Velkommen to the Grey Coats!

By Lisa Dubé Forman

The grey coats — otherwise known as Norwegian Elkhounds — came and went leaving a wonderfully lasting impression on everyone. The Norwegian Elkhound Association of America’s (NEAA) 25th National Specialty was held on April 23-26, 2014, in Boxborough, Massachusetts. What a delightful and uncommon experience! Even more, because the national specialty is held once every two years and reportedly, the national show has not been in the Northeast of the United States in almost 20 years.

There were 133 entries for Veteran & Regular confirmation class entries. What a special sight to behold with the Veterans proudly leading the way on the last day of judging, strutting their stuff with the eldest entry at 15 years of age. The Best of Breed competition was especially inspiring with 55 elkhounds in competition, in the ring, all at the same time! A rare opportunity indeed to see such a proud display of grey coats as they all filed into the ring for check-in. Once this duty was completed, the competition to determine the best of the breed began with Mr. Kjell Oybakken presiding as he had done over bitch and dog classes on the previous day. Mr. Oybakken, a breed specialist in a number of the Scandinavian hounds appeared to have thoroughly enjoyed this exceptional opportunity.

Not an easy task to complete with so many lovely elkhounds epitomizing the blueprint calling for a grey hunter, within 19.5 and 20.5 inches in height, squarely and close-coupled built to withstand the snowy and frigid paradise of his origins. A hound whose mistranslated name belies his true purpose for hunting moose. Such a job requires an enormously courageous, smart hound who is full of stamina for enduring winters often 40-below zero.

As I said, the entries did not disappoint and ultimately, Mr. Oybakken pared his Best of Breed selection to GCH Silverdal’s Crown of Cortez. A nearly 5-year old male bred and owned by Raymond Vaturro and Betsy Wade Vaturro. The Best of Opposite award was given to Winners Bitch Graafin Pawjama Party Girl Gone Wild Vam Statton from the 12-18 month bitch classes. She is owned by Graafin Ginger Leeuwenburg & Arabella Berkenbilt. Winners Dog, Horizon Rock Solid owned by breeders Linda Syner and Pam Johnson, along with co-owners’ Sally Simmonds and Margaret Mott had the Best of Winners award bestowed upon him from the Bred by Exhibitor class.

For those Elkhound fanciers and judges who, unfortunately, missed attending this special occasion, the quality of the breed is strong. The breeds’ strengths of typey, broad, wedge-shaped heads, excellent station and effortless gait abounded throughout the majority of entries. Two areas of concern that this author noted were several excessively trimmed and nearly sculpted exhibits. How sad to see this in such a robust, northern breed who is required to be shown in a natural, unaltered condition. The coat naturally is longest on the buttocks and the underside of the tail, however, there were several entries whose coats were noticeably trimmed and clipped. The other observation were a few large exhibits exceeding the height recommendations of the NEAA standard. By and large, this may not be a problem currently, however, if left unchecked the taller, heavier dogs may populate the breeding population. The blueprint sets forth the desideratum for a medium-sized hunter with stamina to hunt for long hours in extreme cold across rigorous terrain and then proceed to hold at bay a giant, temperamental moose. The larger hound’s size will require significantly more energy that will exhaust him much sooner than an ideal sized candidate; a handicap that could cost him his life. It was a pleasure to see such abundance of quality in a low-entry breed and I felt very fortunate to have attended.

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Posted by chesliepickett on Apr 29 2014. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.