Lone Wolf Kennel’s dedication to the Elkhound breed started in the late 1990’s when my family bought a six-month-old puppy from a local breeder. I was not even in my teens yet at the time. I hadn’t known of Elkhounds before, but instantly loved the looks of our new dog, and spent a lot of time making friends with her (she was somewhat shy for the first while). We named her Wolf. We chose our kennel name in honor of her; and when time permits, I’ll post more of that story here.
Fast-forward to 2010… my wife and I wanted a dog, and to me there was just one option: I had to find a Norwegian! We scoured Kijiji and found a pure female Elkhound in Manitoba; the very last one left of a litter. Misty grew up on our farm and did an excellent job of keeping pests off the yard –disposing of rats and groundhogs, treeing raccoons that came to ruin our corn patch… and when she took a mischievous streak, chasing the barn cats on high-speed runs across the yard.
When Misty was about two years old, we found someone in reasonable driving distance with a pure male, and we thought: the Norwegian Elkhound is not a super common dog, and more people should be introduced to them. Let’s have a few puppies once in a while!
And that’s how it all started. We breed Elkhounds because we love them. To be sure, there are lots of other great dog breeds out there, and everyone is entitled to his own opinion… but we are biased toward our cute, funny, lively, loyal-yet-independent, sometimes exasperating but usually loads of fun, “Elkies.”