SEPPtest



	SIBERIAN EVALUATION PERFORMANCE PROJECT
	In the eighties Dr. Roland Lombard came with the idea to put the Siberian husky trough a work test. Lombard was at that moment concerned about the fact that many Siberian huskies were bred without looking at the work qualities An other thought he had was to improve the breed by making a selection for a future change in the breeding of this work dog. He wanted that the Siberian Husky could measure with the level of the sled dog again Lombard has won several prices (8 times World Champion) and is the founder of ISDRA and S.E.P.P. He bred and worked with a few of the fastest Siberian Husky.
		Lombard, owner of the famous Igloo Pak kennel was one of the initiators, but for a big project as the S.E.P.P. test are more people necessary. The people who made the test and/ or executed the test were: - Dr. Doc Lombard, descrived above. - R. Moulton , owner of the Chinook kennel - Dr. R. Belford , vet and son of Dr. Alec Belford. - H. Dunlap , owner of the Zero kennel. - T.Killam , owner of the Kateene kennel.
	The tests were held in the autumn because of the weather conditions. Because the test was about improvement the animals had to comply with some conditions - No genetic abnormities and/ or defects. - Registered according the American or Canadian kennel club. - A training distance of 120 kilometers as a minimum. The thought behind the test was to make a strict selection and exclude the less good animals. Pure bred Siberian huskies were put at the last positions in a team of Alaskan huskies. These Alaskans were the best of their kind at that moment. The Siberians were evaluated on speed the first round. The first day they ran 5 kilometers with a relatively high speed of 36 kilometers an hour. On the second day they looked at the stamina of the dogs. The distance of the test was longer and the Siberians were judged the second day on: - effort - stamina - gait - speed Although the conditions weren’t the same for all the dogs, like the weather, temperature, atmospheric humidity etc. and the fact that some animals had to walk in a unknown team for the musher and the other way around. Although this caused for differences in the results, these test gave a lot of information. The Siberians that accomplished both days good, were judged by several judges on their phenotype. Detailed descriptions of the movement scheme and skeleton were made by Susan Chilchrist. All the data is stored in a database. In the years after (1982 untill 1988) were about 400 siberians tested in this way and 156 were chosen with the results:
	- Superieur Excelent - Superieur - Good Excelent - Good Superieur - Good	15 49 10 49 33