#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. At that time, all teenagers without exception dreamed of service dogs, and the shepherd was considered the most desirable breed, of course.
But there were few thoroughbred dogs in the city: they were expensive, and the mainland breeders did not want to send puppies for export to faraway Norilsk. Therefore, young dog breeders with any pets, including mongrels, were accepted into the club.
Teenagers, led by the club leader Sergey Gorelov, built a playground near the House of Pioneers with their own hands, put up makeshift ladders and barriers, went through a general training course with their pets, and arranged demonstration performances.
In the 1980s, several clubs were involved in dog breeding in the city. They worked with hunting breeds under the hunting society, an amateur club Arctic appeared in Norilsk, and a similar one named Fauna operated in Kayerkan.
Since 1981, the Norilsk City Service Dog Club has been operating to this day. It originated under DOSAAF (Voluntary Society for Assistance to the Army, Aviation and Navy), where service dog breeding was one of the areas of military applied sports.
The club founder was a Nadezhda metallurgical plant employee Anatoly Leonov, so the club was originally located in Kayerkan, and later moved to the premises on Bohdan Hmelnitsky street, 15.
Later, Anatoly Leonov was replaced by Sergey Yakovtsev, a master of sports in all-around with a service dog, who trained the Norilsk team in this sport.
The all-around included running with a dog, overcoming an obstacle course, grenade throwing and shooting, detaining an intruder, and even swimming.
At that time, the Service Dog Breeding Club was not only engaged in training the personal dogs of the Norilsk people, but also trained service dogs for the army, the police and the guards of correctional institutions.
The most visible events, of course, were dog shows. They took place most often at the Zapolyarnik stadium and attracted a lot of spectators who came not only to admire the beautiful thoroughbred dogs, but also to see how they skillfully executed commands or stopped the ‘violators’ dressed in voluminous jerseys.
After the DOSAAF ceased its activities, the Norilsk City Service Dog Breeding Club went on free bread, becoming a public organization.
In the last issue of the History Spot photo project, we told that in the early 1940s, CHPP-1 was the largest and most majestic building in Norilsk.
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Text: Svetlana Samohina, Photo: Nornickel Polar Division archive
