Type And Traits

Puppy Alice (Willow X Teddy) displaying nice movement,
coordination and very nice tail carriage as early as 8 weeks.

We breed healthy dogs
Health is at the top of our priority list, all our dogs are screened for eyes and hips, and most are also screend for elbows and thyroid. However we are not so naive to think that we can breed perfect dogs, or create the perfect line. We are aware that problems can occurr in any line.
Although some of the dogs we use (or that are present in our pedigrees) have chd numbers, we do not adhere to the AMCA Chd program because it is being run on inconsistent, unscientifical basis.
However, all the lines we use have received clearances in other systems which are run more seriously and upon more serious and scientifical basis (such as in New Zealand), and they never produced such problems even in inbred and linebred litters which (given the simple recessive nature of the Chd gene) is an indicator of a very low genetic risk.
We always run pedigree analysis on the dogs we evaluate for our breeding programs, independently of the fact that they have Chd numbers or not, as some dogs going back to AMCA cleared lines have (even in recent times) caused some undesired surprises.
This is one of the reasons why we are not interested in obtaining Chd numbers on our dogs until the AMCA will not change the rules upon which the numbers are issued and make the program more reliable.

Willow and Teddy pulling in lead in perfect sincrony.
In this picture it is evident how shoulder angulation and lenght/arch
of neck are very important functional attributes for a sled dog.
Our three dogs team have pulled last winter for about 1500 miles.

Preserving the working attitude
The Alaskan Malamute is a working breed and therefore ideally the best performing dogs should be the best show dogs. And the best show dogs are (should be...) those that are supposed - because of their conformation - to excel in the job they were selected for.
This is the essence of our "form and function" philosophy, and we plan our breedings and select our puppies accordingly, trying to preserve the functional attributes required by the breed standard.
We try to breed structurally balanced and sound dogs of nice temperament and good working attitude.
We work our malamutes, also (especially) during show campaigns, and they love the ring and the trail, they actually prefer the trail.
Working your dog means respecting your best friend. Malamute hate being kenneled and lazy all day. They need action.
You can see this in the way they look at you begging you to pick up the sled, bike, ski, snowshoes or whatever and go run with them.

Our Willow - Nice front angles
with good leght of upper arm
and deep, broad chest

Other bitch - Straight shoulders
and narrow, shallow chest.

Crystal's beautiful headpiece.

Conformation and head type
Of course it is necessary to look at the dog as a whole, however there are some traits about which we are particularly careful, and we try to avoid breeding dogs that are lacking in some areas.
We select on straight columns of heavy bone on large compact feet, nice balanced angles front and rear, good lenght and arch of neck, broad chest with good spring of ribs, cobby backs and gently sloping toplines.
We are very careful about strong fronts with well laid back angulated shoulders and good lenght of upper arm.
We do not breed dogs with light bone, straight shoulders and narrow and/or shallow chest.
A lack of angles and proportions in the shoulder area is the primary cause for a stilted and unbalanced gait, and it is often associated to a short neck, which is not functional since it doesn't allow the dog to properly balance the weights when pulling.
We are very careful about head type, as it makes much of the dog's type.
We prefer typical T'Domar Kodara head type, and we select on broad heads, with good backskull, bulky muzzles, medium to small sized ears properly placed, and dark eyes of nice shape.
We do not breed dogs with weak or snipey heads and too low set ears.
Although this is not a strictly functional attribute, we just can't live with tight tails and we are very selective on tail carriage of the dogs we include in our program and of the puppies that we decide to keep from our litters or to buy from other breeders. A loose tail carriage certainly contributes to a proper profile.

Willow's flawless and far reaching sidegait with strong rear drive
long arched neck and beatifully loose tail carriage

Movement
We study our puppies verfy carefully for proper movement.
A good movement is among the first things that puppies start showing at 6-8 weeks.
We select our puppies watching for clean single track coming, with no weaknesses or flips in the pasterns, long reach and proper drive.
The attention we pay on the conformation almost always pays back in the dogs' gait, so in average all our dogs are good movers.
Rear drive can be more difficult to assess in puppies because they need more time to develop the necessary coordination and power required for a strong rear drive.
Working our dogs gives us a chance to evaluate the interactions between the dog conformation and its movement. Although not directly involved in the dog's movement we have noticed how a long, well muscled and arched neck is very important for a proper and effective gait, as it allows the dog to move its center of balance toward the front to counterbalance the weight during the work.

Amy (Willow X Teddy) at 8 weeks

Coat, colors and markings
We select for full and coarse coats, and we feel that many malamutes today are lacking in coat type, to the point that in some areas dogs with proper coat are sometime penalized as long coats. We just wish to recall how a malamute's coat is different than a syberian's coat and that the standards talks about a guard coat about 2 inches longer than the undercoat, and not of a maximum coat lenght of two inches like some suggest. This is very clearly written in the breed standard.
Those who prefer sparse, shorter coats symilar to syberians' coat will probably be happier with other lines, we try to select on typical malamute coats in line with the breed standard.
We don't care a specific color or marking so we don't select on these traits.