2000s

About Etah

Was Etah the Samoyed leaddog of the Amundsen Expedition to the South Pole?
Of course not! Amundsen doesn't even mention a dog named Etah as one of his dogs during this expedition.
Besides, he bought all his dogs in Greenland so none of his dogs were Samoyeds at all.

Was Etah a male or a Female?
Who knows? !!!
A lot of people say that Etah is a female and that she was the leading bitch of the Amundsen expedition to the South Pole.
Other people say that Amundsen gave Etah to Mercy the Princess of Argenteau.
Yes, the Princess dedicates her memoires to a certain Etah...
Furthermore there is a picture in her book with the subscription that Etah was a male (!!!)
However, in her memoires the Princess wrote nothing about Etah.
Not a single word!

On the Internet one can find a lot of nonsens about Etah.
But no one ever makes notice of a plausible source of information!
People just read what someone before them wrote and just copy that information on their own websites.
And that's the way fiction is created!

People, breeders and anyone interested in the Samoyed breed who just copy information
without studying the history themselves, without knowing and mentioning sources,
show that they don't know as much about the breed as they want other people to believe!

Etah

Etah is an abandoned village in northern Greenland. At 78°19'N (72°38' W) it was once the most northerly populated settlement in the world but because of the harsh climate the people moved south.

Once Etah was the most northern permanently inhabited settlement. It is in the bottom of a very small fiord surrounded by mountains all covered with breeding auks. The hunting in the area was very good - especially walrus hunting. Canada is only about 30 miles away and the hunters from Etah often went on long hunting trips on the Canadian side hunting the polar bear.

For some years there was a small store and trading post in Etah. The very harsh climate with an extreme cold and almost constant northern wind caused the people to gradually move south closer to the more friendly Qaanaaq area. There are still huts in Etah and they are still used as shelter for hunting parties going out hunting for longer periods.

Roald Engebreth Gravning Amundsen of Norway took pride in being referred to as "the last of the Vikings." A powerfully built man of over six feet in height, Amundsen was born into a family of merchant sea captains and prosperous ship owners in 1872. As a youth he insisted on sleeping with the windows open even during the frigid Norwegian winters to help condition himself for a life of polar exploration. Amundsen developed a fascination with Antarctica from the time he first glimpsed its frozen terrain in 1897. Antarctica, a continent the size of Europe and Australia combined, had not yet been traversed by humans. Amundsen aimed to be the first.

In 1903 he established himself as a sailor and explorer of the first order when he successfully led a 70-foot fishing boat through the entire length of the Northwest Passage, a treacherous ice-bound route that wound between the northern Canadian mainland and Canada's Arctic islands. The arduous journey took three years to complete as Amundsen and his crew had to wait while the frozen sea around them thawed enough to allow for navigation. Soon after his return to Norway, he learned that Englishman Ernest Shackleton was setting out of an attempt to reach the South Pole. Shackleton would be forced to abandon his quest a mere 97 miles short of the Pole. Amundsen studied all he could of Shackleton's attempt and began the long process of preparing for his own. He was as highly regarded for his skills in organization and planning as he was for his expertise as an explorer. Amundsen, who was thought to be "taciturn under the best of circumstances," took special measures to be sure members of his crew possessed personalities suitable to long polar voyages. Crew members onboard his ships knew he was firm but fair, and affectionately referred to him as "the chief."

By August of 1910, Amundsen was ready to make his own attempt to reach the South Pole, although all the world thought he was headed in the complete opposite direction. He had secretly ruled out attempting to reach the North Pole, because Americans Robert Peary and Frederick Cook had already laid claim to that feat. Amundsen even kept his plans for a South Pole expedition a secret from officials within the Norwegian government. He feared that government officials would be hesitant to challenge Great Britain, upon whom they were highly dependent, in a race to the Pole. It was not until Amundsen's ship, "Fram", was well off the coast of Morocco that he announced to his crew that they were headed for the South, not the North, Pole.

Crucial to Amundsen's success in reaching the South Pole was his use of carefully selected sled dogs. Amundsen's canine crew members had been superbly equipped by centuries of natural selection for survival in the Arctic. He referred to them as "our children," and revealed, "The dogs are the most important thing for us. The whole outcome of the expedition depends on them." On October 18, 1911 Amundsen's entourage set out from the Bay of Whales, on Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf, for their final drive toward the pole. His British counterpart, Robert Scott, dependent on Siberian ponies rather than on dogs, began his trip three weeks later. Aided by exceptionally cooperative weather conditions, Amundsen's party, passed the point where Shackleton was forced to turn back on December 7. At approximately 3pm on December 14, 1911, Roald Amundsen raised the flag of Norway at the South Pole, and naming the spot Polheim -- "Pole Home." He and his crew returned to their base camp on January 25, 1912, 99 days and 1,860 miles after their departure.

There are many reasons why Amundsen was successful, among these are a single-minded purpose to reach the pole, knowledge of Inuit technology, careful planning, attention to detail and the use of skis. They discovered the Axel Heiberg Glacier which proved to be a quicker route up to the Polar Plateau than the Beardmore Glacier, which had been discovered by Shackleton three years previously and was then used by Scott. Without the good luck of finding this new shorter route, Amundsen's careful planning and attention to detail would have been fruitless. Though some have said the Heiberg Glacier is an "easier" route, it is merely shorter. It has been described by explorers as a tumult, a "catastrophe of ice." Pilots flying over the region prefer the long slope of the Beardmore to the Heiberg, for which they must use their maximum rate of climb to overcome. Another major factor contributing to Amundsen's success was undoubtedly the use of dogs for transport. Amundsen used Greenland Huskies to pull his sledges to the Pole and back. After reaching the Polar Plateau, over half of the dogs were killed and fed to the remaining dogs, reducing the weight of dog food required for the entire trip.

 

Information:

Schofthoogte:
De schoft ligt tussen de toppen van de schouderbladen en is het punt waar de nek overgaat in de rug.
De hoogtemaat van een ras wordt aangegeven als de schofthoogte.

Door veel keurmeester wordt de schofthoogte verkeerd opgemeten (vooropgesteld dat er gemeten wordt en niet 'geschat'). Bij meting met de meetstok, plaatsen zij deze op de toppen van de schouderbladen hetgeen niet juist is. De meetstok wordt pas juist geplaatst wanneer men hem iets van de toppen van de schouderbladen af laat glijden in de richting van de rug. Op die plaats gaat de nek over in de rug en alleen op die plaats kan men de juiste schofthoogte meten.

Door een foutieve meting vallen grote honden vaak net boven de standaard en kleine honden net binnen de standaard.

Heel belanrijk bij zogenaamde buitenkeuringen: zorg dat de meetstok op dezelfde (harde) ondergrond wordt geplaats als die waar de hond op staat! Bij keuringen in de sneeuw of op grasvelden leidt dit dikwijls tot een foutieve beoordeling.

Keuring:
De Samojeed is van oorsprong geen sledehond maar een veedrijver en moet als zodanig beoordeeld worden.