Samoyed

A Samoyed dog is a typical polar dog, an arctic spitz created for hard physical work. A typical draft and sled dog, wilderness outdoor dog. It is cold resistant, durable and suits owners who are active and interested in the outdoors. The breed has been bred for thousands of years as hunting and sled dogs in the polar regions. Significantly more recently in the history certain groups from the polar people also came to use their dogs as reindeer dogs.

Today we have mainly preserved the the work task as a sled dog. Today, the Samoyed is not bred for hunting for humans, but some individuals have proven to be good hunting dogs, e.g. for moose. The function as a reindeer dog does not exist at all today in the purebred population of the West, this would require a great deal of cooperation with the Sami or other polar people who keep reindeer in large quantities if we could produce working samples for it. Just herding a few sheep together in small paddocks is not the same. By preserving the sled dog's qualities, we retain characteristics that are also important for the hunting and reindeer dog. All these tasks involve hard physical work over a long period of time in an arctic climate, which we get a good proof of if we evaluate our dogs as sled dogs.

The Samoyed dog is mainly used in an active outdoor life, where it finds its natural place in harness, in front of a sled and during the summer as a outdoor camping dog. The breed also comes into its right during modern sled dog competitions both over shorter and longer distances. The breed's good-natured and pleasant temperament also makes it a wonderful family member between work shifts.

"Just" looking pretty doesn't impress the breed enthusiasts. A Samoyed should unconditionally function as a working dog in the traditional work of the breed (draft- and sleddog) and be able to survive a arctic climate. For a properly bred Samoyed, it is as natural for one to work in harness as it is for a hound to hunt or for a border collie to herd sheep.

A well-bred Samoyed that has been able to maintain its basic working qualities to put up with the breeds traditional work also makes them willing to work in other dog sports. This is because you benefit from the same basic qualities in all forms of work and dog sports, such as energy, curiosity and grit.

Living with the Samoyed

The Samoyed is a very social dog. Human contact is just as important to the Samoyed as it is to any other dog breed. The Samoyed is a pack dog, so if you choose to have only one dog, he will require even more socializing with his human pack. The Samoyed's great social needs should be taken into account if you are thinking of occasionally letting it live outside as a kennel dog, this is not a life for a single Samoyed, but they should then be two or more. The pack is important to the social Samoyed. If you work full-time or only have room for one dog, don't buy a Samoyed dog unless you can offer it company during the hours you work.

Through its ability to form friendly family ties, the Samoyed is friendly even to strangers. If you want the strong loyalty of a one-man dog, don't buy a Samoyed! The Samoyed is not a guard dog in that sense, even if they like to bark and talk about someone coming in, rather an alarm dog. If you want a dog with aggressive guarding instincts, don't buy a Samoyed.

The Samoyed is tough and durable physically and mentally for hard conditions and work, both during wilderness trips and on the competition track. As a draft and outdoor dog, the Samoyed has a lot to offer!

The Samoyed copes with severe cold very well. You can choose for yourself whether you want to let your dog sleep inside or outside all year round. But keep in mind that a dog that spends most of its time indoors does not develop its coat naturally. So it cannot suddenly lie outside in extreme cold.

Normally, a Samoyed sheds enormous amounts of its woolly coat in the spring and fall, but many "house dogs" seem to shed significantly more often. If you can put up with dog hair all over the house and in the air you breathe for a short period of time each year, then you will be fine living with a Samoyed.

If you absolutely value your neatness, don't buy a Samoyed! The Samoyed has a natural aptitude for digging dens in the garden. If you are proud of your beautiful garden and cannot spare part of the garden for the dog, do not buy a Samoyed!

The Samoyed is a stubborn dog with an incredibly strong will. He is also sensitive to how you treat him, if you offend your Samoyed he will be sad and remember it for a long time to come. If you show your Samoyed great respect for his person, you will get an incredible amount of love in return.

