MÂNE - Kamia Kennels Stud Male Elkhound
MÂNE was born here at our kennel. He is a son of Takoda and Tekla. I am most certain he is the very best Elkhound male currently in North America, and he would rival any world wide.
He has a tremendous lineage of working Norwegian and Swedish Elkhounds in his background. As he comes from his famous grandfather Bram, he brings all that old world Norwegian Elkhound hunting skill. His grandmother of course as you all will know is Kamp, one of the very best Norwegian Elkhound lineage lines you could wish for. Kamp was the big old lines so the size of MÂNE is just over the breed standard.
His mother Tekla as you're aware from this site and my videos I consider to be the very best Norwegian Elkhound female. She is a pure working lineage female with impeccable behaviour, tons and tons of instinctive skill and all wrapped up in the perfect confirmation package.
Takoda is the father of MÂNE and with that comes all the incredible personable nature to the handler, the full instinctive skill in the mountains and the extreme loyalty and protection traits. There are no better lines of Elkhounds in North America than the background of MÂNE.
His first litter is on the ground as I am putting this update to his page together. 6 truly outstanding pups with Kalia. What a stunning group of super young Elkhounds.
MÂNE has his own video page featuring some of his great videos - be sure to check it out!
A very storied lineage
As
you well know the background genetics of MANE read
like a who's who in Elkhound history. All of you are
aware our lines are the old dark boys, MANE he
carries that with pride, no doubt. Way back in his
genetics of course lies one part of the reason that
stance he has, that dark pattern, the overall
balance is so great, it's this big fella. This big
old boy was Champion Skrub AV Glittre 6687. He was
whelped on Jan 25, 1923, 94 years before MANE was
born. Take a good look at this big fella, one of the
most famous Glittre sires ever. Not much doubt great
lineages just carry on. Generation after Generation.
Gjende
N JCH N S UCH - another of great Norwegian Champions
that line his background is none other than this big
fella. This is a Norwegian Hunting Champion who also
is one of the very early big boys to go and earn his
Norwegian Show Championship. An incredible feat no
doubt in a country of the very best Norwegian
Elkhounds.
As you can see, that stunning head, great tail, total balance of Gjende continues on today in MANE. Gjende earned his championships in that late 70's time frame. This is a full hunting lineage big boy, MANE still today carries that tradition forward as he has all instincts intact.
Gjende's
sire is a major reason why MANE has such incredible
stance, rise to the neck, focused attention when
in the field. It's because of this old Rock Star,
Varg himself. What an oustanding Elkhound. Truly
magnificent. Born in the 60's these photos are
incredibly hard to come by of these old dogs out in
the field.
Take a close look at these bad boys, they are alive and well in young MANE. In fact, I can see these old boys already shining through in those pups of MANE and Kalia, go figure!
Now
as would be fitting a true ancient lineage Norwegian
Elkhound like MANE it would be easy to see where he
gets his incredible showy style and of course his
personable nature and easy going behaviour.
This is Champion Merkel of the Hollow, photographed shortly after winning a championship at Crufts in 1934 ( 83 years before MANE was born). A long history of champions like this makes for some incredible things to come yet from this young rascal.
All these old boys of course are just the beginning of the great sires and dams that line up young MANE's background.
Also it would be impossible to have an Elkhound like MANE without the work, the dedication, the devotion of these early breeders who spent their lives dedicated to preserving the ancient Elkhound lineages, traits and dogs. Hats off to those early men and women who allowed us all to have such great Elkhounds today!
I
speak of old Rex a fair bit in my video's and
stories. Amazing big dark boys like this, the thick
old rascals they carry a special place I believe as
they have such strong genetics.
You can go many decades forward from Rex to MANE and stand these two side by side in a photo and know instantly the genetic connections.
Take a very good look at the color pattern of Rex, the deep dark coat that carries down. These traits carry forward extremely strong. Today's fancy show lineages they can't get that dark genetic trait, it only comes through on ancient lineage strains like MANE.
In
our videos and our stories I reference this rascal a
great deal. I am incredibly proud that this
spectacular male is fueling a great deal of the
character and inherited traits of MANE.
