I watched a breed programme on the Husky and these fur babies came up at the end. I am not sure if we have had a thread specifically for these dogs. Are there any in the UK? Are they the fastest sled dogs? Do they date back to the Gold Rush? What qualifies a dog to be called an Alaskan Husky?
Thanks and I understand they are a mixture of breeds but what makes and AH an AH ? If you see what I mean.....surely it can't just be the fact that it does a particular job
Found this interesting link: Some great pics there too: http://www.ridethewilderness.com/Bancroft Ontario Alaskan Huskies.htm
That's a really good link and sums up the "Alaskan Husky" pretty well. There are a few in the UK, but not huge numbers and all of them (as far as I know) are owned by serious racing folk. They are certainly the most successful racing sled dog and probably the fastest over most distances (as the article points out, different strains of Alaskan Husky run best in different types of racing. The key point is that they are bred for racing performance, not looks. Whether they would be a better working dog than other sled dog breeds, is a different issue. As can be seen from watching the Iditarod race, teams of Alaskan Huskies (ie the vast majority of teams in the race) need to wear booties and coats to cope with the cold and ice, they need straw to sleep on. Existing arctic/sub-arctic breeds like Siberian Huskies and Alaskan Malamutes need none of these artificial aids and were originally bred to survive and thrive in such conditions without artificial aids. Mick
as far as i was aware the term 'alaskan husky' was the name of a sibe cross(quite often with hounds) for,as said before,purely working abilities:? mickb, you might remember about 13years ago,a rumour about the so called 'zero lines' were these not alaskans?
There was a lot of debate as to whether the dogs from Zero lines were pure bred Sibes or whether they were Alaskan Huskies. Even now BSHRA will not allow Sibes to race if they have Zero blood in the last 5 generations ...
Being cynical, I think the Zero "debate" had more to do with the fact that Zero bred sibes were regularly beating the Lokiboden lines of the BSHRA heirarchy. As a T-Shirt popular at the time stated, "If you can't beat 'em, Ban 'em!" Alaskan Huskies, although they are not a breed registered with any Kennel Club, are just as carefully bred as any accepted breed (if not more so - as performance is paramount). They are often described as Sibe/Hound crosses, but ironically, the most common "hound" input into their breeding isn't a hound at all , but a gundog - the German Short-haired pointer. In European sled dog racing, the "Euro Hound" is just such a pointer/sibe cross. Mick
I think I must be an old cynic too Mick Our mate's father from Norway had, at it's peak, 119 Alaskan Huskies in his kennel. Says he is winding down now and things are getting pretty quite as he only has 67 now Completely glaze over and get a twitch when they discuss their breeding programme. Absolute science is made out of it, and rightly so Just too much for my tiny brain! Take good care. Seoniad.
