Solovyev Siberian Sleddogs
SERGEI ALEXANDROVITCH SOLOVYEV
was a high-ranking Soviet scientific bureau chief, an apparatchik.
A civil engineer and former classmate of Boris Yeltsin, he was President of
the "Scientific Realisation Association of the Siberian Division of the
Institute for Problems of Mastering the North" (SRA for short!) In the
1980s he was given the task of producing a promotional book celebrating
the achievements of the USSR in the high Arctic. It was decided that in
order to provide an intriguing framework for the book, an expedition would
be undertaken which would visit all of the Soviet Arctic installations from
Petropavlovsk-Kamschatsky to Murmansk (a distance of over 10,000 km.)
-- traveling by dog team! Solovyev was chosen to head the expedition,
though he had never before had anything to do with sleddogs.
Native Chukotkan dog drivers were secured and
the expedition carried out; it took over a year. During the warm
months they pressed onward using a dog-powered four-wheeled rig.
Eventually the book, entitled Chelovek i Sever (Man and the North)
was published.
The experience made a sleddog believer out of
Sergei Solovyev. In 1990 a Czech sleddog driver, Ivan Sibrt, finally
made contact with Solovyev after writing scores of letters of inquiry
seeking information about Russian sleddogs. That same year Solovyev
and Sibrt together arranged a trip to Chukotka, where they organised
the "First Great Russian Dogsled Race" a 400km. dogsled race attended
by local drivers. After the race, Sibrt and Solovyev toured various
Chukotkan villages to select and buy sleddogs of Siberian Husky type
(guided by Sibrt's experience with registered Siberians in Europe).
From villages such as Lavrentiy, Nurmino, Laptyev and others they
assembled a small group of dogs which were flown back to Solovyev's
home in Ekaterinburg (known as Sverdlovsk during the Soviet
years).
From those Chukotkan village dogs the Solovyev
line was developed. During the mid-1990s a trickle of Solovyev
Siberians entered Europe through the Czech
Republic.
SHAKAL IZ SOLOVYEV
ONE SUCH DOG was a three-month-old puppy named SHAKAL IZ SOLOVYEV. In summer of 1991 Isa Boucher had seen the first three Solovyev puppies imported into Germany when she took KARCAJOU'S DREAMA OF WINDIGO to the kennel of Anneliese Braun-Witschel for breeding to HERCULES OF SEPP-ALTA. In the nearby kennel of Jörg and Ursula Deutgen she saw BURAN AMURSKI, LISA AMURSKAYA, and STRELKA AMURSKAYA. On her return to our farm in Spain, Isa told me about the young Solovyev dogs. We made arrangements the following year to import a Solovyev puppy through the Deutgen-Sibrt connection. The Deutgens were importing a female pup; we acquired her brother.
on arrival in Spain (3 months old)
SHAKAL grew up in Spain. His first reaction as a puppy to the Spanish summer was one of dismay; when taken on leash walks he would leave the pathway, dive under any available vegetation and lie panting. He soon acclimated and grew into a handsome yearling. Informally on the farm he became known as "Jackie" or "Jack the Bear." Spain was temporary for Jackie; he spent his first birthday flying across the Atlantic with our Seppalas to make a new home in Canada's Yukon Territory.
IN THE YUKON, Jackie learned his craft as a sleddog. He even learned to lead, though later he decided (as some dogs will do) that he preferred the carefree position of wheel dog to the responsibilities of the front end of the team. Paired with RIVER VIEW'S HURLEY at wheel (who shared his feelings about leading) we found we had an unsurpassable wheel pair. He matured to a height of 23.75 inches at withers (60 cm.) and a weight of around 52 pounds (23.5 Kg). His first litter, out of the Seppala strain bitch NORDE OF SEPP-ALTA, turned out to be a stunning group of five strong and able sleddogs.
The Progeny of SHAKAL IZ SOLOVYEV
THE Z-LITTER of Seppala Kennels was born on the 4th October 1994 while The Canadian Kennel Club dithered over what to do about our application to register the Russian import in their Siberian Husky stud book. It was produced by a ten-year old Sepp-Alta bitch whose genetic value and working qualities were beyond question. NORDE's only real fault was being somewhat short-legged. Her litter was whelped in my wall tent as the Yukon winter bore down on us. At fifteen days of age (although puppies that age are supposedly deaf) the litter of four males and one female joined in with high-pitched miniature howls as the kennel outside sang in the moonlight! At three weeks of age they would not be contained in the whelping box, which they deserted to find a more comfortable sleeping place under a chair beside the wood stove. At five weeks of age they were banished to an outdoor pen though the temperature was -25C at the time. They immediately put on thick, heavy puppy coats. From three to seven months they looked more like baby seals than sleddogs!
