Breeds that came to be mixed with the Samoyed

In various early writings and debates about the breed, we can read about how early on the Samoyed began to be confused with other white spitz dogs which, according to the specialists, were of a different type and ruined the Samoyed's appearance when people started mixing them up. Both the German Spitz of various sizes, the White Lapland Spitz and the Chow Chow have been breeds associated with malformed Samoyeds in different eras. See also under notices and newspaper articles in this historic museum, where the problem began to be highlighted early in England.

Hannie Wink: 

"Mr. J. Pieterse warned breeders not to breed a Samoyed which resembles a white Keeshond too much. The white Keeshond was very common in those days. You saw them at farms, as a guarddog, loud barking if strangers approached. KEES is a dutch boy's first name and you can find the KEES at the old reading board. See the picture."

"In Japan large white Spitz were exhibited as Samoyeds. The Japanese tried to buy Samoyed puppies from Miss Ivy Kilburn-Scott. "The idea is that the Samoyed would make excellent mates for the Spitz."

"An article from Our Dogs, 1934.Ivy Kilburn Scott has moved from Japan to China. In two Chinese papers 'she' warns to stick to the orignal type and not to confuse the Samoyed with the white Spitz. The Chinese article also tells us that "The lightish coloured nose is typical of the breed, all the original imported dogs posessing it, but warmish climate and artificial feeding have a tendency to blacken the nose colour." Have Samoyed-breeders too much selected on the white coat and black points?Mr. J. Pieterse also warns the Dutch breeders not to breed a Samoyed which resembles a white Keeshond (Spitz) too much."

Hannie Wink: Next article was written by J. Spaapen. J. Spaapen was a Dutch judge for several breeds and wrote some general books about dogs. A biscuit-colored Samoyed is in 1933 a rarity at the shows and J. Spaapen even thinks that it doesn't belong to the breed. If the biscuit colour is caused by the delution-factor in the genes, it is of coarse very logic that the dog doesn't have a black nose. But they didn't know that in those days.

J. Spaapen also was missing the correct type. The Samoyed is going to be "large white dogs with long white hair".

I have translated this Dutch article. Sorry, if the translation isn't everywhere correct.

THE POLAR DOGS AT THE KENNEL CLUB SHOW IN LONDON. [1933]

This time I had the opportunity to go and see for myself how the quality of the English Samoyeds exceeds that of ours.

I was surprised watching, when I saw 74 Samoyeds registered in the catalog – an amount which makes a Dutch Samoyed lover's mouth water.

Although the amount was beautiful, the quality on the whole left something to be desired.

Especially what type concerns, the Dutch Samoyed is in no way inferior to the English - yes, if our material is not to mention better.

The Samoyeds, who won, had either the Spitz type or either the Chow-Chow-type - which does not benefit the Samoyed.

Disappointing was the condition in which the Sams were showed.

Not only that some dogs had "dirty trousers", but some were certainly poorly maintained and the eye-corners (near the nose) looked bad.

It may certainly honor the Dutch ladies and gentlemen Samoyeds-lovers, that the Dutch dogs of this breed are generally much better groomed at the shows than the dogs that I have now seen in London.

Not once I have walked along the benches of the Samoyeds, but several times especially comparing care and condition of the dogs with the Dutch.

The judging began on Wednesdays at 11am. The Samoyeds were judged by Miss Thomson Glover, the judging went smoothly, she examined the dogs well.

It would take too long if I'd name all the Samoyeds, which appeared in the ring and how they were placed in their class.

In males appeared as the best dog and champion in open class Siberian Shaman, - a son of Nim of Farningham and Snowreena, - bred by Miss I. Creveld. He was followed by KOSCA OF KOBE as "Reserve best dog of the breed"; 'this 5-year-old male is a son of INT. CH. TIGER BOY and SUSIE, - for us strange sounding names. The name of the breeder - Mrs. Edwards – is better known to some of our fanciers.

The championship in females was awarded to SILVER, bred by Miss C.M. Stuckey, - who also showed her, the parents of SILVER are Farningham Peter of West Park and Ch. Edelweiss. The latter was also present, but was no match for her daughter and was second best bitch of the breed.

When these four dogs had to compete against a group of Dutch Sams - as in Zutphen - than it could ever happen, that they were 'slaughtered'.

If construction was someway good, they missed the beautiful head type and the right expression anyway.

