Friday, July 25, 2008

Norwegian Elkhound

Norwegian ElkhoundThe Norwegian elkhound is one of the wolfy looking dogs from which the shepherd dogs of middle Europe have been evolved, and is probably a more dependable dog than any of them, having been bred for the specific uses of hunting big game,
and left free of the refinements and stultifications demanded by the more effete market, which is largely dependent on the whims of wealth and caprice.

The elkhound, in short, looks like a small, stocky, wide-faced German shepherd dog,
standing about 22 inches instead of 26 or 27, but wearing the same strong, rough working coat of grizzled buff and brown, or wolf colors.

He is a rare dog in the United States, but in northern Europe plays an important part in the life of the people of the mountainous and wooded country. He is used to some extent as a carrying and draft animal, but is unsurpassed in the rough and tumble of the hunt for such big game as bear, wolves, and elk (the "moose" of northern Europe), and is so keen of nose and so tractable that he can easily be trained to the more subtle arts of hunting the capercailzie and black grouse.

The only one the artist ever saw was the single specimen shown in the Westminster
show of 1918, and no dog in the whole show made him more envious of his owner. For
what Mark Twain characterized as "the purposes of a dog" this strong, friendly, and primitive looking animal seemed a most perfect creature. He was alert, bright, and self-reliant, but willing to extend a reserved welcome to a new acquaintance.

From The Book of Dogs: An Intimate Study of Mankind's Best Friend By National Geographic Society (U.S.), Louis Agassiz Fuertes, Ernest Harold Baynes Published 1919. 109 pages Original from Harvard University.

This image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired.

This applies to the United States, where Works published prior to 1978 were copyright protected for a maximum of 75 years.

See Circular 1 "COPYRIGHT BASICS" from the U.S. Copyright Office. Works published before 1923 are now in the public domain In the United States,

This inage is also in the public domain in countries that figure copyright from the date of death of the artist (post mortem auctoris in thi case Louis Agassiz Fuertes (1874 – 1927) and that most commonly runs for a period of 50 to 70 years from that date. If your use will be outside the United States please check your local law.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://publicdomainclip-art.blogspot.com/2008/07/norwegian-elkhound.html
I don't know where that picture of a "Norwegian Elkhound" came from but it is NOT a Norwegian Elkhound.Just put 'elkhound' in Google images and you will see whgat our 'great gray dogs' look like. I hope you change the image soon.

sookietex said...

hi anonymous if you were to read the article you would see that the picture comes from

"The Book of Dogs: An Intimate Study of Mankind's Best Friend By National Geographic Society (U.S.), Louis Agassiz Fuertes, Ernest Harold Baynes Published 1919. 109 pages Original from Harvard University"

which has been a classic in the field for nearly 100 years, and in fact if you listen to the westminster announcers' descriptions of breeds you will recognize many of these texts.

yes many breeds have changed greatly in the intervening 90 years not for the better in all cases in my opinion, in the words of this author

"No doubt in his earlier days ... was a good sport, but of late years he has given so much consideration to "dress" that he has degenerated into a lap-dog ... left free of the refinements and stultifications demanded by the more effete market, which is largely dependent on the whims of wealth and caprice."

all that said if you do enter "Norwegian elkhound" into google image search you will see that to this day there exists examples that resemble the ancient line, the picture on the first page second line of results from the encyclopedia britannica in particular retain the black and tan.

one last point; the original european line can and does differ from that found in the states. the text and images of this still great book can edify even the breed "enthusist".

your friend sookietex

Anonymous said...

That's telling him!

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