Aina - Jämthund - Swedish Elkhound - and her trainer Tora up above our kennel hiking 4500ft
This my friends is Aina. Oskulan Aina or Oskulan Always to be exact. She is a Jamthund also known as the Swedish Elkhound. I took this picture in July of 2016 on a hike with Tora, my very skilled hiking and mountain dog. Tora has been schooling Aina since she arrived in Canada at the end of May 2016.
It's been a busy time with Aina this last year of 2018. I outline below the details of her first litter, she had a magnificent young son named ARK. She was bred again to Rico and she had a second litter of 9. As I am writing this on the beginning of January 2019 7 of those pups are still with me in the yard. Three males for the Desna and 4 Females I am keeping back for foundation females. Russ and Beth were up on the Christmas Holidays and we really enjoyed the company, and of course Rico came as well.
Rico
far left, Aina middle, Xena a young female pup held by Russ and
Ark is far right.
Beth has Rico, Russ Xena, Marlene has Ark and I ran back in after setting the timer. We had some fun with the visit. They all love the little Jamthund pups.
Xena is just over 8 weeks old in this image and she is going down to live with her Dad Rico.
I'll be putting more updates on this last litter of 9 right away, just catching up on things now, it's been a whirlwind around here.
I
know these are not great images and I'll get some better but I
snapped this shot when I had been walking by to get these two.
This is Ria and Raven, two stunning daughters of Aina and Rico
that are going to stay her with me. They are two of the amazing
four that we held back from the litter. I'll get a photo of Aila
and Svea right soon as well.
Can you believe how great things are working out for the Jamthund program in Canada, oh Man. Look at those beauties! I took this photo last day or so of 2018.
This
photo is of Jämthund Female Aina and
Norwegian Elkhound Female Kai, taken March 14th 2018, a couple
days / week before they both are due to whelp a new litter.
Aina and Kai have been hiking and sharing activities around the yard and on the trails since Aina came. Kai is a little bit older. These are great representations of the two types as both of these are perfect "Breed Standard" representations of their types.
This
photo is of Aina - Jämthund Female at Two Years - March 11th,
2018
The time seems to have flown by, although I have been super excited about this upcoming time frame for many years. I am so proud of Aina. What a stunning beauty she has turned out to be. I could not be happier. She is taking it easy these days, just low level hiking with Kai, slow and easy as she is going to whelp her pups in around 10 days time from this photo. She has turned two and is in magnificent shape. She is a big girl now, and as she is very close to whelping, she is hungry of course! "That was a full cow attached to that leg this morning" Just kidding, but she isn't sharing, that's for sure, no one wants to ask her to either, too funny!
Aina has had her litter March 27th 2018- She has a beautiful young male Jamthund named ARK - I have the details in a video
This
photo is of Aina March 13th 2017, she is 1 year old now. She is a big
girl, 60 pounds now, as long as Takoda, taller than Jaegar and
quite the handful. This is a very serious female. She takes no
guff from anyone. The only one who can handle her now is Takoda.
This is a beautiful Swedish Elkhound, I am so amazed with her nature to me, I knew they were exceptionally good with the handler from my experience with Takoda but having Aina here now and confirming that behavour is really neat. For a person that can handle a powerful intense dog, a very active Elkhound, that wants the absolute best in personable nature to the handler, this is the breed.
Aina
shown at the creek at 1 year of age.
Aina has taken more time to get comfortable off leash than I expected. She has such drive to hunt that it takes some serious work to get her where I felt she was reliable off leash. We are in a very game rich area and if you take a hunting machine like this into these areas you need to know what your doing. They are bred exclusively to hunt this lineage, and hunt they want to do. So setting the young dog up for recall and ranging needs to be done very well. I will share this with everyone, if you want a nice easy to train off leash dog, look at all my other litters first. If you are wanting a pup from Aina you need to be ready to put the time in and be focused. She is super smart learns fast, but instincts rule in ancient dogs like this. Ancient lines like Aina are extremely rewarding dogs once you have this sorted don't get me wrong. She has not had a leash on in months on our hikes, but getting to this was work.
*
I have an image below of Aina from October 23rd, 2016 she is
over six months old now. She is shown here on a hike with me in
the high country, what an awesome female Elkhound.*
Aina means "Always" in Finnish. I am very proud of her. This was a big deal for me, to be able to travel to the old country and get one of the very best Jamthund pups in the world to bring to Canada so that the Canadians can continue to experience all the magnificent qualities the big Swedish Elkhounds have. Aina will ensure that the Jamthund will "Always" be a part of Canada now.
