Physical characteristics
 The Inuit dog has a broad, wedge-shaped, well-proportioned head. The lips are brown or black and curl downwards at the corners of the mouth to give the dog a decidedly disdainful air.
His eyes are almond-shaped, small and slanted, and set close to the center line of the muzzle. It gives him a wild and sly appearance, yet he is neither. Round eyes point to questionable purity. The eyes are dark brown to amber in color. They are never blue. Puppies of up to six or seven weeks do have dark blue or mauve eyes but they gradually darken, and by eight weeks of age the eyes have become brown or amber in cinnamon colored dogs.
Ears are short, thick and erect with a slightly rounded tip. They are set on the sides of the head, 13 to 15 cm(5-6 ins) apart. At the moment of birth, puppies' ears are folded forward, flat alongside the head. They completely cover the opening of the ear. Three hours later, the ear has lifted and the aperture is visible. From then on the ears stand straight. There should be no floppy ears at any time.
The neck is straight and well-muscled. The Inuit dog's chest is wide and well-muscled. The shoulders are broad and obliquely set, and seen from front or rear, the dog stands on straight, not unduly-long, legs. In comparison, the wolf has a narrow chest and a long back. Its legs are longer and is altogether leaner in appearance.
The dog's paws are large and oblong in shape, with thick pads heavily-furred between the toes. A well-developed loin and strong thigh muscles make up the rear of the body. The spine is prominent and can easily be felt in properly-nourished animals.
The tail is long and bushy, the white tip reaching below the hocks, and curls immediately from the base over the back and down one side. It should be noted that some specimens of Inuit dog often carry their tails down, or floating out behind them when running. If the Inuit dog is under extreme stress, his tail droops.
Some dogs, particularly of the seangnaq color (a brown or buff undercoat with black guard hair), but also some gray ones, have a black tip on their tail. The Inuit dog has a dark spot a few inches down from the base of the tail.
The dog reaches full maturity at three years of age. He weighs 30 to 41kg(66-90lbs). Height to the withers varies from 58 to 70cm(23-27½ins). It is important that weight and height are always in proportion, and that the height at the withers and at the hips is the same.
The adult female is significantly smaller with a more refined head. She measures 50 to 60cm(20-24ins) and weighs 18 to 30kg(40-66lbs).
The coat of the Inuit dog is of a unique texture. It is smooth but not silky. It has a certain stiffness and is perfectly straight. The coat is made up of two parts: the soft, woolly undercoat, which insulates the dog to perfection, and the outer guard hair.
Males have a dense mane or ruff around the neck and over the shoulders extending half way over the back in the form of a triangle. The hair here can be from 7 to 15cm(3-6ins) in length. The rest of the hair is shorter. Occasionally, there are dogs with longer fur on the body and a mane up to 20cm(8ins) long.
Once a year, in July or August in most parts of the country, the Inuit dogs shed their underfur. Females also shed after giving birth.
Colors range from solid white to all black except for a white belly. There are a number of variations, for example, a white body could have just a black or gray line in the middle of the back, or could have a light dusting of black or gray on the back, but not extending down the flanks.
A striking variation is a black head on a completely white body. Cinnamon - often referred to as red or brown - heads on white bodies also exist. This latter type usually has one or more patches on the body as well. Their faces can carry a small area of white on the cheeks.
There is also an off-white coat variation. It is closer to a buff color and is often seen with gray markings. Another type is a black, cinnamon or gray body with a white underbelly and a white neck. The white may go all round the neck or only half-way. The tail is also colored, with a white tip, except for some gray dogs who sport a black tip.
Another less frequent color is the seangnaq. These dogs have a dark muzzle and a lighter brown face. They also have a black tail tip. The cinnamon dogs vary from a very light rust color to deep cinnamon.
The head can present a variety of masks. It can have black circles around the eyes, black ears with the black extending toward the cheeks but split in the middle and sometimes covering the cheeks and most of the muzzle, or solid black extending down the nose. A totally black head might have a small white line to the muzzle, or a vertical strip of white in the middle of the forehead. These heads are most frequently seen on white bodies.
Another characteristic of the Inuit dog is the takoolik, meaning in Inuktitut "four eyes" or "having double sight". It is the two white spots on the eyebrows above the eyes, which do look like a second pair of eyes, and are particularly striking in black-headed dogs. Some dogs, however, are missing the takoolik.
In summer, when the sun is high, dark dogs rapidly lose color as if they were bleached. Black becomes reddish gray, cinnamon becomes very pale. White sometimes takes a sprinkling of gray or a reddish tint. When the dogs shed and grow a new coat, the original colors come back. It is also the time when the fur grows fast and thick in preparation for winter.
There is an oddity which can appear in the Inuit dog: that of a dog with long, woolly hair. The Inuit call such a dog a merqujuq and, according to history, hunters in some parts of the country were very proud of it if they found one among a litter. Being so different and so rare, it was the object of great interest and brought its owner fame. Elsewhere in the Arctic, hunters simply destroyed the merqujuq puppy. The dog could not survive long on a team because the long, silky fur did not protect the dog as it iced up. A merqujuq pup can be recognized by its wavy, curly coat, right from birth, whereas normal pups have straight hair.
Greenland Inuit dogs have the same type of coat as the Canadian Inuit dogs. They have all colors with white and off white a frequent color.
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