INTRODUCTORY NOTES To the temporary Standard of the Kamchatka Sled Laika

Since time of obtaining Kamchatka by Russia and until 30th of XX Century, explorers paid attention to this dog as a major domesticated animal of settled aboriginal people during their entire known history. Transition to purebred breeding of northern dogs has proven to be productive with hunting Laika breeds, but it has never been applied to dogs of extreme north and Russian Far East. With the increase of accessibility of major centers of distribution of sled dogs, primitive methods of breeding became inefficient. This resulted in degeneration of aboriginal dogs. Now, the state of aboriginal sled dogs became critical. Introducing scientifically substantiated methods of pure breeding became urgent. The Temporary Standard of Sled Dog of Kamchatka should become a tool for this kind of work.

The description of the Kamchatka Sled Laika is a result of 25 years of observations and work with determination by Laika expert, B. I Shirok. This became particularly important during recent years, when interest in the dog sledding sport has increased.

At present, we conduct systematic work on restoration of aboriginal northern dog breeds. For this purpose we created cynological scientific and applied institute “Kinus. We are introducing planned pedigree breeding of dogs and organize yearly sled dog races. In 1992, there will be the third races “Beringia” on distance over 2,000 km.

On fifth of May, 1991, cynological survey of dogs in 22 communities of Kamchatka Province, including eight communities, where we collected personal communications, we found 692 sled dogs. We examined 340 of them. As a result, we found 200 dogs of typical Kamchatka sled dogs fitting the proposed standard of the breed. Of the 200 dogs, 151 dogs were measured and their conformation was described in details.

 We tested dogs fitting our standard during races “Beringia-90” and “Beringia-91”. The temporary standard intentionally includes a wide range of variation in size and measurements of body, which is important at the early stage of restoration of the breed and includes a large number of dogs in the breeding program.

In general, the Kamchatka Sled Dog is relatively simple, primitive (wolf-like) medium to large size dog. There are some typical males up to 70 cm at the shoulder. I should note that since old times, in Kamchatka, big and strong dogs were preferred. A sled dog team included only 4-6 dogs. Increase of number of dogs in a sled team during recent time is caused by degeneration of dogs, which became smaller.

Sturdy and lean body structure of sled dogs of Kamchatka secures their drafting ability for shipping heavy loads and for fast running. Possibly different ways of using of these dogs will lead to their diversion in the future into sturdy built dogs for traditional use for shipping heavy loads and light built dogs for dog races as sport.

Coat color includes all variations known among Laikas. In some areas, zonary coat colors without any spots predominate. Symmetric sable type coat colors are also typical. Typical zonary red and brown coat colors of all shades without black pigmen,are characteristic. Such dogs have brown lips, eye lids, nose and they have yellow eyes. Frequency of occurrence of such dogs increases from south to north.

Quality of coat of Kamchatka sled dogs is also variable. Mushers prefer heavily coated dogs, but they do not like long soft coat, because snow adheres to it during wet blizzards and it requires special care of the dog’s feet, etc.

TEMPORARY STANDARD

The Kamchatka Sled Laika is a result of mixing of similar sub breeds of aboriginal dogs of Koryak-Kamchatka region preserved in centers of traditional dog sledding. Specific conditions of geographically isolated territory were conductive to formation of a peculiar northern dog with specific body structure, physiology and behavior. These dogs possess very primitive traits of the appearance, great adaptability to harsh climatic conditions, high ability to digest food, undemanding to life conditions and ability to continue arduous work for a long time. The major purpose of the dog is pulling sleds. The dog is used for shipping loads in traditional families and sport dog races.

General appearance. The Kamchatka Sled Dog is a Spitz-like dog of medium to large size of sturdy and lean body structure.

Differences between sexes are well pronounced. Males are bigger and more massive. Differences from standard are deficiencies or faults, depending on the degree, such as looseness, coarseness, or extremely lean body structure, or absence of differences between sexes.

Body size and format. Males are 56-68 cm and females are 54-64 cm at the shoulder. Males at least 60 cm high are preferred. Index of ranginess of males is 104-110 and females 106-112.Deviations from standard more then 2 cm or square body are deficiencies. Height at the shoulder 2 cm lower then standard is deficiency; dogs taller then standard are allowed, if they are not excessively loose, lean or coarse built.