I will detail my trip to Finland, all of the adventures
and exciting fun I experienced on this page:
Finland Jamthund
Trip and attendance at the
International Dog Show in Joensuu Finland.
There
is however some very important people I need to Thank and it all
begins with Russ and Beth. For certain had they not stepped up
and went ahead with the decision to have Rico so that we could
bring the Jamthunds to Canada I still may be organizing the
details to get a Jamthund. Russ and Beth, with Rico the big
young Jamthund male are shown here above the kennel on a
snowshoe hike we did this past winter.
Rico is going to be mated with Kalia, and as well, we are working toward getting Aina and Rico to have a litter of Jamthunds as soon as Aina is ready. So a huge Thank you to Russ and Beth for lighting the fire under my butt to get me moving on the importation process for Aina.
A
Huge Thank you also goes out to Satu. Satu assisted me from day
one as she spoke and wrote English very well, so she was able to
become an invaluable friend who gave her time unselfishly to
assist me in planning and finding the very best pup for what I
was wanting.
Right to Left: Satu, Aina and I, Ossi the breeder of Aina, and Jani Satu's husband. All my Finnish Friends!
Jani and Satu were incredible hosts to my Brother Dale and I when we arrived. They toured us around and welcomed us as if we were long lost kin. Truly amazing hospitality. They are a tremendous couple, and I have a lot more to share on our visit over on the Finland Jamthund Trip page, please be sure to check it out.
My brother Dale came along on the trip with me, we had a really good trip and it was extremely good to have someone to help with the handling and care of Aina, and all the details of getting around, we really enjoyed our time. Thank you for helping me out Dale. Dale, and I and Ossi, along with Aina below.
And
of Course, a huge Thank You to Osmo "Ossi". A
dedicated Jamthund breeder, decades of experience with the big
greys, many many champions, a true purist for the Jamthund. Ossi
has been awarded Golden Breeder by the Finnish Kennel Club, a
very respected breeder of the Elkhound.
Ossi was able through the expert translation help of Satu, know and understand the type and quality of the female I was hoping to have. Without Ossi and I having been able to speak due language, me not knowing Finnish, Satu translated my wishes perfectly. Ossi selected one of his very best females, Oskulan Lisa, Finnish Bear Champion to bring forth the young female for me. He was success in selecting a great male, Finnish Champion Onnivaaran Unski. The result of course was perfect.
So once again, many thanks to Beth, Russ, Satu and Jani and Ossi along with Dale. You all have done a great thing for Canadian Elkhounds!
As
all of you know, I have had the privledge of having as my
companion and pal for many years now, one of the ancient big
Swedish Elkhounds Takoda. He has been running the trails with me
for a decade now. He is shown here beside young Rico, the
magnificent Jamthund version of the Swedish Elkhound. Takoda's
ancestors did not enter the registration process, and Rico's
did, thus Rico is a full Jamthund.
Had Takoda not been as great a dog as he is, I most likely would not have investigated and planned to bring a Swedish Elkhound over. But as all of you know from reading my material over the years the skill of this big fella is profound. The communication, the ability to work with me, the loyalty, all at the highest level. As well Takoda brings that intense protective skill out that the Swedish dogs all have. I have honed his ability, with very little effort on my part to where he is an amazing protection dog. His ability on and off the trails are 100% what motivated me to pursue this venture with Aina.
Now
many years later, here he sits with his kin Aina, a new little
Jamthund female from ancient ancestors thousands of miles from
where they originated, back together again to start a new
chapter in the Elkhound history. Pretty neat indeed!
What is really incredible is that Aina immediately went to Takoda, made friends with him first over all the dogs, and has remained as a full companion to him. She also bonded immediately with Tora as Tora of course is never out of sight of Takoda.
What
was immediately apparent from day one is that Aina is extremely
dominant. Far beyond anything I had witnessed before. This would
be a huge reason she seeks out the leaders of the yard, bonds of
course easily with Takoda and take her natural behaviours which
model his and they are like peas in a pod. Fascinating to watch.
Now here is where it gets really interesting. She in literally a day or so, sorted through all the females, learned who was at what rank and determined her spot of course was right under Takoda. Basically Tora, move over.
