East Siberian Laika

The East Siberian Laika is a Russian hunting dog of spitz type. It comes from the parts of Siberia that lie east of the Yenisei River, and it hunts a wide range of game, small and large.

History

Before the 1940s, eastern Siberia had several native laikas, used for pulling sleds, hunting and herding reindeer. In the Soviet era there was a drive to classify dogs by their specialty and to merge similar local dogs across large geographic zones. Many experts came to treat laikas purely as hunting dogs and to leave the herding and sled laikas out. This caused difficulties. Laikas are primitive dogs and less specialised than other breeds, and the regions were so vast that producing a uniform dog within each zone was hard.

The breed was defined at the All-Union Cynological Congress in 1947, using dogs from the Lake Baikal region, Irkutsk Oblast, the Evenki Autonomous Okrug, the Amur River basin and the coastal regions. A standard was approved in 1949. Systematic breeding did not begin until the 1970s, in government kennels at Irkutsk and Leningrad.

A genetic study in 2011 placed the East Siberian Laika in the same Y-chromosome group as Basenji dogs from Congo and Sudan.

Appearance

Males stand 55 to 66 cm and females 51 to 60 cm. The dog is somewhat rangy, close to square in outline, a little higher at the withers than at the croup, and strong in bone. The ears are erect and triangular, and the tail curves over the back. The double coat is of medium length, with straight, coarse guard hair over a soft, thick undercoat.

Colors include black and tan with light patches, grizzle, patched, ticked, white, gray, black, and red and brown in all shades.

The breed is still more varied than the other recognised Russian laikas. There are two main types, the Evenki and the Irkutsk, and lesser ones named Yakutia, Amur and Tofolar. They differ in color and build, and the shape of the head varies from one regional type to another.

Temperament

East Siberian Laikas are friendly to people and have a strong, balanced character with a marked passion for hunting. Ill will toward humans is not typical, although in their home regions they were often used as guards. They hunt squirrels, marten, sable and grouse as well as moose, bear and wild boar, and can also work as sled dogs. They are well suited to hard work in the harsh mountain taiga of Siberia.

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