Yakutian Laika

About the Yakutian Laika

The Yakutian Laika comes from the Sakha Republic in north-eastern Siberia, where the people of the Arctic coast used it to pull sledges, hunt, and work reindeer, sometimes all three in the same week. It was standardised in Russia only recently and reached the Royal Kennel Club's register in the 2020s, so British numbers are very small indeed.

Dogs stand about 55 to 59 cm, compactly built for the work, with a dense standing double coat, most often white with black or grey patches, though other colours occur. Blue eyes and odd eyes are common and correct. Unlike several of the northern breeds it is genuinely sociable with people and with other dogs, and a stud should be friendly, hard-muscled and sound in the feet.

Very little breed-specific screening exists for a breed this new to Britain, so ask for hip scores under the BVA/KC scheme, a current eye certificate, and a straight account of what the stud owner knows about the imported lines behind the dog. The coefficient of inbreeding matters a great deal when a population is founded on few animals. Ask what age relatives reached, and about any hereditary problems the breed's clubs abroad have reported.

Health & breeding

We check every hip, elbow, eye and DNA result you give us against the Royal Kennel Club’s public records by hand, and we record who checked it and when. The Royal Kennel Club’s public records may not include all the screening a dog has had, so a dog with no Royal Kennel Club record showing is not necessarily untested.