What is a Eurasier?
Whenever we're in public, we're often asked what breed of dog Victra is. After replying "Eurasier", they're often still confused, as it's a hard word for people to visualize phonetically (they usually think it starts with a Y) and I have to explain, "it's like Europe and Asia put together". They are also occassionally referred to as Eurasians in some countries or breed registries.
If you haven't come across a Eurasier before, and you want to know more, here's a basic background on the breed!
Eurasiers are a breed created in the 1960s by a man named Julius Wipfel, who wanted to create a new companion breed.
Wipfel had had a Wolfspitz (now known as a Keeshond) in the past, which was a great family companion, but he wanted a dog with a bit more spunk and independence. And so, after reviewing different breeds of dogs, he decided to breed a Wolfspitz to a Chow-chow.
After several generations of this breeding, Wipfel was quite happy with the result - he called these dogs Wolf-Chows and they were smart, loyal, calm, good-natured and quiet. They were medium-sized and came in all colours.
However, Wipfel and his associates decided to bring in one more breed to diversify the gene pool, and settled on the Samoyed, for its friendly temperament. It was then that they decided to change the name of this breed to the Eurasier, as a nod to this breed’s European and Asian ancestry. And so, the modern Eurasier was born.
To this day, Eurasiers have remained true to Wipfel’s intentions for the breed and are wonderful family/companion dogs. Physically, they are still medium-sized dogs, they come in every colour except white, and they may have blue, pink, or spotted tongues.
Eurasiers are happiest when they are with their people, whether it is laying around at home or out on a hike. They are smart, easily trainable, although they do have a mind of their own, and may not always listen! They are eager to please, to an extent, but will get bored after doing a few repetitions of an exercise.
Eurasiers are typically aloof with strangers and there is variance among individuals dogs would react, (and would depend on the stranger as well); some Eurasiers will happily approach new people, tails a-wagging, and others may prefer to hang back and watch first. They can be socialized to other people, kids, dogs and cats.
Generally, the most major observable contradiction to the breed standard is that many Eurasiers have some form of prey drive and love to chase after rabbits and squirrels. Seeing little critters is oftentimes the only time a Eurasier will vocalize as they are generally fairly quiet and don’t bark unnecessarily.
I can go on and on about this wonderful breed; I'll continue adding to this page as more aspects about the Eurasier come to mind, but feel free to reach out if you have any questions...I am happy to talk about Eurasiers any time!