GIANT ALASKAN MALAMUTE DOGS

Hello and welcome to Animal Watch and this week we're talking Alaskan Malamute. The Alaskan Malamute is considered to be a very wolfy looking dog breed and also a very large and ancient one. They were originally bred for hauling heavy freights because of their strength and endurance and later a sled dog. Malamutes were thought to be created by the ancient Malamute people of Alaska's Norton Sound region and certain individuals have been recorded as weighing up to 100 pounds. Despite having an Alaskan Malamute myself I'm off to visit Lorna Bartlett of Arctic Rainbow Malamutes as I feel that in order to evaluate this breed I need to meet lots and lots of Malamutes together in a home environment. This is Peppa. This is Peppa. Hi Peppa. Yeah Peppa's nine now. Nine. So she's Chilly's daughter. This is Chilly. Chilly's 12 now so she's our oldest our oldest Malamute and she's mother to Peppa. Hello. Hello. Oh so big squishy bears. So you've got more haven't you hiding out the back? Yes I've got another four. Oh so how many have you got? You've got six. You can never have too many. That's a lot of Malamutes in one house and they're not small. Oh look at them. Hi. Do you want to let them in if you want to come and raise yourselves? Doobie's 11 and a half. Doobie you're massive. Doobie you're cute. And that's Teggy the puppy. She was one last week. Oh they're beautiful. She's got a gorgeous coat hasn't she? Well he's got a gorgeous coat. Yeah they're both long coated. Lorna I think I'm in heaven. I'm in a Malamute sandwich right now. We are literally immersed in great big bear like squishy fluffy canines. So how long has it been since you first fell in love with the Alaska Malamute? I fell in love with the Alaska Malamute probably about 30 odd years ago. That's a long time ago. A long time ago but I waited um until about 15 years ago before I actually got my first Malamute. So what was it that made you fall in love with these beautiful animals? I saw them on telly and didn't even know what they were. Um I just said to my husband who we just we just got married and said I don't know what that dog is but one day I'm gonna have one of those. These dogs are very relaxing to have around aren't they? Yes very yeah. Now one of the one of the common questions that comes up with me is um Malamutes having an inability to to live with other Malamutes or other dogs. What's your take on that whole situation? Malamutes can live quite happily with with other dogs. We do have a slip pack because we had an altercation between Lupe here and her mum Pepper who's in the lounge. Um it was over food and we tried lots of different things over the course of weeks and months and years probably to try and get them back together again but the safest thing for everybody is to keep keep them apart. Yeah. In the wild they go their separate ways. Yeah. We are asking them to live together because we love them. Malamutes aren't that fond of other dogs um so we do have to be careful where we walk them. We certainly don't let them off lead where we know they're the other dogs and I love my dogs. I just want to keep them safe. The interesting thing is to to try and work out why the Malamute is the way the Malamute is and of course it goes back to the reason why they were bred. Malamutes are freight breeds and they are you know they're very people dogs. They're working breeds. They worked with if you go back to Inuit times they worked um in the tribe with the Inuit Indians and they would be there they they would hunt they would um obviously pull their loads for them so people meant happiness however if it was a wolf or a bear then obviously that that was something else that they were there to protect you know to take the choice and protect the children that's one of the reasons why they don't particularly like other animals because it was bred into them. Of course you've got the contrast between Malamutes and and Huskies and a lot of Huskies especially the working some of the working ones I've seen um people can mistake them for smaller Malamutes can't they because some of them aren't quite similar looking. A lot of Huskies can live quite happily together so what is the fundamental difference between Huskies and why they get on so well as a pack and Malamutes you have to sort of sometimes keep them a little bit more separate? Um I think just that they were bred for different reasons. Huskies bred for speed whereas Malamutes are more of a working dog freight dog and they would they would So tell me about their coats because we've got we've got two short hairs here and we've got two long hair long coats are you allowed to show them or are you not allowed to show them? You wouldn't show them because it would be a disqualification because when you're showing um you're looking at fit for purpose a long coat wouldn't be fit for purpose because it would bring in the snow they also get a lot of snowballs caught in their feet because the fur on their feet is so much However studies have shown and when I've spoken to breeders in America that actually if you take the long coat out of your breeding lines the coat goes flat so it does actually affect the coat so they are there you know they are in there for a purpose. So you need to keep the long hair in? The thing with the long coats is they will work well for you you've just got to be prepared to clean up afterwards. Yeah so tell me about your grooming routine. So the long coats or the thicker coats they're they're sort of groomed really they need a little bit of a flick over every day whereas the standard coats you know that once a week is a good go. So with the coat of course we've got the we've got the outer guard hairs and then we've got the really dense thick undercoat here how many hours will it take you to work your way through the coat? If for doobie for instance if I bath doobie then I have to allow a day it takes ages to get them wet ages to get them bubbled up and ages to get rid