Alaska's Great Race - The Alaskan Husky

" Each of those dogs has a different job. Those sprint dogs that you saw down at the fur rendezvous? Those dogs go as fast as they can go for sixteen miles."

" Most the time when people are thinking Husky they're thinking the big,"

" Malamute or the Siberian Huskies which are AKC breeds. For true competitive speed mushing technically it's they breed fast running dog to fast running dog. And there's kind of an evolution actually back in the 60's, 70's. There was a little Saluki in there, a little Irish setter, lots of breeds and that was actually called the Aurora Husky for awhile. When Egil Ellis came in the late 80's, from Europe, he brought with him what they call he Euro Hound. What it did is it brought in a lot shorter coats, it brought in little longer leg, little bigger dog on there. And basically, the year he came, he won the world championship. So, now you're seeing a lot more of that bred in so these dogs look a lot houndier."

" The dogs at Denali national park are more of a freighting dog. They're a bigger dog. they're a heavier dog more malamute style. Those dogs are hitched up to very long sleds. Where the Rangers will go into the back country with those dogs and they might freight equipment into Wonder Lake cabin. Or they might freight something out. Those dogs are going to be a lot slower. But they will go for a long time."

" We have more of the traditional style of working dogs that are more of what you would've seen, years ago these are we're not crossing anything in like, Any hound or pointer or other things that a lot of the racing mushers are. We're quite a bit slower. But we're a lot bigger and they're able hall more weight and get through deeper snow. A lot of the racing dogs run on a groomed trail."

" These dogs also have a lot of endurance- these Alaskan Huskies. They are built for speed. But, they're also built for endurance they're kind of a combination of both. Both types of dogs they can go a long time at a fairly constant speed but they do have regular breaks for rest. So, the reason they don't use Malamutes and other freighting, big heavy freighting dogs, sled dogs is because there are slower. So these dogs are kind of a combination"