The Djachkov dogs

Djachkov's dogs are the beginning of the recent history of the dog breed which has been provisionally recognized by the FCI since September 4, 2019.

Breed description in the FCI standard starts with a short historical summary. The name Vladimir Zinovievich Djachkov does not appear there and in current Russian information sources his name is usually only mentioned briefly. So who was the man and why were his dogs the beginning?

In the extreme north-west of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) lies the Nizhnekolymsk district, with 87,000 km² about twice the size of Lower Saxony and with around 4,000 inhabitants almost deserted. This is supposed to be the birthplace of the blue-eyed dogs. Dogs from there were described in 1910 as Kolyma-Indigirka-Laika. These dogs are often referred to in the YAKUTSKAYA LAIKA breed.

Djachkov collected his dogs in the local region. According to a newspaper article and other sources, it took him 8 years to put together a group of 13 dogs. The majority probably came from Pochodsk, a settlement of around two hundred people. The dogs were transported to Yakutsk from Chersky, the largest settlement in the Nizhnekolymsk district. Yakutsk is 1,600 km as the crow flies from the hometown of the Djachkov dogs. Only these Djachkov dogs, which formed the beginning of the YAKUTSKAYA LAIKA breed, came from this region.

So who was he and why did he take dogs from this area? This environment, which is hostile to life for most people and resembles the Pleistocene cold steppe, was his home. As a 15-year-old orphan, he roamed this cold steppe on a dog sled as a successful hunter. The dogs were his best friends. He left the region and became a polar pilot. Retired after 30 years, he returned to his homeland to fulfill his dream of roaming the tundra with these dogs again.

The shock must have been even greater when he returned to his homeland and there were actually no dogs left. According to Alexey Gavrilovich Chikachev, in 2000 there was only a single Kolyma-Indigirka sled dog group in the neighboring Allaikhovsky district, and in Nizhnekolymsk there were only scattered individual animals.

Realizing that the dogs of his childhood were in direct danger of extinction, he began collecting. It wasn't easy to convince people to part with their beloved dog. Djachkov realized that he had only one chance of preserving these dogs - only if he went with them to Yakutsk and found supporters.

A woman wrote: My beloved dog is now far away, I hope she is well, I know Djachkov is looking after her. How could I have refused his wish? He's one of us, and he said the dogs would die out otherwise.

Here is an excerpt from the book "Yakut Laika and the History of Northern Dogs" by R. Kuhls