Kersins Huld

Huld was a beautiful puppy; it's no wonder that I fell for her. She started it all for me. Huld was the first Icelandic Sheepdog in Michigan and was the first Icelandic Sheepdog to earn an AKC title - her American Kennel Club Companion Dog title (CD). She is still the alpha dog in this house. Over the years she has earned the following awards and titles: BFF, CGC, TDI, CD, RN, RA, RE. Kata followed her closely into Michigan and into my home and heart.

Click on the photos once or twice to enlarge them.

Kata and Huld

Kata

















Huld

Kersins Huld - Queen Alpha

HULD, THE ALPHA BITCH

Don't let the sweet smile fool you.

My dogs are what make my life complete. They can be challenging but are worth the complications.

Having a suburban home with a limited amount of space and a complementary dog pack is not ideal. Adding a new dog, Bear, to the already existing and established pecking order is complicated. Having a pregnant female deliver her litter at the same time a new dog comes from Norway/Sweden is unavoidable and not a smart thing to do. Kata has always been ready and willing to take over as Alpha Queen Bitch from Huld. Huld has always successfully and easily retained her crown. Pila, returning late to the family, has always been treated with suspicion by all of the dogs but especially Totty.

Things are calm and pleasant 99% of the time. Honest. No exaggeration.

Sooo - when someone comes for a visit now it's exciting. It's chaos at the door. Icelandics love company, whether the company is someone they know or a total stranger, the greeting is raucous for the first two (+/-) minutes.

Yesterday when Eileen visited Yankee, the puppies, Pila, Totty, Huld and Kata were besides themselves to get her attention. Poor Eileen!

I have heard that some breeders do not allow visitors. I like to welcome people into our home but I am concerned that the tumultuous greetings could be off-putting.

I am also concerned that outsiders could bring in disease bugs on their hands or clothes. Puppies have very few antibodies against germs and are extremely vulnerable once they stop nursing and before they have had their shots. (Mom's antibodies to germs pass in her milk to the pups.) Most vets give pups their first inoculation at about the time they stop nursing - six - eight weeks.

When you have puppies, the older dogs get largely ignored. This entry is devoted to Huld and Kata who richly deserve their titles as head bitches!

(The plant is Italian Jack in the Pulpit and is much larger than our American variety.)

Afterthought: Huld's Mom is Edda, Kata's mom is Brella. Edda and Brella lived together in Iceland and were also at each other's throats. History has repeated itself.

On the advice of a friend, I started analyzing why and when my dogs bark.

Here's some preliminary ideas: - They all bark for different reasons.

Huld, my oldest, barks to let me know that she understands something. She also barks to discipline the others. Really.

Kata barks for a reason - a squirrel or something in her territory. Most of the time she doesn't bark.

Korpur barks when he's excited or proud of himself. He also does not bark often. He's too regal, he thinks.

Kria is a pointless barker, like her daughter Totty.

Totty goes out the door barking and continues all around the yard. She barks at nothing and everything. I call her and her mother pointless barkers because there is no reason that I can ever see for the barking. With her collar on, she almost never barks now. - but she does give me some pure evil looks! Both of them also seem to get very excited and assertive towards the others when they get on a barking jag. I do not leave Totty's collar on all the time.

Pila rarely barks - never in the house. She does bark when she's at school if other dogs, usually big ones, like Rotties, Black Russians, GSDs and Dobes, start. She is also Kria's daughter and I'm glad that she, at least, did not inherit that gene.

A very good friend suggested that I try electronic bark training collars. I was reluctant at first but the collar she recommended can deliver a vibration as a warning and then either a short electric shock or a long electric shock. The strength of the vibration or shock can be regulated. There is a digital read-out screen on mine so I know the strength of the vibration/shock.

There is a remote control hand held device that controls 1. the vibration or shock and 2. the quick shock or longer shock plus 3. the strength of the reaction on the collar.

I have found the vibration - which is harmless, of course - to be more effective than a shock. Surprisingly. It must be more irritating - maybe because they have tender tracheas??

Totty almost never barks when her collar is on. She knows when it's on. It only took her two or three times to figure that out. If she does bark, the vibration stops it and she comes running back to me.

The batteries of my collars and hand device are rechargeable.

They are expensive. The company produces many models at various prices and you can choose one that meets your needs. I love mine mostly because there are so many options when using it.

My collars are "dogtra 280NCP Platinum Series". I thnik you can Google it. I talked with w very nice knowledgeable lady by phone before buying one and got what I needed. Again, expensive but I do not want my very tolerant neighbors to ever have to complain.

Many people refuse to talk about this behavior problem in Icelandics. The barking has been bred in for centuries because barking is a herding thing. Some dogs bark very little (Level One). Some dogs bark about as much as any average dog (Level Two). However some dogs bark lots (Level Three) and may even nip - that's also a herding thing. (The collars can discourage that as well.) I suppose it's possible to breed the barking gene 'down' a bit. I believe that two Level Three barkers should never be bred together. (I just made up those levels but I think that might work and explain some things.)

