Siberian Husky
The Siberian Husky is definitely the best know sleddog breed. If Mid-Europeans talk about a "sleddog", they normally talk about Siberians. Many want one because it is a very nice looking dog with a fluffy coat, nice colours, standing ears and often blue eyes. Not many know that the Siberian Husky can have all possible coat-colours, from all white to brown, wolf-grey to black and everything in between. Also the eyes can be dark, almost black, brown, or everything in between, not only blue, like it is shown on most pictures from the breed. The Siberian Husky is a very friendly breed and shows no aggressions at all towards humans. But his "desire to go", a very strong hunting instinct and his strong, self-minded behaviour does not make him a good pet. The Siberian Husky is happiest in a small pack, living outside and doing regular excercise by pulling anything, running, working, as he was genetically formed for that.
The history of the Siberian Husky started around early 20th century, when a Russian fur trader brought some dogs from Siberia to Alaska to take part in the All Alaska Sweepstake Race. The breed was rather small compared to other known sleddog breeds and many were laughing about them, but nevertheless the team got 3rd place in the race and in the next few decades, teams with Siberian Huskys confirmed in many good placings how strong and tough the breed is. First imports to Europe started in late 60's and at the same time sleddog sport got more and more popular also on our continent.
The Siberian Husky is a registered breed in all Kennel Clubs worldwide. He is medium sized with a compact body, standing ears and a bushy tail. He has the perfect body to pull loads on sleds on long distances at a stable speed and a very thick double-layer-coat to survive even very arctic temperatures. A well kept Siberian Husky has good muscles and a light body without any fat-reserves. Unfortunately many of todays pure breed Siberians are kept as couch-pet, don't get enough excercise and get too heavy built to fulfill the work they are genetically made for.
A male Siberian is 53 - 59 cm high and has 20 - 27 kg body weight. Females are 50 - 56 cm high and a bit lighter, 15 - 22 kg. In dog shows, the Siberian Husky is almost the nordic breed with the most entries, caused of course by his wide spreading in private homes as pet.
To keep a Siberian Husky as pet, one must be sure to be able to give him plenty of excersise every day, in summertime at early mornings or late evenings, wether it rains or snows or a party takes place nearby. He loves to live in a pack and will not be happy as single dog. The Siberian Husky was bread for many generations as a working dog and that's what he wants to do also today! It does not necessarily have to be a sled that he pulls, it can be hiking, biking, cart-pulling or whatever. But don't let him make his life a a couch-potatoe!
At Eräkeskus we have only a handfull or pure Siberians left, most of them already retired. They do not often match the average speed of our Alaskans and are more individually thinking than those. As we do not need any official, stamped pedigrees for our dogs, we concentrate on our breeding-program for Alaskans.