The Message of Bayou of Foxstand (Part I)

The Message of BAYOU OF FOXSTAND
Copyright ©2005, 2006 by J. Jeffrey Bragg

"And I only am escaped alone to tell thee." (Book of Job 1:15)

OF ALL THE MANY PEDIGREES that I have seen in a lifetime in the canine fancy, I have a single favourite. It is the pedigree of a little Siberian Husky bitch whose registered name was BAYOU OF FOXSTAND. (Here is a link to BAYOU's pedigree.) She was born in 1940, bred by Joe Booth of Carlisle, Massachusetts. She was dark grey with blue eyes. Her sire was SURGUT OF SEPPALA from Harry Wheeler; her dam was DUCHESS OF HUSKYLAND, whose sire was Millie Turner's Wheeler leader SAPSUK OF SEPPALA. Three-quarters of her pedigree displays Harry Wheeler origins. Ah, but the other quarter has quite a tale to tell. No other Siberian sleddog pedigree, surely, is quite so packed with history as BAYOU’s; no other has so urgent a message for the breeders of today.

But what dogs are these, in the ancestry of BAYOU's maternal grandam, ROLLINSFORD NINA OF MARILYN? KOTLIK, NERA OF MARILYN, TILLIE, CH. NORTHERN LIGHT KOBUCK? They surely are not Wheeler dogs, neither are they from the Seeleys’ Chinook Kennels line. Where can we find out about these dogs?

 

The Modern Monolithic Siberian Husky Population

IT IS AN UNFORTUNATE human tendency to assume that things do not change much, despite the fact that we are surrounded by constant change. Siberian breed fanciers assume that their breed has always been more or less as it is today. Today the Siberian Husky breed, as found in registries of the American Kennel Club, the Canadian Kennel Club, and similar national registries, is overwhelmingly composed of the descendants of show dogs, today largely harking back to the "Innisfree" bloodline of Kathleen and Col. Norbert Kanzler. Before Innisfree, the ruling show bloodline was Lorna Demidoff’s "Monadnock" and its offshoots.

Just how monolithic and homogeneous the overall Siberian Husky breed population is today, at least as far as its great majority of show dogs and pet stock goes, is not generally realised. Even as early as 1966, out of 103 dogs entered at the Siberian Husky Club of America’s National Specialty, 100 were the descendants of one highly successful show dog: CH. MONADNOCK’S PANDO, then still alive. Popular, heavily-promoted show bloodlines tend to gain rapid ascendancy within the overall breed population. The people who do the bulk of the breeding ride on the coattails of show ring winners; red ink in the pedigree impresses those who buy pet stock and the breeders know that. Today, if you see a Siberian on the street, it’s usually a safe enough bet to assume that he’s a descendant of CH. MONADNOCK’S PANDO.

 

Who Was Lorna Demidoff and where did PANDO come from?

MRS. DEMIDOFF was around on the Siberian scene in the 1930s; she was Lorna Taylor then, the wife of newspaper magnate Moseley Taylor. The fifth- and sixth-generation ancestors of PANDO were also around at that same time, but few of them belonged to Lorna Taylor. In fact, the Monadnock bloodline stems almost entirely from a single foundation bitch, TOSCA OF ALYESKA, one of the Eva B. Seeley foundation litter (DUKE x TANTA OF ALYESKA) that was purchased for Lorna by her husband circa 1933.

In 1938 Lorna bred TOSCA OF ALYESKA to BELFORD’S WOLF to produce CH. PANDA, her first show champion and lead dog, and again in 1940 to Fred Lovejoy’s VANKA OF SEPPALA (not to Millie Turner’s CH. VANKA OF SEPPALA 2nd as erroneously stated in Michael Jennings’ The New Complete Siberian Husky) to produce CH. KIRA OF MONADNOCK. She then bred CH. PANDA to a male owned and bred by Millie Turner, VALUIKI OF COLD RIVER, which mating produced CH. VANYA OF MONADNOCK 3rd. That male, bred to CH. KIRA OF MONADNOCK, produced the bitches TANYA OF MONADNOCK and NADEJDA. NADEJDA, inbred back to her own sire, produced PANDA GIRL. PANDA GIRL and TANYA OF MONADNOCK were both mated with William Belletete’s IZOK OF GAP MOUNTAIN. The progeny of those matings, plus Mrs. Seeley’s CH. ALYESKA’S SUGGEN OF CHINOOK, became the grandparents of Mrs. Demidoff’s dominant show dog CH. MONADNOCK’S PANDO. His pedigree (here is a link to PANDO's pedigree) will help clarify the relationships and the manner in which Mrs. Demidoff forged show ring domination from a single bitch.

Many Siberian fanciers are aware of these facts to a greater or lesser extent. But is that really all we need to know about the history of the Siberian dog during its first decade of AKC registration? It is all that most people know, but it does not present an adequate picture of the breed population in the 1930s, not at all. Neither Mrs. Demidoff nor Mrs. Seeley were the dominant breeders of the 1930s, though breed clubs like to give the impression that they were.

There is an appalling unawareness of the real breed history of the 1930s decade today. Little information can be had from those who ought to be best able to supply it, such as The Siberian Husky Club of America and Siberian Husky Club of Canada. The breed clubs seem to care little about the history of their breed; they do nothing to encourage research and awareness among breeders. Other than vague, generalised, brief historical sketches, little information is provided on Internet websites dealing with the Siberian Husky breed, at least those of breed clubs and show dog fanciers! (The greatest single accumulation of detailed, factual Siberian Husky history is found, oddly enough, on the Seppala Siberian Sleddog Project website.) But there is another handy source that we can tap, one that tells all by itself a very clear tale of early breed history.

To be continued . . . Posted by ditkoofseppala at January 6, 2006 11:52 PM