I would call Huld, Kata, Korpur Level Two barkers. Pila is a Level One. Although Kria and Totty only bark outside, I would still call them Level Three barkers.

I have only been using the collars for a few weeks.

On another related note, I trained Huld and Kata and Korpur to bark less by starting early and being consistent long before I had even heard of collars. It took months to reduce their barking but I was persistent and it worked. My point here is that training should work except with the small percentage of pointless barkers. This is not a 'yappy' breed.

All bets are off when company comes to the door. There's three minutes of chaos followed by tranquility.

Every breed of dog has good and not-so-good things about their health and temperament. Icelandics are no exception. This issue is not a biggie, in my opinion. The unconditional love and their amazingly friendly temperaments far outweigh any negative issues.

I have a sign that says, "If you don't like dogs, why are you here?"

I am grateful that my friend recommended the collars. They saved my dogs and my sanity. She also uses them when she takes her dogs for walks.

The following is from the VID (Freunds- Friends) club

In order to protect the uniqueness of the Icelandic Sheepdog, the ISIC proposes to capture all information in a databank to assure cooperation between all countries involved in breeding of Icelandic Sheepdogs. The VID has posed the question, if we cooperate would we have access to the data base but this has not been answered. Therefore the exchange of data has not taken place, although we are not against such an exchange. We already have created the prerequisites because we have our own databank. Pedigree documents of our club are not recognized by the FCI or the VDH. The ISIC believes that the offspring resulting from further breeding will be lost. FCI breeders are informed in the ISIC letter that dogs sold to members of the VID club would decrease the genetic diversity of the Icelandic Sheepdog.

FCI clubs have a registry in which dogs with unsecured pedigrees can be registered if they meet a breeding standard and health requirements in order to further the bloodlines. Therefore almost every Icelandic Sheepdog can be accepted by the VDH, including the dogs from our club. Under certain conditions, breeding within the VDH is also possible. However, the proscribed procedure and excessive financial cost are in stark contrast to our expressed desire to transfer them into the VDH. We do not want to stand in the way of or prevent anything that would promote the welfare of the breed and in particular genetic diversity. The pedigree of our dogs is just as verifiable as dogs with FCI papers because our dogs and their dogs can be traced back to the same progenitors. For the genetic diversity of the Icelandic Sheepdog it is irrelevant what logo is stamped on their papers.

We do not declare existing pedigrees to be invalid and require that our pedigrees be used instead. One can breed in our club with any Icelandic Sheepdog that corresponds to the breed standard and meets health requirements. Eye exams of our dogs are carried out by certified Vets according to the standards of the VDH and FCI. HD evaluations are also carried out by professionals recognized by the VDH. Every Icelandic Sheepdog owner is welcome in our club regardless of the source (club) of the dog’s pedigree. We even welcome dual membership in VID and DCNH – but the DCNH does not tolerate that. Now of course the reader may ask why our club does not join the VDH. We have thought about this intensively in the past and this topic has been on the agenda of our annual convention and discussed:

1. We want to maintain our independence. As individual members of the VID we could join the VDH or the DCNH, but to join as a club there would be a significant financial burden and we would have to meet breeding technical requirements.

2. All costs dealing with breeding would be drastically increased.

3. All of our breeding dogs would have to go through a new test to determine their fitness for breeding including necessary health tests that were previously not recognized.

4. All of our breeding dogs as well as dogs to be shown, will need new documentation. They will get a registered pedigree in which only the name of the dog will be entered without the kennel name. All ancestors will be unrecognized because they are not registered in the VDH. Our dogs in other words, would be without pedigree and this is unacceptable.

5. Even if new documentation were issued, our dogs would remain the same just as their pedigree – the only difference would be the logo on the pedigree document.

We in the VID (Friends club) breed efficiently and at low cost, just as good a dog as breeders in the VDH and FCI. We hope that it becomes possible in the future to have cooperation and the exchange of data and breeding partners with the VDH for the purpose of protecting and sustaining the Icelandic Sheepdog to its greatest genetic potential.

(translation courtesy of JM)

Kersins Huld

Huld, full official name Kersins Huld, came from Kersins Kennel in Iceland and was my first Icelandic Sheepdog. Helga Gústavsdóttir (helga@midengi.is) is her breeder.

She is THE alpha dog in a house full of alpha dogs.This morning she alerted us to the presence of a Great Blue Heron in our goldfish pond. She's busy all the time guarding our home from hawks, herons, turkey vulture and jumbo jets at 30,000 feet.

It's hard work but, in addition, she also has to keep the other Icelandics in line and is the official greeter to house guests.

She is unofficially semi-retired but very active. She has earned her CD, Companion Dog, title from the AKC as well as her RN, Rally Novice, title. She loves going to classes at our AKC affiliated obedience club, the Sportsmens Dog Training Club of Detroit ( http://www.sportsmens.net/ ).