Coat colors. Zonary gray, red and intermediate coat colors of various intensity from white to black; black and tan and with white patches also occurs. Nose, lips, and eye lids are black. There are red and brown zonary coat color dogs with yellow eyes, brown lips, eye lids and nose.

Deficiencies are ticking on head and legs, partial pigmentation of nose, lips, and eyelids, pale brown nose in light colored dogs. Faults include ticking on the body, absence of pigmentation on nose, lips, and eye lids, coffee brown, brindle, and similar coat colors.

Winter coat. Coarse, straight guard hairs and well developed, thick and soft woolly undercoat. Guard hairs are directed back well covering undercoat. Length of guard hairs on back is up to 8-10 cm. On neck, shoulders, withers and thighs hairs are longer, especially in males forming ruff and britches. Bases of ears and ears are covered with thick and sufficiently long hairs and well protected with hairs inside. On legs hairs are short, stiff, thick and on posterior side hairs slightly longer, but do not form feathering. On feet hairs are short, stiff and present between toes forming brush. Tail is evenly covered with straight hairs, on lower part of tail hairs may be longe, but without feathering.

Summer coat is considerably lighter. Deficiencies include absence of the ruff and britches, weak development of undercoat, long, soft and shaggy coat. Faults are curly hairs, plumage on tail and legs, too short hairs and absence of undercoat disqualifying the dog.

Skin, muscle, and bone. Skin is tough, sufficiently thick, pliant, without folds and loose under skin tissue. Muscles are well developed and tough. Skeleton is sturdy, well developed; it is more powerful in males than in females. Index of bone is 18-22.

Deficiencies or faults, depending on the degree, include thin skin, folds, loose under skin tissue, dewlap, loose body structure, weak muscles, and poor bone.

Head. Head size is proportional to the body, 2.5-2.7 height at shoulder, in shape of moderately extended wedge. Skull is broad, massive and slightly elongated. Forehead is flat. Stop is distinct, but not abrupt. Upper line of muzzle and upper line of forehead are parallel to each other. Muzzle is sufficiently massive, broad at the base, wedge shaped, but not snippy. Length of muzzle is 1-2 cm shorter then length of skull. Lips are close, muscular, not thin, and without looseness. Nose is sufficiently big.

Deficiencies: heavy, coarse, excessively massive, or too light head, convex forehead, prominent cheeks, or too prominent supraorbital bones, snippy muzzle, and loose lips.

Faults: too long or too heavy head, dish-face or roman nose, absence or too distinct stop.

Ears. Ears are prick, in shape of slightly elongated triangles, with rounded tips, relatively small, their base are positioned at level of eyes or slightly higher, set wide, and very mobile. Deficiencies are too far apart, soft, and big ears. Faults are big with rounded tips, very thick or very soft ears. Pendulous ears and semi prick ears disqualify the dog.

Eyes. Eyes are small, oval, oblique set, not too deep and not protruding, brown or yellow. Deficiencies: too big or too small eyes and too round eyes. Faults: round eyes, straight eyes (not oblique), protruding, loose eye lids, and different color eyes, white or blue eyes.

Teeth. Teeth are large, white, close fit to each other. Incisors are positioned in one line at the base, complete set of teeth. Deficiencies: worn out teeth in disagreement with age, broken teeth, if they do not impair determination of correctness of bite, absence of not more then two second premolars and yellow coating on teeth. Faults are too small or separated by spaces teeth, missing canine or incisor, third of fourth premolar and very deteriorated teeth enamel. Overshot or undershot and vice bitein dog under age of four years are disqualifying traits.

Neck. Neck is muscular, as long as head or slightly shorter, slightly oval in cross section. Set at 25-40 degrees to back. Deficiencies are too short, too long neck and dewlap. Faults are the same, but in greater degree.

Withers. Withers well developed in males, higher then the back line and moderate in females.

Back. Back is broad, straight, strong, and muscular. Deficiencies are soft, narrow, or slightly convex back. The same deviations in a greater degree are faults.

