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It was established in the heart of the Yukon Territory twenty miles north of Whitehorse in 1993. Its breeding programme began three years earlier, though, in the Pyrenees foothills region of Catalunya in northern Spain. The owner of Seppala Kennels and originator of the Seppala Siberian Sleddog Project, J. Jeffrey Bragg,has dedicated most of his life to the preservation, protection and development of Leonhard Seppala's Siberian sleddogs. For fifteen years (summer 1993 to summer 2008), the Gold Rush country between fabled Lake Laberge and the Miners' Range was home to Seppala Kennels. Now the kennels have been relocated to the beautiful Parkland region of central Manitoba, just beside the southwest boundary of Riding Mountain National Park.
Jeffrey's dedication to Seppalas began in 1969 when he acquired Ditko of Seppala. Dit and his successor Shango of Seppala inspired the Markovo rescue effort in the early 1970s. A solid core group of young Seppalas was successfully bred to carry on the McFaul/Shearer strain. Finally economic hardships and fears for the vulnerability of having the entire gene pool in one prairie farmyard led to the dispersal of the Markovo stock broadly across North America in 1975.
After many years of wandering, Jeffrey and his then partner Betsy Bush settled down again in 1990 and acquired Karcajou's Dreama of Windigo, who initiated a new phase of our Seppala career. We returned to Canada (bringing with us our new Siberia import Shakal iz Solovyev), only to find The Canadian Kennel Club unwilling to accept the need of fresh gene inflow in the narrowly- founded Siberian Husky breed. Knowing that Seppalas could not thrive in an inbred ghetto within the Siberian Husky show-dog breed, in the mid-1990s Jeffrey fought for breed recognition for Seppalas -- and won it in 1997, when Agriculture Canada granted "evolving breed" status to the Seppala Siberian Sleddog.
This is now is the fourth historic Seppala Kennels. It was preceded by the MacLean-McFaul Seppala Kennels in Maniwaki, Quebec (1950 - 1963), the Harry R. Wheeler Seppala Kennels in St. Jovite Station, Quebec (1930 - 1950), and the Seppala Kennels partnership of Leonhard Seppala and Elizabeth Ricker in Poland Spring, Maine (1926 - 1931).
Since 1990 the breeding programme has been directed towards maintaining and furthering sleddog versatility and genetic diversity in the Leonhard Seppala Siberian sleddog. We breed slowly and carefully, basing our decisions on sustained work-proving of all broodstock. Our bloodlines are based on pure McFaul/Shearer lineage stock, mostly from Carolyn Ritter (River View) and early Doug Willett (Sepp-Alta) breedings, with an assist from Whitmore (Spirit Wind) and Serbousek (Windigo) kennels. To these pure Markovo-Seppala bloodlines are added the progeny of our excellent Siberia import male Shakal iz Solovyev, whose immediate ancestors were Chukotkan dogs. Recently we also added dogs imported from the Cal Segu bloodline of Ramón Rojas in the Spanish Pyrenees; Ramón's breeding, quite similar to ours, was a blend of Markovo-Seppala and Solovyev lineage.
Seppala Kennels' bloodlines do not contain ANY of the Sepp-Lok and other RSH "part-Seppala" lines out of the ConKC registry of the pirate ISSSC. There are no "percentages" (later described by the percentage system's originator, Doug Willett, as "a gimmick") involved here. We need no gimmicks to confuse the issue. Our dogs are the ORIGINAL, AUTHENTIC pure-strain Seppala Siberian Sleddogs, straight from Markovo and Seppineau bloodlines and from Siberia imports.
Our broodstock undergoes a thorough work-proving routine before it is ever considered for breeding, with emphasis on strength, controllability, intelligence, endurance and leader qualities as well as speed. These are something more than just sprint-racing dogs. They are our homage to the Original Siberian Dog that came to Alaska to carry freight and passengers for a living, as well as racing in the toughest race of all time, the All-Alaska Sweepstakes.
I am pleased to announce that my wife Susan E. Bragg is now a full partner in Seppala Kennels. Susan is an experienced dog person and "kennel marm" whose abilities and judgment will be valued assets to the kennel and to our breeding programme.
16 March 2008 - Seppala Kennels honours our departed Russian import SHAKAL IZ SOLOVYEV, who went to the Rainbow Bridge to wait for us on the 25th February 2008. It marks the end of an era. We feel suddely old now our "Jackie" is gone. He was our Pole Star for the past sixteen years.
5 August 2006 - Howlin Yukon Janis' fans will enjoy her latest new web page ON WALLY'S TRAIL, in which Janis gets serious about her Quest to follow in the footsteps of Chinook breed founder Arthur Walden!
7 March 2006 - Check out our new page featuring "The Scotty Bloodline," an important slice of Seppala sleddog history, living today at Seppala Kennels
16 October 2005 - Seppala Kennels honours SEPALLOP, now gone to the Rainbow Bridge.
