?

   
   
   • on January 14, 2016 at 5:55 pm retrieverman

     Not rare at all.

     My grandparents had several Norwegian elkhounds that were used for hunting purposes. They were very easily obtained.

     
     
2. on January 15, 2016 at 4:34 am Kay

   The dachshund looks just like mine! He’s 16 now, & only just retired from his work of scaring the s*** out of all the area’s small critters. It’s so hard to find the ferocious little red ones now. Just lots of “dapples” & “piebalds.”

   
   
   • on January 15, 2016 at 7:16 pm retrieverman

     Huddles Sherman (named for the general) was a game little dog, but he was also extremely obedient. He could be told not to bark, and he wouldn’t so much as as let out a wuff. He also always came when called. But he could hunt rabbits in heavy cover with the beagles and track a shot deer like a bloodhound.

     The thing that did him in was a short-tailed shrew bite, which is the only venomous mammal in Mid-Atlantic states. It didn’t kill him, but it messed up his reaction time.

     
     
3. on January 15, 2016 at 5:00 pm Frida

   OK, are there some breeders of jamthunds (swedish elkhound) i America too?

   I personally prefer jamthunds, my relatives had these dogs for moose hunt. There is breed called swedish white elkhound, it is basically the same dog as jamthund but it is white in color.
   A fun note is that the norwegian elkhound also has a type that is black :-)

   In Sweden this dog do often are kept in a dog pen with small house, I think its better though to have them in the house because they get understimulated and bark a lot.

   I think your blog is interesting, I read it some years ago, keep up the good work.

   
   
   • on January 15, 2016 at 5:26 pm retrieverman

     We don’t have Jaemthund because where there are moose in the US, you cannot use dogs, so the Swedish moose hunters are uncomfortable selling them to us.

     My grandpa actually had a few black elkhounds in the 50s/60s. I don’t know where these came from exactly, but he said they were a very different dog, much stronger prey drive but also easier to handle and more biddable. Those are the ones that are hunted on leashes in Norway, so that could be the reason.

     These dogs were not used on large game but on squirrels and raccoons.

     
     

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