Hokkaido

The native Japanese breeds are believed to descend from dogs that arrived with people during the Jomon period, and the Hokkaido's more immediate ancestors are usually traced to medium-sized dogs brought north from Honshu by Ainu migrants around the twelfth century. Isolated on Japan's northernmost island, the type developed with little outside influence and stayed closely tied to Ainu hunting culture.

The English zoologist Thomas Blakiston, working in Hakodate, gave the breed its Hokkaido name in 1869. Public attention came in 1902, when Hokkaido dogs were credited with helping locate survivors of an Imperial Japanese Army regiment caught in a catastrophic blizzard during a march across the Hakkoda Mountains, a disaster in which most of the men died.

In 1937 the Japanese government designated the Hokkaido a Living Natural Monument, giving it formal protected status alongside the other native breeds. The Hokkaido Ken Hozonkai, founded in 1954, maintains the registry and the standard in Japan. Numbers are modest even at home and the breed is very rare abroad, recognised by the FCI in Group 5 and recorded in the American Kennel Club's Foundation Stock Service.

This is a medium-sized, squarely built spitz with substance. Males stand around 19 to 20 inches at the shoulder and females a little less, with weights commonly between about 45 and 65 pounds. The body is compact and muscular, the bone heavier than a Shiba's, and the whole dog is put together for endurance in snow rather than for speed.

The double coat is the breed's most practical feature: a harsh, straight, stand-off outer coat over a dense soft undercoat that thickens dramatically for winter. Recognised colours include red, white, black, brindle, sesame, black and tan, and wolf grey. Many Hokkaido also carry a spotted blue-black tongue, a trait shared with only a handful of breeds.

The head is broad with a wedge-shaped muzzle, small dark triangular eyes set with a slightly oblique line, and small thick pricked ears carried forward. The tail is thick and set high, carried curled over the back or in a sickle. The overall expression is alert, dignified and rather stern.

A Hokkaido bonds intensely and narrowly. With his own household he is affectionate, playful and remarkably attentive, often following his person from room to room and reading their mood closely. With strangers he is reserved, sometimes to the point of aloofness, and he does not offer friendship to people he has not decided about.

Courage is central to the breed. A dog developed to hold a bear at bay until the hunters arrived is not one that backs down easily, and that shows in an adult Hokkaido's steadiness and in a willingness to stand his ground. Combined with strong territorial instincts, it makes him a naturally excellent watchdog, but it also means same-sex dog aggression is a real possibility and prey drive toward cats and small animals is high.

He is intelligent and independent rather than biddable, and he learns extremely fast, including things you did not intend to teach him. He is generally quieter than many spitz breeds but will bark to warn. He is good with children in his own family when raised with them, though his low tolerance for rough handling from unfamiliar children is worth respecting.

This is not a dog for a household that wants a friendly, easygoing pet. He needs early and continuing socialisation, clear structure and an owner who is genuinely interested in the primitive breeds rather than one who bought a photograph.

The Hokkaido's original work was big-game hunting in extreme winter conditions, primarily bear and deer, where a dog had to track through deep snow, corner dangerous quarry, hold it and survive doing so. The heavy coat, the endurance, the nerve and the strong homing sense all came from that. Ainu hunters also used the dogs for general guarding and camp work.

In modern Japan a small number still hunt, and elsewhere the breed is kept as a companion and watchdog. Owners who want to give him a job find that hiking, canicross, weight pulling, tracking and scent work suit him well, and he can be a very capable working-trial or agility dog for a handler who can hold his attention. His alertness makes him a natural property watchdog without any need for encouragement.