As you all know, Tora rules day to day activity, Kai is in
second command, and they go down from there. Aina feels Kai is
no threat to her, she wants Tora's spot. So from Day One she has
been on a mission to take Tora down. What a thing to see. Her
and Tora have so much fun, it's not getting as much fun now for
Tora as Aina continues to grow, but early on so far it has been
a great fun time for them both. Aina is
continually
working Tora, and it's a tougher and tougher task for Tora to
handle her.
As you can see by the photo here, Aina is learning the fine ways of ground and pound from the old master herself. No one can do rough and tumble like Tora. You want to take on Tora you best know all the Elkhound martial arts there is to know, or take your fate!
But all kidding aside, they are fast friends. I was able to leave Aina with Tora the entire first two months 100% of the time. Her and Takoda watched over her, made her feel at home, took her under their wing and position and gave her a tremendous spot in the pack. She hasn't quite got things sorted with Kai just yet, but neither of them bother each other at all.
Tora is the best trainer on almost all skills as she runs the show till it's time for Takoda to handle the extreme duties, then of course she moves out of the way, let's him handle it. Aina by having the opportunity to run side by side from the minute she arrived with those two has the best of all worlds.
Years
ago a young Tora beginning to hike the mountians with me while
Takoda shares his skills with her.
Today, Tora as one of the premier mountian hiking dogs in the World, Tora now shares those same skills with Aina.
Shortly
after Aina arrives, Rico comes to stay for a while. Immediately
she recognizes her kin and they have great fun. What is really
neat is here are two of the very best Jamthunds in the world,
born not far from each other in Northern Finland, playing
thousands of miles away in Canada. Go figure! Like they never
left.
Her and Rico really had a nice time together. They will produce seriously good pups.
Rico has a bit of a time playing with all our girls, for one reason or another they are not quite sure how to take him, they are more stand offish, can get even a bit aggressive, but not Aina, she loves Rico. Too Funny!
That photo above of her looking into the pen, she is standing outside, and that pen holds Takoda, who is standing by Rico. When Rico and Takoda where along the fence, Aina was freaking out all the time, those were her two best buddies, she could feel and know the tension between the big boys, and was quite the sight, no doubt. So that's how all these few photos play together.
For
many years now I have spoken about the use of the Elkhound as a
hunting and hiking dog. How the ancestors of my dogs traveled
regions similiar to what we travel today, only of course they
are a long ways from me.
Well here I stand, Northern Finland, Karelian District, with Aina, out in the Finnish Forest by a Moose shooting stand. Her, my brother Dale and I hiked out one day till we came to this stand. I thought how fitting for a photo of the worlds greatest Moose dog to lead me to this. Unbelievable. I honestly think she thought, okay boss, you wait here, I'll be back with one, don't miss.
This tale even gets more unbelievable. For sure. Some of you might have read many years ago I wrote about how the early big greys came with Eirik the Red and the Vikings as he made his way from Scandinavia, past Iceland through the Northwest Passage and Bering straight area and down the west coast toward Vancouver. Those big greys on that boat are ancient ancestors of Aina.
Yep, you guessed it, the pilot for our flight, a man of Viking heritage I am sure, knew he had precious cargo with important historical importance on board carrying Aina over to Canada. I am positive the crew knew she was a very special passenger. He and the controller chose the route over Iceland, then over top the North West Passage and came down the west coast and into Vancouver, exactly the route Eirik took centuries ago! He could have taken a bit more direct route but I was some happy that is the route he chose to take for this particular flight. Go figure that one. So young Aina, a couple hundred years or more behind her ancestors on that boat, she is now walking the soil her ancestors walked and hunted for Eirik and his crew.
Aina's
mother is a beautiful dark female, Oskulan Lisa. Finnish bear
champion and excellent hunting dog. Aina has a tremendous
heritage of all great dogs in her ancestoral background with
every dog a champion. All working dogs and her heritage dates
back traceable to the very beginning of the Association.
We had asked Satu that if possible to find us the bear lineage as of course we have more bears where I hike than Moose, and with the outstanding combination of Oskulan Lisa and Aina's father Onnivaaran Unksi we could not have found a better Swedish Elkhound Female!
"Aina & Rico - Jamthund's, Swedish Elkhounds, Aina is now 9 Months Old Dec 2016"
I have a video of Aina at 11 Months along with her buddies, Tora, Tuva, Kamp and Jaegar
