The Markovo Rescue Effort

Copyright © 1998, 2003 J. Jeffrey Bragg

THE 1960'S WERE a difficult decade for the Seppala dog. In 1963 J. D. McFaul, operator of the third historic Seppala Kennels, retired and sold the remainder of his breeding stock. McFaul's prior reluctance to sell open female breeding stock had already resulted in a scarcity of pure Seppala breeding kennels. Only J. Malcolm McDougall (Ste. Agathe des Monts, Quebec) and Keith Bryar (Laconia, NH) had successfully established satellite kennels to McFaul's operation. In those days dogsled races in the East were becoming progressively shorter and faster, with level, highly-groomed trails and courses typically well under fifteen miles. With no mountains or hills and no deep snow, strength and endurance counted for little in these races; all-out sprinting speed was virtually the only significant factor. The racing team of the hour, sweeping the eastern racing circuit in the late '60's, was Dom Blodgett's Treeing Walker Coonhounds. Both McDougall and Bryar finally abandoned Siberians in favour of the newly popularised Alaskan village dogs.
     By 1969 no serious breeders of Seppalas remained active. McFaul had sold the last of his stock to Earl F. Norris of Alaskan/Anadyr Kennels (Willow, AK), who had his own established bloodline; Norris appeared to be interested in Seppalas primarily as an outcross to his own breeding and did not seem to be prepared to undertake their preservation as a unique strain. Bryar and McDougall had sold off most of their Siberians and no longer bred Seppalas. The existing McFaul dogs were ageing, and it appeared certain that the Seppala bloodline would become extinct in its pure form within a few more years.

"FOOLS RUSH IN where wise men never go." The wise heads of sleddog racing had rejected Siberians of any kind, Seppalas or otherwise. The dog show contingent had no interest in Seppalas, sneering at their unusual colours, 'dirty faces' and small size. It seemed that no one cared whether or not they survived. Thus it was left to a naive and idealistic novice to do something about the impending extinction of the Seppala dog. In 1968 J. Jeffrey Bragg had only a year of experience with mainstream Siberian Huskies in southern Ontario, but at that time was embracing the Siberian dog with great enthusiasm and learning as rapidly as he could.
     What most troubled me as I gained knowledge was the obvious inconsistency between CKC registered Siberian Huskies at weekend summer dog shows, and the original Siberia import dogs. Northern Dog News and International Siberian Husky Club Newsletter printed photos of the All-Alaskan Sweepstakes teams of 1909 - 1917 and of Leonhard Seppala's early Siberians. Fanciers of show Siberians expressed admiration of the original Siberian sleddogs, yet the show dogs themselves bore little resemblance to them, seeming like another breed altogether.
     On a summertime driving tour of northern Ontario the plot suddenly thickened: a visit to the Snow Ridge Kennels of Bunty Goudreau in Chelmsford, Ontario, disclosed the first Siberians I had seen that resembled the Nome Sweepstakes dogs of Johnson and Seppala. They were DITKO OF SEPPALA and his progeny.
     Bunty Goudreau was born Susan Elizabeth Ricker -- the daughter of Elizabeth Ricker, Seppala's partner in the first historic Seppala Kennels at Poland Spring, ME. Bunty's mother had bought Ditko from McFaul for her daughter because, she said, she wanted her to have at least one Siberian that was like those she and Seppala had in the late 1920's! A small, long-bodied, brownish-grey male, Ditko had a lovely floating gait and a friendly, affectionate nature. In the 1976 booklet "The Seppala Siberian -- A Breeder's Manual" I wrote of Ditko, "for me he represented the ideal Siberian working dog as no other dog could."

 

IN OCTOBER 1969 I was given the opportunity to buy Ditko, then ten years old. That was the real beginning of the Markovo rescue project (although it was not until 1973 that I became truly convinced that it would really be possible to save the strain from extinction or assimilation into other Siberian bloodlines).      After thoroughly researching Ditko's pedigree, and through correspondence with breed researcher Lawrence L. Prado, Jr. (who shared my interest in the primitive sleddog and in Seppalas and who authored the never-published definitive breed history Canis Sibiricus), I began to realise that the original Siberian dog still existed, in a manner of speaking, in the pure 'Seppala strain' that was bred in the Wheeler and McFaul kennels from the 1930's until the 1960's. Soon I learned that Norris had bought the remaining McFaul stock, and approached him about further Seppala stock.      In spring of 1970 I leased seven year old DUSKA OF SEPPALA from Norris for a shared litter to be sired by Ditko, and on the 13th of September 1970 a litter now known as the Markovo "H" litter was born of the first mating of two McFaul-bred parents since 1964; it included the famous piebald bitch HELEN OF MARKOVO who became a pillar of the future development of the Seppala strain. That was the beginning of the rescue from extinction of the Seppala dog.

