According to Voilochnikov and Voilochnikov (1982), among dogs registered at the dog show in 1940, only three were black and white. Interesting fact is that in the beginning, among these dogs, there were very few black and white dogs. Dogs sampled from large territories from Karelia and Ladoga Lake region to Archangelsk Province and Udmurtia became a foundation for development of the Russo-European Laika. Despite general similarity of these dogs, dogs of certain geographic regions differed in length of the muzzle, size of ears, rangy or short body and thickness and color of the coat.īefore World War II, in Leningrad, there were many similar looking small to medium size Laikas raised by hunters. For example, the Karelian Laika, the Komi Laika, the Zyryan Laika, the Votyak Laika and the Archangelsk Laika. Local Laika of certain slightly different types were often named after name of native people who owed the dogs or after geographic provinces where from the dogs were found originally. They purchased some dogs and bred them systematically close to the aboriginal type. Russian hunters living in and near big cities, especially in Moscow and Leningrad were well aware about outstanding hunting qualities of aboriginal Laikas of northeastern Europe. Traits of these medium size Laikas are still well recognizable among local mongrels living in Russian villages even today. In late XIX – early XX Century, influx of new settlers from the west and south of Russia brought many different dogs and this was a major reason of deterioration of the aboriginal Laika stock even in remote taiga forests. Many of them were simply watchdogs of peasants living their entire life running loose near the house or behind the fence on the backyard. However, not all of these Laikas were used for hunting. Medium size, prick-eared Laikas remained favorite hunting dogs of peoples living on the fringes of European part of Russia, mainly in the taiga zone of northeastern Europe. Other dogs, such as sheep guarding dogs, scent hounds and sight hounds replaced them. Their range shrunk as a result of deforestation and replacement of hunting by agriculture. Relatively pure of genetic contamination stocks still existed in Vyatka Province, Komi Republic, Perm Province and North Ural as late as 1930.įossil remains of very similar dogs dated about 10,000 years ago were found in archeological sites in central and northern Europe. In most of their original range in central Finland, Poland and Central Russia they became replaced by imported specialized hunting breeds, such as scent hounds, sight hounds and bird pointing dogs. These dogs were used mainly for hunting all kinds of game and as watchdogs.
Originally, they had several different coat colors: black and white, wolf gray, red, black and tan, white and any color with white patches. Since very old times and until early XX Century, medium size compact built Laikas with pointed muzzle and prick ears were wide distributed across the taiga forest zone of northeastern Europe from Finland and Karelia to Uralian Mountains.
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