Once summer came, they shot up like weeds,
growing long legs and becoming skinny as rails. Thus they remained
until they finally matured, which took a couple of years! Zoltan and
Zaza were harness broken early, behaving much as pure CKC Seppala
strain pups usually do. Zar, Zaki and Zorka took more time, particularly
Zorka who did not overcome his fear of unfamiliar territory until he was
almost two. (Now he performs with the best of them.) Out of coat, Jackie's
progeny look extremely leggy and thin; in coat, they look much heavier.
Their appearance is deceptive. In winter one would swear the males were
sixty-pounders; actually they weigh from 45 to 50 pounds (20.4 to 22.7
Kg); the female weighs around 38 pounds (17.25 Kg). Though light in
weight, they are extremely powerful sleddogs; a team of six tends to feel
like an eight-dog team to the driver!
Reprimanded by the CKC Board of Directors for
breeding a litter from our import dog before he was registered and
without their permission, we delayed any further use of
SHAKAL until after we had severed our connection with CKC and gained
Agriculture's charter for the WCAC. Breeding Guidelines for the new
evolving breed included new Siberia import stock and specifically the
Solovyev bloodline, allowing the Project to make free use of the new
genetic resource. In 1998 SHAKAL sired the P-Litter out of ZIRCONIA OF
SEPP-ALTA, a BEOWULF daughter. A sister of Zirc, FIREBALL OF
SEPP-ALTA, also had a litter by SHAKAL but had trouble raising
them; one male only survived, RANULF OF SEPPALA.
sons of SHAKAL IZ SOLOVYEV, born in December 1997.
The P-Litter and RANULF turned out to be fast and strong. SHAKAL's genes seem to have worked very well with the SURGUT/HELEN grandprogeny. Far from being a "performance-deteriorating" influence as claimed by Doug Willett, in fact SHAKAL's progeny on Sepp-Alta bitches represented a solid improvement over the performance of their Willett-line dams. In 2003 my first-string team of eight dogs contained five of SHAKAL's get; we feel his genetic value has been established beyond question. We now wish that we had been able to make yet more extensive use of our boy from Siberia, but the years of his prime were wasted in striving against ignorance and hostility, not only of the breed club and the Canadian Kennel Club, but also that of Sepp-Alta guru Doug Willett, whose prejudice against Russian dogs ultimately created an insurmountable hiatus between the Project and his ISSSC followers in the U. S. A.
European import SSSD males from Solovyev/Seppala bloodlines
In April 2005 we imported two excellent male Seppala Siberian Sleddogs from the Cal Segu kennels of Ramón Rojas. In the early 1990s Ramón acquired the brother of our import SHAKAL, SHAPOCHKA IZ SOLOVYEV, who became his first-string racing leader. Ramón also acquired several other sleddogs from the Czech kennels of Ivan Síbrt; these dogs were bred from Solovyev parents. One of the females, ZHOLTAJA IZ SIBRT, was mated to a pure-Seppala Project male SEPPALEJO (by RIVER VIEW'S HURLEY x KARCAJOU'S DREAMA OF WINDIGO), producing BUFFIE DE SA.RA.BE DE CAL SEGU, a first-class female leader. Our two new males are both sons of BUFFIE; COCU is a son of SHAPOCHKA and a leader himself. These two imported stud dogs will give the Project additional breeding flexibility in years to come, helping us keep pedigrees open and inbreeding coefficients low.
Through Ramón's kindness and generosity to the Project we were also able in June 2006 to import the sister of COCU, CULLEN DE SA.RA.BE DE CAL SEGU as well as a sister of DITKO, DUSHKA DE SA.RA.BE. DE CAL SEGU. Thus although Ramón's breeding kennel has ceased operations, the work he did over the past decade in Catalunya will continue its influence through the breeding programme of the Seppala Siberian Sleddog Project. We are truly grateful to Ramón Rojas for his support.
