Canadian Eskimo Dog

Canadian Eskimo Dogs do everything – pull sleds, bark, eat, fight – with immense energy. While most Nordic breeds weigh just over 20kg (44lb), this breed can be well in excess of double that size. Indeed, the people of Arctic Canada, the Inuit, have survived in that harsh climate for over a thousand years only because of the versatility of this large, hard-working but aloof canine. Records show that in the 1950s they numbered around 20,000, and all Inuit used to keep a sled dog. However, the introduction of the snowmobile brought this breed to near extinction. By the early 1970s, with numbers reduced to fewer than 200, a breeding programme was initiated. Today, the Canadian Eskimo Dog is still endangered, with numbers in the low hundreds. This is the great husky as it was described in Jack London’s stories.