#Alaskan Husky

[oliviawhen]

Some big news, I got to illustrate my first children's book!! ╥﹏╥ 🎉 Incredible story by Blair Braverman about her real-life sled dog team and puppy Leap! I've been a huge fan of hers for so long, it was a dream to work on it. If you pre-order from A Room of One's Own you can get a signed copy, and support a trans-owned community bookstore as well. 💕

[darkwood-sleddog]

Do you have any information on the Seppala sled dogs? I've seen some breeders claiming to have them but idk. The most "legit" kennel I saw apparently stopped their program a long time ago and let their dogs age out according ti their website. Their dogs looked lankier and leaner compared to Siberian huskies and had taller, close-set ears, they looked pretty neat. How much did they differ from their Sibe cousins & Chukchi laika ancestors? Are any of them still around today? Did they get absorbed into the Alaskan husky population, like the native Alaskan village dogs?

It's not my breed of choice so I probably don't have the most nuanced information, but they're basically just another breed of working sled dog.

After the Serum Run, Leonard Seppala toured with his dogs in the lower 48. It is during this time that we start seeing the beginnings of the modern Alaskan Malamute, the Siberian Husky, and the Seppala Siberian Sled Dog as all three programs owe some or much of their foundation from dogs Seppala brought with him.

You see, while the Siberian Husky and Seppala people like to think that Leonard Seppala had some sort of strict vision or plan of what he wanted to breed because he was amongst the first to import dogs from Siberia (and is certainly responsible for their fame as racers), many of his dogs were of mixed heritage. Togo himself was a quarter malamute (lower case here to indicate 'malamute' as it was prior to Kennel Club registration, a catch all name for indigenous coastal sled dogs at the time) and so were many of Seppala's dogs:

Seppala even gifted Yukon Jad, the father of the first registered litter of Alaskan Malamutes, to Eva Seeley at the time. The Seeley's owned Chinook Kennels in New Hampshire and here is where things start getting complex. Chinook Kennels bred both Alaskan Malamutes (Seeley's pet project, breeding dogs for Antarctic expeditions), as well as Siberian Huskies from additional stock she had acquired from Seppala. There is a rumor, with some truth behind it, that she would classify a dog as a 'malamute' if it had brown eyes, and a Siberian Husky if it had blue eyes.

Meanwhile Seppala went on to partner with Elizabeth Ricker in Poland Springs, Maine (who was Togo's final owner before his death) to form a different kennel. This one focused strictly on racing dogs. Again, descended from the dogs Seppala had brought to the lower 48. When this kennel disbanded, several of the dogs in Maine went to Harry Wheeler in Quebec who kept them in an extremely closed gene pool until the 1950s (descended from 9 dogs total yikes...). It is around this time that things start dispersing. There begins to be some crossover with the Seppala and Working Siberian Husky gene pools at this time (if you want to get really thick in the weeds read this). Many Working Siberians have Seppala heritage and vice versa because of this. Non-working bloodlines also have crossover to the Poland Springs dogs as well, but less often. There are a TON of Siberian Husky, Working Siberian Husky, and Seppala Siberian Sled Dog bloodlines, some of different percentage of mixture. But does it matter that much when all three breeds have origins in the exact same small group of dogs?

Ultimately the answer of why it matters to some comes down to breed politics and the way kennels clubs are structured, often failing to prioritize working aptitude over physical appearance. There were disagreements over how dogs descendent from the Seppala dogs should continue or how to best uphold, what Seppala wanted out of his dogs (which was to win races, but i digress...), and a lot of MASSIVE hatred for Eva Seeley (like they hate the idea that malamute might be in dogs from her kennel but Seppala himself was crossing Siberians and Malamutes before this time period...). Ultimately, Seppala Siberian Sled Dog people conclude that a Seppala is ONLY a Seppala if it descends only from dogs of Leonard Seppala OR dogs imported from Russia (there are major differences between Indigenous Russian sled dogs and Seppala Siberian Sled Dogs imo, but I won't get into that here in too much detail bc I'm glad they're outcrossing as the SSSD is very in need of genetic diversity). They usually have a big focus on working their dogs and eschew traditional kennel clubs (The Seppala Siberian Sled Dog is registered as a breed only with the Continental Kennel Club, the same 'Kennel Club' that will register anything with four legs as a breed so...).

