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Rico and Aina - Swedish Elkhounds

Swedish Elkhound Rico with handler Beth

It is a great pleasure for me to share the details of the upcoming litter from a pair of tremendous Swedish Elkhounds. Beth is shown at the left with her magnificent Swedish Elkhound, Rico an ancient Jamthund. He is an extremely good male, and Beth and Russ have been awesome about working with me to get a litter with Rico and Aina.

Beth and Rico, Fall 2015 - : "Hi Merv, quick update, Rico is now 77lbs, doing terrific. We are looking forward to the upcoming litter with Rico and Aina, he is just an amazing young male, a handful, but all we could wish for."

Ancient Genetics - This will be his first litter in North AmericaRico is a full blood Jamthund, he traces back thousands of years to the ancient Swedish Elkhounds from the northern Jamtland regions of Sweden. Over years these dogs made their way throughout the Scandinavian regions. Rico was born in Finland and is a perfect male for Aina."

Aina Jamthund Swedish Elkhound Female

We are so excited to have the opportunity to bring together two awesome Swedish Elkhounds. Aina is one of the very best Jamthunds in the world, and Rico of course is equally as good, he comes from the famous Feija lineage, Finnish Bear Champion, Finnish Moose Champion and Finnish Beautiful Champion. You can visit the page on Jamthund Female Aina

"We couldn't be happier to have a new Swedish Male like Rico available for Aina. The pups from this pair will be stunning beautiful dogs. There are such a limited amount of bloodlines in North America to get this pairing really is amazing.

The ancient Jamthund dogs date back thousands of years, and Rico is a stunning example of all the best of those great dogs. The old northern Swedish females like Aina have traveled the Scandanavian regions easily as long, ancestors from long ago will be happy that these two meet here thousands of miles from the old home. They would be thrilled to know the ancient lines will carry forward with an awesome combination .

Rico and Aina have a brand new Jamthund Son - Born March 27th 2018 - His Name is ARK I have the details in the video

 

Rico, Swedish Elkhound Male and Owner Beth

The big Swedish males like Rico are an awesome dog. They are so personable and great with the handlers. These are hunting dogs that for centuries have traveled with the handler and watched out for them all the way. They are easy moving big fellas, bred for the deeper snow and bog areas. Rico is a perfect example of the qualities that the old breeders were striving for. These big fellas are calm and steady, easy going nice males. But put them into the bush and they love it. Big males like Rico have a ton of stamina, have incredible hunting skills bred for centuries. These are the dogs of the Swedish military, and of course, the National Dog of Sweden. This my friend, this is an Elkhound.


Aina Swedish Elkhound FemaleAina Shown At 1 Year Of Age

Aina is a beautiful Jamthund Female, one of the very best working Swedish Elkhound lineages in the world line up her background. Aina is the only Registered Jamthund female in Canada, in fact in North America. Aina as is Rico a very true hunting lineage dog. All instincts are intact and Aina has already proven she can stop game for me. She was stopping game at 4 months of age on our hikes in our BC back country region where we live.

Rico Male Swedish Elkhound

 Rico has a true hunting heritage. All the breeders in the old country are very focused on raising extremely good hunting dogs. It has been only a short while in the life of the Swedish Elkhound that the "Jamthund Breed" was officially recognized in 1946, but the breed dates back centuries earlier. Beliefs are strongly held that the Swedish Elkhound is in fact the oldest of the Elkhounds, and quite possibly, the most ancient breed.

These two big young rascals walk around in North America today, looking and acting exactly like their ancient ancestors many thousands of years ago.  Although Rico might be thinking looking at those Elk, he might be thinking this hunting here might be WAY easier than I imagined! Too funny.

Takoda and Aina Training

 Aina has had an excellent instructor her whole life. She has been basically under the wing of Takoda the entire time. She has a connection with him, funny how things work out. Some pups he really likes and takes time to train, Aina was one of those. Takoda is one of the greatest communicator Elkhounds there is, these skills he not only can pass easily genetically, he can also share and instruct visually.

Aina is now becoming a very skilled communicator. It takes intelligence way above average to be highly skilled at communication and she has shown to be a very smart girl. She has a ways to go to show up the old boy, but let me say, she is game to try. There is no end to work ethic in Aina. Pups from her and Rico will be awesome. Super smart, personable, easy to train, Wow, this is a fun time for sure.

Russ with Rico Male Swedish Elkhound

 Russ is shown here with Rico. I can see the bond both Russ and Beth have with this big fella and he has a great life ahead of him. Rico could not have had better handlers and companions, no doubt.

