"Greenland?" you say. Yes Greenland, and/or northern Europe about 6,000 years ago. People traveled north from the middle east up through Greenland and Europe. They soon found that they could use tamed wolves to help hunt and warn them of intruders. Through selective breeding they developed dogs able to go long distances and pull loads in sledges. They not only used these dogs to pull, they used these dogs to heard reigndeer, gaurd the camps, and hunt. The tribes were nomadic, traveling all along the Arctic Circle.

With all this said, many believe the Siberian Husky should be more properly named the Arctic Husky due to its wide range. When fur traders came to Siberia and found these dogs they were amazed at their versatility and their ability to pull loads for long distances. When they were brought to Alaska they were looked down upon because of their small size, that soon changed. They started winning all the major races and soon gained popularity.

The developement of the Alaskan Malamute is somewhat like the Siberian Husky. They were developed to help in the villages in Alaska. The difference however is this- they weren't needed for long distances, at all. When the Siberian Husky was still in developement with tribes only stretching as far as Northern Europe they were required to go for thousands of miles on very little or no food because the tribes at the time were nomadic. However when tribes reached Alaska across the land bridge they made 1 of 2 decisions. They could have either went on, down to South America, Central America or where the lower 48 states are today, becoming what are known today as the Incas, the Amazonians, Apache, and others. Or, they could have decided to stay in Alaska, a place they found mysterious and full of wonder.

Those who decided to stay in Alaska settled where they were. Thus not requiring dogs with great endurance. What they desired were dogs that could carry extremely heavy loads of food and goods allowing them to make minimal trips. The more they could carry at once the better. That is why the Alaskan Malamutes are bigger, and stronger than their Siberian cousins.

When the Siberian Husky became extremely popular so extremely fast it was short-lived. In the late 1930s people thought that if they could bring these dogs from Siberia that were faster and had more endurance than the dogs they had before, than there was no reason to say that they couldn't develope even faster dogs. Soon people started breeding Siberians to setters, wolves, hounds, you name it. Just about anything mixed with Siberians were used to pull a sled and were named Alaskan Husky. Overtime people found that hounds like the whippet which were medium size much like the Siberian dogs and faster than that of the Greyhounds were better than setters and other mixes.

Today most people still think of a Siberian Husky when they hear the word sleddog. However most mushers today use Alaskan Huskies. In the beginning there were no real long-distance races. To some 200-300 miles seems long, but in comparisin to the Iditarod or the Yukon Quest it isn't long at all. The difference in racing 300 miles to 1000 miles is big. Racing the 300 mile races were ideal for people with Alaskan Huskies because they were fast, and although they didn't have the endurance of the Siberian Huskies they had half of it and that allowed them to have to rest only as much as they ran. With this it was much easier for people to use them for racing. Imagine a gas guzzling 1969 Corvette Stingray compared to a European car. But you say "Alaskans don't require much food" The gas is not representative of food, it is representing energy. The Corvette is faster and will go farther in a lesser ammount of time. The Euro car will have good gas milage and can seemingly keep going, and going, and going.

When long-distance racing became popular people seemed to have forgotten about the Siberian dogs. They forgot where half of their Alaskan Husky's endurance came from. Many believe and some have proved, Nadeau being one of those who've proved that with the proper training, conditioning, and strategy Siberians are capable of competing with these Alaskan Huskies. I gaurantee you that if as much effort was put into the breeding of Working Siberian Huskies as is put into Alaskan Huskies the Siberian would be a much better long-distance sleddog.

The racing era pretty much skipped Siberians. They were popular in the early 1900s however... by the 1930s they started to die out. With the use of the airplane and other ways of travel the need for the Siberian Husky was no more. Soon the only use for these dogs was racing, and people found that they could improve the speed of these dogs. So much so that they stopped using them all around for races because they were known to be slower and more stubborn than the hound mixes. Some people however kept their Siberians and today we are seeing more and more of these racing kennels with dogs that can keep up with the Alaskan counterparts. In a way, mixing the Siberian dogs with hounds was a short cut from having to create a better racing sleddog through selective breeding. However the traditional Siberian Husky brought over is still most ideal for the long distance races of today. Just if people would rethink their racing strategy and choice of dogs.