The dogs the Chukchi built for distance
The Siberian Husky comes from the Chukchi people of northeastern Siberia, who kept dogs for one purpose: moving a light load a long way across frozen country without stopping. That is a different job from hauling freight, and it produced a different dog. Where a heavy sled dog is built for power, the Siberian was bred for economy — moderate size, moderate bone, an efficient trot it can hold for hours, and the ability to work on a surprisingly small ration.
The dogs lived with the families they worked for. They slept in the homes, they were handled by children, and the whole community depended on them, which is the origin of the temperament people notice today. A dog that had to be easy in a crowded dwelling and cooperative in a team of nine was selected for sociability just as firmly as for endurance.
Nome, and the winter that made the breed famous
The breed reached Alaska through the gold rush and the racing that came with it. The All Alaska Sweepstakes, a 408-mile run from Nome to Candle and back, was the great sled race of the era, and in 1909 a team of imported Siberian dogs entered it for the first time and finished third. Local opinion had written them off as too small before the start. In 1910 a Siberian team driven by John Johnson won the race outright, and the argument was over.
Fifteen years later came the run that put the breed into the history books. In the winter of 1925 Nome was iced in and cut off from the outside world, and the medicine the town was waiting for sat 674 miles away in Nenana. It travelled by dog team, in a relay of twenty mushers running day and night through a January storm, and it covered the distance in a little over five days. Leonhard Seppala and his lead dog Togo took the longest and most exposed leg of it, including a crossing of the sea ice of Norton Sound. Gunnar Kaasen drove the final stretch into Nome behind a lead dog named Balto, whose statue has stood in Central Park ever since.
The American Kennel Club recognized the Siberian Husky in 1930, and the breed has been a fixture of American homes since. What sits on the sofa is still recognisably the dog the Chukchi made.
Size and build: speed rather than bulk
Siberians are middle-sized dogs, and people who have only seen photographs are often surprised by how moderate they are up close. Males stand about twenty-one to twenty-three and a half inches at the shoulder and weigh forty-five to sixty pounds; females stand twenty to twenty-two inches and weigh thirty-five to fifty. The standard is emphatic that nothing about the dog should be heavy or coarse.
The outline is balanced and very slightly longer than tall, with a level topline, a deep but not broad chest, and moderate bone. The ears are medium, triangular, set high on the skull and carried erect. The tail is a well-furred brush, carried in a sickle curve when the dog is paying attention and trailing when it is relaxed. The gait is the giveaway: smooth, effortless and apparently unhurried, which is precisely what hours of trotting selected for.
The coat, the colours and the eyes
The coat is a double one, and it is the most impressive piece of engineering in the breed. Underneath is a dense, soft undercoat; over it lie straight guard hairs that lie smooth against the body. It is medium in length — thick enough to do its job and never long enough to hide the outline.
Keeping it is mostly a weekly habit. A pin brush or a slicker once a week keeps the jacket smooth and lifts the loose hair out of it. Twice a year the undercoat turns over with the seasons, and for a fortnight or so an undercoat rake and ten minutes a day does the whole job properly. Siberians are fastidious animals that keep themselves clean, so baths are occasional rather than scheduled. Nails a little and often, ears wiped while you brush, teeth from the first week.
Colours run the entire range, from jet black through grey, sable, agouti, red and copper to pure white, almost always with white on the lower limbs, feet, chest and underside. The head markings are the part no other breed matches: masks, caps, spectacles, goggles and open faces, in combinations that are effectively individual.
Then the eyes, which are almond-shaped, moderately spaced and set a little obliquely. They come brown, they come blue, and they come one of each — the standard accepts all of it, along with parti-coloured eyes that carry both colours in a single iris. A copper-and-white Siberian with one blue eye is a dog people stop on the sidewalk to look at.
Sociable, funny, and glad to see everybody
The Chukchi’s requirements left a mark that is still the best thing about the breed. Siberians are outgoing and genuinely friendly, both with their own family and with people they have never met. They are not a one-person dog and they are not a suspicious one. A Siberian generally treats a stranger as a friend who has not been introduced yet.
They are just as easy with other dogs, which follows from a very long history of working in teams. Households with two dogs often find a Siberian the easiest possible second, and puppies raised alongside cats and children take both entirely in stride.
The other thing owners talk about is the humour. Siberians keep a puppyish sense of fun well into adulthood — the play bow, the sudden lap of the yard for no announced reason, the habit of carrying something around to show you. They are conversational as well, and the range runs from a chirp to a full theatrical wooo. Most owners end up talking back, which is exactly what the dog was hoping for.
Where all that running goes
This is a breed that was built to move, and the happiest Siberians are the ones with somewhere proper to do it. Two good outings a day is the baseline, and a long one at the weekend is better still: a trail, a hike, a run, or a securely fenced space where the dog can open up and stretch out at full speed.
There is a whole set of sports that come straight out of the job. Sledding, rig work on wheels for the off-season, skijoring where there is snow, canicross, bikejoring and scootering all let a Siberian pull in harness, which is what the entire body was designed around, and there is nothing quite like watching one drop into a working trot with its ears forward. Agility, obedience, rally and scent work fit as well, and plenty of Siberians do therapy visits on the strength of that sociable temperament.
Training goes best as a game rather than a drill. Siberians are clever and independent — a lead dog on a trail had to make decisions without being told — so short, cheerful, well-paid sessions get far more out of them than repetition. Food is good currency and so is the chance to run. Two or three minutes, one thing at a time, finished while the dog still wants another go.
In a Florida or Tennessee summer the early and late hours are the pleasant ones for both of you, with shade and cool water through the middle of the day and the exercise moved to either end. Owners here settle into that rhythm within a week or two, and it suits the dog as well as it suits you.
Come and meet the Siberian Husky puppies
A photograph gets the eyes and the mask. Standing next to one, what you notice is the manner: a Siberian Husky puppy comes over to meet you as though you had been expected, leans in, and then wants to know what happens next.
Our Siberian Husky puppies come from our network of licensed breeders, and our team can tell you how a particular puppy has been getting on with people and with its littermates. We have a store in Orlando and one in Nashville, and you are welcome to sit on the floor with a puppy for as long as you like before deciding anything. Find directions and hours, and ask about financing while you are here. Every puppy here goes home with its vet records, its vaccination history and a health warranty, and our team will walk you through what those cover.