Hunting Laika Breeds of Russia
Vladimir Beregovoy was born on January 24, 1935, in Leningrad, Russia.  In 1960, he graduated from the Perm State University, Perm, Russia, as a biologist. In 1964 he defended his dissertation and was awarded a degree of Candidate of Sciences in Biology (PhD equivalent) and continued his research work in zoology.   In 1970 he accepted a position as Associate Professor at the Kuban State University and moved to Krasnodar.   From 1972 to 1974 he worked in Russian nature preserves and published several papers on variation of natural populations and ecology of insects and birds. He owed dogs of different breeds, but his favorite dog was the West Siberian Laika named Aliska.   In 1979, he emigrated with his wife Emma and two children to Vienna, Austria.   In 1980, they emigrated to Portland, Oregon, USA.   In Winter, 1980, he found his first job in the U.S.A. with TPI, Inc., Bismark, North Dakota. He worked as a wildlife biologist in a team of geologists, who conducted a survey of abandoned coal mined lands in western North Dakota.  As a result of this work he wrote a report for the Government of North Dakota and published a checklist of terrestrial vertebrates living on lands mined for coal, in co-authorship with Mark Brucker. In 1981, he found a job with Entomology Department, North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota. From 1981 to 1989 he was involved in research projects on insects and published about 12 articles in scientific journals. He was also teaching a course on History of Biology and Evolution at North Dakota State University. His first article on the West Siberian Laika and the Karelian Bear Dog was published in North Dakota Outdoors. In 1989, he found a job as a Senior Agriculturist with the Department of Entomology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma. Here, he worked until his retirement on February 1, 2000. Here, he participated in a research project on the ecology and genetic variation of the green bug damaging cereal crops and published his results in scientific journals. He bought a 80 acres farm about 10 miles NW of Stillwater. From 1991 to 1996, he imported five West Siberian Laikas from Russia, three males and two females. This dogs became a foundation stock of the West Siberian Laika in North America. He also had a Karelian Bear Dog female.  As a result of observations on these dogs and previous experience with Laikas, he published several articles about them in Dog World, Full Cry, Wilderenss Ways and Small Farm Today.