Loins. Loins are short, strong, muscular, straight, or slightly convex. Too long or too convex loins are deficiencies. The same deviations to a greater degree are faults.

Croup. Croup is muscular, horizontal, or slightly sloped. Too narrow or too sloped croup are deficiencies. The same deviations in a greater degree are faults.

Chest. Deep, broad, long, oval in cross section and reaching to elbows or slightly lower. Deficiencies are too narrow or chest not reaching to elbows. The same deviations in greater degree are faults.

Abdomen. Abdomen is moderately tucked up, transition from chest to abdomen is weakly pronounced. Deficiencies are too little tucked up abdomen or too low abdomen.

Forequarters. Forequarters are powerful, with lean muscles and well pronounced angles at joints. Angle of femur and scapula joint is 90-100 degrees. Legs are straight, vertical, almost parallel to each other. Metacarpus are broad and well developed. Pasterns are not long, and slightly sloped. Circumvention at tarsus is at least 9 cm. Length of legs from elbows down is about 1-3 cm longer then half of height at withers. Deficiencies are slightly curved legs, insignificant east-west feet, bow legs, slightly outward elbows, and too straight or too tilted tarsi. Faults are the same, but in a greater extent.

Hindquarters. Viewing from behind, legs are straight and parallel and positioned slightly wider then front legs. Angles at joints are well developed. Thighs are well muscled. Lower thighs are strong and muscular. Hocks are broad, flat, and lean. Metatarsus are massive and positioned almost vertical. Vertical projection from femoral joint down touches front surface of tarsus. Deficiencies include too narrow position of legs, too straight or excessively angled at joints legs, cowhocks or bowlegs, and tilted tarsi. The same deviations stronger pronounced are faults.

Feet. Feet are large, oval, with hard pads and compact toes. Dewclaws occur, which should be removed soon after birth of puppies. Soft, narrow and splay feet and feet with too long toes are deficiencies.

Tail. Tail is set up slightly lower then back line. It is reaching to hocks or about 1-3 cm shorter. Usually tail is kept down, but when dog is excited, his tail is sickle shape up. Docking tails is not recommended. Deficiencies are too high or too low set tail, too long or too short tail and curling tail. Straight, hook like or forming ring tail are faults.

Movement. Movement is free and well coordinated. Typical gait in harness is broad trot and gallop. When trotting, dog’s withers and croup remain at the same level, front legs move along medial line.

Temperament. Temperament is well balanced, quiet and lively. Learning is quick and remains in dog’s memory. Aggressiveness to humans is not typical.

This resulted in the foundation of the famous and large-scale breeding kennels ‘of Farningham.’ Farningham was the name they took for their kennel after moving to Farningham, Kent, in 1922. Until that time no specific kennel name was used. Sabarka sired the very first litter bred of an imported bitch called Whitey Petchora. Sabarka is still found in the pedigree of Samoyeds today. Soon after, more dogs came into reach, like Musti. A litter was sired by Musti with Polar Light Of Farningham, Bred In England Around 1920, And An Ancestor Of Na-Njarka, Here In 2002 At The Age Of Five Years Whitey Petchora. Besides the directly imported dogs, the acquired ones that were among the few canine survivors of different Polar expeditions played the most significant role in their breeding program. It has been the great merit of the Kilburn Scott’s that when typical examples came within reach, they put a great effort in acquiring these dogs for their kennels. For example, Antarctic Buck, was an offspring of dogs taken by the Borghrevink expedition to Antarctica. On returning from the South he was left behind in Australia, and was put on display in the zoo in Sydney. He was seen by Mr. and Mrs. Kilburn Scott when visiting Australia in 1904. A year later they managed to obtain this dog and had him shipped to England. Unfortunately, not long after arrival, he died of distemper. But, before his death, he had sired at least two litters, securing his contribution to the breed.

