SLEDDOGS FROM SIBERIA
were virtually unobtainable outside Russia during the period
from 1930 to 1990 due to the closure of Siberia to external
trade by the Soviet government. For many years
Siberian Husky fanciers wished that new stock could be imported
from eastern Siberia to support the genetic health of their breed.
The breakup of the Soviet Union in 1989 made it possible
to obtain dogs from Siberia again, once the borders
of Siberia were re-opened to exterior travel and trade.
In 1990 the Russian Sergei
Alexandrovitch Solovyev and Czech
musher Ivan Síbrt selected sleddog stock from various
Siberian villages in the Chukotka region. The dogs they
obtained were taken to Solovyev's home in Ekaterinburg
(western Siberia) where Solovyev bred them as sleddogs to
the FCI (European) Siberian Husky standard.
DURING THE 1990S a few dogs bred by Solovyev and Síbrt
reached western Europe and North America, exported via the
Czech Republic to Germany and Spain initially. However, kennel
clubs such as CKC, AKC, and various European breed registries
refused to accept the Russian imports for registration as Siberian
Huskies on the grounds that the imported animals were not bred
from stock already registered in their own or other "approved"
stud books. Ironically (now that the longed-for Siberia
import dogs were finally available) Siberian Husky breed clubs in Europe,
Canada and the USA were unanimous in their rejection of the new imports;
the Siberian Husky Club of Canada asked in their newsletter, "Do we really
need new genes?" Genetic health turned out to be less important that
xenophobic prejudice!
The Solovyev Russian bloodline was
recognised by Seppala breed pioneers J. Jeffrey Bragg and Isa Boucher
as an ideal genetic match for the inbred pure Seppala AKC/CKC Siberian
bloodline as it existed in the 1990s. We believed it was imperative for the
Seppala Siberian Sleddog Project to make use of the genetic gift of new
Siberian import stock, no matter what objections or obstacles might be
imposed by the show-dog registry establishment.
THE FIRST LITTER sired by Russian import male SHAKAL
IZ SOLOVYEV on a pure Seppala bitch was born in October 1994. The
Canadian Kennel Club rejected both the application for CKC
registration of the imported sire and the application to
register his first litter, informing the breeders that
the imported male should not have been used for breeding
since he did not meet CKC's requirements for registration as
a purebred Siberian Husky. The Club would not even agree to
register his third-generation descendants.
In order to make adequate
genetic use of the new Siberia imports, application was made
to Agriculture Canada for evolving breed status for the
Seppala sleddog population.
The first filial (F1)
generation of the Russian/Seppala cross at Seppala Kennels
in the Yukon has proven highly successful in the production
of healthy, hardy working sleddogs. The progeny of SHAKAL IZ
SOLOVYEV are becoming a cornerstone of the breeding programme of
the Seppala Siberian Sleddog evolving breed project. The
chance to return to the fountainhead of the original
Siberian sleddog for fresh genetic material, spurned alike by
show dog fanciers and the ISSSC racing-siberian faction, was
nevertheless a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
