Malamutes can and will eat a lot of food if you give it to them.
However they do not need to eat a lot of food. Malamutes do indeed love food. This is one breed that does not
need to be coaxed to eat! In their natural environment, Malamutes evolved to have efficient metabolisms - adapting to
survive and work on small amounts of food and sometimes without food for days at a time. Malamutes can have a tendency to
be overweight so it is important not to overfeed them. Fat dogs are ugly, prone to heat stress, and will generally live a
shorter and harder life. Although Malamutes are naturally big, broad dogs with big shoulders and deep barrel-like chests, you
should always be able to feel their ribs by placing your hands on their sides.
They must make terrific guard dogs
Actually Malamutes make pathetic guard dogs. Although they might make noises
of excitement when a stranger approaches, they are not particularly territorial, and will only greet a burglar with a wagging tail
and lots of licks. The problem is that Malamutes universally love and trust people. In fact it can be a real problem teaching
them that not all people want to meet and greet with them.
They must require a lot of grooming and cleaning
Actually not as much as most people think. Malamutes are very clean
dogs and as with Samoyeds and Huskies, their coat has an amazing ability to shed dirt once it is dry. Kira and Chief are in water and
mud almost every day of the week. Even when they are covered up to their tummies in black mud, the next day they are clean. Once mud
dries, it shakes out quite easily. Malamutes also clean themselves like cats. Chief always wipes his face after a meal. You should not
wash Malamutes too often. The undercoat has an oil that helps waterproof the coat and constant washing with shampoo will deplete this oil.
I usually only wash Kira and Chief about every six months and usually only because they get a bit smelly (well actually Chief is the one,
Kira's coat because it is more standard, is always very clean). This is one of the drawbacks of owning a soft-coat or woolly as some people
call them. The coats are beautiful to touch and look at but they require more work.
They must get very hot in the summer
Almost every person I meet asks me how Malamutes handle the heat in Australia.
You have to remember that it gets very hot in North America too. Obviously it doesn't get as cold here. Malamutes are extremely adaptable.
I know people with Malamutes in Hawaii and in Arizona. You should NEVER clip the coat of a Malamute. The Malamute has a double coat with a
wiry guard coat on top that reflects a lot of the heat, and a fluffy undercoat that insulates their skin from the heat as well as the cold.
When they sit in the sun for a short while, their fur is very hot to touch but if you put your fingers right down at the skin, it is not
even warm. Malamutes also have very efficient methods of thermal dissipation. When they are hot, they pant like all other dogs and
their tongues (effectively heatsinks), grow to huge sizes. Obviously though, they do favour cold weather. In the summer, when I have the
air-conditioning on in the house, Chief will lie right over the air-conditioning vent on the floor. Sometimes he puts his head on it and
his tongue which hangs out of his mouth is absolutely freezing to touch! In summer they often lie on the cold tiles in the bathroom or
the laundry. I often give them big ice blocks which I make with a bit of chicken stock. They love the taste of these and will lick them
for hours.
They must be part-wolf
Malamutes may look like wolves and are arguably physically closer to the wolf than any other breed of
dog. Behaviourally, they are not much like wolves at all. They do have a strong pack sense and the same independent and highly-intelligent
mind that enables a wolf to survive alone or in a pack, but Malamutes are dogs NOT wolves. Although dogs are descended from wolves, dogs have
been domesticated for thousands of years. In particular, wolves will generally avoid people. Malamutes absolutely love people. Wolves
generally also do not have the instinct to pull a sled whereas Malamutes love nothing better. To the trained eye, Malamutes are actually
noticeably different to wolves in physical appearance. For one thing, wolves are quite skinny. Malamutes were selectively bred for pulling
heavy freighting loads and are hence much broader with big shoulders and deep chests. The face of the wolf is definitely a sly one whereas
Malamutes generally have happy smiling faces with same the 'Sammy Smile' that the Samoyed is famous for.
They are huskies
Some people are not really sure what they mean when they say 'husky'. Specifically, the three most popular
pure-bred dogs that look like huskies are the Alaskan Malamute, Samoyed (pronounced 'Sam-ee-ed' - not 'Sam-oid'), and the Siberian Husky.
Of these, the Mal or Mally is the largest, the Sammie is the next size smaller, and the Sibes are the smallest with the lighter build. Sammies
are usually almost always white. Although Malamutes can be a solid white, it is not that common so people often get Malamutes and Siberians
confused since they both tend to have wolf-like markings. Malamutes are generally much bigger and broader dogs than Siberians and Malamutes
ALWAYS have brown eyes whereas Sibes can have two or sometimes one blue eye (and an eye of another colour). Talking about wolves, Sibes are
definitely closer to wolves in physical appearance than Malamutes. Sibes also sometimes tend to be a little sly too. Although all these breeds
were a result of native people in Alaska, Russia and Siberia, breeding sled dogs, today, none of these breeds are used for serious sledding.
That is, the professional mushers in races like the Iditarod, never use pure-bred dogs of any kind. They often use Alaskan Huskies, a mongrel
breed that doesn't really look much like a Malamute at all. These dogs are great sled dogs but not often all that friendly. Malamutes were
bred by the Inuit people as family companions and to pull heavy loads on sleds when the families travelled around.
