Introduction to the new breed on our farm

The Eurasier

After many years of breeding Icelandic Sheepdogs, it was decided we would look at adding another breed for future breeding. After much research, we decided on the Eurasier. The history of the breed follows.

In 1960 Julius Wipfel, who lived in Weinham an der Bergstrasse, Germany, decided he would like to create a new breed of dog that would show the adaptability and the social behaviour of the dog's ancestor, the gray wolf. 

He was impressed with the characteristics of the Wolfspitz, one of the oldest breeds in Central Europe, so this is where he started. The Wolfspitz is a hardy dog, healthy, longlived, intelligent and a good family dog.

So which breed would he choose to breed with the Wolfspitz? Julies Wipfel was impressed with the work of Behavioural Scientiest Konrad Lorenz, particularly his achievements at crossing the Chow Chow with German Shepherds. The Chow was considered loyal and a reliable guardian of its home, so Wipfel bred his Wolfspitz female Bella and three of her daughters with three Chow Chow males. and so the Wolf-Chow was born. These breedings resulted in a medium sized, calm and even tempered dog, with attractive colours and calm under domesticity.

Charlotte Baldamus worked closely with Julius Wipfel in developing the qualities Wipfel was looking for, however, it became obvious that problems were arising due to inbreeding, so he decided to introduce a new bloodline and believed that the friendly nature and behaviour of the Samoyed would be the best choice. He then bought a male Samoyed, Cito von Pol, and raised him specifically for breeding.

Following breeding, Behavioural Scientists Konrad Lorenz and Eberhard Trumier, as well as Eric Zimen (author of the book Der Hund), all of whom had been following the progress of the new breed closely, acknowledged that the hoped for behavioural and appearance changes had been achieved with the addition of the Samoyed.

Julius Wipfel chose the name Eurasier to emphasize the fact that his dog breed originated from European and Asian breeds.

Our Eurasiers

Having decided the Eurasier would be a really interesting breed to become involved with, the search was on for a male puppy. It was quite a different experience to be looking for a puppy instead of receiving enquiries from people looking for Icelandic Sheepdog puppies!

We were very fortunate to come across Karla Erickson, who was co-owner of Bandit in San Diego, who was due to have a litter, which duly arrived on December 17, 2007. We were advised that there would be a little boy for us, and it was with great excitement and anticipation that Norm headed for YVR to pick up Sundog Hayden (call name Hadley).

Hadley settled in very well and was always surrounded by a number of dogs and various other animals! One advantage for a dog of living on a farm is that there is always a great deal of room for running. We don't have to schedule walks several times a day, which is a help to us also, as the dogs take it in turns to be free to run.

Pictures of Hadley are attached and we hope we will be able to plan a breeding for him in the future.

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Our second search was for a female Eurasier and again we were very fortunate to come across Emily and Ian Robertson of Braegate Eurasiers, who actually had a litter and Enya had already been assigned to a couple with, I believe, not a great deal of exercise space, so it was decided that as Enya was a very energetic puppy, more space might be good!

This turned out to be the case as she runs like the wind, and has plenty of unrestricted space to do so. She also jumps extremely well and her favourite jump is from the end of the hay trailer to the top of large round bales when they're standing on their flat end! Enya also settled in very well and both dogs are very family oriented. They also love to play together, although Enya is sometimes the more enthusiastic about the games and occasionally Hadley tries to let her know that he's had enough!

We will be getting all Enya's health checks done this month, February. Cerf results are 'Normal'. Assuming everything is fine, we will be looking forward to a first litter from Enya some time this year.

Please check our Website to find out when this will happen!