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SEPPALA EDUCATION AND INFO:
J. Jeffrey Bragg
SEPPALA KENNELS is now the last refuge of the original pure Leonhard Seppala strain of working Siberian sleddogs.
The kennel was established in the heart of the Yukon Territory in Grizzly Valley twenty miles north of Whitehorse in 1993. The breeding programme began three years earlier, though, in the Pyrenees foothills region of Catalunya in northern Spain. J. Jeffrey Bragg, the owner of Seppala Kennels and originator of the Seppala Siberian Sleddog Project, 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.
Ours 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).
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.
Since 1990 the breeding programme has been directed towards maintaining and furthering sleddog versatility and genetic diversity in the Leonhard Seppala Siberian sleddog. Seppala Kennels 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 were added the progeny of our excellent Siberia import male Shakal iz Solovyev, whose immediate ancestors were Chukotkan dogs, and (more recently) dogs imported from the Cal Segu bloodline of our friend and collaborator 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 contain no Sepp-Lok or other Racing Siberian Husky "part-Seppala" lines from the illegitimate ConKC/ISSSC registry. We do not calculate "Seppala percentages" -- later described by the percentage system's originator, Doug Willett, as "a gimmick." We need no gimmicks to confuse the issue. Seppala Kennels dogs are the ORIGINAL, AUTHENTIC pure-strain Seppala Siberian Sleddogs, the last remaining representatives of the Leonhard Seppala strain carried forward by Alex and Charles Belford, Harry R. Wheeler, William L. Shearer III, J. D. McFaul, J. Malcolm McDougall and Keith Bryar. That is no gimmick, just a statement of simple fact.
Twenty years of effort to bring a secure future to the Leonhard Seppala strain by obtaining status for it as a distinct dog breed in its own right, and to publicise it on the Internet under the name of the Seppala Siberian Sleddog Project, have now come to an end. Others may or may not choose to carry that effort forward. To date it has not been possible to gather, educate and hold together an adequate cadre of committed, ethical SSSD breeders. Seppala Kennels, then, will now become a private sleddog kennel like any other, keeping sleddogs for our own personal joy in the dogs themselves with no other end in view.
My wife Susan E. Bragg is a full partner in Seppala Kennels. Susan is an experienced dog person and "kennel marm" whose abilities and judgment are valued assets to the kennel and to our breeding programme. Susan and I also preserve and work with Chinook Sled Dogs. To see the Chinooks of our ATHOLL KENNELS, please click on the card below:
