STOP DISSING MY FRIEND!!!!!!!! YOU GUYS ARE SHOW DOG BREEDERS, MUSHING IS DIFFERENT! It doesn't matter what AKC says or stuff like that, I'm not saying this isn't good advice, I'm just saying that because you guys aren't mushers you don't really know how to breed a sled dog or what to really look for. sled dogs are less $$$$$ the show dogs cause looks don't matter.
First I was NOT dissing your friend. I has seen lots of people who believed the puppy sellers words without doing research of their own. Their dogs turned out to have issues, bad temperment, hips, or other serious health problems.
At 1 point I was that niave person, but after my first time I started doing lots and lots of homework and now am more educated. And I will hold my girl Dawn up as an example, she was my first Siberian and the dog I got swindled on. I paid $1000 for her, she has champions in her sire line and her breeder knew enough to swindle me. But Dawn is 1/2 inch too tall at the withers, she has a snapped tail, she has a mild underbite, and she is way too hyperactive, bordering on schizophrenic, to easily train. These are just her biggest faults, not all of them. Dawn does love to pull, but the same faults that keep her from being a show dog will also keep her from being a sled dog, she would be average at best, and that's if you could train her. She is not going to be in my future breeding program. The underbite and tail are genetic, so she should never be bred as all her pups will carry those traits. Her temperment too is a fault, Siberians should be hyper but trainable, not schizophrenic. She will be spayed as soon as her current heat is over. The same it true of the female dog, Cheyenne, whom I rescued from the puppy mill. I knowingly bought Cheyenne to save her life, never with the intention to breed her. We already spoke about and covered some of Cheyennes faults so I won't go into them again. Before I purchased my pup Phantom I did a lot of research, called breeders, studied conformation codes, even studied the dogs that are winning in the show rings. Phantom is from a older northern style of Siberian, here where I live the Siberians winning are more slender boned with shorter coats. His pedigree is great, champions on both sides, his conformation is looking good, he is training well. I chose him because I personally liked the old northern style dogs, I feel the dogs down here are too thin legged and don't have enough fur, these dogs wouldn't be able to pull all day or survive 1 night in Alaska. Before research I didn't know there were different body styles in the breed. After I found out, I went for what I liked best.
Please do your research before buying to make sure you understand what you need, that way you don't cough up a lot of money for a lemon the way I and countless others did. I can NOT stress enough, how important it is to do your research before buying. Your knowledge is all that will keep you from being swindled by a smooth talking breeder who only wants your money.
My next big point, that everyone seems to miss, is that the body type of a dog will tell what kind of work that dog can do well. For example, a Clydesdale horse can never be a race horse. It's not built for it, the Clydesdale is built to pull heavy loads at a slow pace, with rests over long distance. If you tried making the Clydesdale run pulling that load all day the horse would break down. And the same is true of racehorses not being able to pull loads, their bodies aren't designed that way. This same principle applies to all animals, even humans and dogs. There is a reason the runner Bolt won the Olympics the way he did, its his body build. An Alaskan Malamute is thicker boned, heavier bodied, and it's shoulder and legs are put on the dog differently than a Siberian Husky. The reason is that Malamutes are heavy fright animals, they pull heavy loads long distance at slow speed. Siberians are built for endurance, they pull light loads at fast speed long distance. Even if your not working with pure bred dogs, knowing how the body type affects is ability to do its job is vital. You could get a pitbull like my neighbors who loves to pull, but put him on a sled and make him run all day and he will break down. So study the sled dog breds, their conformation codes, understand how shoulder slope, rear end angle, head and tail carriage, rib spacing, paw shape, and more affect the dogs performance. You can apply the knowledge to any dog breed who you are thinking of making a sled dog out of. Even Alaskan Huskies greatly resemble the Siberians conformation code, is because Siberians were used to create the breed and breeders then refined the dogs to be faster than the Siberian ancestors. Much of the information you need can be found online, you don't have to spend money to learn, just google. Do pay particular attention to skeletal and muscle structure on the dogs as this is where a sled dog is made.
I would look all this up BEFORE I purchased my first intended sled dog. Regardless of if you want to breed, knowing how a dogs body helps it do it's job without breaking down will be extremely important as you start building your team.
