The indigenous people of North America had their own dog breeds long before Europeans arrived, and Europeans cared as much about preserving those old breeds as they cared about preserving the cultures they came from. Today, though, there's some renewed interest in bringing back indigenous breeds. One of these is the Tahltan bear dog, which was originally bred and owned by the Tahltan First Nations in northwestern British Columbia.
According to Yukon News, Tahltan bear dogs were fox-sized with pointy ears and bushy tails. Writer Murray Lundberg says the Tahltan carried their dogs around in moosehide backpacks, much like childless people carry their chihuahuas around today, except bear dogs actually did useful things when they got to their destination, you know, besides just trembling and looking pathetic and/or adorable. The dogs were called bear dogs because, despite their diminutive size, the Tahltan would often use packs of them to hunt bears.
Like so many other extinct breeds, some breeders are trying to bring back the bear dog. There are even a few selling "bear dog" puppies, though it's unclear how much actual bear dog blood is in these very expensive animals. Murray argues that even if you could breed a dog that looked like a bear dog, you could never truly bring the breed back since it would have to be developed under the same conditions as the original. Colonization and modernization have made it impossible to recreate those conditions, so the bear dog will almost certainly remain extinct.
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