They just keep pulling! Spring in North Greenland
Photograph courtesy of Greenland Tourism.

VIII: Acknowledgements

Vladimir Beregovoy graduated in 1960 as a biologist from Perm State University in Perm, Perm Krai, Russia. He defended his dissertation in 1964 and was awarded a Degree of Candidate of Sciences from the Institute of Biology, Uralian Branch of Academy of Sciences of the USSR, where he worked as a zoologist. He taught at the Kuban State University, Krasnodar. During his work as a zoologist, he traveled to Ural, West Siberia, Volga River region, Kazakhstan and North Caucasus. Beregovoy has published several articles in popular magazines and two books: Primitive Breeds-Perfect Dogs and Hunting Laika Breeds of Russia. He is also the advisor and curator of the Primitive and Aboriginal Dog Society, International (PADS) as well as a member of the editorial board of the PADS Journal.

During travels through southern Africa in their quest for the essence of the dog, the Gallants discovered native African dogs. They realized that all those years as ill-informed bystanders, exhibiting at shows, participating in obedience and working trials and eventually judging, they had looked at these native dogs with contempt. The western worship of "pure" breeds of dogs had veiled their vision of native African dogs. They soon were faced with the fact that these rural dogs represented an ancient landrace, certainly not 'improved' or streamlined into fashionable homogeneity. But their behavior is so intense and uniform, their physical prowess and health condition so remarkable that they inspired the Gallants to begin in-depth research. They named this African dog AfriCanis. Johan was co-founder and chairman of the AfriCanis Society. The Gallants perspective and respect for canine landraces emerged from their apprehension that Canis familiaris, the domestic dog as a whole had been badly misunderstood. Their book, SOS Dog: The Purebred Dog Hobby Re-examined was written to be the dog's mouthpiece. Edith Gallant carries on with the work with the AfriCanis.

Benson Ginsburg, professor emeritus of Psychology (University of Connecticut - UCONN), was among the first to study behavior genetics, a scientific discipline of which he was one of the founding fathers and preeminent leaders. He also established and, for sixteen years prior to his retirement, headed the Biobehavioral Sciences Department at the UCONN Storrs campus. His department reflected an approach to research ranging from the biology of the brain and behavior to anthropology, neurobiology, and psychology.

Dr. Ginsburg's research was devoted to relating behavior to genes and involved studies of the evolution of social behavior using animal models which included dogs and their wild relatives: wolves and coyotes. His early studies of canid socialization and wolf social and reproductive behavior were focused, in part, on the degree to which there was flexibility in social development and specifically whether there was a critical period during development after which wolf pups could not be socialized to humans.

Dr. Ginsburg was the author and co-author of scores books and scientific publications, many of them about canid genetics and behavior.

Ken MacRury moved to the Canadian Arctic in 1971. During the two years he lived in Igluliq (1974-1976), he was introduced to "real dog teams and real drivers", traveling and hunting by Inuit Dog team in a traditional manner under the mentoring of a respected Inuk dog man. During that time, Ken introduced Bill Carpenter to people who were able to provide foundation dogs for Carpenter and McGrath’s Eskimo Dog Recovery Project in Yellowknife, NWT. Ken collaborated with the program by exchanging breeding stock. In 1991 he completed his thesis, The Inuit Dog: Its Provenance, Environment and History, in fulfillment of his Master of Philosophy in Polar Studies at Darwin College, Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, England. This document remains today the most comprehensive scientific study of the aboriginal dog of the circumpolar north and it is still much sought after as a valuable resource for northern dog enthusiasts, scientists, authors and filmmakers worldwide as well as aboriginal and non-aboriginal government agencies and Inuit cultural organizations. Ken has granted exclusive publication and distribution rights to his thesis to Mark and Sue Hamilton, owners of The Fan Hitch Website and  Publications of the Inuit Sled Dog. His generosity has not only served to support The Fan Hitch's web hosting services, but also has enabled  The Fan Hitch  to donate  copies of the thesis and monetary contributions to entities who further the best interest of Inuit Sled Dogs in the North.

From his time in Igluliq and through the balance of his northern stay in Iqaluit on Baffin Island until his retirement and relocation to Atlantic Canada in 2002, Ken kept, bred, traveled and hunted with Inuit Dogs.

Benson Ginsburg and Miranda in Hamilton’s kennel exercise pen.
                                                                    Photo: Hamilton

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