That a Samoyed dog ever reached the South Pole is a tall story. Because of an outbreak of distemper in Greenland at the end of 19th century, Denmark forbid the export of dogs from its colony. After the turn of the century that situation had changed. When Amundsen started to prepare for the South Pole in 1910, he paid a visit to Copenhagen ordering 100 Greenland huskies, which he managed to secure through the Danish government. When the ‘Fram’ left Norway in 1911 sailing for the South, she had 97 dogs on board that were delivered from Greenland. Amundsen apparently did use Samoyed dogs for sledding though, but that was on his later expedition of 1917 to 1920 for the North East passage sailing along the coast of Siberia to the Bering Strait ending up in Nome, Alaska. Stops were made at Waigatz and Dickson Island where some dogs were taken on board. Further on the way his ship, ‘Maud,’ was brought up by ice and had to spend the winter beset on the Siberian coast at Cape Chelyuskin. Two pictures exist of the same situation and, taken from different angles, show a sledge with five dogs attached in front of Maud. These pictures were taken on the 20th October 1919 at Cape Chelyuskin, when Amundsen sent a party of three of his crewmembers with post to Nishny Kolymsk, a town 200 land miles inwards. The three dogs in the middle are unmistakably of Samoyed origin.

The one on the left with black plates on the head and short coat reminds me of the dog Luska (see: www.oldsams.info), owned by the Prince of Wales in the 1880s. The dog on the right is clearly a full size bigger than the others and his sturdy posture is more like that of a Greenland husky male.

In 1909, Ernest Kilburn Scott formed the Samoyede Club, the first of all special Samoyed breed clubs established in Great Britain as well as in the whole world. In May 1909, this club adopted the first breeding standard, drawn up by the Kilburn Scott’s (probably by Clara, who was the actual breeder of the family). The ‘Summary of Points’ opens with the paragraph: “Colour. Pure white; white, with slight lemon markings; brown and white; black and white. The pure white dogs came from the farthest north, and are most typical of the breed.”

The second sentence proves that they assumed that they were dealing with an existing, distinguishable white-coloured breed. It also reveals to us the apparent awareness that some of the dogs used for building up the breeding population, showed aberrations to the typical appearance of that breed indicating a certain degree of contamination with other breeds. Pictures Taken On 20thOctober 1919 At Cape Chelyuskin The Kilburn Scott’s must have themselves begotten an image of the looks of the purebred dog, which served as a guideline for where to aim for, and how to act, and how to proceed in the selection process. The first four paragraphs of a promotion leaflet of the Farningham kennels read as follows: “These kennels were the first to be established, and for over thirty years Mrs. Kilburn Scott has been most careful to breed and import only correct types of Samoyed dogs. They are the domesticated dogs of the Samoyed people and their natural habitat is the Tundra country which stretches form the White Sea in North Russia to the Yenesi River in West Siberia. USES. The Samoyed people use them principally for driving and rounding up reindeer, a task similar to that of droving sheep, and they have been so engaged from prehistoric times, also they are used for hunting.

They have hauled sledges on various Arctic and Antarctic expeditions and many of those at Farningham are directly descended from such dogs.” Due to the diversity in origin of the few - actually very limited number of - dogs available for the breeding purposes, it was possible for them to keep eight different bloodlines in their kennels at a certain stage. Among the dogs they had bred, they distinguished three different types of head, which they called: the bear type, the fox type and the wolf type. Title winners on shows in England in 1938: Spartan of the Arctic and Crystal of the Arctic By experimenting and consistent breeding they managed to create a viable and pure inheriting population of the type they wanted. It is, without question, the Kilburn Scott’s are accountable for establishing the Samoyed dog in the Western World as a recognised and registered breed. Instead of trying to create a new breed of their own which, in fact, would have been a much easier goal to accomplish, the goal they set themselves was to stick as close as possible to the aboriginal type.

Their eventual idea of breeding Samoyeds to provide Polar expeditions with dogs, turned out to be in vain. The sole purpose of breeding became the show ring for the Kilburn Scott’s too. But this did not change their judging of the breed, as they have always kept looking for an overall sound exterior. In the early days of Polar expeditions it was common to invite returned Polar travellers to lecture about their adventures for select audiences. But the race to reach both the North and the South Poles turned public interest in Polar expeditions into complete hype, reflected by articles published in newspapers. Everything connected to the expeditions became interesting for quite a while. Publications on the Arctic became so popular that several books were translated and published in foreign languages reaching an even broader audience. It also stimulated the wish to own a dog connected with these heroic adventures. Together, with the steadily growing attention for the breed, the number of people engaged in breeding augmented. In the first two decennia of the 20th century the Samoyed dog was nationally and internationally sought after and British kennels exported to countries all over the world. World War I implied an interlude to international cynologic live and in England it was even officially forbidden for a while to organise dog shows. After the end of World War I cynologic live revived and soon flourished more than ever. With the outbreak of the Russian Revolution it became impossible to import dogs to Western Europe from regions under control of the new regime.