 

In 1970 I also bought two pure-strain bitches, LYL OF SEPSEQUEL and FROSTFIRE ANISETTE; they were predominantly out of McDougall breeding. I planned to breed both to Ditko. At the time I bought Lyl from Johanna Wilson of Hudson, Quebec, she was in heat and Anisette, purchased somewhat earlier, came in heat at the same time. Unfortunately I was in the middle of a hectic move on short notice! Turfed out of a rented house in Pefferlaw, Ontario, hard by Lake Simcoe, I bought a small farm in Oxford Station, 35 miles south of Ottawa. For two weeks my wife and I shared the farmhouse with the retiring dairy farmer and his wife as they auctioned their personal property and looked for a house in Ottawa. I had my hands full trying to get our dogs situated on the new property and decided to postpone breeding Lyl and Annie until the spring. I lacked the experience to realise that most Seppala bitches of that era came in heat only once a year. In July 1971 DITKO OF SEPPALA died of stomach cancer, aged twelve and a half years, leaving only the H-litter behind to represent his priceless genetic heritage.

LEFT WITHOUT a stud dog for Lyl and Anisette, I began a wide-ranging search for suitable Seppala males. In the meantime Lyl was shipped to the U.S. and bred to an American-owned male of Bryar background, MIKIUK TUKTU TORNYAK, on the recommendation of Gary Egelston (Seppineau Kennels) who began a parallel Seppala breeding effort after correspondence with myself and Prado. Lyl produced the Markovo "N" litter on the 17th of December, 1971. By this time the pure Seppala 'Markovo' breeding had become a serious project separate from my other Siberian breedings. After the birth of the N-litter, breeding was suspended while several McFaul-bred dogs, mostly belonging to Norris, were examined and considered. Earlier in Pefferlaw, around March of 1970, I had picked up TONY OF SEPPALA and PIETRO OF SEPPALA II on orders from Norris to look them over and decide whether they would be of any use. Tony was so short-backed that he could not move without crabbing badly. Pietro was a big, handsome male, but when he moved he looked as though he were coming apart, his ligamentation abnormally loose. Not daring to use either animal, I had put them down as instructed by Earl. Earl sent photos of two late McFaul males out of GAGNON'S VIXEN, BORIS OF SEPPALA and VODKA OF SEPPALA: they were large long-coated dogs completely unlike Ditko. FRITZ OF SEPPALA was discussed,but he was in Alaska, had a badly tipped ear which bothered me at the time, and was over ten years old.
Finally in summer of 1973 Earl offered me a dog he had farmed out in Hull, Quebec, right across the river from Ottawa! SHANGO OF SEPPALA was big, but nicely put together. I picked him up only to find him half-starved and parasite-ridden. This big dog who weighed 65 pounds in reasonable condition weighed only 48 pounds when I got him and could hardly stand up. Nevertheless, with proper care he recovered very quickly selected to carry on the work halted by Ditko's death. From the first of July to the middle of that month Shango gained twelve pounds and began growing a beautiful soft coat. When he regained strength and muscle tone I discovered that for all his unusual size he possessed a beautiful smooth, flowing gait which was quite the equal of what Ditko's had been. Likewise the same gentle, co-operative temperament was his that had been Ditko's -- and the same annoying nasal yap at supper time! It was almost like having my beloved old "Dit" back again.
While I was negotiating with Earl I had produced from the 'H' and 'N' litter progeny three litters, the 'W,' 'X' and 'Z' litters, as a thorough exploration of the existing genetic resource. Haakon, my only son of Ditko, was bred to Nera of Markovo (Z-litter), Norka the larger of the two Tuktu sons was bred to Holly of Markovo (W-litter), and Nutok to Helen of Markovo (X-litter). We had trouble with severe hookworm infestation, brought into the kennel by Ditko ironically enough. Only Wawa survived of the lovely litter of whites and fawns whelped by Holly, although Wawa was prize enough, a lovely white bitch with a plush coat and a nice temperament. The Z-litter were a wild little bunch of dark Seppalas, charcoals and agoutis, among them little Zeita whom I gave to Betsy Bush on her second trip through Ontario. The X-litter contained three fine survivors, Xaros, Xenda, and Xaire (whose purchase brought Bets to the farm initially).

AT THAT POINT, I abandoned mainstream Siberian Husky breeding and moved my Markovo kennel and stock (by then numbering fourteen dogs) from eastern Ontario to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where a veterinary parasitologist from the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, Betsy Bush, joined the Markovo project. My wife Mary had never liked the Seppalas much, preferring other more conventional Siberian Husky stock. Our other interests had gradually diverged, too; so we sold the farm, Mary kept the Tadluk Siberians and I took the Markovo stock west.      Between August of 1973 and February of 1975 Betsy (a Seppala enthusiast all her life) and I produced five more Seppala litters. In fall of 1973 Anisette was shipped to Egelston for breeding to VANKA OF SEPPALA, the McFaul stud he had acquired from Dr. Earl Sprunger; that winter she whelped the 'M' litter containing the now-famous MOKKA OF MARKOVO. The Ms were tiny at birth but grew like wildfire into excellent dogs. Holly was bred to Shango, but failed to conceive. Lyl was bred to Shango that same fall, producing the 'S' litter and in it, the male Surgut who would later sire the pillars of the breed Beowulf, Baron and Ali. Shango was also bred to Helen, producing the 'R' litter containing Robin, the dam of that other pillar of the breed, ASH OF MARKOVO, sire of the immortal 'Hank' (HERCULES OF SEPP-ALTA).

