Summary based on our own experiences

There are several books and websites available containing elaborated descriptions on the specific character and behavior of the Alaskan Malamute. Therefore we decided to summarize our overview based on our own experiences with the breed.

We merely came to know the Alaskan Malamute as an intelligent, headstrong, loyal, friendly, yet somewhat reserved and dignified dog, with an urge for frequent and long exercise and a more or less developed hunting instinct towards small animals.

Headstrong

Above all Malamutes have a very strong character, making it not the right breed for every dog lover. One would have to be very self-confident and firm to maintain control over a Mal or he will take a hike with you. Speaking of walking in a literally sense: Malamutes are known to break free and explore the world around them. Only when their appetite for adventure is satisfied they will 'innocently' return, so to say completely unaware of any harm they might have done... ;-)

Comrade

With a firm and consistent education a Malamute grows up to be a fantastic friend who loves working for you, is extremely social towards people (especially children), but with that will always keep a stately reserve. This means he will greet every visitor with great enthusiasm, but returns to his prior activity or lies down again after a short while.

Killer

Our Malamutes have a remarkable social attitude towards people and can get on with most (certainly not all!!) other dogs. Small animals are a different story: if not introduced to and brought up with them Malamutes see them as prey. So it is extremely important to socialize your young Mal pup with a cat if you might have one. When training with the cart or sled we find they try hunting after almost any species - cats, mice, rabbits, moles, sheep, squirls, chicken, hedgehogs; they're all interesting to chase down. Small cought prey will be killed without any remorse... Of course, this hunting instinct varies per dog.

One other important thing: amognst themselves Alaskan Malamutes tend to fight rather quickly and such a fight can be very fierce. We found this aspect of the Malamute character is hardly described in literature, but we experienced it clearly in our own pack and heard about it in our meetings with other Malamute owners.

Intelligent

A Malamute is a very intelligent dog, contrary to what some dog trainers try to make you believe. We have experienced a dog training school refused Attila as a student because 'a Malamute can not be taught anything anyway'. Of course, that's great nonsense: how would Malamutes become qualified and solid sleddogs without a good set of brains and a studious attitude?! Excellent leaddogs can even find their way without proper trail markings!

What such ignorant people really mean is that they don't feel like training a Malamute, because it requires more from you as owner than your general Labrador: a Malamute basically is so intelligent that he gets bored quickly. He will for instance fetch a ball two times and think the third time around: 'get it yourself...' (we swear you can see them think that :-). So it's the owners job to vary training and keep it creative and interesting for the dog. Whether it concerns obedience training, teaching commands or working in front cart or sled.

Therefore we try to take other routes with the training cart, vary short trainings with longer (and occiassionally very long) ones, alter the carts weight, use our bikes in summer to teach mushing commands, etc. You'll have to be inventive. What helped us with obedience and commands trainings is clicker training. But that is a pure personal finding: any other dog friendly method might work as well, as long as you are consistent at all times

Hard worker

The Alaskan Malamute is a hard worker with extreme endurance and thoroughness. Although they might try to fool around during training (which you have to correct immediately), everything shows they're made for running and pulling weight over long distances. A working Malamute is a great sight: passionate gallop or steady pace, ears folded flat towards the back of their head, tail down, tongue far outside the mouth. A big grin reveals their fun!

Stable and reliable

We'd like to emphasise that a Malamute (given a proper education) is a very stable and reliable dog, self-confident and with a remarkable friendly attitude towards people (especially kids). It certainly is no 'one man' dog. Of course one should never completely trust any dog with any small child, but we have great confidence in our Mals when playing with the children. Even though kids can be (too) rough with them sometimes, they have never even growled to them.

Useless watch-dog

Last (but not least for some people): his ultimate friendly character makes a Malamute a lousy watch-dog, unless your confident he'd lick an intruder to death! :-) Much rather he grabs the opportunity to take of himself and explore the nearby world, leaving the property to the greedy hands of the trespasser without even looking back...

Other interesting facts

Passionate diggers, favourite spot: your beautiful flower garden

Small eaters, at least ours

Love to be scribbled and hugged for a long time

Washing is not necessary: brushing regularly is enough to maintain a beautiful clean coat

They sometimes howl like wolves

Are mostly quiet dogs as they don't bark

Back to: Breed standard