This is Mini-G, one of a very select few Norwegian Elkhound hunting Champions to go on to win a hunting championship in 3 Nordic countries, thus becoming a Nordic Champion. An incredible feat, not to mention the absolute dedication to the breed that Norwegian breeders, Mildred and Even Stene had. Wow, incredible devotion and caring, plus some serious ability to work with an Elkhound. There is so much this dog had achieved it would take a full page to speak to him alone.
Now
much closer to the surface of MANE is another of the
incredible Norwegian Elkhounds that Even Stene
raised. This is of course RM Kjekk. I can see this
incredible champion in a great deal of our dogs of
course, I am sure you can see Kai staring back at
you from this photo, and Tuva, the two aunts of
MANE.
RM Kjekk again is one of a handful of Norwegian Elkhound males to achieve the famous Nordic Championship in hunting. He also became, as did Mini-G a champion in Norwegian Show.
Little doubt why MANE is so magnificent.
Now
there is no way you could speak to the great
background of MANE without touching on some of the
incredible females that line up his pedigree. I
always speak of Varja with a great deal of respect
and admiration as she is one of the early Norwegian
Hunting champions who went on to become a Show
Champion.
Again one look at this incredible female and you know where MANE's mother Tekla gets a great deal of her good looks. Is this neat or what? Seeing all these incredible working / show champions and knowing the effort, the work the time spent with these great dogs those old breeders did. My goodness I am grateful to them for preserving these genetics. Wow.
Another
of the magnificent side in history of the background
of MANE is the ties he has to the amazing dogs of
Ravenstone. The Ravenstone breeding program owned by
the late Margaret and Ted Harper accomplished so
much for the Elkhound breed it's impossible to
cover.
The level of dedication these two had was something of legend. Over 50 years they raised Norwegian Elkhounds and worked tirelessly to bring in the best genetics they could to enhance and preserve the genetic program they created.
I believe, I could be mistaken, but I do believe
they still hold the record for the most champions at
Crufts in history. When you look at the Ravenstone
females, like Hattie On the left: Pictured winning
Best In Show All Breeds at Three Counties
Championship Show, it's literally like looking at
Tekla, MANE's mother.
FORMER HOLDER OF THE CHALLENGE CERTIFICATE BREED
RECORD,
(until October 2009),
CURRENT BITCH CC RECORD HOLDER
Winner of 44 CC’s.
Ch Ravenstone Hattie
Born 1980
Owned by the Late Mr & Mrs Fred Parker.
I
f
you have ever seen the great "Families" of Norwegian
Elkhounds of Ravenstone you know instinctively where
that "Genetic Family Instinctive Trait" comes from
with a deep resounding strength. I have to the left
a photo of MANE's Grandmother Kamp, her two
daughters, Tuva the aunt to MANE, and of course
Tekla, the mother to MANE.
There are few breeders left today who follow the "Family Genetic Style" and we are very proud to have one of the remaining links to a tremendous program of breeding Norwegian Elkhounds such as the Ravenstone program. I'll come back to more of the famous dam's in this incredible young male in a minute.
Before we move to far from the ancient old dogs it
would be fitting to speak to the old Norrland
heritage of this great group of ancestors, and
MANE's link to a world of hunting dogs that goes
back easily thousands of years.
I spoke early about the dedication of the breeders in preserving the old dogs and in remote regions of Scandinavia old hunters and breeders kept genetics alive by neccessity more than anything else as they used these dogs to survive. These dogs were bred on traits that worked, not looked, but worked.
These
old images archived in museums go a long way in
sharing with us today why MANE is such a Rock Star.
Not anything we are doing at all but entirely what
the old breeders and hunters did, use the dogs.
Watch the traits, study the behaviour, breed those
with the instincts intact.
The heritage of MANE of course leads directly like a laser to these old boys, he is loaded with instinctive ability, loaded with that skill and natural instinct.
MANE is Old World Elkhound thru and thru.
I
speak about features in the old dogs that shine
through into the young dogs like MANE such as stance
and color, his overall style and conformation but he
comes by his great head quite easily as well.
The famous old boy from the Holmes Kennel, International Champion Piek II au Glittre has been known for decades for having that great head follow through, generation after generation.
Little doubt it will still be discussed for many generations yet as MANE has no kidding, a famous head.
