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Senta the Norwegian Elkhound

The Moose
When I was in Montana, I stopped to eat lunch in a campground in Custer National Forest. No one was there except Mr. Moose, but it wasn't our friend from Captain Kangaroo (and here I really date myself)! Below you will read about how an Elkhound holds it's quarry. She reenacted it for me flawlessly and took 20 years off my life! You can read the text book version below.
Did you know...
Elkhounds have been clocked
at 120 woofs per minute!

The Cookie
 Senta also likes chocolate chip cookies. Yes, I know chocolate is bad for dogs (and most other animals), but she didn't tell me she was stealing them one by one off the counter where they were cooling!
The Travel
 Senta's well traveled. Look at all the places she's been: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Alabama, Montana: including Glacier National Park, Missoula, Custer National Forest; Yellowstone National Park; California: including Death Valley, Joshua Tree, the Whipple Mountains; Arizona; and Canada (That's more than me, because she took off to Canada with her cousin Malaika to go camping!)
This is Senta & Conner on a small mountain in the Black Hills.

The Bear
 Her latest animal stunt occurred in March 1996 when I was working as a field assistant for a friend of mine working on a post-doc at UC-Santa Barbara. We were heading back to camp coming down a particularly steep slope when Senta took off at top speed barking. We heard crashing through the bushes and suddenly on the other side of the little valley was this little bear running really really really fast in the opposite direction. Poor little bear.

Senta's Favourite Cookie Recipe

  • 1 package active dry yeast
  • 1¼ cup warm water
  • 2 tablespoons molasses
  • 1¾ to 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1½ cups whole wheat flour
  • 1 egg
  • ½ cup cornmeal
  • ½ cup nonfat dry milk powder
  • ½ cup Brewer's yeast powder
  • 2 teaspoons garlic powder
  • 1 cup Bulghar wheat
I. Preheat the oven to 300°F. In a large bowl dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Add molasses. Stir in 1 cup of all-purpose flour, the whole wheat flour, the Bulghar wheat, cornmeal, milk powder, and Brewer's yeast and garlic powder. Mix well.

II. Turn dough onto floured surface. Knead in enough of the remaining all-purpose flour to make the dough very stiff. Let it rise for 10 minutes.

III. Separate the dough mass into 2 equal portions. Roll each portion out to ¼ inch thickness for thin cookies, or to 3/8 of an inch for thick cookies. Cut the dough with cookie cutters.

IV. Bake at 300°F; The thin cookies should bake for 35 minutes and the thick cookies should bake for 45 minutes. Turn the oven off and allow to dry overnight.

Then watch them beg!

An Elkhound book description
Comrade to the Vikings, guardian of lonely farms and seaters, herder of flocks and defender from wolves and bear, a hunter always and a roamer with hardy men, the Norwegian Elkhound comes down to us through more than six millennia with all his Nordic traits untainted, a fearless dog and friendly, devoted to man and the chase. We read of him in sagas, we find his remains by the side of his viking-master along with the viking's weapons--sure proof of the esteem in which he was held; and in the Viste Cave at Jaeren, in western Norway, his skeleton was uncovered among the stone implements in a stratum dating from 4000 to 5000 BC.

... Equally subtle is his method of engaging a bull. Knowing well that an elk can outfoot him, he holds the animal by just enough barking to attract his attention. Even with a skillful dog, however, the elk often moves on before the hunter can get up over the steep countryside; and in that case, the dog, aware that the bull, if not excited by sound or scent, will soon pause, works silently and very carefully up wind until he is once more with his quarry.

After a while, the bull, becoming angry at the small beast annoying him, begins to attack with a wise sweeping movement of the great antlers and by striking with his deadly forefeet; but now, the Elkhound, short-backed so that he can, to use herr Aarflot's apt expression, bounce like a rubber ball, jumps nimbly in and out, while giving full and furious tongue so that his high-pitched voice will reach his master....

--p.143-145 from: The Complete Dog Book: The History and Standard of Breeds Admitted to AKC Registration, and the Training, Feeding, Care and Handling of Pure-Bred Dogs
New Revised Edition. Garden City, New York: Garden City Books, 1961.

The AKC Breed Standard

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