THE HISTORY OF THE NORTHERN INUIT

The Northern Inuit dog was the vision of a lady called Edwina Harrison. She wanted to create a dog that resembled a wolf but without the traits of shy/timidness and high prey drive whilst keeping the family and loyalty traits. also incorporating traits of companionship and trainability of the modern dog.

Edwina started to put her vision into reality by combining different northern breeds together. She imported dogs from the USA, some say these dogs had wolf content but we will never know as she took this information with her when she passed. After her death her dogs went to different breeders who carried on eddies vision of a wolfalike dog.

These breeders got together and called them northern inuits.

In the 90's breeders following her vision formed the Northern Inuit Society and the Northern Inuit dog breed as we know today was born. 

Years later tensions within the society caused some breeders to leave, taking their dogs with them and rebranding their dogs and subsequent offspring Utonagans ( meaning spirit of the wolf ).

The utonagan breeders then went on to form the Utonagan Society but again tensions arose between breeders causing a further split.

One breeder out-crossed her utonagans and rebranded them Tamaskans while others out-crossed their dogs and rebranded them the British Timberdog, later dropping the word british and today they are known as Timber dogs.

Many tensions over the years were due to disagreements about how these dogs should look, health, and especially the high COI'S ( coeffiency of inbreeding ) , caused by a closed stud book by some clubs.

There are now certain clubs and independent breeders all working together to lower COI'S, widen the gene pool, improve health and diversity while still keeping type and the fantastic temprament of the northern inuit dog. By doing this we are striving to keep Edwina Harrison's vision alive and securing the future of the wonderful northern inuit dog.

The most common question asked about the northern inuit dog is "do they have wolf content" the answer is yes, some NI lines do have wolf content while other have not.

The northern inuit is such a versatile breed, some owners do canicross, biking, mantrailing, search and rescue and service dogs.

I myself have bred two puppies whom are now fully qualified service dogs. One in the USA and one in Canada.