Preserving genetics is one aspect of a preservation breeding program, but there is another primary aspect to preserve in the Norwegian Elkhound as well. This is the Instinct preservation. Kamia Kennels is a preservation breeder that specializes in both genetic and instinctive preservation.

Preserving instincts is crucial to the old lineage ways and behaviors. Instincts are vital to how the dog was raised, believed to operate and how for centuries these behaviors were carefully monitored. Instincts are how the dog behaves in the environment it was suited for.

Instincts take hundreds of years, perhaps longer to put in. No one actually in the last 100 years or perhaps even longer say, 130 has put a new instinct in. We simply are keeping what is actually in the dog already at the start of the associations. So we know as diligent breeders that placing instincts into a breed takes generations of breeders committed to the same, so, literally putting a new one in going forward from here is impossible.

Thus the reason we know for a fact we need to keep the instincts we already have and cherish, so that we don’t lose them, as they will not be put back easily.

Now having said how long it takes to put into a breed, an instinct can be lost in as few as 10 generations, potentially faster, but we know 10 for sure. What that means is, if you breed lineages that have very weak, or in many cases now, No Instinctive skill, without infusion of a full instinct rich line, the instincts will be non existent.

So 10 generations of weak or no instincts and you have great looking dogs, look and appear to be exactly what they should be, but, no instinctive skill.

You have all heard the phrase: “That dog can’t Hunt”. That is exactly what happens to a lineage when the breeders are not preserving the instincts.

Here is what is fascinating though, especially with ancient lineage full instinct rich lines. Kamia Kennels has these lines. You can take a very weak, or almost no instinctive skill line, mate it to a full instinct rich line that “Transfers Instincts” and you have all instincts back. Yes, Instincts transfer at the DNA/Genetic level. How cool is that? Go figure right. Where are they stored? We actually don’t know. All we know is they transfer in all ancient lineages that have proven “Transfer Instinctive Ability”.

Remember, a zero instinctive skill or no instinctive skill can’t transfer anything. It would literally never come back into that line. Hundred years from now, no matter how hard they try, they could not get Instincts back into that line without a “Full Instinct Rich Instinct Transferring” Elkhound.

You can see how important it is to monitor not just genetic diversity, but instinctive skill and transferability. Preservation of Instincts is crucial.

European breeders understand the absolute must have capability to have instincts, demonstrate them, and then transfer as they “only use demonstrable instinct rich genetics”. They do not breed dogs that can’t hunt basically. Now that is not the only instinct, I use that phrase as a broad phrase.

In our world it encompasses much more, primary to our lines is the “Instinctive ability to work with the handler”, or as we call it Handler Focus. Handler focus is more rare than hunt. Hunt can be brought back in easily, handler focus, not so. Kamia Kennels is one of the few preservation breeders that have the handler focus lineages. We are very few in the world that work to preserve this.

European breeders are much more focused on the hunt aspect as they run slightly different lines, usages, environments and so on. So it’s crucial for us to work the dogs we use in real world so we can see the instincts in action.

Yesterday I had Teeko up in the high country, he is a full Instinct Rich Stud Norwegian Elkhound and exhibits all the traits so well. In fact I video him doing exactly what he was bred to do, instinctively perform his legendary circular scouting and returning. Fascinating behavior that is truly instinctive from birth. Teeko is full Instinctive Handler Focus!

I have the video for you below. We have pups from him coming, and for information, the litter coming is full Instinct Rich as Karia is also full instinct, and she is a Karu daughter, direct he was from Finland. So I’ll cover his instinctive contributions in another article. Karu is full hunt instincts, yet matches our handler focus instincts, so an absolute perfect match, and extremely diverse genetic as well. More on that soon.

For now, enjoy to see Teeko working the high country, flawless big fella.