With the disappearance of genetic material from the gene pool of the Norwegian Elkhound type and the Swedish Elkhound type it was imperative that preservation breeders come forward with the new genetic material.

The breeders of the types for the entire time they have been in North America have been depleting the gene pool.

I’ll explain: They start with a controlled group of Norwegian Elkhound lines. Norwegian Elkhound females and stud dogs. A finite group. A known number.

Each time they cull a male or female from this group, the numbers of unrelated Elkhounds decreases.

Take a female out of whelping, retire her, or cull for any reason, half her genetic material is gone if you have held back a daughter. If you have not held back a daughter, 100% is gone. Only breeders that withhold breeding daughters or sons from existing Elkhounds slow the genetic loss they do not stop it.

Five or six years ago I started sounding the alarm as for that last two decades I had been witnessing a dramatic decline in unrelated Norwegian Elkhounds in North America. The speed at which genetic disappear is directly related to the way they are held back, or culled.

Heavy culling based on certain aspects such as color or looks speeds the genetic loss faster than any other criteria. This has been the most destructive aspect of the “Show” and ckc breeding type restrictions of Norwegian Elkhounds.

Eventually, and it’s actually right now, today, end of December 2025 that there literally is no hope for the Type “Norwegian Elkhound” in North America without preservation breeders. They have depleted the genetic pool so much that you can literally not get an unrelated pair in the “Registered” pool of Norwegian Elkhounds. If you did find one, it’s obscure and would be a miracle, I do not believe there are any unrelated genetics left. They are all line bred.

The only Norwegian Elkhounds outside that “Registered pool” is our Preservation lineage Norwegian Elkhounds at Kamia Kennels. However just using our base of diverse genetic Norwegian Elkhound ancient line dogs is not enough. Also that is simply a system that is in evitable decline, as we of course lose half our genetic base every time we retire a female also. We take great steps to extend the lineage by preservation breeding, but eventually we will run out without a change.

This change of course we have already undertaken, years ago, decades in fact. Discussion was started with the Master Breeders of Finland, Norway and Sweden and ourselves Kamia Kennels here in Canada. Our objective of course was to return to the use of the Full Genetic material, the original dog, or Original Elkhound, using Original breeding practices.

This is the reason for the Full Blood. The Full Blood utilizes all the genetic material. Now you have unrelated genetic material that can “Add” genetics back in to the “Type” pools of Norwegian Elkhounds and Swedish Elkhounds. A Full Blood female can add back into both types new, unrelated bloodlines and so can a Male Full Blood add back into both lines.

130 plus years ago all genetic material was utilized so genetic diversity was at it’s peak. It was literally impossible to have any related dogs mating with any level of common sense as there was almost an infinite amount of variation possible by using full genetic material. Some of these genetics are in some cases so far distant from each other it’s 100 years or more just in known lines unrelated. It could stretch thousands of years.

Kamia Kennels currently is the only Full Blood breeder, for good reason, they have the only Norrland bloodline, which is the oldest known, they have the most ancient known Norwegian Elkhound lines and of course have the very best and oldest known Swedish Elkhound or Jamthund lineages. This is the exact genetic material that was present for centuries up till 130 plus years when “They” started separating the types out.

The historic litter of Full Bloods in Montana right now, the Vaeda and ARCO litter that Linda whelped out was using incredible the Kamia Kennels Norrland bloodline base of Norwegian Elkhounds, adding into that the absolute best North American Norwegian Elkhound diversity lineage, then combining that with The outstanding Finnish import Jamthund foundation lineages.

All of these lines are completely unrelated by 100’s of years. This is essential for the Norwegian Elkhound existence and Swedish Elkhound existence as new genetic material has to be essentially unrelated to the entire gene pool that currently exists in North America.

Not a single Elkhound in this equation has been mated together so maximum diversity, extremely healthy and robust pups are the result and new genetic material that is actually “New” can now be added. It’s a fascinating time. This is the very first time in the entire existence of the Norwegian Elkhound in North America that “New” genetic material has ever been added to the pool.

Every single other litter, or pup that was produced was produced from existing genetics, which ultimately was already there, which in turn was now a 50% reduction in existing, quickly leading to the demise.

It’s like the old wolf story, put 100 wolves on an island, no new wolves let in, 10 years later you have sick wolves, 15 they are all gone or pretty much a memory.

So the significance of this litter and the Full Blood preservation program is profound for the Norwegian Elkhound lovers beyond words.

Contact me directly about these Full Bloods merv@uppgroup.com

This is ARCO and his famous mother Varella, the Foundation Female for Jamthunds in North America.