Kiba the Northern Inuit Dog
Thought I'd put some pics up of Kiba my NID, from baby to 18 months! Sorry there are lots of pics!
1 week (our first meeting)
2.5 weeks
6 weeks
7 weeks
11 weeks
17 weeks
5 months
(Note: Kiba's ears both finally went up at 6 months, we thought he was going to have one floppy ear forever.)
7 months
8 months
10 months
1 year
15 months
17 months (4 weeks post castration)
18 months
Sorry for the huge amount of pics! Thanks for looking!
1 week (our first meeting)
2.5 weeks
6 weeks
7 weeks
11 weeks
17 weeks
5 months
(Note: Kiba's ears both finally went up at 6 months, we thought he was going to have one floppy ear forever.)
7 months
8 months
10 months
1 year
15 months
17 months (4 weeks post castration)
18 months
Sorry for the huge amount of pics! Thanks for looking!
Comments
In the 1990,s, there was an increase in the amount of advertisements offering ‘wolf hybrid’ pups for sale. As the recent ‘Pit Bull’ horror stories from an over zealous tabloid press emerged, the RSPCA and other authorities grabbed the chance to try and have many people prosecuted and their dogs confiscated under the Dangerous wild animal act. Because of all the controversy surrounding any wolfy looking dogs, a group of people got together to try and safeguard the future of a particular line of these dogs.
The dogs were given the name ‘the Northern Inuit dog’ (which I shall hereafter refer to as the N.I.), due to the Northern breeds and Inuit type dogs that were used to create the breed. Two of these original Inuit types were imported to the UK from the USA as ‘wolf hybrid’ dogs, and there ensuing progeny were sold up and down the country as ‘wolf hybrids’, it is very dubious as to whether there was any actual wolf content in these dogs at all.
At the time of the N.I being established, one of the founder s of the breed, Julie Kelham, had the local authorities hammering at her door, trying to seize her dogs as dangerous wild animals. Although they went away empty handed, it resulted in a court case being brought against her, at the local magistrates court on the 20th of june 1998. At this time, the N.I was well established as a breed of dog and not as a wolf hybrid. The end result of the court case was a not guilty verdict due to the fact that it could not be proven that there was any wolf content in the breed.
The N.I has flourished since then and is rapidly gaining in popularity, therefore, the Northern Inuit society was formed to govern the breeding and well being of this wonderful dog, although, some members, in the past, were obviously not satisfied with the N.I as it was, and went on to cross their dogs with other breeds, which has resulted in several splits,and breeds such as the Utonagan, British Inuit, Tamaskan and ‘Inuit’ groups being formed. The N.I society believes that crossing the N.I with any other breed would only be detrimental to them and we are quite satisfied with the N.I as it is.
So, the question still remains ‘is there any wolf content in the N.I.’? this is a question many people ask, and the truthful answer is, it really is impossible to say, if there is, it is so far back that it would have been diluted to almost 0 percent, although some people would prefer that we steer well away from the wolf question, we are proud that our breed resemble the wolf in looks and of the unanswered question ‘IS THERE OR ISN’T THERE?'
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The original 'Inuit dogs' were selectively bred with Siberian Husky, Alaskan Malamute and German Shepherd lines in order to create what is the breed today. Here's a pic from one of our pack walks to show you some of the different colours of NID.
As for temperament my boy is fantastic. He is a lazy house dog and spends most of his time asleep, he gets on fantastically with other dogs though will sometimes have a grumble at entire males whilst he sorts out who's top dog. He is very attached to me as his human, and as a result of this has severe separation anxiety to the point where he cannot be left at all, even with other dogs for company. Off leash he can be a bit hit and miss, up to 8 months his recall was perfect, but he hit maturity and realised he doesn't really have to listen to me if he doesn't want to, which has sometimes resulted in me standing in the middle of a field with Kiba pelting half a mile across a field to go and see another dog...we're still working on that! They are a very intelligent breed, but this doesn't show in obedience, you can literally see him working out in his head whether it's in his best interest to do as he's told or to go off and be 'norty'. It is said that the whites are more difficult to live with, but I haven't had this with Kiba, he was practically house trained when he came home, never had an accident overnight and slept from 11pm-8am with no issues. He has never chewed anything he wasn't supposed to and he will let anyone do anything to him.
He's a happy happy boy and always has been. He does mope a bit when we don't have any boarding dogs in though, he loves company. So hopefully we'll get a little brother for him in a few months time. Watch this space ^.~
I'm still a little miffed that they are using Northern Inuits in the HBO Game of Thrones series to stand in for dire wolves. Ok, i know dire wolves are extinct, and it's probably hard to get trained wolves or wolf hybrids for the movies, but still! I don't think they look that wolfie. But like Losech said, people think Shibas look like foxes, which is puzzling in the extreme!
I do think it depends what lines you buy from and whether you have a 'true' Northern Inuit or a pup from a husky/mal/gsd breeding that people are more often trying to pass off as a Northern Inuit. The 'type' seems to be emerging a little more now within the Northern Inuit Society at least, but there are so many factions for this breed and its offshoots now that it's difficult to see where the breed is going.
Kiba's not hyper at all and takes everything in his stride, but whether that's due to his breeding or his socialisation when he was a puppy I'm not sure.
They tried using Saarloos crosses for the Game of Thrones series but apparently the dogs were much too shy to be any use for filming so they went with the Northern Inuit instead. Personally I think it's great for the breed, obviously being involved with them myself, but I can see why fans might be disappointed that the dogs aren't more wolfy looking. However, I'd rather have a nice looking dog than a badly done CGI!
I'm gutted I wont be able to see that series because we don't have sky...
Actually the Utonagans are a variation of the NID. The various factions of the original Northern Inuit Society split apart and took their own 'founding' dogs to create the other breeds. The Utonagan, British Utonagan, British Inuit, Tamaskan and Anglo Wulfdog are all descendant breeds of the NID. The Utonagan breeders added long coated collies to their breeding to get the longer coat and I believe are now going back to the Northern Breeds to try and maintain the 'type', the newer offshoot of them, the British Utonagan breeders are going back to using Malamute, Husky and German Shepherds to try and widen their genepool. The British Inuit breeders started crossing with Czech Wolfdog crosses. I don't know much about the Tamaskan so can't comment on those. And the Anglo Wulfdog breeders are also using Czech Wolfdog crosses and Saarloos crosses in their breedings.