When the Bolsheviks took over a region, it was closed to outsiders. Trade routes between the West and Siberia had to close down. A route which had served as a gateway for obtaining typical specimens of the aboriginal type was gone. It England it was during the 1920s that the transformation process began, step-by-step changing the functional exterior of a working dog into that of a show dog with many dysfunctional characteristics. Until this period the breeding by the Kilburn Scott’s had been leading, but from then on other kennels started to dominate. One of the most well known kennels of the time was the ‘Arctic’ kennel of Miss M. Keyte-Perry, which succeeded over the years in gaining in the show ring an enormous collection of champion titles. Pictures from the 1930s of winning dogs in shows in England clearly show the trend towards big bone, impressiveness, and exuberant coat that had already started.

The following typical characteristics the tended to exaggerate further and further: the whole appearance of the dogs became increasingly plump and squat, low on legs, with steep hindquarters, small round feet, an overall coat profuse and long, the muzzle short and broad, and a set of teeth of underdeveloped size, small, flabby ears, and little mobile, a domed skull, pronounced stop, and big round eyes placed towards the front of the skull making the sight angle smaller, giving a narrowed sight field. Another peculiarity of the changed type is the rapid pace in which the development of the body reaches the state of fully blossoming adulthood.

 At the age of two, these dogs are at their peak, and then they start to look aged very quickly. By contrast, dogs of the Farningham type develop slowly. A bitch is not fully grown before she turns three years old and a male reaches its peak at the age of five. Both keep their vitality and beauty until a very old age. It is very well possible that crossbreeding has occurred with other breeds to achieve this transformation. It is a public secret that in England (in the 1950s?) at least once a Chow Chow has been used for inbreeding.

It is quite possible that the White Keeshond has been bred in as well. It is known that in the 1930s and 1940s it occurred in shows held in Holland and Switzerland that specimen of the White Keeshond were described as Samoyed and had to be removed from the ring at the start of judging. Also the silhouette of many today’s show Samoyeds fits the silhouette of the Keeshond.

Anyway, a lot of the above-mentioned characteristics are traits adherent to either of these two breeds and strange to a sound working dog. At the end of the 1950s, the pure Farningham type is no longer found in the prominent breeding kennels of England. Around that time, R-PADS member Mr. Clay met Mrs. D.L. Perry, owner of the Kobe kennels. They discussed the breeding in England and she admitted to him in private that a breeder who wanted to compete successfully in the show ring had been forced to follow this trend as with dogs of the Farningham type one did not stand a chance of winning anymore.

In less than a hundred years, step by step the Samoyed breed world wide has undergone a metamorphosis where the wolfishness, so typical for a Polar dog, has been bred out. The functional construction of the body that goes along with speed, stamina, and nimbleness, that are necessary to work under all conditions such as herding, hunting, and sledge dog have also disappeared.

However, apart from all the other changes in appearance it is the change in expression of the head, which is most striking. In the above mentioned leaflet of the Farningham kennels the following description of the head is given: “The ears are erect, slightly rounded at the tips and set well apart, giving a fine open forehead, which indicates the extremely intelligent expression of the breed.”

Exactly this facial expression has been swapped for the looks of a teddy bear, the domed forehead concealed by thick white hair like a knitted cap slid down to the eyebrows with on top two little triangles being the tiny ears popping up. On July 22, 1997 the FCI published the latest revision of the standard. In this version, a remarkable sentence is added to the paragraph ‘Behaviour and temperament’, stating:

“The hunting instinct is very slight.”

It shows that the transformation process continues, touching now other undesirable traits for passionately hunting behaviour is inconvenient when keeping a dog as family pet. But the past still lingers in the description of the general appearance, which opens with the words:

“Medium in size, elegant, a white Arctic Spitz.”