Laika is among oldest dogs of Eurasia. It is a collective term of a large group of dogs with prick ears with circumpolar distribution and particularly in northeastern Russia. Investigation of origin of these dogs as well as ethnographic history of peoples of Siberia is far from being complete. The fact is that despite Laikas are very old, they remain among most primitive. There are arguments about terms “Laika”, “Spitz” or “northern prick-eared dog”, but discussion of this is out of scope of this review. Therefore, I will use call these diverse dogs Laikas and postpone discussion of the term.

Laikas have been used mainly for three jobs. First job is hunting diverse animals from squirrel to bear and in the Far East also tiger.

The second method of use is pulling sleds. I should emphasize here, that Uralian Mountain Ridge is a geographic border of distribution of ancient form of dog sledding. West of it, only native peoples of Yamal Peninsula sometimes harnessed dogs for pulling sleds and in all other northern regions dogs only assisted people after hunting to pull heavy loads. Tradition of harnessing dogs in sleds starts from Ural and eastward it becomes most rich and diverse among native peoples of the Russian Far East, Kamchatka and Chukotka peninsula and the Yana River, the Indigirka and Kolyma River basins. Evidence of this can be found in publications of ethnographers, travelers and government officials of the czarist Russia.

The third direction of using Laikas was reindeer herding. Herding dogs guarded and herded reindeer. Without a good reindeer herding dog, even several men would become exhausted trying to manage a large reindeer herd. The dogs did it demonstrating great endurance and intelligence. Once a reindeer owner of Yamal Peninsula said: : I value assistance of one reindeer herding dog more then help of two animal technicians”.

Sled dogs were the largest group numerically. This is understandable, because hunting and reindeer herding does not require as many dogs as pulling sleds does. One average family could afford to keep up to 20 sled dogs.

Natural isolation protected gene pool of Russian sled dogs for a long time. However, diverse innovations, which have been brought to the north by civilization during past Century, drastically undermined all aboriginal Laika populations in quality and numerically.

Actually, this started since XVI-XVII Centuries, when northern regions became a part of Russia. This was far from being a peaceful process to the contrary what is often said in textbooks on history. Fortunately, small Government’s forces, which managed to reach those remote regions, were busy with collecting taxes and did not attempt to change way of life of local people. New acquired Russian territories became cultivated and Russian officials and exiles arrived there in ever increasing numbers. New people brought cultured breed dogs with themselves and they interbred with local Laikas. Such a gene flow hardly improved local dogs, but natural selection and unintentional selection by people helped to maintain a viable dog population.

In early XX Century, the situation became considerably worse. Reindeer herds became collectivized and people lost incentive to work not only with dogs, but also with reindeer. Sistem of boarding schools for children of native peoples cause a blow to traditional way of life of reindeer breeding people and they lost many centuries long skills of life with dogs and reindeer in the extreme north.

In 1947, standards of four hunting Laika breeds based on aboriginal dogs were put together. It seems what could be wrong with this? In this case, in order to increase interest of industrial hunters to new established purebreds, officials began “educating” provincial hunters. Local Laikas were proclaimed as worthless and nuisance on the way of popularization of new established purebreds. Remaining aboriginal dogs were poisoned and shot for pelts as mongrels. Top officials of Russian cynological establishment conducted their agenda and forbid expertise of aboriginal Laikas and those cynologists, who attempted to defend aboriginal dogs and explain their value, were disqualified.

I should give a credit to creators of officially recognized purebred hunting Laikas. They did not let them to degrade to merely show dogs. However, they did understand that they eliminated aboriginal roots of newly established purebreds. As a result, aboriginal hunting Laikas, which had been used for development of purebred hunting Laikas became totally lost or remain at the verge of extinction.

The worse took place in the area of sled dog breeding. New bill (“ukaz”) issued by central government considered dog sledding economically unjustified and causing damage to fishery, because in many regions dogs were fed with fish, including salmon species, such as keta, gorbusha, etc. Of course, nobody noticed that dogs were fed with parts of fish not edible for humans, like heads and backbones. Bureaucrats decided to replace dogs with more prestigious forms of transportation, with horses and in the future with cars. Here, I will not describe in details why horse transportation is impossible in Kamchatka and Chukotka and in northern river basins. The decision was made to kill the dogs. Elena Panyukhina described killing dogs in Kamchatka as follows: “In northern settlements dogs were killed barbarically. Dogs were killed not only at night but also in broad daylight, often in presence of children. Blood on the snow, skinned dog’s carcasses and dieing near houses injured dogs make a horrible picture without exaggeration. In 1974, I arrived to Palana and watched this with horror. I was a child then and could only cry of pity and, together with other children, hide puppies in houses”. Approximately the same was going on in other dog populated regions.

What this intentional and unintentional doggy genocide in the north did produce? As an example, I will offer results of census done in 1926-1927. In Kamchatka, total number of sled dogs was 35,000. According to data obtained by B. I. Shirokiy, in early 90th there were about 300-400 typical Kamchatka type Laikas. I cannot tell how many of them exist now. To save the aboriginal breed, a new survey is needed immediately, but it would be a very expensive project, because of high cost of transportation.

In Chukotka, in early 90th, there were about 700 pure type sled dogs. How many of them live now?

In the Amur River basin, a dog country in the past, aboriginal dogs range is reduced to several small pockets. In 2000, according to most optimistic estimate, total number of dogs is not more then 200.

Hunting Laikas, if they still survive, they should be very few in deep remote areas away from railroads and towns. Information about them resemble information about unicorns.

Reindeer herding Laikas still occur in small numbers in Yamal Peninsula, in Murmansk Province and some other regions of reindeer breeding, which now is being rebound. Demand for reindeer herding dogs saved during hard times is on the raise.

There is a chance that the “aboriginal Samoyed”, a big similar to reindeer herding Laika, which became widely known due to the trip of Fritiof Nansen to the North Pole, still survive. This still remains uncertain until new investigation is done.

This is the contemporary state of aboriginal Laikas, capable dogs with many faces of Russian north.