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West-Siberian
laika (WSL)
- Origin
of the breed
- Standards
of the breed
- Hunting
characteristics of the breed
- Photo album
- Video materials
1.
Origin
of the breed
«Most
wide-spread and popular of all Russian laikas … It is used mostly for big
game hunting, i.e. deer, bears or elks … may be trained for small game
hunting, such as or birds … It is attached to its master, but can hardly
live in a city flat or bear heat. It is a bad guard because they do not
feel spite to a man».
New encyclopedia of dogs by B.Fogle. Moscow, Astrel,
2003.
This
Bruce always has an opinion of his own, but I wonder where he could get
such information. He continues speaking on the breed history: “Hunters of
Khanty and Mansy in the Ural mountains could have this breed their working
purposes”. Well, why would they do this? By the way, according to him REL
and WEL equals both in weight (18 to 23 kg) and height (53 to 61 sm).
Thus,
West-Siberian laika!
WSL comes
from Mancy and Khanty varieties of Northern Urals and West Siberia laikas.
From the beginning of XIX century dog-breeders took dogs from these regions
and braided them without mixing with other laika varieties. Mancy laika was
of light and slim physique, with
rather a narrow sculp and clear-cut pointed long face, with slant of the eyes. Khanty laika was of
heavier physique, with a shorter
face and fur forming a muff around the neck. The breed has something of
Zyryan laikas, as its selection involved a separate breed of Urals laika
coming from Mancy, Khanty and Zyryan laikas. Original breed REL was also
involved, as long as a standard for REL exterior was male Putik (born 1946)
which resulted from interbreeding Khanty (WSL) female Pitukh-II with male
Muzgar from Komy. Mating Putik with Pomka and other females begins
contemporary REL history. However, Putik was also mated with WSL, which
means that REL and WSL have common bloods. By late 50-s WSL became a
perfectly separate group. In general dog breeders managed to keep main
characteristics of Khanty and Mansy laikas in WSI. By late 70-s the total
number of WSL was about 15 thousand. Nowadays this breed is in fact the
most numerous.
2.
Standard
of the breed
General appearance. The dog is of medium height, strong built
and spare frame, The frame is a bit stretched. Withers height is 54 to 60
cm for males and 51 to 58 cm for females.
Head. Seen from above it is V-shaped with wide
top. Sinciput and occiput are not prominent, transition from forehead to
muzzle is hardly noticeable. The upper line of forehead and the line of the
muzzle are parallel. The muzzle is pointed. The dog is dry-mouthed, with
thin, tight, not flabby lips.
Ears are pricked-up, nimble, in the shape of
slightly stretched triangle, placed high.
Neck and body. The neck is muscled, clear-cut, equals
the head in size. The chest is broad, deep and long, to the elbows or
lower. Withers are well-developed and well-defined. The back is straight,
broad, muscled. The croup is moderately long and moderately slanting. The
belly is moderately tucked-up.
Limbs are straight and parallel. The elbows are
directed strictly back. Front pastern are a bit slanting. Hind legs are set
a bit wider than forelegs.
Tail. Ring or circle, sometimes pressed to a
hip. The dog running, the tail unfolds, and when the dog doesn’t move it
can be lowered. Tail goes to the tarse or is 1 to 2 cm shorter.
Coat. The coat is thick and broken, straight.
Feathering on the neck, on the shoulders and on the wither makes side
whiskers, collar and scruff. The coat on the head, on the ears and on the
front side of the legs is short. There is some feathering on the rear side
of the hind legs. The tail is evenly coated, between the toes hair makes a
small brush covering foot sole.
Colour. Sorry, we
are looking for new standards. Flacks on the limbs matching the colour are
acceptable.
Faults. Too long in relation to the scalp massive
muzzle, transition from forehead to
muzzle is too sharp or is not noticeable, round, small or big eyes, bat
ears. Too long or saber tail. Absence of ear lobe pigmentation.
Coat faults. Underdeveloped undercoat, waved
coat.
3. Hunting characteristics of the breed
WSL is suitable for hunting any game. Many
WSL are inclined for hunting hoofs. You can also meet WSLs inclined to hunt
one type of game and hardly trained for hunting other game. The fact is,
Siberian hunters valued dogs which could hunt some specific game, and so
rejected dogs that could hunt any game, such was the requirement of
commercial hunting. Long-term selection fixed this quality. Nowadays dog
breeders aim at more universal dogs, and they do succeed in it. In general hunting properties of WSL are
very similar to those of REL and vice versa (See REL Hunting
characteristics). Hunting a lot with both REL and WSL, we have noticed that
the proportion of dogs with excellent and medium hunting qualities is
nearly the same. I believe that hunting characteristics of a dog are mainly
dependent on skills and experience of its master, and the best dogs are
owned by experienced dog-breeders, hunters, huntsmen and so on.
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