October 15, 2005
Gatineau Kennels reborn: Seppalas return to Québec!
Sometimes events and history bounce back, creating new beginnings. On October 8, 2005, 15h50 two Seppala Siberian Sleddogs from Seppala Kennels of Whitehorse, Yukon arrived at the Ottawa airport, bringing Seppalas back to where they were predominant sled dogs for almost 60 years.
Kingeak of Seppala and Boika ("Courage") of Seppala will be foundation animals for the Gatineau Kennels in St-Sixte, Québec. They arrived at the kennel from Ottawa by night -- it seems like that is getting to be a Seppala tradition!
Kingeak of Seppala (by Xpace of Seppalta ex River View's Sprite) is a brother of the Seppala leaders Korek, Kolyma and Tonya of Seppala and will bring into the Kennels a pool of fast, intelligent, well-behaved dogs. King was used in Whitehorse as wheel dog on Isa Boucher's main team (shown in the photograph below of the Boucher 2003 team led by his littermates Kolyma and Korek, with Kingeak at right wheel).
For her part, Boika of Seppala (by Surgut of Seppala ex Jinx of Seppala) will be a leader in training for the next year and will become the kennel's first brood bitch. An energetic but very manageable dog, she has been given the nickname of "Boing" since she is a dog who always expresses herself by jumping.
Boika also brings something else that is very precious. At Seppala Kennels she was recently mated to Zaki of Seppala (by Shakal iz Solovyev x Norde of Sepp-Alta), a senior utility leader. A new second generation litter of W.C.A.C./I.S.A Seppalas is on its way, which will increase the number of Siberia import/Markovo dogs, advancing the original and authentic Seppala into the next Century. When born, Boika's litter will be three-quarters Markovo-Seppala, one-quarter Siberia import lineage.
Gatineau Kennel is the result of many favourable accidents -- call it destiny. As a kid, Jean-Marie Bélanger, the owner, use to attend every dogsled race in la Belle Province. One day he had a close look at some interesting dogs, one of which was Hercules of Sepp-Alta! From that day, before knowing that these were Seppalas, he wanted to own these particular dogs.
Since then, Seppalas had their chance to become a separate breed in Canada and the "evolving breed" Seppala Siberian Sleddog Project was founded in the Yukon. Two years of intense discussion with breeder J. Jeffrey Bragg have led Jean-Marie Bélanger to learn a lot about these dogs.
In 2005, a move to the Outaouais region just north of Ottawa (Québec’s “Far West”), a very favourable region for sleddog breeding, opened the last door. Dogs and horses are part of the local heritage and they are very well respected here. Seppalas are on their way again in Québec!
But does the name “of Gatineau” come only from this fact? Hazard or destiny makes things turn out well sometimes! Gatineau Kennels was from 1942 to 1953 the sled dog kennel of J.D. McFaul from the Fish and Game Club of Maniwaki. This part-Seppala kennel became a corner stone in the Seppala breeding later, since 1951 when J.D. McFaul bought all the dogs from Harry Wheeler and ceased to breed the part-Seppala "Gatineau" bloodline, to breed only "of Seppala" dogs thereafter, just as Wheeler and Bill Shearer had done before him.
Jean-Marie hasn't bought the Fish and Game Club of Maniwaki -- but it is to honour McFaul, who recognised the value of the pure-Seppala stock and decided to make a better future for his kennel and to make the switch over, that the decision was made to revive this historic kennel affix. As he says: "I could have taken any 'Sepp-Quelquechose,' but since 1930, there is only one Seppala Kennel per generation and currently, it's in Whitehorse, Yukon. So be it!"
The next few weeks at Gatineau Kennels will focus on whelping Boika's offspring and working on WCAC and ISA activities along with Seppala Kennels. We need to settle a future for these dogs, to make them available for the next generation so Nicolas, Felix and Charles, the kids from Gatineau Kennels, can continue to enjoy the original and authentic Seppala Siberian Sleddogs.
Our thanks to Jean-Marie Bélanger for this submitted article!
Posted by jjeffrey at October 15, 2005 03:40 PM