Norway - The early years

Tove Horntvedt-Phillips: Since my first Samoyed Duke I have had Samoyeds continually and have competed in obedience and agility and fly ball and then competed in dog shows. Had first dogs ever in uk who had passports (Pharo and Liska) and go abroad all over Europe and down to Spain and Italy and up to Sweden and Norway at least 5 times a year- now with Cara (daughter of above) and her son Romeo and his partner JulietHave also bred 13 litters up through the years.

The first Samoyed in my family arrived as a small puppy in the pockets of the members of the Amundsen expedition to the South Pole.(They could not bring the adult dogs and left the ones in their breeding centre in New Zealand) My grandfather helped set up the expedition from Norway. "Giant" was a big male, but grandmother could find no female for him, so asked a fisherman to buy one from the nomadic ( Nenet?) people on the Kola peninsula to the east of the top of Norway. He came back with a female - and then had to confess that the nomads valued their dogs so much they did not want to part with one - so he stole it. (not a pretty tale!!!) Anyway,when I bought my first Samoyed in Norway almost 50 years ago now, and took him to see my grandmother, she came up with the story and also showed my photos of driving a small horsedrawn cabriolet with 5 Samoyeds sitting proudly beside her! South pole to almost North pole mating was obviously a success!!