THE KENNEL

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 35, 25 January 1932, Page 11

THE KENNEL

CAMEL OF THE SNOWS.

THE WONDERFUL HUSKIE.

(By

“Speed.”)

Most dog lovers have read stories of the wonderful sled dogs of the Arctic, and have thrilled at descriptions of dog teams coming through from the Klondike to Dyea, or “mushing” north on the long patrol of the Canadian Royal NorthWest Mounted Police. AVell, these dogs are amongst the most interesting in the canine world and we have a few'representatives of one of the main branches in this Dominion in the beautiful Samoyeds seen at occasional show parades.

Curiously enough, the perky little Pomeranian belong to the same family as the Samoyed, the Spitz group. In that vast region of the Altai Mountains and where the great rivers Obi and Yenesei pour down their floods, dwell the Samoyed people, fishers and hunters, and they use the Samoyed dog, named after them, for hunting and for transport. I know many readers are interested in the Samoyed dog and a very wonderful creature he is, but I will deal with him on another occasion. He is just mentioned here because lie is one of the great sled dogs, and I want to refer more particularly now to the Arctic in the British sphere of Influence. IN THE GREAT WHITE WASTES. With characteristic adaptation to environment, the English in Canada used the dogs of the Indians and the Esquimaux or Eskimo, but soon set about improving the breed and, under the general name of “huskie, ” have developed a dog that in the vast frozen wastes is what the camel is in tho deserts. Of recent times the caterpillar tractor type of motor vehicle has displaced the sled dog on certain well defined routes, but on the lonely trails the dashing team of huskies still ia supreme. And it is wonderful what loads a full team can transport over tremendous distances. In the great white wastes a journey without dogs would be well nigh impossible. THE WHITE MAN’S DOG. These dogs, again, fall into three groups, the Eskimo, the Siwash and the white’s man’s crossbred. The Siwash is the dog developed by tho Indians. Properly speaking, true huskie blood boes directly back to the Eskimo, but. so does the Indian dog, and the Eskimo was used to make the white man’s nog, and the name “huskie” is given indiscriminately so that I use it in that sense. The true Eskimo is not a very big dog. He is usually about 701bs in weight and has very thick fur, short legs which are well furred, prick ears, heavy bushy tail and a general wolf appearance. He also has wolf characteristics, being treacherous, vicious and bad tempered, but that is one of the results of the Eskimo system of breeding. Still, he is a great sled dog and can pull double his own weight for ten hours every day, week after week. Fitted with a pack he will carry 301bs. or more for upwards of 20 miles of rough hard travel each day and keep this up for an indefinite period through forest, over rough river ice and frozen snow waste, go without food for days and then eat anything from his own father to seal oil and whitefish or live pike to tanned leather. He will catch fish just as the bears do. VARIOUS BREEDS. Labrador possesses a pure white , strain and Alaska has the Malemute, wolf-grey marked with black and a I white tip on tail. The Malemute was developed from the Eskimo and is a very largo animal, up to 1201bs. The ■ Siwash , a* may be imagined from

Indian ownership, is a nondescript, mixed breed —some Eskimo blood, some Coyote, and a good deal of wolf —and is longer in the leg and more rakish in appearance. The Siwash cannot stand up to the work of the Eskimo, the Malemute or the white man’s dog. This latter title is used because it is the common description applied by the Indians and the Eskimo, over a stretch of 5000 miles of coast, to the splendid dog bred up on a foundation of true huskie or Eskimo blood crossed with St. Bernard, wolfhound, collie, and Newfoundland. Occasionally wolf blood is introduced into a strain, much as bulldog blood was brought into such breeds as the greyhound in England. Naturally the Canadians who own these dog teams take great pride in them and the dogs are bred and selected with great care. In contrast with the Indian or Eskimo breeds, the Canadian huskies are faithful, well fed and well cared for dogs and frequently there is great affection between tho “musher” and his huskies. TURNED LOOSE IN SUMMER. The Indians and Eskimos, having no use for their dogs in summer, turn them loose in the wilds to fend for themselves. Naturally there is much in-breeding and cross-breeding on unselective lines and the dogs cannot he compared to the well-bred and wellfed dogs developed at such places as the police headquarters at Regina. New Zealand shepherds out on snow country are accustomed to expect good, warm quarters for their dogs and rightly so, but the huskie, in a temperature of 50 or 60 below zero, makes a hole in the snow, curls in in a ball, covers his nose with his big husky tail and sleeps soundly. Of course the air is dry. The usual diet of the dog on a journey is two or three pounds of frozen fish thawed out at the camp fire. Usually a team is six to eight dogs harnessed in single file, but often there are twelve or more and some mushers use two abreast. ANNUAL SPORTING EVENTS. Two sporting events are run annually in Cftnada for dog teams. One is a team run from The Pas, Manitoba, over a 200-mile course under usual service conditions, and the other is the great huskie Derby, a race of 30 miles a day for five consecutive days, run at Ottawa. These fixtures attract enormous crowds, people coming from all parts of the vast Dominion to witness the finishes. INTELLIGENT AND FAITHFUL. Endurance, courage, intelligence and faithfulness under tremendous hardship and the will to win through are the characteristics of these wonderful dogs developed by our Canadian cousins. .Many a man and many a woman owes life itself to the speed and endurance of these four-footed friends and the literature of Canada is enriched with thousands of stories of almost incredible johrneys undertaken by teamsters and their dogs for such purposes as help for the sick or tho rescue of someone in peril. The “musher'’ is a picturesque figure in his Arctic dress as he travels on snow shoes at the back of his laden sledge and somehow I thing that just ns sheep dogs will always be needed even

if large sheep stations become, a mere memory, the Canadian sledge dog will always have a place in Canada even if caterpillar tractors save him the heaviest work and aeroplanes relieve him of some long journeys. He is a splendid illustration of the dog developed lor special purposes and at this special ai t no race on earth can equal or ever has equalled the British who,