Now I think a LOT of SSSD people place a huge amount of energy into what "looks" like an SSSD compared to a working Siberian Husky and vice-versa, which is funny considering their attitudes on conformation showing as well as their willingness to outcross to unrelated dogs. They love making the 'cookie cutter show dog' argument against conformation bred Siberians while also having a breed of dog ultimately descended from the same stock, that has been intensely inbred in its history (even though they will bemoan the registered Siberian's lack of genetic diversity...i would be interested in seeing COI comparisons honestly) and has a very distinct look. Again, so much of this comes down to early breeder's historical beef with Siberian Husky folks which I think would be much better for both sides to let go of because really what this is is breed split at the most granular. I can guarantee Russian sled dogs folks that don't use registered breeds specifically do not care to get this fucking specific. Does it work well? Cool, it's sled dog.

(Half Yakutian Laika/Seppala dog on the left, full Seppala dog on the right for comparison, but god forbid a registered Siberian Husky is bred into the bloodlines despite...everything).

Anyways here are some actual indigenous russian sled dogs:

And Leonard Seppala's Dogs:

(SSSD folk will often wax poetical about their dogs resemblance to Scotty, but notice how unusual Scotty looks compared to the other siberian imports Seppala owned (he did have an import Dam, but father? who knows).)

Some Alaskan Husky lines do have Seppala in their heritage (I believe the Hedlund Husky project uses them infrequently as outcrosses), but the Seppala Siberian Sled Dog is pretty insular within itself and the people still breeding it. There are not a lot of breeders, but there are def some of them doing really interesting stuff with their dogs (despite my beef for the attitude and breed split i still have a deep respect when people are doing cool stuff and open to outcrossing etc.). Poland Springs Seppalas is in Alaska right now doing a recreation of the original serum run to celebrate the serum run's 100th year. I think that's pretty darn cool.

[butchshepherd]

alaskan huskies photographed by mason kelley

[wilderun]

Big brother Druid with his little half siblings 😊

[adabear]

the girls <3

[metalmouth0004]

Ladies, gentleman, gays, they, and folks my husky: Buddy♡

[wolfslayer]

from “The New Complete Alaskan Malamute” by Maxwell Riddle and Beth J. Harris

[wikipediapictures]

Heterochromia iridum

[guiltyidealist]

The Red Lantern icons: Fin

(simple cropped screenshots-- credit not necessary)

[paintedimagery]

Alright!

This blorbo needs a name!

She's a three year old purebred Alaskan Husky. We just got her and her puppy, (We named him Cuebone), from our neighbor and need to rename her. She currently goes by Akita which.. is just a dog breed. So we need suggestions!

Fandoms and Myhtologies are encouraged!

[elektroyu]

Managed to get a simple Yu ref sheet done in time for Art Fight! :D Here's her link: https://artfight.net/character/4719544.yu

Somehow I always used to feel that a proper saddle pattern was too dark for her, but now that I actually did it I think it fits her pretty well! Maybe I can stick to this design for a while. I wanted something that was genetically possible irl, so all her previous iterations bugged me a lot.

Her hobbies are all the cool dog things that I can't do irl (for the time being at least): everything that lets her run and/ or use her little brain in addition like sledding/ bike-joring/ dog scootering/ etc., agility, also playing with friends. She's pretty fast! And like me, she's reserved around strangers.

[tonichelleak]

Veterinarian Jessica Klejka at the Ceremonial Start and ReStart of Iditarod 52. The veteran musher grew up in Bethel, Alaska and now spends her time practicing veterinary medicine in both Knik, AK and Bethel.

This year Klejka won Most Inspirational Musher voted on by her fellow Iditarod finishers after it was let slip that Jessica hadn't traveled the Iditarod alone with her dogs, she had a stowaway as she was close to 4 months pregnant while racing. Jessica would say at the awards banquet she does not recommend doing both. While not the first musher to run the race pregnant, she still managed to cause quite the stir in the mushing fandom with the news.

To view high quality photos, or purchase, click here.

For more see ReittersBlock.com

[thatll-do-boo]

Ahh when the stick really hits so u gotta stop for a chew and lie down in the damp stinky seaweed

[flashthescalesian-art]

I don’t typically post real-life stuff on here, but since I don’t really have art to post until I can put an anti-ai filter on it, here’s my gorgeous deaf pupper who i absolutely love to pieces. No, she is not a Dalmatian, although I see why I get asked if she is one. She’s a German Shorthair Pointer/Alaskan husky mix.

[wilderun]

Sojourn starting to grow into herself at nine months old

[itsyveinthesky]

-29°C two hours from Tromsø