A breed with a natural hunting instinct

Despite its friendly disposition, the Samoyed dog is no ordinary companion dog. It is a dog breed with original characteristics and instincts. In the Samoyed dog, the hunting instinct is generally strong, clear and original. Some Samoyed dogs can be taught to hunt for humans in an satisfactory way, but in addition to this, the vast majority of Samoyeds appreciate hunting for their own sake, in packs they trigger each other and together can bring down a prey animal the size of a deer if the bad luck comes.

The interest in game and the hunting instinct of the breed means that early on when the dog is small you should properly acquire knowledge of how to parry and deal with this during the dog's upbringing. This means that far from all Samoyeds can run loose, most of them need to be kept on a leash or behind a fence.

Early and proper training can keep these traits and instincts under control. The hunting instinct only blossoms fully after the dog begins to become sexually mature. When the dogs run in sleds, a large part of the draft and running work is based on hunting instinct. When you consider that a dog can run for days based on this instinct, you can begin to understand how the instinct affects them. Most of what we do with our dogs in terms of work is basically based on parts of the hunt, we often reinforce different hunting sequences in different dog sports contexts. This, together with the dog's own safety, is the reason why a Samoyed dog is happy to go on longer forays on its own and illegally hunt wild animals in the forest.

Exercise

A Samoyed is an active dog that needs regular exercise to get its energy out. It needs a lot of stimulation, especially physical. It is difficult to say exactly how much exercise a Samoyed requires because all dogs are individuals, but an hour's daily walk plus physical exercise about 3-5 times a week is what you can count on when the dog is an adult. Physical training/exercis = planned high-intensity physical training where the dog becomes physically tired, you can count on cycling with your dog to get up to a sufficiently high intensity. Physical training does not include walks, obedience, track training or the like, more is required to tire out a Samoyed. You can exercise your Samoyed in many different ways: running/jogging with your dog, cycling with it, training it to swim, letting the dog carry a bag, and of course pulling in all forms is an excellent form of exercise. The puppy and young dog need to gradually build up their muscles and receive socialization training.

A divided breed into subpopulations

It should be pointed out, however, that exhibitions have meant that the breeding for a long time and in many countries, unfortunately, the most emphasis was placed on exterior and "beauty" details (details people find beautiful to the eye but which are not necessarily functional), which today has created major problems within large parts of the breed population, today the breed tends to go more and more towards a clear split with an original well-preserved type and a so-called show type (a new and different appearance than the breed had before). Coat length, and not quality, eye color, expression and black nose mirror have unfortunately become more important in many places than the work and arctic characteristics. The coat quality is a problem in some lines, as is the size as a working dog today. Important today is to focus on preserving the breed's origin, function and working characteristics. We should not say that we go sledding with our show dogs, but that we exhibit our sleddogs!!! The fact that the breed like so many other working breeds is split up is important to be aware of when considering your choice of breeder.

In large parts of the world, you can no longer exhibit and win with an older type of dog, because the judges do not think they are "beautiful" to look at. But there are some countries where you can still exhibit dogs of older functional type and still win, but these countries are becoming fewer and fewer. It is tragic that dogs of the older unchanged appearance that follow the breed standard can no longer win at shows. Today winning at a show is not necessarily the same as that the dog is being breed typical and following the breed standard. A show winner may in some cases be correctly built but all too often it is overtyped and has functional deficiencies that lead to an appearance that the judges find beautiful but in many cases goes on a collision course with the function for physical work and performance.

Working test

In order to preserve the Samoyed breed, in some countries we have working tests linked to the breed's traditional work, the sled dog. But despite these test systems, we see that only an extremely small part of the breed population has the attributes and characteristics left to cope with this work. The test systems are often set with low requirements for speed and therefore do not provide the evaluation one would want of the breed. However, we see an increased interest in some countries among owners in working with their Samoyed and letting the dog work as a draft dog in different ways, which is positive. Testing system with sufficiently high requirements of speed shows which dogs maintain a good level of willingness to work, motivation, correct anatomical structure etc. But even dogs that do not compete or are exhibited can be good Samoyed dogs. When getting a Samoyed, look at the parents of the puppies. If they are diligent working dogs the odds are high that you will get the foundation you expect.