Working Sled Dogs

Just wondering if it is common for sled dogs to turn on one another, I don't mean people's pet dogs that they may take out recreationally, I mean actual working sled dogs?

No it isn't a common place occurance, they wouldn't be able to run them together if they were constantly turning on each other. The dogs need to be able to work as a team.

Like any breed, individual dogs can take a dislike to each other so you simply wouldn't pair those two up, but as for turning on each other - no.

From the TV show I have been seeing bits of on SKY it has happened a fair bit - but I think they focus on it as good TV and I did have a Canadian lady who was training a team of Malamutes for the iditarod email me because she was having trouble with her dogs constantly fighting .... I don't think they made the race in the end But any team worth running should be able to work nicely as a team. If they can't then the team itself needs rethinking.

All sled dog breeds are different and some are "sharper" in temperament than others, but as Greyhawk says, it isn't a common occurance. I remember reading "Of Dogs and Men" - a book about sled dogs in the Antarctic (mainly Greenland Dogs) and being quite shocked by some of the stories of dog fights.
As far as the two most popular sled dogs breeds in the UK are concerned - Siberian Huskies and Alaskan Malamutes, I would say that this kind of behaviour is extraordinarily rare.

I suppose the most obvious example of "actual working sled dogs" would be Alaskan Huskies used as racing dogs in the US - again they are bred to work as a team, and although there may be the occasional spat (as with any dogs) they are rarely serious, although Lance Mackey had to drop one of his leaders after a fight just before the Iditarod start last year when the dogs were wound up and ready to go.

Mick.

Thanks for your answers. It is something that came up in a book I read, so it made me curious. The lead dog was actually killed by some of the others in the pack.

Came across this:

'Fighting is the single most difficult obstacle to overcome in working a Malamute team. Malamutes, as a breed, hold fighting to be one of their First Amendment rights and if given the chance will happily morph from a working team into a ten-dog furball. To put it in a nutshell, fighting will not be tolerated at all, under any circumstances.'

From: A Primer on Working the Alaskan Malamute
by Linda Dowdy

LOL.. I would love to meet her malamutes!!!

Don't beleive everything you read!!

You seem determined to try and find proof that they can't move more than 2 yards without having a fight which anyone can tell you is completely untrue - if this were the case then they would have ceased to exist long ago as people can not keep or work such aggressive dogs However if that is what you want to believe then please feel free to do so.

I know of several large teams in the States who do not have such aggression problems but we all know that people believe what they want to believe.

WARNING: contains images of fabulous working Malamutes who are NOT fighting.
http://www.malamute-express.com/some...winter__07.htm