Our Newsletter describes aboriginal dogs of different groups with different usage. Until now, we did not write about such a unique breed as Reindeer Driving Laika. To better familiarize our readers with this remarkable breed, we present some excerpts from book “Reindeer Driving Spitz”  published by Aquarium [footnote 1] in 2004. The book is written by expert cynologist Boris Ivanovich Shiroky and biologist Oleg Borisovich Shiroky.  B. I. Shiroky authored breed standard of the Kamchatka Sled Dog published in the previous issue of Newsletter R-PADS. Both authors dedicated many years to research on this exceptionally interesting aboriginal dog. B. I. Shiroky is familiar to our readers from previous issue of the Newsletter.

B. I. Shiroky describes his first experience with this dog, which determined his interest to the breed for years to com.

For the first time, I saw this smallish northern dog in northernmost village with a pretty name Ayanka, in Koryakia.  It was over 30 years ago, when I was there doing my geological work.
There was a large, long clearing in larch tree taiga forest, a pretty Airport building, about a dozen potential passengers capable of waiting for days and weeks for rarely visiting planes, and helicopters of geological or other surveys.  It was a quiet sunny spring with mosquitoes…
At the edge of this clearing, which served as airfield for planes, near an old backpack was a small fuzzy male sitting?  He had short prick ears and a pleasantly smiling muzzle and lively, expressive eyes
At that time, I was a beginning expert in Laika breeds and I thought, like majority of cultured cynologists did, that only breeds recognized by cynological organizations deserve serious attention. Moscow’s “founding fathers” of registered Laika breeds managed to convince dog lovers, including myself, that there other aboriginal dog breeds of the north did not exist, because they could not escape being dissolved among dogs of other breeds under conditions of accessibility of every corner of the country. However, a representative of a “non official” breed was sitting in right in front of me wagging his gorgeous tail.  In the meantime, there was no more writing about it in articles and books about this dog. Only some Laika breeders mentioned it in publications dedicated to registered Laika breeds.  The breed was called the Nenets Laika, the Reindeer Herding Dog, etc.
I was hooked on the West Siberian Laika and, during this time, I had a young gray male named Ayan.  My buddy geologist, Boris Slyadnew, gave him to me for the summer.  Only after about 20 years I became professionally involved with northern dogs.  There were cynologic expeditions, sled dog races, investigations and preparations of official standards of breeds, such as the Kamchatka Sled Dog, the Chukotka Sled Dog, Reindeer Herding Spitz, and kennels with these dogs, rebirth and their recognition.  However, at that remote time, I wanted to have a dog from Moscow, where the best West Siberian Laikas were.  I wanted a dog, which would serve and faithfully followed the commands.  This was because officially published in cynological literature of that time was overwhelming.  That male in the Ayanka Airport, was sitting at his place and joyfully looked at me.  He impressed me and I still keep it in my memory.  I valued his natural harmony and the well-proportioned features of his appearance.  He was a small dog, not higher then my knee and,at the same, time he looked truly a northern dog.  Besides, he was beautiful and attractive.
Now, I am fascinated with natural relationships of that dog with his master, who soon came up.  The male was about one year old and his owner was 45-50 years old.  I was struck with understanding and mutual attachment of the dog and the man.  It was not a relationship between man and the dog serving him.  They communicated like equals, like friends and partners in some special business.  The master talked something to his dog and the dog “participated in the conversation” by his mimics and body language appropriate to the topic of conversation and even making diverse sounds.  When it was tea time, the master started a small bonfire and I saw the dog carrying firewood to the bonfire, and it was not play, but a serious work.  They had a tea party like it would be between equal partners.  The dog did not look at mouth of his master, but received his pieces of bread and fish and something else. Then the master said that the place would be unlikely today and had to go to the village.  He asked the dog to stay here, where they rested waiting for the plane. Then he walked away never looking back, leaving his dog and the backpack.  Something held the master in the village for three days.  Our helicopter did not arrive and I took great pleasure watching the dog.  The dog was the master here.  Most of the time during day and night, he laid curled near the backpack looking like a polar fox resting. Sometimes he left in woods (may be he caught mice there?).  When a small buffet-dining room was open, he came to the door and got some treats from people. I also treated my new friend near his “post”.  Everything indicated that here, in the north, he was equal and legitimated inhabitant, like humans, and that he was at home.
The reunion between the master and his dog was joyful like between two men.  The master did not forget about treats for his buddy.  They were talking about something, what happened in the village, and then they flew away with a passing plane. 
Then I saw and watched many northern dogs, at shows, field trials, at hunting, in harness, on yards and village streets.  They made various impressions on me, but meetings and interactions with Reindeer Herding Dogs, I will call them “Olenegonka” in tundra, with reindeer breeders, in the village or on the road always woke up special warm feelings similar to what I felt, when I met one at the first time.
To me, this dog breed, with its appearance, character and behavior, became a living symbol of the North.  That North, which gave me dozens of years of unforgettable true life.  It was the North, which accelerating changes, not always to better; it was that North, which increasingly irreversibly runs away from us.

