The History of the Tamaskan Breed
The first dogs to start the
ball rolling, leading to the Tamaskan Dogs of today, came over from America
in the 80’s. These 5 dogs were imported into
UK and described as husky type dogs – origins unknown.
These dogs were then bred to
Alaskan Malamute, Siberian Husky and German Shepherd crosses – origins
unknown - with the idea in mind of creating a dog that resembled the wolf
but with a good temperament, thus being suitable as a family dog, foremost
with working ability.
In the early days, through
selective breeding by a couple of people, these dogs were mated to perhaps
pure Siberian Huskies or first generation crossbreeds. A couple of German
Shepherds were also used and Alaskan Malamute. But after that, they
were selectively bred to each other over a few years trying to create this
wolf look-a-like. (Up until this time, no one is 100% certain of the
breeding programmes, as no records were made available) . Eventually given
the name wolf-dog, in approximately 1988 the name changed to
Northern Inuit (NI) as there was no wolf content, and the wolf-dog name was
misleading. As a result, a Northern Inuit Society was formed. However, differences in opinions subsequently arose on how the
breed was developing, leading to a split and a new Society being started.
With two NI Societies, and the breed going in two directions, one Society
decided to change the name of the breed to the Utonagan to disassociate
itself with the NI, thereby forming The Utonagan Society. The new Utonagan
was now starting to look quite different from the NI, but was
still not looking wolf-like enough, although temperaments of all of these
dogs were exemplary. After a short while, there was yet again another
split due to differences of opinions, and, the subsequent formation of a new
Society known as The British & International Utonagan Society, headed by the
then-President of the original Utonagan Society along with some of their
members. The original Utonagan Society then ceased to exist until some time
much later when it was resurrected by a new committee.
Meanwhile The British &
International Utonagan Society continued to selectively breed and improve
type, keeping all records of matings, health issues, etc., starting a hip
scoring and eye testing scheme, setting rules and regulations, a code of
ethics and providing breeder’s contracts. Eventually these dogs started to
look different than the dogs being bred by The (original) Utonagan Society.
Sadly, the original breeders kept inaccurate
records in the breed’s beginnings, and matings had taken place between
closely related dogs, resulting in some health issues creeping into the
breed which were not discovered until much later. What was now needed was a
new injection of healthy, unrelated bloodlines, which led to a search for
new dogs with the look and working ability necessary, but not losing the
temperament of the dog.
The
search for other wolfy looking dogs with similar ancestry led to
Lapland where dogs of a very similar appearance were being bred for
sled pulling in extreme temperatures. These dogs’ close ancestors were
also some of the best sled racing dogs in the world and would enhance the
breed’s future working ability. After some negotiations with kennel owners, a
female was purchased and imported into
the
UK, with an additional six dogs booked for import from the same kennels.
With a collection of new
bloodlines now organized, it was time to think about the future. So, it
was decided after much debate by the committee members of the British &
International Society to close down the Society, as the old (original)
Utonagan Society had just been resurrected with a new committee who did not
wish to follow the standards of The British and International Utonagan
Society or include new bloodlines in their breeding program.
Therefore, it seemed obvious that the present Utonagan would soon not
resemble the ‘new’ dogs whatsoever and they would need a new name.
The
foundation stock consisted of the original female imported from
Finland which was taken back to
Finland along with 7 selected dogs from the Blustag Kennels of
UK (and also 4 selected dogs from UK and 2 in USA, all from the Blustag
Kennel). The reserved six dogs were then collected from
Lapland. Out of these, two were exported to
UK an adult male and female from different litters.
Two other foundation dogs were added in 2006, a male was added in 2008 (a
black grey) and two more (wolf greys) were added in 2009 to bring in fresh
bloodlines and add in desirable traits to the breed.
It was February 2006 that The Tamaskan Dog Register was formed. Tamaska means ‘Mighty Wolf’ in North
American Indian language.
The Tamaskan Dog Register, formed
by the original committee members of the The British and International
Utonagan Society (and two members from as far back as the Northern Inuit
Society), is now the Governing Body for all Tamaskan dogs throughout
the world. Since forming in early 2006, the
Tamaskan Dog Society of Great Britain
and the
National Tamaskan Club of America
have also been created, Euro Tamaskan
was formed in 2009
Tamaskan Dogs have been exported from
Finland to Denmark, The Netherlands,
UK,
Greece,
Germany, France,
Sweden and USA.
The Tamaskan has a very bright future and must NOT be
confused with the Utonagan, whose standard is somewhat different, the main
differences being the depth of stop, shape of head, length of coat and the
Utonagan’s acceptance of a wide range of colors and markings. With many
additional small differences, the Tamaskan is in all a different breed which
can be clearly seen by comparing pictures from the
Tamaskan Gallery
with those found on
The Utonagan Society Gallery.
Please note that the Tamaskan
dog has no wolf content and is classed as a breed of dog, not a wolfdog.
Please visit here for information on
Tamaskan and Wolf-dogs.