Seppala Siberian Sleddogs

At the same time the Siberian Husky Club of America under the guidance of Eva B. Seeley (Chinook / Wonalancet / Alyeska kennel names) and Lorna B. Demidoff (Monadnock kennel) was busy making showdogs out of the rugged little draught dogs imported from east Siberian during the period 1908-1930, Leonhard Seppala and his spiritual heirs did their best to keep the original Siberian draught dog alive in its original form. Seppala's dogs went to Harry R. Wheeler (Seppala Kennels) in Quebec, Charles Belford in New Hampshire, Bill Shearer (Foxstand Kennels) in Massachusetts; and from them to J. D. McFaul in Maniwaki, Quebec. For fifty years they were bred as a separate bloodline within the CKC's 'Siberian Huskie' stud book.

In 1963 McFaul's Seppala Kennels closed and no more pure-strain Leonhard Seppala dogs were bred by any major kennel for a number of years. By 1970 the bloodline was close to extinction. In 1969 J. Jeffrey Bragg had acquired Ditko of Seppala, one of the few remaining McFaul stud dogs, and in 1970 founded Markovo Kennels and began the rescue of Seppala strain from oblivion. Ten litters were born under the Markovo name from McFaul dogs Ditko of Seppala, Shango of Seppala, Duska of Seppala, Vanka of Seppala, and others. Then in 1975 the young Markovo stock was dispersed to new owners across North America. The Seppala dog was rescued. But its existence continued to be precarious.

Others continued the pure Seppala breeding through the late 1970s and the 1980s; but much of the valuable Markovo stock was lost as dogsled racers like Doug Willett culled through the stock looking for quick success on middle distance race trails. By the late 1990's the strain was once again threatened by extinction and/or assimilation into the Siberian Husky showdog mainstream. Something else had to be done; something new.

In 1990 Bragg began a new breeding programme. He was living in Spain at the time, but that did not deter his desire to save the Seppalas for posterity. As luck would have it, shortly after the fall of the Iron Curtain and the restoration of free trade with the West, polar explorar Sergei Alexandrovitch Solovyev began breeding Siberian draught dogs in Ekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains of Russia, using stock collected in east Siberian villages. A few of these dogs trickled into Europe, and Bragg acquired a youngster, called Shakal iz Solovyev. This and other new Siberia imports from the Solovyev strain were a precious source of new/old genetic material for Seppala strain, which was beginning to show the effects of half a century's breeding in the closed Siberian Husky studbook of the Canadian Kennel Club.

Bragg and his kennel partner Isa Boucher returned to Canada in 1993 and settled in Grizzly Valley in the Yukon Territory, close by the famed Lake Laberge, to found the fourth historic Seppala Kennels. In 1997 he secured the permission of Agriculture Canada to take his Seppalas out of the CKC studbook and breed them as a new 'evolving breed' in their own right under the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture.

Today the Seppala Siberian Sleddog (SSSD) is slowly spreading across Canada and into the northern USA. Still bred only from the direct descendants of Leonhard Seppala's dogs and from new Siberia import stock, exactly as Leonhard Seppala himself and his direct successor Harry R. Wheeler did, the dogs of the Seppala Siberian Sleddog Project are strictly working sleddogs. Not racing dogs. Not show dogs. WORKING sleddogs for working and recreational dog mushers.

Like the original Siberian dogs from the Chukchi, Kamchadal, Yakut, Koryak, Evenk and other tribes, SSSDs come in a wide variety of colours and markings. They have a natural beauty all their own, very different from the stylized cookie-cutter effect of the modern Siberian Husky showdogs. They are very intelligent, affectionate and bonded with their owners; delightful dogs to live with, stable and sane in temperament. Ideal dogs for the family and recreational dog driver!

See the link lists below for further information about this exciting breed -- the original Siberian dog, the way the Siberian Husky should have been, but isn't.