Tahltan Bear Dog Breed

While few accounts are available about this breed, what seems to be well-known is that they would quickly get sick and die when in warm climates, exposed to new pathogens and not allowed their regional diets. They were definitely hunters that were also guardians and companions, and they seemed to get along very well with the peoples of the Yukon — even though one of the pre-hunting rituals was to literally stab the dog with the sharpened femur of a formerly hunted animal.

Although some breeders insist they have bloodlines of this reportedly extinct breed, it is almost without a doubt you will not find a purebred Tahltan Bear Dog anywhere. In the unlikely case that you do, however, here are a few facts about these dogs:

PROS

• Very loyal
• Easy to train
• Good watchdog
• Plays well with kids
• Incredibly great hunters
• Very high tolerance to cold
• Extremely high energy drive

CONS

• Extinct
• Not hypoallergenic
• Low tolerance to warm climates
• Needs a great amount of exercise
• Distinctive yap that is loud and long

These small dogs were fierce, dedicated and team-driven to protect homes when not (literally) carried out to hunt. With their energy reserved, their minds fresh and their loyalty strong, they would keep prey — up to and including bears — at bay until bigger dogs or the human hunters could complete the kill. Their most distinctive feature was the unique brush-like tail that looked like an upside-down whisk broom. They were also double-jointed and could change gaits as well as rapidly adjust to suddenly different terrains while on the run.

These dogs worked in packs and and would signal with loud, long yaps that sounded like a yodel. They had incredible stamina, remarkable strength and a double coat to protect against the cold and the rare claw or tooth that got through their swift defenses. They were so small and light as to be able to run on fresh snow crust, but as a pack, they could take on literally any animal in the area.

When not hunting, however, they were easy-going, affectionate and playful dogs that lived with their people. They had a high tolerance for extremely cold climates but apparently didn't do well in warm weather.

There are very few historical accounts of the primitive Tahltan Bear Dog, but they are believed to have ancestors from about 13,500 years that accompanied Asiatic peoples who migrated to what is now Alaska. The breed is now believed to be entirely extinct. There are breeders and historians who contest the dog's disappearance, however.

In 1880, Sierra Club founder John Muir had one of these dogs as he explored Yukon territory. In the September 1897 edition of Century magazine, he first published "An Adventure with a Dog and a Glacier." In 1909, it was released in book form by Houghton Mifflin and simply titled "Stickeen."

A few years after the book was published the dog became recognized as a breed. Unfortunately, the newly known breed's population was already in drastic decline, and anthropologist Teit had observed that the dog being introduced to significantly warmer regions, a different diet and new diseases may have been partly responsible.

Although the breed fared poorly with the "whites who have taken away to different parts of the coast specimens of the small Tahltan 'bear dog'" (as Teit wrote), they apparently remained in moderate numbers where they originally lived. They were on the Canadian Kennel Club's radar by the 1930s, and in 1939 the CKC formally recognized the breed. The AKC followed in 1947.

This rapid recognition by North American kennel clubs may have led to the overall decline of the dog since as exportation and cross-breeding quickly followed. Like all primitive dogs, the Tahltan Bear Dog had one litter annually, and each litter bore only 3-4 puppies. In 1974, the CKC removed the breed from its stud books and once again, the AKC soon followed suite. During that decade, two last specimens of purebred Bear Dogs were found in Carcross (in the Yukon) and in Atlin (British Columbia). Those dogs were maintained by a hunter named Tom Connolly, and it is said by some to have been the last of the breed and by others that these very dogs provided foundation stock for a few existing dogs. That debate rages on.

There were apparently few or no health records kept about the Tahltan Bear Dog. They may have had a lot of issues associated with hunting dogs, however, such as work-related injuries, exhaustion, heat stroke (when they were imported to warmer climes) and diseases carried by ticks and mosquitoes when they were introduced to less-frigid regions. It is also believed that their extinction was caused in part by rabies, distemper, and parvovirus introduced by non-native peoples.

On average, these dogs were said to live to about 10 to 12 years old.