Dog breed · Russia
The West Siberian Laika or WSL, is a breed of spitz–type hunting dog. Russian publications indicate that the term West Siberian Laika loosely applied to hunting dogs originating with the Mansi and Khanty people in Ural and West Siberia, but there were no standards or registrations of WSL as such until 1930. Then WWII disrupted it for a while, but systematic breeding with registrations resumed after the war ended, in 1946. This was the time the breed began taking modern shape. Before that hunters only knew of Mansi Laika and Khanty Laika. In early 1960 many hunters in Ural still preferred the term Mansi Laika, when speaking of West Siberian Laika. In Russian language, the term Laika originated from the word layat that means to bark. The word Laika simply means barker. Any hunting Laika is a bark pointer (pointing at animal of interest by barking and staying with the animal ). It is a versatile dog depending on use and environment, but in certain parts of the country they have become more specialized.
Character And Behavior: The West Siberian Laika is very affectionate and devoted to the master. The majority of them bark at strangers approaching the house. Their attitude to unfamiliar people varies individually and depending on the situation. Some dogs first bark and then wag their tails, greeting the guest and allow themselves to be petted. Many West Siberian Laikas are aloof with a strange person, avoid hands and watch him suspiciously. Some dogs become protective of the master, his family and their property. Many West Siberian Laikas accept a new owner with difficulty and need time to adjust to a new place. According to standard, aggressiveness to unfamiliar people is not typical. West Siberian Laika is highly territorial and may be aggressive to other intruding dogs of the same sex. Adult Laikas, especially males, should only hunt with dogs raised in the same household. West Siberian Laika has good friend or foe judgement and are naturally capable of telling apart wild game from domesticated animals, with ability easily learn to distinguish farm animals and leaving them alone. Cats of the same household are accepted, but stray cats will be treated like game.
Appearance: Laikas belong to northern primitive breeds retaining traits of their wild ancestor, the wolf, in the appearance and behavior. They are dogs with pointed muzzles, slightly rangy or nearly square body and often gray or gray mixed with red like in the wolf coat color predominate. They are small to medium size pariah- type dogs.
The West Siberian Laika is a medium to large size dog. Males are 22–24 in (56–61 cm) and females are 20–23 in (51–58 cm) at the shoulder.
The coat of the West Siberian Laika is a double coat of harsh straight guard hairs and thick and soft undercoat. The guard hairs on the neck, around the head and shoulders are particularly long and stiff. Together with a very thick undercoat they form a ruff framing the dog's face. On the tail, the guard hair and undercoat are also longer and thicker than on the rest of the body. In wintertime, dogs living in cold climate grow hair between the toes. Although the coat quality varies individually, dogs raised in countries with cold climates have longer and thicker coats than dogs that live in warm and hot climates or dogs that are kept inside most of the time.
Most common coat colors are wolf gray, pale red and white. The gray coat can be of various shades from almost white to very dark gray, nearly black. The gray can be mixed with red producing array of brownish and red shades. Dogs with either coat color described above may have white patches in different proportions. Pale red and white dogs may have brown noses and lips. Dogs with either coat color have so-called "zonary" pattern of distribution of pigment in each guard hair. This means guard hair has alternating bands (zones) of white with black, brown or red color. Hairs with evenly distributed pigment indicate an admixture of other than Laika breed.
History: Laikas resemble those dogs that originally accompanied humans since prehistory worldwide, until they became replaced with lop-eared, specialized for certain style of hunting, cultured breeds. In large sparser populated parts of Russia, this process came at a later time and aboriginal Laika types still remain with hunters in remote northern and northeastern provinces of the country.
Deforestation of land for agriculture and industrialization in later 19th-early 20th Centuries accelerated replacement of Laikas with other popular at the time dogs. Russian experts of the late 19th century distinguished dozens of varieties of aboriginal Laikas, each associated with a particular ethnic group of indigenous people of northeastern Europe and Siberia, but none of them had been considered as purebred and pedigreed. Russians tried to save some hunting Laikas from extinction by bringing them from different provincial parts of Russia in cities of European part of the country and breeding them pure. Starting from thirtieth and especially after WW II, they established four breeds as purebreds: the Karelo-Finnish Laika, the Russ-European Laika, the West Siberian Laika and the East Siberian Laika. They all are bark-pointing dogs and their hunting behavior is generally similar. All of them are descendants of aboriginal types of Laikas selectively sampled from large territories and lumped into the four breeds for breeding in kennels. Among all of them, the West Siberian Laika became most popular and by present time it is most numerous Laika far beyond its original range in Russia.