Betsy Bush 1973

AFTER A WINTER of formidable problems (including blizzards that buried doghouses, dogs and all, beneath hard-packed snowdrifts) on the baldheaded prairie on highway #5 east of Saskatoon, Bets and I moved in 1974 to a better and more sheltered farm in the Dundurn hills south of the city, near Pike Lake Provincial Park. In an effort to expand the gene pool we acquired PATOU OF MONTE ALBAN bred by Lawrence L. Prado, Jr. Sired by a son of the Bryar leader BOYARKA OF SEPPALA, Patou had Cold River and Belford stock in her unusual pedigree, as well as the usual Bryar-owned McFaul dogs. We also imported ASARI OF MANAHTOK from Egelston, in whelp to VANKA OF SEPPALA. Asari whelped one oversize pup that suffocated while she struggled to birth it; Patou we never got a chance to use, unfortunately.
     Although he was nearly twelve years old and not terribly interested, nevertheless old SHANGO OF SEPPALA would still breed bitches for me if I insisted nicely. The winter of 1974 saw the two final litters from him, the 'D' litter out of HOLLY OF MARKOVO, and the 'A' litter from NERA OF MARKOVO. Two hard rural prairie winters had taken their toll on Betsy and myself, and we feared for the future of the Seppalas with virtually the entire gene pool in one dog yard. Bets lost her job with the vet college and we were experiencing real economic hard times.

IN THE SUMMER OF 1975, then, economic circumstances forced us to terminate the Markovo breeding project. By then a substantial body of young pure-strain Seppala stock existed. We felt that if things were to be carried forward it would be best to disperse this young stock so that the population could grow and the dogs could be work-proven. (Dogsledding had proved virtually impossible in both our Saskatchewan locations, where trails disappeared overnight under four to six-foot snowdrifts as howling winds raged across the prairie.) The emotional climate of the sleddog world had turned a corner with the establishment in 1993 of the Iditarod Trail long-distance race in Alaska. Mid-distance races had begun to proliferate, many of them in mountainous country. Strength and endurance once again became positive traits for sleddogs, and suddenly there was interest again in Seppalas. By the time Betsy and I left Canada in October 1975, thirty-five Seppalas had been dispersed among a variety of Canadian and American breeders (in addition to puppies sold in previous years of the programme) and with that dispersal the Seppala dog was for the time being out of danger. Egelston's Seppineau kennel eventually also produced ten pure-strain litters. The twenty Markovo and Seppineau litters formed the basis for future AKC/CKC Seppala strain breeding, through ten animals sometimes known as the 'Second Foundation' dogs. They are listed below.

DITKO OF SEPPALA (male), breeder McFaul, owner Bragg

SHANGO OF SEPPALA (male), breeder McFaul, owner Bragg

VANKA OF SEPPALA (male), breeder McFaul, owner Egelston

MIKIUK TUKTU TORNYAK (male), breeder Simms, owner Olson

MALAMAK'S OKLEASIK (male), breeder McDougall, owner Egelston

DUSKA OF SEPPALA (female), breeder McFaul, owner Norris (leased)

LYL OF SEPSEQUEL (female), breeder Jacobs, owner Bragg

FROSTFIRE ANISETTE (female), breeder Barber, owner Bragg

MOKA OF SEPSEQUEL (female), breeder Jacobs, owner Egelston

WILLI-WAW'S GALE OF CUPID (female), breeder Morton, owner Egelston

 

ONE IRONIC FOOTNOTE to the Markovo saga: despite the participation of seven separate parental-generation animals in the Markovo breeding and the production of ten litters, forty-four adults surviving, only about a dozen of the survivors gave rise to pure-strain bloodlines available to the breed project today. The post-Markovo era is largely an "untold tale" as yet, but I have to remark in closing that the attrition of the post-Markovo years was a sad pity, a burden that we bear today as we struggle for genetic breadth, trying to avoid breedings that are too close for genetic health. The greatest vulnerability of Seppalas has always been their small numbers, seen against the backdrop of the vast population of Siberian Husky backyard breeding.

 

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WORKING CANINE ASSOCIATION OF CANADA J. Jeffrey Bragg, Chair P.O. Box 21162 Whitehorse, YT Canada   Y1A 6R1

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