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A Dog's Life
Frequently, the North of times past has been so romanticized that one might wish to be an Inuk - but never an Inuit dog. Traditionally, puppies were born in the cold and struggled for life against the elements and the aggression of other dogs at the time when they were allowed to roam free. As soon as they were strong enough, they were trained to the sled and, after the 1950s when it became law, picketed in the open.
They were disciplined by the whip and by the boss dog, also sometimes referred to as the king dog. Their food was a frozen lump of seal meat. Their only distraction was a fight. In the summer, when they were not packing with the family, they were let loose, where possible, on an island.
On seeing them, many people claim that Inuit dogs are part wolf. Indeed, a white Inuit dog does resemble an arctic wolf, while certain gray Inuit dogs resemble small gray wolves. Unlike the gray wolf of the southern areas, the arctic wolf has a fairly short muzzle and moderately small ears, similar to the Inuit dog, but has longer legs and a narrower chest. It also carries its tail down. When an Inuit dog team howls, it sings with the same wolflike eeriness.
Their social hierarchy is similar to a wolf pack, with an alpha male and an alpha female. The boss dog breaks up fights and feeds first. All the other dogs in the pack grovel at his feet. Unlike in a wolf pack where there is virtually no fighting between subordinates, Inuit dogs of the lower order love to fight between themselves at the slightest provocation.
The alpha dog will breed with any female in heat and the alpha female will accept any other male - although some will only accept their mate. Whereas, in the wolf pack only the alpha pair breeds, in the Inuit dog pack, any female in heat will breed. In a wolf pack, adult wolves will cub-sit while the alpha pair goes hunting. In the Inuit dog pack, a male is quite likely to make a meal of tiny pups left unguarded. Females, especially those with pups, have been known to kill another female's young pups if the dam leaves them alone even for a few minutes, while others will try to raise them and attempt to feed them. However, when the pups are big and strong enough to run around, they can do so among the adult dogs without fear. Dogs will even respond to the pups' mouth teasing and regurgitate food for them. Wolves do that too.
Although ISDs and wolves howl in the same manner, there is no wolf in the ISD anymore than there is in a poodle.
Until the introduction of the snowmobile, Inuit dogs were found scattered from the Bering Strait, along the littoral regions of the Yukon and Alaska, throughout the Mackenzie Delta in the west, along both coasts of Hudson Bay, Southampton Island, Northern Quebec, Labrador, and Baffin Island, as well as in Greenland. Inuit dogs were also found around Baker Lake, the only inland Inuit settlement in Canada.
Currently, few completely pure Inuit dogs remained in northern communities. Nowadays, Inuit dogs are found in many countries outside of their place of origin. The Inuit dogs are the true conquerors of the North and South poles. Without their invaluable help, men couldn't have mapped Antarctica as soon as they did.
Just a comment on the breeders of Inuit dogs: "I am concerned that, rather than breeding for a hard-working Arctic draught animal, we will see people who will breed for size, color, meekness or some other trait. Should that happen, we will soon lose the animal we presently have and end up with a paler copy." ~ Ken MacRury.
Copyright © ISDI 2005
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