We should mention here, that in XIX Century within range of distribution of Olenegonka existed a bigger variant of this dog, which was also used as a draft dog despite well developed reindeer breeding. Possibly this bigger breed exported to West Europe the modern Samoyed began.  Origins of these two types of dogs and their possible isolated breeding under primitive conditions remain open.

Besides this, we are concerned about modern condition of this unique dog of Russian North now named Reindeer Driving Spitz.

In the Russian north, with nomadic reindeer breeders, particularly with Nenets people, this breed remained actually unchanged.  During that time, when German, Scandinavian and other western cynologists were creating their own cultural breeds of Spitzes by breeding them to a certain size, coat color, behavior etc., Russian breeders of dogs by some reasons “did not see” dogs of their minorities by a variety of reasons.
Reindeer breeders are like the Olenegonka as Mother Nature had made them.  His strong instinct of searching and chasing the animal on one side and a strong instinct of reindeer of looking for safety from all dangers, including the dog, in the herd allowed using Olenegonka for herding reindeer without special training.  The smaller size of the dog is also important, because he cannot kill a reindeer. 

If these dogs did not become attractive to reindeer breeders of the past, now I would have only “improved” cultured Spitz breeds developed by breeding to a purpose! Ancient reindeer breeders preserved Olenegonka purely inadvertently.  They liked their dogs not only because of their reindeer herding ability.  These dogs have been always with the nomad, in the herd, at hunting, in the road and with guests…

In XIX Century, other people, such as Nganasans, Entsy, Khanty, Mansi and Dolgans also learned from Nenets people using the Olenegonka.  Reindeer-breeding Dolgans obtained their dogs from Nganasans (Tavgians).  This is how another name of the breed occurring in literature emerged. A.A. Popov (1936), ethnographer, wrote about Dolgans:  “Reindeer herders receive a great assistance from Tavgian reindeer herding dogs.  Small, short legged, predominately entirely white dogs resemble polar foxes.  Reindeer herding dogs are usually bought from Tavgiansand and they are priced very high; best of them are traded for two reindeers, one reindeer costs 25-30 rubles.”

Thus, in XIX Century and until30th of XX Century, the Olenegonka was distributed in the tundra zone and the forest-tundra zone of Europe and West Siberia.  Several authors wrote about this, but I will make a reference to M.G. Volkov.  In 30th, he was busy with Nenets Laikas: “..these Laikas are distributed mainly in Malaya Zemlya, Bolshaya, Zemlya, and Timan tundra and also in Yamal Peninsula.  Eastward, they occur as far as Khanty tundra and westward as far as border of Kola Peninsula, where they coexist with Lopar’s  reindeer-herding Laikas, which are little different from dogs of Nenets people.  Some people, who keep the Nenets Reindeer-Herding Laika in the forest-tundra zone, use it for hunting”.

Northern peoples bred the Nenets Reindeer-Herding Dog pure.  However, traditional methods of breeding based on intuition were effective only in the old time.  Then nomads and, especially their dogs were actually without contacts with “civilized” world. When these contacts emerged and grew, the more their dogs were degrading and dissolving among other dogs.

Specialist cynologists of the former Soviet Union, with rare exceptions, did not pay attention to northern dogs.  Laika experts mention them only as sketchy remarks, when they were writing about hunting Laikas (Pupyshev, 1936; Ryabov, 1939; Vakhrushev and Vollkov, 1945, and Shereshevsky, 1965 etc.).

The Reindeer-Herding Dog has never had an officially accepted breed standard, although in 30th-50th the breed was studied by the Government.

In the beginning it was within jurisdiction of Narkomzem of RSFSR (not a cynological agency at all).  This agency considered the Olenegonka merely as a herding breed, an “agricultural” dog breed, an absolutely necessary tool of reindeer breeders, which helped to increase productivity of his work.  In 1948, Soviet of Ministers of the USSR made a decision “About measures on improvement of reindeer breeding in the far northern region”, which recommended to use the Olenegonka in reindeer breeding husbandries as a priority.

In 1936, Nenets I.M. Vanyuta brought to Snezbinsky Sovkhoz, in Chukotka, two Nenets Olenegonkas.  After two years two more similar dogs were brought there.

This is how Olenegonka began “conquering“northeast of Siberia.  Because of his working abilities, this dog began his journey from Nenets people to reindeer-keeping Yakuts, Koryaks, Evens, and to Hukchis, who formerly did know Olenegonkas.  It was an interesting process and sometimes events developed reached heroic magnitude.

In the third book of almanac “Hunting Horizons” [in Russian], 1997, Vera Vasilyeva, in her article “Forgotten Expedition” wrote that wildlife biologist M.G. Volkov studied Reindeer Herding Laikas of  Yamal Peninsula and Belyi Island in 1937 and 1938.  There he bought 23 breeding-stock dogs and moved them over 13,000 km by rivers, dry terrain, and by sea to Kamchatka.  It was a long and difficult road.  The dogs were purchased in spring, 1938 and they arrived to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky by New Year, 1939.  While on the way to Kamchatka, he continued research and pedigree work and the life of the kennel on the move was normal, as a result of which total number of dogs doubled.  Finally, six dogs got in Chukotka and 23 dogs got in Koryak National Province, Kamchatka. In 1939, Kamchatka Government’s Kennel of Olenegonkas was created.

