There has been a tremendous amount of speculation as to the origins of the Northern Inuit Dog. In the past we have accepted what we were told by the breeders of our dogs, who still seem to be giving various contradicting accounts and this is one of the reasons this Association was formed.  

The Association has undertaken to do its own research and this has taken us beyond the time the breed was given the name Northern Inuit Dog. New evidence has come to light, which makes the history a little clearer and more plausible. For the time being we will keep with the brief history that we know to be true and a more detailed account, along with documentary evidence and photographs, will be given in the book being written by the Chairperson of this Association and this website will be updated at that time.

In the 1980’s several Inuit/Husky type dogs were imported by various individuals and a few specimens of the progeny of these were selectively bred for type and size with northern breeds. Such as Malamute and Husky crosses and the German Shepherd Dog for trainability, to create a breed with a wolfish appearance and submissive temperament. These were carefully bred over several generations to create the Northern Inuit Dog we know today. However, the breeders of these dogs sold them as Wolf hybrids, which totally misled the public and caused a scare across the country and it took a Court case to prove that there was NO wolf content in the dogs at all. In the early years a handful of other dogs (from these same breeds) were brought into the breeding programme to improve the breed by expanding the gene pool and setting certain characteristics. For many generations now the Northern Inuit Dog has been bred pure, Inuit Dog to Inuit Dog, and a definite type has been established. A breeding programme has been developed involving TIDA breeders to improve the health and expand the small gene pool of these dogs in order to ensure the vitality of the breed in the future.