Dogs in Russian literature

[Boudovskaia, Elena]

Here is a Russian-Russian dictionary that may be useful in  your search: 

http://pitomnik.biz/ru/dogs/borzaya/dictionary/

It says "doezzhat'" is "[during a hunt,] to follow an animal and gradually get close to it" (???????????? ? ????????? ?????), i.e. the same as "dogoniat'"

These terms belong to the terminology of _psovaia okhota_, a sport popular in the 19th c. and earlier among the Russian gentry, and described by Tolstoy and other authors.

The terminology of _psovaia okhota_ is virtually unknown to the public now, but used to be as well known to the Russian gentry of the 19th c. as baseball terms are known now in America. 

This terminology is very different from the contemporary Russian terms of dog training, which have developed later, and are used for working dogs/guard dogs.

HTH

Best, 
Elena



Dear colleagues:

In Boris Unbegaun's linguistics book, "Russian Surnames" 
(Oxford Univ. Press, 1972),   the author discusses names 
of fictional characters invented by Russian writer Saltykov-
Shchedrin, including humorous hyphenated names of such 
characters.

E.g., "Serpukhovskii-Dogoniai" ("Serpuxovskij-Dogonjaj"), and 
a similar example suffixed with "...-Doezzhai."  According to 
Unbegaun, Saltykov borrowed the elements "Dogoniai" and 
"Doezzhai" from commands spoken to dogs.  

Does anyone out there know the English equivalents of these 
"canine commands"?   Could they be analogous to the English 
"Fetch!" (i.e., go chase a thrown stick/ball and bring it back)?  
Or English "Sic 'im!" (i.e., go threaten and try to attack/bite
an enemy)?

Or some other English equivalent of these canine commands...?

Gratefully,
Steven P Hill,
University of Illinois (USA).
_______________________________________________________________

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