SEPPALA SIBERIAN SLEDDOGS

  In 1913 a young Norwegian miner named Leonhard Seppala was given charge of a group of fifteen Siberian sleddogs. Seppala became the world's most famous dog driver and his special strain of Siberian dogs was known and respected long after Sepp himself dropped out of the public eye.


  So where exactly did Sepp's dogs come from? He answers this question in an interview article circa 1947:

  "... I imported more dogs by having traders in Siberian bring them over the Bering Straits to Nome. I got them from many parts of Siberia. From Indigirka River farthest West... from Kolyma and Anadyr Rivers... from the coast East of Kolyma and Petropavlowsk. They varied somewhat in size. The coast dogs were the smallest... about 50 pounds... Anadyr and Kolyma, 60 - 65 pounds. My last shipment of eight dogs arrived direct from Siberia to Poland Springs, Maine, where I had kennels at that time. I may be the only one alive today who has imported Siberians." -- Courtesy of International Seppala Association.

  Sepp's dogs were strictly working dogs that were heavily used for freighting and passenger trips, he nevertheless succeeded in winning the All-Alaska Sweepstakes in three successive years with those same dogs. The First World War (and Seppalas domination of the Sweepstakes race) put an end to the AAS in 1917, but Seppala continued to work his dogs in and around the Nome gold fields. In 1925 Seppala and his dogs were crucial to the delivery of the diptheria antiserum run from Nenana to the stricken city of Nome, then in the grips of a midwinter diptheria epidemic, an event that gained him fame across the continent. (The black sled dog Balto who led the team that covered the final stretch into Nome, became the most famous canine celebrity of the era and his statue is still one of the most popular tourist attractions in New York City's Central Park. There is much controversy surrounding Balto's role in this race and the statue in Central Park. According to Leonhard Seppala, he was a scrub freight dog that was left behind when he set out on the trip. Many consider Seppalas lead dog Togo to be the real hero of the run. The actual statue of Balto was modeled after Balto, but displayed him wearing Togo's colours (awards). In the last years of his life Seppala still was heartbroken by the way the credit had gone to Balto, in his mind Togo was the real hero of the serum race).

  On the strength of the newspaper publicity following the Nome Serum Drive, Seppala sailed with his dogs to Seattle, Washington, and began a tour of the U.S.A. It ended in winter of 1927 at Poland Spring, Maine, where Seppala joined Elizabeth Ricker, and began operating the kennel together. Seppala and Ricker introduced Seppala Siberians to New England and eastern Canada as working sleddogs.

  Leonhard Seppalas first lead dog Scotty was no cookie cutter Siberian, like what we see in modern Siberian Huskies, illustrating their lack of genetic diversity. The original Siberians were not like that - they were a diverse, hardy dog, formed largely by natural selection rather than artificial selection for beauty. The Seppala Siberian Sleddog Project strives to protect this diversity, as well as the hardiness, working ability and loyalty that comes with it.


  In 1938 the founding of the Siberian Husky Club of America set the Siberian well and truly on the path to becoming no more than a beauty contest, and not a concentration on working sleddog abilities at all.

  The dogs of Seppalas Siberian strain continued to be bred exclusively as working sleddogs all through the 1930's and 1940's. People like Harry R. Wheeler, Dr. Charles Belford, Millie Turner and William L. Shearer III made these "Seppala Siberians" famous in sleddog races in New England and Quebec. Cold River Kennels, Foxstand Kennels and others kept the pure Seppala strain going in New England through the mid-1950's. They survived World War Two (though many sleddog bloodlines did not) and continued to be bred as a pure strain within the Canadian Kennel Club's Siberian Husky stud book, guarded and prized by such Canadian breeders as J.D. McFaul, Keith Bryar, Allan Gagnon and J. Malcolm McDougall, until the late 1960's.

  McFaul, the main breeder, retired in 1963 without a successor kennel, and as the decade drew to a close interest in Seppalas waned. Dogsled racers sought faster, more specialized dogs for short, fast, level trails, while Siberian Husky breeders in Canada rushed to buy the quintessential black and white "pretty" dogs. By late 1970 it was clear that the renowned Seppala Siberians, descendants of Leonhard Seppalas dogs, were headed for extinction. The last McFaul dogs were getting old and there was no young stock to replace them.

Close to Extinction: The Markovo Seppala Sleddog Rescue

  In 1968 a newbie Siberian Husky breeder who lived in Southern Ontario, J. Jeffrey Bragg, drove several hundred miles north to the kennels of Elizabeth Ricker's daughter Bunty Goudreau, where he first saw the dog who would inspire the Markovo Kennel rescue of the endangered Seppala strain. Ditko of Seppala was a small, friendly brownish-grey male with blue eyes, a standoff coat, and a friendly temperament. Though nobody realized it at the time, that was the real beginning of the rescue of Leonhard Seppalas dogs from extinction.

  After a tumultuous start, the Markovo Kennels partners Bragg and Boucher became very active in the Seppala breeding in 1990 shortly after their purchase of a small farm in the north of Spain. In 1993 they returned to Canada to establish the fourth Seppala Kennels and the rescue effort, The Seppala Sleddog Project in Grizzly Valley, Yukon Territory, bringing with them two dozen Seppalas. Among them was a sleddog imported from Siberia named Shakal iz Solovyev. When the Canadian Kennel Club refused registration to the new Siberia import despite his Export Pedigree, the decision was made to withdraw from the C.K.C. and to seek independent breed status for the Seppala Siberian Sleddog. In 1997 the Working Canine Association of Canada was federally chartered under the Animal Pedigree Act and the Seppala Siberian Sleddog was official recognized in Canada as an evolving breed under the terms of the Act. In 2005 the International Seppala Association was incorporated in the Yukon Territory as a pedigree record-keeping association for SSSDs in countries outside of Canada.

  Today the Seppala Siberian Sleddog Project is steadfastly committed to the development of Seppalas as a breed in their own right. Principals of population genetics rule the long-term breeding programme of the Project. The goal and ideal is the restoration of the original Siberian sleddog to whatever extent that may be possible today, using the McFaul / Shearer bloodline broadened and restored to genetic health by the addition of new Siberia import bloodlines. The Project ideal is a versatile sleddog rather than a specialist racing dog, with many different sleddog traits considered rather than speed and endurance only.

  Northern Heritage Kennel is proud to be a part of the Seppala Siberian Sleddog Project. We are passionate about being a part of restoring and protecting dogs that are close to the original tribal dogs of eastern Siberia that Seppala himself raised so long ago.