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Here are a few of the breeds I saw over there & I dont remember the names of all of them. I was however impressed with the good tight feet, they all had.











In the first pic. is Roine & I want to say the is a Koreillan moosedog but I could be wrong. Maybe Hans can help me out. They have several different breeds of moosedogs all bred off os a Spitz type dog & I will confess, they all looked alike to me, but they could tell the difference.
The 2nd pic. is Christer Hindland with his Laika Igor.
The 3rd pic. is of Mikel Thams laikas & plotts.
The 4th pic. I dont rember his name or the breed of moosedog he has but they are carbon copies of our Catahoulas & BMC's in phsical characteristics.
The 5th pic. is Eva with her Finnish hounds which she uses to hare hunt with. These dogs are carbon copies of our running walkers
The last pic. is my 2 plotts with my beautiful Swedish guides.

Great pictures and stories, that had to be a hell of a good time over there. Thanks for sharing.

Cajun, Those are great pictures. I am fairly nieve but do they run moose with dogs? Did you get a chance to do that? Those dogs look like they can really handle the cold!!

Thanks for sharing.

Tim

Super pic's Mike
If I may help you out a litle bit:
pic 1, is a Great Swedish Elkhound, I've got a female of the same breed.
pic 2, I will have to believe you that this is a Laika, and in this case a Russian European Laika. If you asked me I would have guessed it was a Karelian bear dog. They both are black and white, differences are The Karelian bear dog has somewhat shorter hair and is a bit huskyer(heavyer) built.
pic 3, are as you say classic Laikas, in this case Vest Siberian Laikas I would guess, with gamecoloures and white.
pic 4, is somewhat difficult, because I belive this is a cross between Smaalands stovare(stovare=hound) and something bigger. In my opinion this would not be a good dog for moose, because this hound(nature of the name) will open on track and that is not a good thing moosehunting. The Smaalands stovare is an old and good harehound, a native breed to Sweden.
pic 5, great looking Finnish stovare to Mike. Is'nt to hard to tell that this breed is heavily influenced with old english Foxhound and probably some Harrier.
You've got som good looking Plotts to. What do you use them on and did you have a chance to put 'em on some longclawed ones while you were in Sweden?

How did you get in contact with Mikel Tham? Are you running the same line of Plotts? -I know I've read about him in some hunting magasine or heard his name mentioned somewhere, but I can't remember where.

Hans

Teun,
Yes they run moose with dogs & we did get to hunt moose. We only got one calf. & it was huge to me. They run everything with dogs over there & as a whole, are way more dog oriented then we are. They hunt Moose like we hunt deer over here. The Swedes are real dog lovers & really take great care of their animals. My two plotts ran a big bull over 20 miles before we got them caught off & the moose were a problem when we were bearhunting. Sweden does not allow shock collars.



Hans,
I am primarily a hoghunter, bear hunt when I get the chance but dont get to go as much as I used to. We killed one brown bear, that my Ruger dog had bayed over a hour before we got him some help & finally killed the bear.
We got on another brown bear & the dogs bayed him up a couple of times but the bear lost the dogs in some cliffs. I firmly believe he climbed up & went into a hole or cave because we led the dogs around the whole area & could not find where he left.
The last bear we were on my two dogs trailed him out of a Oat field & bayed him a half a mile away. Got within about 300 yards but could not go on the property. Took 20 minutes to get permission & I started in but the bear broke. Took a couple of hours to get ahead & the guy I was with got a shot but missed. It was along shot, about 200 yards with about a 20 foot clear shooting lane. My 2 dogs were about 100 yards behind the bear. Took another hour or so to catch up to them again & when I could hear them, I could only hear Ruger bayed & then I heard my Kemmosabbe dog running about a mile away. My partner talked me into going around another way because he said there was a big swamp in there. Well, it took about 45 minutes going around & the bear broke again. When we finally caught up to them we could hear Ruger baying, way up on the mountain. We walked for another 45 minutes trying to get closer & Ruger shut up. He had enough. No excuses, he simply quit & was backtrailing his way out according to the gps tracker. We walked in & saw the bear tracks & dog tracks in the ditch but he had been on this bear along time & the last 2 bayups & 2 &1/2 hours by himself. Was I mad at him. U bet but I was alot madder at the Kemmesabbe dog because he had left a hot bear for a moose. If he would of stayed we would have got that bear. Woulda, coulda, shoulda. One thing, brown bears are much more vocal, than blacks & they even hit the ground with there paws, throwing gravel at the dogs & in general much more intimidating than black bears.
Mikel Tham & Christer Hindland had come by my house a couple of years ago looking for dogs & I was honored they spent the night with me. We talked dogs, hunting, u name it & right before their bearseason they invited me up.

