Home Forums Birds & Dogs Hunting Dogs Norwregian Elkhound

I was curious to see if anyone out there has any Norwegian Elkhounds? Not a gun dog per se, but thought I'd check.

had one about 84 till 96 or so. since i lived in texas we needed to shave him each summer. basically a one family dog--not mean but not friendly like a lab. totally fearless; i saw him jump on 2 german shepards at once & push a doberman that was a stranger to neighborhood into a corner. of course i intervened quickly to prevent problems but remember coming back late from a fishing trip & my wife had to get a neighbor to make bear let go of a possom tail that had tried to climb the chain link fence. really beautifal dogs but had lots of hair.[double coat]they will do great in alaska as pets. in norway they hunt elk [moose there] with them. the elkhounds trail a moose till they can get it to pause; the hunter comes up & shootes the detracted moose. in the 80s the season is only 2 or 3 weeks long , i beleive the harvest is about 15,000. my info is dated on the season so info may now be incorrect. i've seen films of inunit villades with sled dogs as workers & the elkhounds as the guard dog while indians were out on trapping lines. of course the coldest weather is safe for these dogs. cranky72

They are very common here in Sweden -- and they are very much a gun dog here. We use them to hunt moose.





I personally have hunted over at 13 or 15 different "gr�hund" as we call them (Swedes don't like giving Norway credit for much! I like the breed. Very friendly with people, intelligent too.

They shed a lot of gray hair though, so pick your sofa wisely if they will be an indoor dog!

John

Thanks for the posts guys. We have the opportunity to get a new Elkhound pup but we haven't had any experience with the breed so I appreciate the comments.

We had 2 male litermates on the farm when I was 18. very good noses; would blood trail anything and trailed coyotes. good watchdogs; not vicious, but quite intimidating to strangers. The two we had quickly cleaned up the feral cat population. If a cat was running from them , then stop to make a stand, it was all over for the feline. They were the only dogs I ever saw that would kill and eat cats.