Alaskan Malamute

[nezza]

Most Mal's do love to cool off in a kiddie pool! My Willie hated a bath but LOVED being sprayed with a hose...he loved to jump through the water and try to catch the water. Their coats are very water resistant. Meaning it's more difficult to get them soaked to the skin, their top coat tends to just bead off the water.

(Genetic/history info) In Alaska, their top coat may experience the harshness of the climate, yet their skin doesn't. Their coats are made for harsh weather, and thus protects them.

[nezza]

While they are not the most comfortable in a high temp climate, they are one of the most adaptable breed of dog. Their top coat helps to protect their skin from too much sun exposure. NEVER EVER EVER shave a Malamutes coat!!!! This is a huge NO-NO mistake people make thinking it will keep their dog cool!!! If you read through my post, i talk about how they "blow" their coat in the summer. Their coat will become much thinner in the summer naturally. Shaving their coat allows for easy sunburn

[nezza]

Malamutes and Cats....

http://omalmalamutes.com/omal/cats.htm

this is my favorite Mal site.

[kian]

Thanks Nezza!

[Nileska]

Nezza,..My first northern breed was a Mal.Found the picture of her litter on a bulletenboard downtown (1969).Bought her for a Christmas gift for my then GFF,shortly after we also rescued a kitten and they were raised together.I never even considered that the Mal might consider the cat as a tasty snack,fortunaly neither did she.I knew nothing about Mals,I did have Coonhounds and Beagles in the past but they were not house dogs.

We named her Moose and the GFF began to teach her to walk on lead.It was not going well on their daily walks until a local dog joined them and Moose trucked right along.As she got larger (a lot larger) she began to pull..yeah,surprise surprise.Someone reccomended a prong collar,it looked deadly but we were desperate.When wearing the collar she no longer had any desire pull your arm out of its socket and walked politely at the end of the lead...After a while we were able to dispense with the prong collar which I didn't like much anyway,Moose never really seemed to mind it at all.

[nezza]

Great story, Richard.

It doesn't surprise me that your Mal found no discomfort with the prong collar. They have such a thick coat and excess skin underneath that coat, that they don't seem to feel things like that. They are super smart, too. Even when we're thinking they're not "getting it"...they really are...they're just super stubborn and like to do things on THEIR terms Quite a personality.

[Nileska]

Unfortunately about 3 years later I lost an antique gun collection and exactly one week later to the minuit Moose came up missing.She had been outside and was very agitated when I returned after the burglary.

Moving right along...1974 ..New address,new live in GFF who gifted me with a 6 month old Siberian boy who had been raised in a garage and was a complete wildman. We named him Nickolai,Nick for short,entered him in obedience classes and the fun began With great difficulty but much tenacity the GFF got him through basic obedience class ...TWICE...Then put a CD title on him in the US and again in Canada ...And the saga continues

[nezza]

Oh poor Moose

I still dream about Willie and think about him every day. I would love to own another Mal one day. They are remarkable dogs. Their strength and endurance coupled with their pure love of humans is quite unique and amazing!

Congratulations with Nickolai. What a wonderful triumph! They are so much smarter than people think they are. They have more common sense than most breeds. Willie was like that too. Very human-like in their thought process. So intriguing.