This is the saga of the “Forgotten Expedition”!  I was lucky to have a tea party with Vera Vasilyevna in 90th, in a small community near Moscow, talking about dogs, looking at their pictures and daybooks left by M.G. Volkov.  She worried about the fate of the breed, which became as forgotten as that expedition.  She could not get an article published from interesting heritage left to her by her husband.

In Yakutia, Olenegonkas were imported from 1940 to 1953.  Workers of Yakutian Research Institute of Agriculture, S.B. Pomishin, A.D. Kurilyuk and L.I. Golubev reported it in 1997, in 22nd Issue of “Magadan Reindeer Breeder” [in Russian]. V.P. Rochev brought the first 10 Olenegonkas for foremen of sovkhoz “Bulunsky”.  This was organized by Yakutian Government.  Then, in 1947, kolkhoz “Turvaurgin.”  By 1953, Olenegonkas were in Abyisky, Srednekkolyumsky and Zhigansky Districts of Yakutia.  At this time, total number of Olenegonkas in Yakutia was 180 dogs belonging to kolkhozes and sovkhozes and private owners.

After that, Olenegonkas never were imported in Yakutia and they began to degenerate.  By 1970, typical Nenets Laikas were rare even in most remote northern regions of the Republic, where there were no access for other dogs.

Example with Yakutia is quite indicative.  Until 60th, the government’s interest in the Olenegonka as a reindeer-herding dog was strong enough.  This dog was shown in All-Union Agricultural Show; various instructions and manuals about using this dog for reindeer herding were published.

As I already mentioned above, at that time, there were no kennel clubs of Olenegonka. . Kennels of the north bred them without qualified cynologists, but they bred them and this helped to preserve the breed.  In Chukotka, the last Olenegonka kennel miraculously survived until 1989.

“Magadan Reindeer Breeder” magazine was writing about Olenegonkas  and published four articles about them.  The last article was published in 1987 by Zheleznov, “Where are you, friend of reindeer breeders?” [in Russian].  Such a title is a sign of the 60th-80th. Then, Olenegonkas became unnecessary to the Government.

Government authorities wanted to see technical “progress” in the north.  Reindeer breeders were supplied with snowmobiles and tractors; the tundra became scared with tracks left by heavy equipment dragged by tractors. 

At the same time, there was increasing number of reindeer breeders as a measure of employment of local population.  Use of tundra resources became less traditional.  Olenegonkas became less needed, because there were enough people to chase reindeer and there were no need to save on hiring herders.  Statement “one Olenegonka is better then two-three herders” became not true.

“Perestroika” came to the north in 1985 and it was ambivalent to the dogs.  People were leaving and the number of Olenegonkas also declined.  A local lore lover, V. Myagkikh, wrote in magazine “Hunting and Hunting Management” [in Russian “Okhota I okhotnichye khozyaistvo”], No.6, 1998: “…in Ayanka, Penzhinsky District, Kamchatka, in 1960, there was a kennel of Reindeer Herding Laikas. It was a very pretty, fuzzy and undemanding dog. However, during Perestroika time, everything went wrong.  It became impossible to obtain a purebred Olenegonka Laika even from reindeer breeders. “

We met the author of this article; he knows and values Olenegonkas.  However, he had only a mix of this breed, which would soon disappear from face of Earth.

However, at the same time during the Perestroika, in the Soviet Union, a new cynological interest to northern dogs began waking up.  It was triggered by a stream of information about dog breeding abroad, about recognized northern dogs, which are known and loved in the rest of the world, except our country.  There were newest cynologic publications about Olenegonka Laika (Nosov and Bogoslovskaya, 1991).

The Cynologic Firm named “Kinos” was created for the purpose of preservation and restoration of northern aboriginal dogs.  Workers of “Kinos” summarized a 30-year period of observations on dogs of the NE part of the country, investigated old literature and archives, and conducted expeditions for cynological surveys. Finally, in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, they founded a kennel of Reindeer Herding Laikas brought from remaining pockets of these dogs found in Chukotka and Kamchatka.

In 1993, workers of “Kinos” submitted a project of breed Standard of the Reindeer Herding Laika along with other supporting materials for consideration in Russian Cynologic Federation. In 1994, the Pedigree Committee of Federation approved the first official standard of the breed and decided to name it Reindeer Herding Spitz.

Thus, having a major tool for making a purebred, a new breed was born, which is very old, but forgotten by dog lovers.

Now, a major part of dogs bred with registration is in Ukraine.  A small kennel remains in Kamchatka and single dogs appeared in Magadan and several of them are in Moscow.  In Poland, Greece, France, Israel, and Korea there are one-three dogs in each…

This is the end of the brief history of the Olenegonka and its study.

We should add that in 2004, the Reindeer Driving Spitz was included in the Government’s Checklist of agricultural achievements, which will open the door for raising its status as national heritage of Russian Federation.