Game laws are little bit different here in skandinavia. In Finland we are not allowed to use hounds on moose hunting, but spits are ok. Spits work like sheppard dogs. They try to keep mooses on one place by barking next to moose. Then hunter can try to sneek near to action and shoot moose. I think that black and white dog is Laika, because it sure aint karelian spits. Finnish hound original name for googling is Suomenajokoira (Finnish hound). Those are sure nice looking dogs thou.

Here is link to Finnish video site where you can watch hunting clip on moose hunting and hare hunting with hounds. www.videoita.fi

Sounds like you had one helluva hunting trip Mike. Allways fun when you get in contact with the game you are looking for.
Nothing that sets emotions in movement like ones hounds. When they are doing good, they are the worlds best and there is nothing that could make you part with them, and next time out they are running trash and misbehaving and you start wondering where that .22 is for the time beeing.....

I agree Kirpa. After looking at the picture again you are totaly right. All the signs for a Laika.

Hans

Kirpa & Hans,
That was sure some pretty country I was in & the people were so friendly & just great to be around. They made me feel more than welcome & their english was much better than my Swedish. I had a great time.

Cajun,

I am really liking this post. What are these dogs like? How do they hunt? Are they open on track? Silent? I am really curious as to your opinions of these dogs ability especially compared to your Plotts!! I have Plotts as well, so I am very interested. Are these dogs gritty? Any information would be great!! Thanks for sharing your great experiences with us!!

Tim

Teun,
It is hard for me to judge a whole breed by hunting with a few, but I will describe the dogs I hunted with.
The Laikas are close hunting dogs who hunt with their master. They are close hunting dogs who mostly wind their game & if they dont stop it, they will be back in about half a hour. The big black & white Laika is extremely gritty, but he is is a different breed of Laika than Mikel's Laikas. I would say all in all, some are gritty & some are not. Everybodies defination of grit is different. These dogs do not trail that well & I would be surprised if they could trail anything over a hour. They are successful however by making drives in blocks of woods with standers & they shoot anything that comes out.
Their breeds of moosedogs are bred off of a Spitz type dog & the ones I saw went hunting when turned loose. They also depend mostly by winding or trailing up a very hot track. Like said above the moosedogs have been bred to stand back & bark at a moose without forcing it to break. Once bayed, these Moosedogs will stay a very long time.
Thats one reason why my plotts ran this bull moose so far, they put to much pressure on him so he kept breaking & if I could of caught them, I would have strangled them myself.lol I also think their gritter Laikas would make the moose break also.
I myself think any hound could find moose way easier than the other dogs simply by turning them into a block & letting them trail it up. My plotts ran them while we were bearhunting & to me that is trash, while bearhunting. Like I said earlier, I think it cost us a bear when my one dog jumped a moose while running a bear. I dont know about ya'll but it is extremely difficult to break a dog off moose in La.
This pretty well describes the dogs that I personally hunted with & I know u cannot judge a whole breed by hunting with a few, but this is also what I have been told by some of the other hunters from there.
I have hunted Canada quite a bit, & I never saw as many moose in Onterio as I saw in Sweden

Jep. Spits are bay dogs. Usually they are silent on track because they are breed to do so. Laika and Karelian spits are gritty dogs (Should be), they should not back when baying moose. But have some space when moose attacks and get close when moose calms down. Trailing skills are not as good as hounds but a good moose dogs will trail several miles(hours) on a hot track.

Here is the striaght link to moose hunting clips
http://www.videoita.fi/videot.php?cat=Hirvivideot

Here is some clips on spits and hounds to working on a racoon dog.
http://www.videoita.fi/videot.php?cat=Supikoiravideot