Reindeer working dogs

• bentehaarstad

The reindeer herders use working dogs when they are collecting or moving their herds. One of my readers was surprised when she saw in my last post that the sami people use snowmobiles and not dogsleds when moving during winter. They used reindeer sleds before the snowmobile was invented, but today the snowmobile is as important to a reindeer hereder as a tractor to a farmer.

A herding dog is also very usefull in this work, but they must be well trained. There are different breeds of  dogs, of swedish, finish or norwegian origin. These dogs can ride on the snowmobile and start doing their work when given the order. It is impressive to see a good dog doing his work. There are more photos about reindeer herding in my photo gallery.

30 thoughts on “Reindeer working dogs”

  2. Great photos Bente.
    (I have some great documentaries I taped many years ago on the reindeer and the Sami (sp?) people – it’s a fascinating way of life (for someone like me who lives in the inner city in a temperate climate).
    I wish I had visited Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland when I lived in the UK in 1978/79.

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    1. Never too late, Victoria, never too late! 😉 And guess if I kind of envy all the marvellous flowers and stuff you experience, in botanic garden and in general.. 😉 There is certainly many ways of fascinating life!

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  5. Underbara fotografier, en historia som troligtvis närmar sig slutet, Samerna som lämnar rennäringen, jag hoppas att folk minns deras livsstil i framtiden i alla fall…

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  9. This was so very interesting. I was surprised to see that they were so westernized in many ways. But why not? I learned so much from the photos.

    It’s the same here in Hawaii when people come and see that the Hawaiians don’t live in grass huts. Wonderful to exchange insites.

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    1. Hello Karen, thanks for your interesting comment, and I know what you mean: grass huts! 😉 There are myths about the sami people also in Norway, even prejudice. It can happens about everything, when there are not enough knowledge and information.

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  13. My ansestry is Finnish and I’m dying to go to Finland some day. I’m assuming it’s a lot like Norway with reindeer herding? That would be awesome to see, especially with the trained dogs. 🙂

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    1. Yes you should try to find your finish roots, Ember. I have only been to a finnish island, not the mainland yet, but there the scandinavian countries have a lot of likeness and a lot of differences. Finland is “the country of a thousand lakes” as we say. It has a lot of lakes and forests, not the fjords and high mountains like Norway. But the have reindeer herding, in the north.

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