Working

The Working Malamute

The Alaskan Malamute offers much in the way of companionship. They can be trained to work with their owner as a pack dog, sled dog or weight puller.  Sharing these activities with your Malamute will give him the opportunity to prove himself as an eager worker as well as providing help and companionship for the active outdoors person.

The Malamute is the work horse of the sled dog world.  Larger and slower than the Siberian Husky and Alaskan Husky, they are built to haul heavy loads over a long distance. The most important attribute of a working malamute is attitude.  A dog may possess all the physical attributes needed to be a good sled dog, but without the desire to pull, he has nothing.

Even the best dog must have proper feed when he is working or he will lose weight and muscle.  Nutritional requirements for a hard-working dog are several times more than that of a maintenance diet and the onset of cold weather will make them greater yet.  Malamutes working long hard days in cold weather require a diet high in fat and protein.  Adequate water is necessary to prevent dehydration especially in cold, dry climates.

Our working background

We have actively working our Malamutes for many years, commencing when we joined other keen sledding people in South Africa as part of their original team.  Through this, we learnt about mushing, the Alaskan Malamute, and started building the initial foundation for our show dogs.  As a family we started sledding our 1^st Malamute, Balto, over 8 years ago, and then extended our Mal family with Shamrock and Nikkita.  Nikkita and her one son, Aragorn, immigrated with us to New Zealand in October ’05. 

As with new comers, we generally only included the younger dogs at the end of a run and hooked them on the gang line alongside some of the older dogs, thereby teaching them some work ethic and discipline.  Aragorn was able to join in the last few runs of 2005. 

Conditions to working dogs in SA are slightly different based on weather constraints and this limits the training required to entertain any form of “serious” sledding. Secondly, the activity of sledding in South Africa has historically been geared around a very informal environment and with no racing.  It was a great way to enjoy nature and appreciate our dogs while they were working, and socialising with some friends after the run.  It was a great opportunity for some of the kids to enjoy the outing and feel a part when riding along on some of the teams.  This has led to Matthew running several of the Malamutes on their own, while allowing him to develop into a potential musher.  Some of the sleds had a seat in the front to (1) allow the people to enjoy the ride and (2) and most importantly, to provide much needed weight on the Malamute team to stabilise and provide extra weight when running a large team.

Running Large Teams

When we started sledding, we immediately joined a team of 6 other Malamutes made up of various families, all bringing their dogs together and running them on the same team.  This grew to between 8 dogs at a poor turnout, up to 14 dogs on one team and can provide some interesting moments.  Many of these dogs were Champion Registered show dogs.

Running a large team required extra weight to weigh down the rig, specifically when 150% committed to start.  It also requires dedication from other parties if the dogs come from different home environments.  We have been fortunate to experience running a team in snow in SA and envisage doing so in NZ.

Some Working Photos

Family photo in September 2005

Sledding in the snow in Fouriesburg, SA in July 2001

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