Alaskan Malamute

History

No breed history is as unique as the Alaskan Malamute. Descendent of the Artic Wolf and the Spitz, this breed is over 3,000 years old. This breed is solely bred for sleds and hunting. During the Klondike Gold Rush, this breed became every persons life line, they not only helped hunt food to keep them alive, but these dogs were the way these people could travel, and the breed became their protection as well.

Appearance

There is no doubt that the Alaskan Malamute resembles the Artic Wolf, and quite reasonably so. The only solid color available on this breed is white, but color combinations can include grey and white, red and white, and wolf sable. Males typically weigh 85-95 pounds, females slightly less at 70-85 pounds, and both stand at 25 inches in height. This breed is born with very thick, rough pads on their feet due to what their background used to be, and generally have very large paws. An interesting appearance trait of the Alaskan Malamute is that some are born with light blue eyes.

Temperament

Extremely kind, cheerful and loyal, this breed is great for most families. Excellent with children and other pets this breed loves being part of the family. Alaskan Malamutes are not good guard dogs, as they truly enjoy all people, even strangers. However this makes them the perfect breed to include in all family outings, especially any parks or lakes were they can be playful. Training is highly recommended as this breed can tend to have a "puppy mind" for awhile. This does include chewing and ripping items apart, so make sure to give your pup plenty of mental and physical exercise on a daily basis to steer clear of any destructive behavior.

Grooming

The Alaskan Malamute sheds heavily on a regular basis, but brushing daily can help this. Dry Shampoo is recommended for this breed instead of baths when possible.

Special Notes

As with every breed, we advise everyone to fully research the breed on their own, to ensure the forever home physically and financially, prior to adding the new addition to your family. All dogs originate from wolves (Canis Lupus). Each breed of dog was originally created by mixing different breeds together in an effort to bring forth certain characteristics. Once a breeder has created acceptable “breed characteristics” within their bloodline and these “breed characteristics” have shown to be reliably reproduced in the offspring for three (3) generations, the bloodline may be upgraded from the category of “foundation stock” to “pure-bred”. The same “pure-bred” breed standards vary from different continents, countries, territories, regions, breed clubs, and canine pure-breed registries depending on the goals of their breeders. Dog DNA testing companies can have accurate results for a specific bloodline of a small colony of dogs. However, there are tens of thousands of different bloodlines in the world which have not yet been tested for marker baseline results by Dog DNA testing companies as of 2017. For this reason Dog DNA testing companies do not guarantee the 100% accuracy of their breed lineage results and will also show different marker results for the same pure-bred breed in different continents, countries, territories, regions, breed clubs, and canine pure-breed registries depending on the goals of their breeders.