Why a Samoyed? What’s a Samoyed?

Why I Chose My Fluffy Wolf

Before I tell my story, this short checklist is for anyone who’s stumbled on this page as part of your deciding “should I get a Samoyed?

Yes, if:

• You are home most of the day or can take your dog to work.
• You have access to a park or garden where they can exercise.
• You are willing to put in 1-3 hours exercise/walking a day once they are adults.
• The hair EVERYWHERE doesn’t alarm you.
• The barking doesn’t bother you/your neighbours (Sal is reasonably quiet, but Samoyeds are talkers).

Samoyed History

Samoyed dogs (can be pronounced Sam-o-yed or Sam-oid) originated with the Samoyedic/Nenet nomadic people of Siberian Russia. Their dogs were used to herd reindeer, hunt small game and deer, pull sleds, guard campsites, snuggle up and keep people warm at night, and watch out for the children. They are very much a “do anything and everything” medium sized dog.

They are high maintenance with their thick double-coated fur (which can be spun into a warm wool much like angora) and high energy; they need plenty of physical and mental stimulation and/or a job to do to avoid boredom (and trust me the last thing you want is a bored Samoyed, they excel in house and garden re-decorating).

They are a very ancient dog breed descended from arctic wolves. They were first “discovered” by western Europeans in the late 1880s for use on the polar expeditions of the late 1800s to early 1900s before they became a popular pet breed. The original Samoyeds were any of white, black, brown, or parti-coloured – see W.E. Mason 1915 “Dogs of All Nations” but the snowy “arctic” dogs proved the most popular with western dog fanciers and today’s breed standard only allows for white, cream or biscuit (light sandy brown) dogs.

The closely related Siberian Laika comes in all the ancestral colours, and dark and parti-coloured Samoyed-type dogs are still seen today in their ancestral home of Siberia. There are some (myself included) who would like to see these dogs permitted in the show ring, and so increase the genetic diversity of what has become a rare breed.

I first fell in love with Samoyeds as a child when I met two that belonged to a friend of my mother. When I was looking to get a dog of my own, I had forgotten the breed name (if I ever knew it), but luckily googling “large white fluffy dog” and “polar bear dog” easily found what I was looking for. My mother set a simple rule when I was a child “you can have any pet you like as long as it lives in a cage, you clean and feed it, and I don’t have to walk it – that means no dogs!”. I stretched this definition to the limit, first with fish and then breeding hamsters, mice, cavies and cornsnakes, before finally adding two cats (cage-free) to the menagerie, but what I really wanted was a dog. Not surprisingly, one of my first jobs was in the education department of a zoo!

Five years ago, I graduated from my PhD. To get me through the final year (anyone reading this who has or is doing a PhD will know exactly what I mean) I made a pact with myself that after graduation I would get a dog. I tried the dog rescues first (having been made aware of the #adoptdontshop lobby), but understandably the reputable rescues didn’t want to rehome to someone who lived alone and worked full-time (albeit with a good support network and options for doggy daycare). I went on to have a bad experience with the (in my view) less than reputable end of the dog rescue business that made me realise that if I wanted a dog I’d have to find a puppy.

I’d known several huskies and GSDs, and although I’d read about the similarities and differences between the various northern and working breeds, I wasn’t at all expecting the Samoyed personality quirks.

They are loving, affectionate, needy (you’ll never pee alone again), stubborn, difficult to train (unless they see what’s in it for them), talkative, pull like sled dogs, need a huge amount of training before being trustworthy offleash (some will never be trusted), high energy but thankfully most (including Sally) have a good offswitch too, hairy (the fluff gets everywhere) and have a low boredom threshold. If you aren’t providing enough stimulus, they will make their own entertainment and you won’t like the results: interior redecorating and landscape design are frequent hobbies.

Would I have another breed now? Probably not. Will Sally be my last Samoyed? I hope not. But they are hard work. Please, if you are considering this breed go talk to breeders, but also to pet owners, and try to visit and walk with as many as you can. You’ll see they all have their own personalities, but you’ll also see the behaviours general to the breed. Would I recommend a Samoyed as a pet? As I said at the start, it depends on your lifestyle, if you have the time and resources and aren’t too bothered about talkativeness and hair on everything, you’ll find them the most loving companions.

For me, once a puppy was on the cards, my thoughts kept returning to those polar bear dogs. I read up everything I could on Samoyeds, and I was lucky to find a knowledgeable breeder relatively close-by, and even luckier to find out they had a litter (they only breed every 1-3 years). I went to see them to learn more about the breed. Sally walked over and plonked herself in my lap and licked my face. And the rest, as they say, is history. I’d found my fluffy wolf.