of the bubbles and ages to get them dry. But I love it I find it I find it quite therapeutic yeah and I think it's a way of bonding with your dog as well so I actually I really love it. In summer months then we will exercise these in the evenings we've also where we're going later over the field we can let them off they can exercise as much as they want them so if they just want to plod around they'll plod around if they want to tear around they can they're in control of it. We've got plenty of shade here with the garden they can come in here everything in our house is laminate paint or leather so if it's cold for them to lay on. Some people can end up with some rather overweight Malamutes can't they? Malamutes have actually got very slow metabolisms they don't actually need as much food as what people think they do because their metabolisms are so slow. When they did the expeditions with them years ago they wouldn't if they ate tons and tons of food they wouldn't actually be able to carry the quantity of food the dogs would need it'd be counterproductive for them. Can you tell us what you feed your Malamutes on? They have a lot in the evenings they tend to have their bones so tonight they've got chicken carcasses today they had spaghetti with pig heart, a raw egg and cottage cheese today. They have tripe as well so they will have tripe quite often in the morning which they really enjoy. On Sundays they have porridge so on a Sunday they have porridge with goat's milk and they have honey and pureed fruit into that. Contrary to what a lot of people say and even some vets will say it they can have raw chicken raw because dogs cannot have cooked well you can have cooked chicken off the bone but you cannot ever give a cooked chicken bone because it will splinter it'll get stuck in the gut and it can kill the dog so it's really really dangerous. I think it's the best thing I've ever fed my dogs on to be quite honest. Absolutely. Malamutes have aggression problems with food and that that is a known thing with the breed going back you know when they were living out with with the Inuits and they would have to fight a little bit over the food they have that sort of innate thing about wanting to defend their food you've got a lot of Malamutes here. We tend to feed them separately so we don't feed them together purely because we're feeding chicken or chicken bones or pig trotters whatever it is they're having it's going to take them time to eat it and they may not always eat all of it so they could end up walking away and another dog come and get it. The altercation we've had with them has been over food and I love my dogs I don't want to see any of them hurt. If somebody wants a Malamute what sort of lifestyle should that person have? You really do need to be home with them if you've just got one they're pack animals and you they won't want to be left alone and unfortunately if Malamutes get left behind and they then suffer from anxiety they can wreck the house very quickly and I always feel sad and when I hear people keeping them in kennels on their own in the garden they'd be so sad. What is the lifespan of a Malamute generally? On average you're looking at 10 to 14 years. And that's actually pretty good for a very large breed dog because of course these are naturally large dogs they're not bred to have the Gigantogene or anything weird. They're true to what they were all those years ago yeah they're not you know we don't try to breed them any smaller any taller anything just just keep them as they are they're too lovely to be altered. To the right home they are great fun you go backpacking with them you know you can do the treks with them there's weight pull as well you know you do weight pull and a test of strength um and people do just have them as pets just as loving pets as long as they get the exercise the right diet it's lifestyle. Yeah absolutely and I can see you you're obsessed by them. Do you think you'll always have them? I think so. We're gonna go and um put them on a rig aren't we? You don't need to have snow in order to sled with these dogs do you? You can just get a rig and you can get wheels and you can do it on dry land and you know and these dogs enjoy it. I'm part of ANWR which is the Alaskan Malamute Working Association and I've been on the committee for 15 15 years now. These dogs love to pull that's what they're bred to do to pull heavy weights. Can't wait to have a go on your rig. I'm slightly scared. One thing that Malamutes are great at is pulling sleds or rigs they adore it and their love of pulling is rooted deep in their blood. Lorna was keen for me to have a go whether I was was another matter. As well as being big cuddly house companions and super sporting race dogs Lorna's Malamutes also pay weekly visits to her local college in order to assist the students on their animal management courses. Daggy and Elvis and Loopy come into college with me they're part of the animal care course so students while they're here have the opportunity to carry out first aid on them and they bandage them groom them feed them when they're young they made all their puppy food up for them they also um learn also about animal behavior and knowing when to leave dogs alone we do do stuff in the classroom as well before the dogs come in and students have to answer questions about behaving around dogs and they have to sign it and I sign it to know they've done it so that you know they know they understand a little bit about body language and things to keep everybody safe. How many days a week do your dogs come in? Three days. Three days a week? Yeah usually a Monday Thursday Friday. Oh well I've had a lovely day today meeting Malamutes yes he agrees he's telling you though be sure to check out my videos every single week where I bring you films on wolves, wolf dogs, nordic dogs, animal rescue and animal conservation. Bye for now. If you would like to find out more about Alaska Malamutes then you can contact Lorna here.