Marlene and I are very happy to have Beth and Russ as our friends and look forward to a great litter with Rico and Aina.

Please contact us early about this litter of pups, there are a number spoken for already so please don't hesitate.  

Rico and MervI couldn't be happier anticipating this upcoming litter from this young pair. This young male, Rico is a full Jamthund so he has heritage that dates back to the earliest of times with the Elkhound. As the Jamthund is the National dog of Sweden, and I of course have my heritage from Sweden on my Dads side, I am very proud to sit by the big fella shown with me, Rico.

Rico has the characteristic lower light color muzzle and throat area, and when the Swedish Elkhounds first came into the program of registration for the Jamthunds, it only took a few generations of breeding for that lighter throat to appear almost continously. It was a feature that easily came back once the big dogs were part of the association.

Roughly around 1946 things finally got ironed out with all the details, and the Jamthunds became a recognized breed. All the best big Swedish dogs they could find around the different regions that still bred them were enlisted to be the early foundation for the Jamthunds. Not all the Swedish Elkhounds at the time were put into the organization, but those that were all of them, were magnificent animals. As you can see from Rico the genetics of the breed are in great hands as this is a stunning example of a full Jamthund Male. This my friends is an Elkhound!

Rico and MervI have to the left a photo from the summer of 2016 of Rico and Aina. I was over to Finland and had a tremendous visit with the breeders of Rico, Satu and Jani. They were extremely gracious hosts to my brother and I.

I brought home with me young Aina, she is the future of Jamthunds in Canada. Her and Rico will play a extraordinary role in establishing the Jamthunds in Canada/ North America.

Both of these two are the very best there is in the world. I had the great pleasure to meet the famous Feija, grandmother of Rico while I was there, you can check that out here on this page. Master Jamthund Breeders.

Rico Male JamthundRico is a stunning big male Jamthund. He is shown here late part of 2016 at the start of the winter on a mountain hike in our BC region. He is a fast moving big fella and has a ton of stamina. This is an amazing young Jamthund Male. Russ and Beth have done incredible work to have him very social and super nice to be around.

We can hardly wait for the Rico and Aina litter, stay tuned.

 

Jamthunds Rico and AinaI am shown here in early 2018 Rico is up to mate with Aina. He is so excited and it worked out perfectly. We are most certain that we will be having some pups in late March of 2018.

I had a lot of fun with these two while he was here trying to get some photos and video, as Rico he was all business he figured. Too Funny!

 

Jamthunds Rico and AinaWe did get a chance to do some mountain hiking and had a great snow shoe hike. These are two magnificent big rascals and they can handle some deep snow.

They love getting out in the mountains and even though their minds might have been a bit pre-occupied they sure enjoyed the hike. I had a blast as it's a great day when you can hike the remote regions with a couple of the very best Jamthunds in the world.

 

Aina has a belly nowI took this photo at Aina's birthday. She is showing her belly now and Wow is she hungry these days. I couldn't resist taking this photo and making a joke " There was a cow attached to that leg this morning". Too hilarious.

So she isn't sharing by any stretch that's for sure. Nope, all is going well, by the last week in March we are going to see little baby Rico's and little baby Aina's . Pretty Cool eh!


Aina and Tekla
winter hiking in March of 2017
Aina and Tekla Winter Hiking 2017
Rico and Aina, December 2016
Aina and Rico JamthundsAina is a beautiful big girl, even though she stands tall and weighs at the upper end of the scale for females, the big males like Rico are considerably larger.
Russ and Beth with Rico
Russ and Beth have done an amazing job with this young fella. He is SO WELL MANNERED, my guys all appeared like holigans compared to how well behaved Rico is. He just wanted to play and have a great time meeting his new friends.
Winter is still up here on the mountains
Winter still can roll in quickly up here at the 5000 ft altitude level we were hiking at. Here we are hking with Rico and Kalia they caught wind of something over across the opening and were quickly on alert. I had set up my tripod and was using my remote to get a few group photos of us. Starting to snow really heavy up here, dogs sure didn't mind though, neither did we though, it was such a fun time. Not cold, just a little snow, we loved it.
Jamthund in the Snow with Beth and Russ
Out here, mountain setting, snowing, winter, super natural BC, wow, what a great setting to see this big fella in his element just having a great day. This is a beautiful dog.
Rico and Kalia and Merv
It was a real treat for me to get out with these two young rascals.