HOW TO BUY A GOOD LAIKA PUPPY

First what you have to do is to find a right breeder. A right breeder is one who is using his Laikas for hunting. Because Laika’s character is individualistic and jealous, one cannot hunt well with a bunch of dogs each time. The best hunting is with one or two dogs at a time. Only when going after big game two or three dogs are desirable. Therefore, any Laika breeder, who has dozens of dogs, should be out of your list. Do not condone dog farming, especially with Laikas.

Every Laika puppy starts treeing small game naturally under condition of being allowed to run loose in woods since very young age. By age of five to ten months majority of Laikas already find their own squirrels and bark under trees. Since that time, early starters and late starters work equally well during the rest of their lives. A Laika puppy, which missed his critical age for self learning how to find and tree game, will never or very hard to catch up. A one year old dog or older, which have never been in woods since puppy age, may become a good hunting dog for wild boar or other big game, but he will never become a good squirrel dog. A breeder with dozens of Laikas locked up in cages cannot hunt them properly and even less so raising their puppies capable of hunting. Therefore, when you see a breeder of multiple dogs in his kennel, turn back. No matter what he may tell you, do not support puppy mill kennels.

Even a breeder, who is not a hunter himself, may raise and sell good hunting Laika puppies, if he has not too many dogs, works on each of them and has right conditions for their development allowing them to run free in the forest. Even a hunter, who has many dogs, but hunts only some of his dogs, but keeps the rest of them locked up in pens, is a wrong breeder. Besides asking about registration papers and inspecting conditions of life of adult dogs and puppies, ask the breeder to take a stroll in nearby woods with one of his dogs and see, if the dog is looking up trees.

Which puppy in the litter is the best? The best puppy is not necessarily the biggest. A good puppy may not come up to your hands right away, but it will not hide from you either. This also depends on the age of puppies at the time of you visit. Shy puppies at the age of five weeks will change by age of eight or nine weeks and become bold and outgoing. Look at their ears. Adequately fed and purebred Laikas have prick ears since very early age and not later then by age of eight or nine weeks. Buying a West Siberian Laika choose mother of the litter with one estrus per year. Siberian hunters preferred such dogs, because they were available for hunting during a longer time every year.