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My daily walks with the Norwegian Elkhounds were getting longer, as the young sister pups, Ragna and Melsie, were getting bigger and stronger. They could now keep up with old Signe, but they had the habit of stopping to check out every interesting scent they came across. Signe and I would continually have to stop and wait for them to catch up.
On this trip we ventured about a half mile Northeast of home, to check out a Bald Eagle that was feeding on a carcass out in the middle of a field. I had noticed it earlier with my binoculars and thought we might find some deer bones.
Once we got closer, the Eagle lifted off. It flew to a woods a short distance away and roosted in the top of a large tree, in order to keep an eye on us. The pups caught wind of the deer and soon raced ahead to check it out. Signe picked up a little speed too, but she knew what to expect and saw no threat from the pups.
From the tracks in the dirt it appeared the deer had been hit by a car and managed to stagger out into the field before it collapsed and died. The Coyotes on their nightly rounds located it, and had stripped all the meat and hide off the bones during the last couple of nights.
During the day the Bald Eagles had taken their turn, and there was little left but a skeleton. The pups were so excited they did not know what to do. This was their first experience with a dead deer.
Signe checked the remains and moved the sisters aside with a low growl and a display of teeth that got the message across. Most of the skeleton was still connected but Signe found one entire hind leg separate from the body. She immediately picked up the heaviest bone and started for home. The long leg with the hoof still attached, dragged in the dirt behind her.
The pups took turns trying to haul away a bone, but they were in a tug of war with each other over the carcass. I used my knife to cut off the lower leg bone of each front leg, along with the hoof. When I presented each pup with a section of leg, they wasted no time in trotting off after Signe.
Once they were on their way home, I grabbed the remaining rear leg, and dragging the entire carcass remains, I fell inline behind the team. We no doubt looked like a small gang of experienced hunters, hauling the remains of our kill home.
The pups had to stop and rest a couple of times, but they refused to abandon their piece of the treasure. Signe was home and chewing on her leg bone, with sheer delight, by the time the rest of us got home. The three of them worked on the deer remains all evening, until they were too full and too tired to continue.
The pups were not big or strong enough to crack open the leg bones to extract the marrow, but they happily chewed on a hoof until it was gone. Then they went to work on the ribs. The last time I checked on them they were lying contentedly in the yard, fast asleep, with deer bones scattered all around them.
About midnight, I awoke to some serious barking. From the sound coming from Signe I could tell something threatening was in the yard. The pups joined in, but they had no idea what was going on. I went to the back porch and tried to quiet Signe down but she convinced me we had a problem.
The fearless pups kept yapping and moving towards the pitch black woods, through a small grass covered field that lay between the house and the trees. Signe kept moving forward, but she stayed close to them.
I was not dressed to charge into the black void, so I went back in the house and dressed.
When I came back out the three dogs were at least a hundred feet further from the house and the barking was getting a lot more serious. I had a flashlight but had to use it to see where I was walking in the deep grass and rough ground.
When I caught up the to pups they were barking very excitedly, while Signe had a deep throated growl and from her stance I could see she was very tense and about to attack. She was displaying a full mouth of very deadly teeth, behind her curled upper lip.
It was at that point that I used the flash light to scout the edge of the woods that lay about fifty feet ahead.
Reflected back by the flashlight I saw a pair of bright shining eyes and the face of a Coyote. Signe seemed to be concentrating on something to our left so I swept the beam in that direction and the flashlight showed three more pairs of glowing eyes.
The pack of coyotes had followed the deer carcass drag trail and were there to take back their deer!
After a short stand-off I managed to force the pups to back off and moved towards the house. They were not big enough nor wise enough to tackle one coyote, never mind four. Signe was capable of doing a lot of damage in a fight, but four to one was a little too much.
Signe stood her ground until we were on our way home and then she slowly gave way and moved back with us. Once at the house I got the three dogs in, and everyone calmed down. The pups were very pumped up with the venture and wanted to go back outside and deal with the interlopers. Signe quickly fell asleep on her blanket, having experienced just another normal day in the Minnesota Northwood’s.
In the morning, the visitors, and the main part of the deer carcass was gone.
It is not unusual to hear them howling on a dark winter evening, as they make their rounds. The den is under an old barn that collapsed, about a mile south of our place. I have visited a number of times in the winter and the tracks make it plain that the den is under the main floor of the barn. Because the walls have given way, the floor of the loft now lies on top of the main floor. Most of the roof is still intact but it is dangerous to enter.
