IT'S ALWAYS ENCOURAGING to see someone doing good research and independent thinking about their chosen dog breed. Breed clubs and breed-myths are responsible for a lot of misunderstanding about sleddog breeds. So your editor JJB was enthralled when he was directed to Sheryl Franklin's "About Alaskan Malamutes" page.
Sheryl, who describes herself simply as "just a pet owner who's doing research,"
starts her information page off with a delightful chatty, rambling discourse on the characteristics of the Alaskan Malamute breed. Unlike most such breed sketches, this one really gets into significant detail to tell you exactly what the breed is like and the distinctive ways in which its representatives behave.
Be warned -- the page is L O N G (although it nevertheless seems to load into my browser at lightspeed), because it is a very serious attempt to deal with the nature, characteristics and history of the Malamute breed in depth. After the breed description comes a table of possible colour and marking variations, then a discussion of the vexed question of correct size. After that, the bulk of the page is taken up with what Sheryl modestly titles "Historical Tidbits." Quoting or adapting abundantly from 19th and early 20th century books, journals and articles, we are taken on a tour of working sleddog history that left me gasping! What a wealth of material has been made accessible here, and how boldly Sheryl has interpreted it to highlight interesting issues in the Alaskan Malamute breed! She deserves our thanks for making such an information resource available to fanciers of "legacy sleddogs."
Don't fail to GO SEE IT when you have a half hour or more to spend! I'm impressed enough with this page to give it a permanent link on the left-hand linkbar of Sleddog Legacy Online newsletter, so it will be available for awhile. The link title is All About Malamutes!
Posted by jjeffrey at August 17, 2005 02:05 PM