Norwegian Elkhounds For Sale

The Norwegian Elkhound, an ancient breed with history dating back thousands of years, is a powerful, dominant and loyal companion for any family.

Norwegian Elkhounds have been used to hunt & guard for centuries, they have remained virtually unchanged, providing the companionship and loyal protective traits so well known by our ancestors still today, even though some roles perhaps have changed for them.

Elkhound Traits:

• Strong Willed ( "Yet very trainable" )
• Healthy and Strong
  • Virtually no eye, ear or feet problems
  • Fast and quick, very agile, compact and powerful
  • Beautiful Double Coat:
    • Thick warm inner layer, coarse water repellent outer layer
  • Tightly Curled Tail
  • Litter size 8 average
  • These dogs have a No Odour Coat - no wet smell
• Excellent Winter Dog - these dogs love snow
• Very Territorial - Norwegian Elkhounds make excellent watch and guard or personal protection dogs
• Outstanding Family Dogs -  ( these dogs bond to a family and make terrific companions )
• Full Exercise Required: these are high energy dogs, they need lots of room and lots of exercise
• Barking is Instinctive: these dogs alert you if anything comes into the territory, they bark and are loud, excellent as watch dogs.

The history of an Elkhound clearly indicates a use in hunting and protection, this trait is still foremost as these dogs have changed little if at all. Used to slow down and distract large game by barking and moving in circles around the game, the dogs were essential to the success of any hunt. They're agile and powerful features made them able to remain out of harms way in rugged terrain, yet keep up and in fact bay large Moose and hold them at bay. The barking and circling were two very effective methods to allow the hunter to get in close undetected as the game was distracted and constantly having to focus on the dogs.

Elkhounds have been protective and courageous and use these traits in this role. It is fascinating to watch a pair of Elkhounds with an intruder, they move extremely fast, they circle, the hair is up the entire length of the back, the bark is loud, the black face and especially the black around the jaws highlight the white fangs. These dogs are an excellent watch dog, guard dog, or personal protection dog.

Elkhounds will watch over the family unit as one - they make one of the best choices for a family who wants a loyal companion. Norwegian Elkhounds are not normally overly aggressive to strangers, however they are aloof to those not part of the family unit. To the family unit though they are as warm and as much apart of your life as you want them to be.

Tora and Mia - December 18th, 2009 - Tora is in the forefront, her mother, Mia is next to her.

In this image Tora is almost 8 months old and Mia is over 3 years. Tora is about 1" longer and 1" taller than Mia at this stage and slightly heavier at 48lbs. Tora is a quality female with an excellent disposition, very friendly and just a pleasure to be around. We can introduce her to anyone and she is so well mannered and pleasant. Tora is what you can expect in a female from this combination of Mia and Takoda. Although you could end up with a slightly taller and heavier version of her, such as Nika, for the most part the pups from this combination are very close to Tora.

Tora and Takoda - December 18th, 2009 - Tora is in the forefront, her father, Takoda is next to her.

In this image Tora is almost 8 months old and Takoda is over 2 years. Takoda stands about 4" taller and 4' longer than Tora, and roughly 20lbs heavier. Takoda is a large Male, by Norwegian Elkhound standards, and Tora is passing the Norwegian Elkhound standards as she is going to be a large female. She will end up approaching the size and weight of most Norwegian Elkhound Males as she might get close to 55lbs at maturity. Elkhounds will grow almost till 2 years of age and reach the size and weight they will maintain for years.

Tora and Mia - Snow is fairly deep again this winter, December 28th, 2009 - Midway up Mia's shoulder

Elkhounds are bred for snow and colder climates, they have a real passion for snow, they are much happier in snow, than not in snow. We have had some cold temperatures this season with the Red Deer airport in December recording the coldest night on record back on the 18th of December for that night. We don't have long stretches at -40 but we had a few in a row here, with lots of nights in the -30 range. The dogs have access to the shop at night, they have an area with hay and they are very comfortable out of the wind there, although we don't heat the shop, they can come and go as they please.

In the winter for the most part on the real cold nights there are no animals moving, so they sleep through, however most other nights we have foxes and or coyotes that patrol up from the Provincial Park, as we border the park, so it's fairly common for them to be out during the night.  In the fall we can have bears moving through, however there is little that moves by here that we don't know about, Elkhounds are well known as watch dogs.

Throughout the site you will find reference to most if not all of the pups of this pair and see the terrific young dogs that are developing.

We have many new pictures of all newest pups starting to come back in as well, I have the pages up for Nika, a beautiful dark female that went up to the Yukon with Brent and Shelley, to Whitehorse. They have already sent some great shots of the land of the midnight sun and Nika fitting right in.

Tracey and Dennis have sent some new photo's of Tegan, a female that has completely settled in to her new home, in fact she was settled in the minute she saw Tracey and Dennis.

Tula, Sofi, Bosco, Reba and the two big boys up in MacKenzie, BC, Kona and Bruin, we have some exciting photos of our trip up through the Prince George and Williams Lake country to meet with the good folks from MacKenzie, Russ and Holly Gilmore. They will be providing a great home and environment for those two big guys.