The pups are born in the den and then when they are old enough, they spend their time playing in the loft area. They are protected from the weather and prying eyes. As they get older they venture out of the barn and onto the snow drifts that surround the barn. The tracks in the snow show where they play.
When they are old enough to hunt with the parents, they travel further and further from the safety of the old barn. This particular den has produced coyotes for more than twenty years.
We have always had two to three Elkhounds at our place and as many as five at one time. Our dogs are vocal and howl back and forth with the Coyotes so that they are well aware of each other, and keep to their own territory. Howling establishes territorial boundaries.
On the nightly hunts the Coyotes bypass our property by sneaking by to the East or to the West. On the West they have a well traveled trail on the West side of our woods. To the East they move on the frozen creek ice that is sheltered by trees on each side. It is an unwritten rule that each other’s territory is off limits. For years I have seen the tracks that established their den and trails.
On a few occasions the coyotes have bent the rules, but only after the Elkhounds have carried off deer remains that the coyotes considered theirs. The details of one of those occasion follows
Years ago I was snowshoeing down the middle of a small river in Northern Minnesota. It was early in the morning and the snow was deep with a fresh layer on top. The only sign of life was the track of three coyotes that were traveling one behind the other, also in the middle of the river.
Because of the recent snow fall I knew the tracks were only a few hours old. As I followed their trail I could see that they were not wasting any time and no doubt were heading for a favorite safe spot to spend the day.
The river was about forty feet wide with high wooded banks on each side. The river was winding so it was difficult for me to see ahead very far. I never did see the coyotes.
After following the coyote tracks for some distance I noticed one of them left the others and made a sudden sharp left turn then stopped after about twenty feet, but still a few feet from the bank. The other coyote tracks continued on without change. I turned aside and followed the single track.
The snow was flat and undisturbed from one side of the river to the other. The coyote had stopped and dug a hole down into the snow for about a foot, then continued on back to the main trail and fell in behind the first two coyotes.
Curiously, I dug down into the bottom of the hole and found an empty beer bottle. When I held it up to the light I could see something inside. When I looked down through the open end I saw a dead field mouse.
The mouse had squeezed into the open bottle because it had traction in the snow. However, when it tried to get back out of the bottle it had no traction on the smooth glass and found itself trapped, and died.
The amazing part was the coyote smelled the dead mouse from at least twenty feet away, in a bottle, and buried under a foot of snow.
It thought it was a great demonstration of a coyote’s sense of smell.
She is the last of eleven Elkhounds I have owned during the last 35 years.
She has never been tied up or even owned a collar. She is fearless and will stand her ground when faced with just about anything, She weighs close to a hundred pounds and is far too heavy and awkward to pickup and place on a scale.
For all of her impressive appearance, she loves children who visit and stands at the perfect height to lick their face and produce many a giggle.
I could write a hundred stories of my experiences with Norwegian Elkhounds, but they have taught me more than I have ever taught them.
This is an outdoor dog that loves winter but loves to sleep on a bed when no one is looking. She is welcome in the kitchen and spends a great deal of time sleeping on top of the big wood box lid, near the kitchen fireplace. This is a perfect spot to see what is going on in the house as well as keep an eye on the outdoors through the kitchen window.
She was raised with her sister Tillie, from the time they could first walk, to all the outdoor sounds and activities.
Before they were a year old they could howl back as perfect mimics to the family of coyotes that were raised in a den nearby.
The coyote parents learned to make a wide loop around our property because a single howl on their part usually produced a loud concert of replies from three to five Elkhounds in our woods. Many a cold winter night, with the sky filled with countless stars, I have stood transfixed by the coyotes and the Elkhounds howling back and forth to each other. I understands a coyote howls for many reasons but mainly to establish his territory with other coyotes. I think my dogs understood and at the same time made it clear what territory was theirs.
The Elkhounds were so good at producing a coyote’s long drawn out howl that I felt as if I were standing with my own coyotes.
Two full grown Elkhounds fighting will make a brave man step back. It rarely happened with our crew but it was an event to be remembered. I could step into the fray and break them up with a yell and a push and was never bitten, but then they always knew I was in charge.
I intend to use the Nor’ west Scribe Blog to record many of the experiences I shared with these loyal companions.
