These are hybrids between domestic dogs and golden jackals:

Source.

The Sulimov dogs are the only breed I know of that was bred to be a sniffer dog.

The Russian government keeps a tight leash on these dogs, so I don’t think there is any chance of anyone getting one as pet in this country.

The original mix was between a reindeer herding spitz called a Lapinporokoira and a golden jackal from Turkmenistan. Other breeds of domestic dog have been added, but these dogs have a very strong jackalish and herding spitz appearance.

The original dogs were kept at 3/4 Lapinporokoira and 1/4 golden jackal.

The jackals were chosen to produce this dog because the jackals are known to have a better sense of smell than domestic dogs. If your diet is carrion and you don’t live with messy humans, you need a very strong sense of smell to find food.

Klim Sulimov decided to create a golden jackal hybrid to make a super sniffer dog.

I would love to see how these dogs compare to more conventional breeds.

Now, as I have said before, golden jackals can interbreed with domestic dogs. However, domestic dogs and golden jackals have to be raised together before they consider each other mates. Jackal-dogs really aren’t that common, although it suspected that the wolfish golden jackal from Egypt may have some dog in it.

Sulimov had to imprint his male jackals with dogs when they were puppies or they wouldn’t mate with domestic bitches. Female jackals more easily accepted male dogs as mates.

This might mean any hybrid offspring that occur in the wild are derived from male dogs crossing with female jackals. The reverse may not happen without human intervention.

And that may be why golden jackals have not contributed to the dog genome.

It seems like they would. Jackals and dogs scavenge in the same sorts of areas, and some of the dogs from Canis aureus’s range look a lot like they have jackal ancestry.

Darwin and Konrad Lorenz put a lot of stock into jackal origins for at least some domestic dogs.

But none of the genetic studies have found any hint of this golden jackal blood.

However, I don’t think anyone has looked at how dogs have affect on the golden jackal species.

We now know that black wolves and coyotes get their coloration from the occasional influx of dog genes.

I’ve never heard of a black jackal, but maybe they have other genes that come from dogs.

It’s something worth exploring.