The other Samoyeds which in head-type were better, lost again by their construction and hair. They become in England large white dogs with long white hair, - plainly.

When I checked the entries, I did find several dogs, who were descendants of "Farningham".

Many "Farningham-dogs" were entered under different exhibitors and many times there is bred with them so the descendants carry another kennel name.

With only one entry the name of the breeder Mrs. Kilburn Scott was mentioned, it was BUCK, a son of CH. KARA SEA and PINKY OF FARNINGHAM, - from the date of birth you could see that he was a brother of the in the spring imported pups FARNINGHAM PEDRO OF SAMOYA and FARNINGHAM KARTINKA OF SAMOYA.

Furthermore, we note in the catalog names which also appear in the pedigrees of our Samoyeds, - such as Mustang of Farningham, Nim of Farningham, and several times Ch. Kara Sea. These dogs were not exhibited, only the names occured in the lineage of the entered Samoyeds.

The kennels, which were represented in this show include the "Taimir Samoyed Kennels" of Miss I. Creveld from Sussex, the "Kobe Kennels" of Mrs. L. Perry from Surrey and Miss Keyte Perry's "Arctic Kennels". There were many other breeders, who had brought their Samoyeds on the benches at the show but of course they can't be mentioned all. I believe that the number of Samoyed-kennels in England is still growing. In the Samoyed-section of "The Dog World" Mrs. S. F. Kearns writes, that the demand for Samoyeds still continues.

Unfortunately, the dogs from the "Arctic Kennels" gave no favorable impression, one of the dogs even had unhealthy red eye-rims, what one sees in our Samoyeds rarely (if ever).

The overall impression obtained at the Kennel Club Show, is: The Dutch Samoyeds aren't absolutely not in quality inferior to that of the English.

When later in the Christmas issue the show-results will be displayed, it will be apparent that the Samoyeds in the Netherlands are on a high level and that for the time being there is no importation needed.

I even almost omiss to mention that one Samoyed - except for the legs - was also completely biscuit colored. Between all that snow white dogs he attracted very much attention, but the color suits ill in the Samoyed and in the far north one will rarely meet them. It was odd that the dog had a fairly light nose color - while most had black noses.

A beautiful group formed the 56 Elkhounds. I was very curious to see what type was imported in England.

There are two main varieties in the Elkhounds namely: the "Leddogs" and "Lös dogs". One dog is for the big game (Elk and Bear) used and corresponds to the "tracking dogs" and the other as "Beagles" used for hunting small game (grouse and hazel). They are lighter built and they are of medium size.

In England, is now the lightly built Elkhounds or "Tugle-dogs" imported, because they have a better character than the other.

The dogs are of the Spitz type, they are gray and have a solid coat with good undercoat. They were judged by Croxton Smith.

The only FINISH SPETS, that I might behold, missed entirely the type as Richard Strebel describes in his book "Die deutschen Hunde".

Richard Strebel gives him the name of "Finnish Birddog" because he joins the hunt on the Black Grouse and Partridges in the Finnish Lake District.

The Finnish Spitz was well colored - he had the color of a red fox - but it was by no means a good specimen, in which one could find even one bit of type.

On the benches the Huskies were completely missing, - still a Polar Dog from England's own domains, this is a breed where Holland is still leading. However, there seems to be a Husky in England, but that is rarely showed.

May the Elkhound here still missing in the Netherlands on the benches, - for the day we can come up with our Polar Dogs, Polar Dogs, as we have anyway the Huskies and Samoyeds and Newfoundlanders.

Zeist, 20 October 1933 J. SPAAPEN

 The Swedish Lapphund

About the history of the Swedish Lapphund: www.garisdene.com/dogs/lapphund/history.html Many Lapphunds were exported and imported back from England. But in those »English« litters occassionaly white puppies were born which lead us to surmise that Englishmen crossed Lapphunds with samoyeds. 

In an article in Swedish spitz dog club magazine 1950 S. E Carell writes that there is still a lot of ignorance among people about how a Samoyed should look like. He mentions in particular the misunderstanding between the white Swedish Lapphund and Samoyed dog. He writes that by fixing at SKK of the new standard for Samoyed dog filled a long-awaited need of all the owners of white spitz dogs that lacked guidance in how the breed types differ from each other. As you can understand from this, there was a long and hard resentments about these two breeds in Sweden. In that article they allso published these two photos of the breeds.