<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>A "laika" is a specific breed<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />It's a class of breeds, really. "Laika" means "barker". Laikas are dogs bred primarily for hunting large game in Scandinavia and Russia, such as bears and elk, and the usual strategy is to get a small, tight-knit pack of laikas to corner the game animal in a place where the hunter can strike, barking madly at the animal to keep it terrified.<br /><br />Several breeds of laika have been imported into the US and Canada to carry out their traditional use, but for a more humane goal. They are used in "bear education programs", where problem bears are captured in enormous live traps, and then released into a wilderness area with the dogs barking furiously at them, driving them away from humans. This is repeated as much as necessary to teach the bears to associate humans with these frightening packs of dogs, and is reportedly very successful at reducing "bear recidivism". The bears don't find the experience pleasant, but that's the idea. Bear watching groups, especially in polar bear country, also employ these dogs to help protect their clients.<br /><br />Some also extend the term to cover sled dogs such as huskies and Samoyeds, and the breeds are probably closely related. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em> -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>