New breed?

Rainy and wet snowy weather for several days has made the snow almost go away and the place where the dogs use to dig in the exercise yard is no longer frozen or covered with snow. This is how Lava and Mieto (two youngsters) looked after playing for some hours in the yard today.

Nordic championship for samoyeds 2015

I'm finally starting to feel better from the flu that I got infected by in Furudal last weekend, so here comes an update with the results. 

In Furudal I competed with sled in the four team class 2x10km and my hope was to defend the results of 2013 and 2014 as the best lady's team and be fortunate to bring with me the fine samoyed statue again. 

Saturday offered cloudy weather with a few degrees of frost and a light snowfall before the start. I had Corona and Ergo in point and as wheel dogs I had Geist and Deimos . I thought they did a good race even if Corona had just passed her season and was not particularly interested in running. 

After Saturday's stage we were on second place. Now we only needed to keep ahead of the third team. On Sunday the weather was almost like on Saturday. I had decided to change a bit in the team and chose to put Deimos in front instead of Corona who I put as wheeldog . It turned out not to be so wise. 

Deimos trotted at a high pace, but refused to go up at a gallop so when the speed was really high , he had a tough job to keep up and did not contribute any power forward. We finished fourth and Camilla Dehlin was the lucky who could bring samoyed statue .
First was Frederick Petri and on third place came a Swiss who won the same class a few years ago . 

I felt nevertheless happy with my dogs and what we had accomplished, given that we train our dogs for long distance and that one of my guide dogs was probably falsely pregnant. 

Awards for the Samoyed of the Year, Sled Dog of the Year  and Show dog of the Year was presented in conjunction with the dinner and we were surprised when the Samoyed of the Year was called out: 

Bielkersmils Hero of Ergo owner : Lotta Eriksson. 

Congratulations to Lotta and to Lars, who has gone around the race track and show rings with him!

In fourth place was placed our own Bielkersmils Great Geist of Barusi

The Sled Dog of The Year became Bielkersmils Etna of Pepper ( Bielkersmils Ergo points were interposed tied for first place , but Etna was voted by the Board ) . Ergo Bielkersmils of Pepper thus became number two , and sharing third place were Bielkersmils Corall of Allsvinn , Bielkersmils Chinookk of Allsvinn , Bielkersmils Hero of Ergo and Bielkersmils Ejla of Pepper

Really fun was that Madeleine Abrahamsson managed to cope qualifications DP20 on skis with her and Gustafs two dogs  Bielkersmils Fantastic Frey of Nallo and Bielkersmils Igor of Zouroff 

Congratulations to Madde and Gustaf and extra Congratulations to Madde who also received the award for "The Performance of the Year"

Madde, Frej and Igor, well worth the award "Performance of the Year" after having struggled on skis for both 10km and 2x10km

Finally a good ending to the samoyed meeting in Furudal was made by Lars and his eight team (five dogs of his own and three borrowed from us) as they coped qualifications for the DP60-test.

Congrats Lars!

Polardog championship in Orsa 2015

On Saturday and Sunday, 31 / 1-1 / 2-15 Håkan went to Orsa and competed in Polardog Championships . He went by sledge 2x40km with a six team, Corona, Ergo, Etna, Deimos , Geist and Corall . It was tough conditions very loose track , drifting  and falling snow.

Håkan and his team ended as winner in their class and in spite of the conditions  the race time was good. First Day 03:50:55 and second day 04:12:12, a total of about 3 hours before the second team. 

Well done Håkan and the team!

Deimosis enjoying himself in the box and waits for departure to Orsa

Etna is also enjoying herself

Västras Winterrrace 24-25/1-15

Yeah!

Håkan and some of our dogs are on their way back home from Nornäs. He and a team of four dogs, Corona, Jotka, Kalla and Geist have finished DP20 (2X10km) so now Jotka and Kalla will have their first award.

The team also won the race, 48 minutes in snowy heavy trail yesterday and 36 minutes today in colder and less snowy trail. Well done!

I have been showling snow many hours this weekend. It snowed all day yesterday and all night. I believe we have about 35cm snow.

Yesterday I went sledging with eight of our dogs. I went straight into the woods which wasn't a very good idea. It was far to heavy for the team so I had to turn back after struggling for about 700meters. The dogs in lead sometimes disappeared in the deep snow - it was not the sledge tour I had waited for. Luckily the road to our house was ok to go sledging on so I went 5km :-)

NAF for Håkan and his team at Wilderness race

At 23 o'clock night to Sunday 18:th I got a message that Håkan expected to reach the finish about 00:30 - which he did , to be more exact 00:33 . Unfortunately, he had no dogs. He had lost the team 16km before the finish when he stopped to snacks the and to take some blueberry soup . When he untied himself from the pulka to reach the dogs  they began to slowly move forward. They did not stay as they usually do as he told them , but rather increased the speed. Håkan , who days before the race had invested in a new pair of skis, did not have a chance to catch up with them for the skis did not slide well att all. Håkan put up  all his strength to try and ketch the team but saw no sign of the dogs and began to worry that they would be stuck with the sledge , start barking and attract wolves that they would be easy prey for , or run out on some nearby road and being run over . When he finally reached the goal , he was extremely relieved when he heard Deimos barking and saw that both he and Corona were exactly on the spot where they had rested after the first leg . Håkan was warmly welcomed by the two dogs in the team. Deimos barked and wagged his tail  and Corona who had settled comfortably on a pile of straw also waved her tail.
No one had seen them coming, they had just run to " their place ".

Of course it was sad that it would end so just 16 km before the finish but the most important was of course that both Håkan and the dogs found their way and that they weren't hurt.

So it was a Happy Ending 

Wilderness Race (Vildmarksracet)

Today Håkan and one of our puppy buyers ( Lars Jämtsved ) are competing in the Wilderness Race ( http://www.vildmarksracet.se/se ) . This is a competition of the total distance 120km with mandatory rest time of 4 hours . Håkan  is skiing and the three dogs in his team Corona, Corall and Deimos are pulling a pulka.
Lars is going by sled with 10 dogs. His team contains his own dogs and six dogs from our kennel;  Ergo , Appa , Etna, Geist , Aijas and Jotka.
I keep my fingers crossed that they will have a good race.

Good hips

Today we received a letter regarding X-rays of the hips on Bielkersmils Jatka of Birk and Bielkersmils Geist of Barusi -both grade A.

Now we have a total of 20 dogs that have grown up in the kennel with ok hips (all of which are x-rayed is free).

This fine result I feel confirm my and Håkans hypothesis  that the key to good hip status is that the dogs:

• get high quality food
• are allowed to move freely in trackless terrain as much as possible during childhood
• and that they are kept thin

Today it snowed quite abundant here in Jonsbyn so we hope it can become a sleigh ride tomorrow. Unfortunately, we currently have four females in heat so the dogs have a different focus than work so it remains to be seen how the work ethic becomes.