Friday, October 30, 2009

North Skye Markus





Markus recently won best American bred dog at the first national show for Icelandic Sheepdogs.

Congratulations to Jay and Siby Hill, his breeders, and Alison Matthews, his owner.

He is a wonderful example of the breed, a tricolor, black tan and white, long furred male. (atat ss)

Look at the wonderful mane around his neck.

His PennHIP scores are a respectable 0.47/0.47; his eyes are normal.

He is available for stud to approved females.

Contact me at jaimehansen1@comcast.net and I'll connect you with Alison.

(Click on photos to enlarge them.)

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Sportsmen's Show 2



Here are some photos of Korpur, Kria and me from last weekend's show.

(Photos are courtesy of Cathi Winkles - View all photos at: www.cwinkles.com
You may need to copy and paste the website.)

We did very well - the dogs better than I did.

Sportsmen's Show



Here are some photos of Korpur, Kria and me from last weekends show.

We did very well - the dogs better than I did.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Vinlands Loa



I heard from Annette and Fred Prieve this weekend. They live in Minnesota with Loa who has been taking herding lessons.

Fred and Annette have taught me lots about herding, one of the activities Icelandics were bred for.

Click on photo to enlarge it.

The Prieves are not connected to the internet; they have no email, hence the puppy photo for Loa for this blog entry.

For herding: first dogs are tested at a young age to see if they have an aptitude for herding. Another way to say that is - dogs are tested to see how they respond to sheep. If the key indicators are not there, the dog has lost their herding instincts.

Loa was tested many months ago and showed strong herding instincts and has therefore undergone many, many hours of training taking classes twice a week.

This past weekend The American Herding Breed Association, AHBA, held trials. If you're familiar with the AKC, CKC or UKC then you know about trials.

To get a Junior Herding Dog, JHD, title in the AHBA a dog must earn two legs. Loa's task for her first leg was to complete two herding tasks successfully - - - and she did. She now has one leg towards her JHD.

Aussies, Border Collies, GSDs and Shelties were working on their JHDs at the trials also. Loa had better times, much better times, than any other dogs competing in the JHD events.

She will get a rest now because bad weather is fast approaching in Minnesota so the herding trials are suspended until next spring.

Annette will go back to obedience classes with Loa for the winter and next spring it will be back to herding.

I was incredibly lucky to have found Loa a great home with Fred and Annette. They are sending me the paper with Loa's evaluation. I'll copy it and post it on this blog - I hope.

Icelandics need something to do with their incredible minds!

Monday, October 12, 2009




Cathy and an Icelandic Sheep Ram at Hestur, Iceland. Cathy has been to Hestur several times to learn about Artificial Insemination in sheep. Aren't they amazing animals!

Cathy is an Iceland lover having Icelandic Sheep, Icelandic Horses, Icelandic Sheepdogs and Icelandic Chickens. Many are in the US; some remain in Iceland.

Visit the ISIB website (See website link at right) for a link to Cathy's Icelandic Sheepdog kennel. Her Bestla is expecting puppies soon.

Brekkubrúns Olli


(Click on photo to enlarge it.)

Brekkubrúns Olli looks amazing. Notice his ruff or mane, his wonderful tail, the tan 'stripes' on his shoulder and the gray fur on his hindquarters. Wait!! He's still just a puppy. When he's an adult he will be fantastic.