The Russo-European Laika (REL) or Russko-Evropeĭskaya Láĭka, as they call it in Russia, is a Spitz type hunting dog originating from taiga regions of European Russia and Finland. This dog is a descendant of the Karelian Bear Laika, which unfortunately doesn’t exist today in its purebred form. The other and more popular descendant of this ancient dog breed is, you probably guessed it, the Karelain Bear Dog. Although these two breeds have the same ancestry and are almost identical in look, there are quite noticeable differences between them, which I’ll explain down under. This Russo Karelian Laika particularly was developed through a breeding program initiated in 1944 by E. I. Shereshevsky. The program was undertaken with the help of the All-Union Research Institute for the Hunting Industry in the Kalinin (now Tver) province. The Russo-European Laika is one of three widely recognized Laika breeds, the other two being the West Siberian Laika and East Siberian Laika. All three breeds are by the FCI included in the Nordic Hunting Dogs group in the class of primitive dogs. Continue Reading →