Sled Dog Breeds: From Arctic Exploration to the Iditarod

What does it take to run hundreds of miles across packed ice and frozen terrain, for days and weeks on end, in arctic temperatures? That’s easy: A lot. A lot of grit, guts, and a laser-like focus on getting where you’re going.

What Breeds Make the Best Sled Dogs?

The Samoyed, Alaskan Malamute, Siberian Husky, Chinook are some of the most well-known of the sled-dog breeds, and with good reason.

Sled dogs probably evolved in Mongolia between 35,000 and 30,000 years ago. Scientists think that humans migrated north of the Arctic Circle with their dogs about 25,000 years ago, and began using them to pull sleds roughly 3,000 years ago.

There are historical references to dogs used by Native American cultures dating back to before the first Europeans made land. There were two main types of sled dogs: one kept by coastal cultures and the other by people living in the interior. In the mid-1800s Russian traders following the Yukon River inland and acquired sled dogs from the villages along its shores.

Samoyed

Alaskan Malamute

Siberian Husky

Chinook