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.