Now
if we were to move forward a bit in the incredible
group of dogs in the background of MANE, coming into
North American Champions that line his background no
one would be surprised to find in such an incredible
male such as MANE a direct link back to this big
rascal.
This is Nimbus, bred and raised by Pat Trotter. Nimbus as all Norwegian Elkhound fanciers know won the Group at Westminster Twice. Incredible really. To win once is absolutely amazing, to do it twice, my goodness.
All of you know how much respect I have for Pat Trotter and the contributions she has made to the Norwegian Elkhounds. I can't say enough great things about what she has done so that all of us can continue to enjoy and preserve great genetics like those coming forward from Nimbus, through MANE, out into that set of little rascal pups playing in the kennel right now as I write this.
Again,
to mention a great lineage of Elkhounds, especially
when discussing North American Norwegian Elkhounds
and to miss this great fella who contributes to
MANE's unbelievable heritage would be folly.
As you may already know, the mother of Nimbus is Vin-Melca's Marlinda and her father is none other than Vin-Melca's Vagabond.
Vagabond is most likely the most famous Norwegian Elkhound in North America, not only was he quite frankly an absolutely stunning Elkhound male, but he was shown and presented by Pat Trotter over the life of his show career and achieved incredible things.
He is the only Norwegian Elkhound to win Best In Show All Groups which he won in 1970 at Westminster. He as well as his grandson Nimbus won Best in Group twice. This was such a feat! Wow. It would take a full page to detail the acheivements of this great Norwegian Elkhound.
There are a ton more great Champions and working Elkhounds that proliferate the background of MANE, and working dogs with full instincts intact combined with all the skill and dedication of just a few of those dogs illustrated above indicate what is to come from this young fella.
Closer
to the surface of course resides this magnificent
sire, this is Bram.
Bram has been a huge part of our breeding program for a long time now. This is the father of Tekla.
Bram is the first generation of this lineage to be born in Canada and brings with him all that incredible hunting and working skill. He as well though brings with him decades of Norwegian Hunting Champions and Show Champions.
Bram has sired 42 pups for us and each and every one of them has been outstanding.
This my friends is a masterpiece Norwegian Elkhound.
We
knew we were going to be having a set of pups like
no other set when we were getting ready to mate this
beauty with Bram.
This is Kamp, she is of the old powerhouse Norway lineages that bring that big power to MANE.
She walked around day in and day out at 64 pounds of muscle, tough as nails. This was a working Elkhound female let me tell you. I hiked with Kamp as a very young pup and for years, any conditions, she had no quit in her.
She is shown here with me on a winter hike, it's cold out, snowing, tons of snow already, she just loved it. Kamp and I went everywhere off leash. She was a full GQ female, but loved the remote regions like no other.
This was a powerhouse female. Her genetic make-up combined so well with Bram it's incredible. Unfortunately we never got to have another litter with her and Bram, but those genetics they live on in her grandson MANE.
That
combination of Bram and Kamp as you can see was
simply outstanding.
Every feature of a perfect Elkhound shines through loud and clear with their daughter Tekla.
She rivals any of the ancient ancestors she has, even though it's about as jam packed with Champions as any Elkhound in history. Doesn't matter to her, she thrives on competition.
She is not here to rest on the laurels of her ancestors, no she is here to show them that what they passed on lives well yet.
In a small remote section of BC, up on the side of a snowy mountain, Tekla carries on a genetic story through her son MANE that took centuries to start.
This my friends, this is an Elkhound!
It
takes no guesswork to know that the background of
MANE is so incredible due to the absolute strength
and make-up of his famous father, Takoda.
As everyone knows I believe Takoda to be the very best Elkhound still walking in North America.
His ancient roots bring forward to MANE all that old skill that has resided in these dogs since the beginning of the breed.
There were very few full genetic Elkhounds to come to Canada. They came a long time past. They were true Viking Elkhounds.
Takoda I believe to be the last remaining of the phenomenal Viking lineage that came. His son now will continue that heritage and carry the blood of those old warrior Elkhounds forward. Eric the Red would be very proud. MANE currently is one of only a handful of sires that remain with all Elkhound blood. All others are siblings of his.
All the old breeders that contributed to maintaining this great breed over centuries would be very proud to see the history of young MANE carrying forward through his pups.
