A generation ago, working sled dog breeding stock selection was a simple process. Mushers bred their best males to their best females. If an accidental breeding did occure, there was a good chance some great pups would come of it. You see, if you weren’t an exceptional working sled dog, you wouldn’t be alive.
That was a hard reality for a hard time, but its the most simple way to breed any species for selected traits. Bob Wehle was perhaps the finest dog breeder of all time. His Elhew (Bob’s name spelled backwards) English pointers are easily disernable from other pointer lines. They look, and perform, better then any line of any pointing dog breed. He described his breeding practices in a book that I read once. He believed (I’m really paraphrasing and hope I get this right) that the only way to develop a breed of dog with a high chance of passing along predictable traits was to breed heavily and cull ruthlessly. He put many puppies on the ground and eliminated those exhibiting recessive traits. This was done in such a methodical fashion, that he succeeded in identifying many recessive traits and eliminating them from the gene pool. Before his death he was able to breed very closely realted dogs with a high certainty of success.
I respect success and Mr. Wehle’s results speak for themselves, but I find it difficult to follow his lead to that extent. So I follow the simple rule of breeding my best. I’ve heard some mushers say they “study” genetics. Believe me when I tell you that eukaryotic genetics are incredibly complicated. It’s not as simple as those cute little boxes we all used in high school to figure out if the baby pea plant would be white, pink, blue, or polka dotted. I actually did study genetics to get my microbiology degree and wouldn’t claim to have anything more then a layman’s understanding of how a male and female of any species pass traits to their offspring.
Breeding is gambling – literally. It’s all probability. If you breed a wirehaired fox terrier and a great Dane, what would you bet you’ll get? Probably wouldn’t choose to put money on anything too specific. Very difficult to say how the genes will line up and what traits will be displayed. Same could be said for a 6 foot white guy with 6 different nationalities and a 5 foot half Yupik woman
. Hard to predict what you’re going to get. On the other hand, if you bred two black labs, one 55 pounds and the other 60, and both solid hunting dogs, you might feel more comfortable about the outcome.
Line breeding takes this philosophy increasing your odds a step further. Line breeding is an attempt to increase the probability of a breeding yielding dogs with desirable traits through common ancestry in both the dam or sire. For instance. A breeder may have an outstanding dog and breed it to his granddaughter. Plenty of breeders would tell you line breeding yields the best results, but they won’t all agree on how close dam and sire should be related. How close is too close? What’s the difference between line breeding and inbreeding? Don’t ask me. Plenty of discussion to be had on line breeding. Just Google it, you’ll get plenty of hits. Some folks are very passionate about this topic. Read what they have to say and draw your own conclusions.
No matter what school of thought you follow, if you want long legged 70 pound hard pulling leaders with nice coats and feet, you’ve got to breed a dam and sire fitting that bill. Breeding two 60 pound short dogs that lead sometimes might give you what you want, but the probability isn’t high. This is all a general rule of course. I’ve known shorter haired dogs that throw a lot of longer haired dogs. And some lines of huskies always have smaller females. It isn’t uncommon for lines to consistently have 50 pound females and 65 pound males. These are all things for a breeder to consider. But if a breeder has any hestiation about a pairing, DON’T DO IT! Go find better dogs to breed from another kennel if you must.
This is easier said then done however. Very few working sled dog lines still grace Alaska’s trails. Locating breeding stock is a huge challenge. The big 100 pound Interior lines are practically gone. The few mushers still using them are always searching. I’ve found large distance racing dogs work for me. Sled dogs in Dillingham weren’t as big as Interior dogs so my 70 pounders are pretty close to the traditional size. I’ve collected breeding stock from Mitch Seavey, John Baker, Will Forsberg, Andy Bassich, and my friend Swanny. Mitch and John are well known distance mushers while Will, Andy, and Swanny use larger dogs for many different purposes. I’ve always got an eye open for potential breeding stock because they are so difficult to locate.
Let’s get specific. I recently bred Lucy and Bing. Here’s what I see as their strengths and weaknesses – factors considered before breeding
Bing:
Physical Characteristics – Bing is the perfect size; 72 pounds, long legs, long body, broad chest, iron clad feet, longish medium coat. He is physically almost perfect. His coat can be a little long in warm weather which we get a lot of.
Working Characteristics - Rock solid gee haw trail breaking leader. Can’t imagine a better working sled dog. Pulls hard 100% of the time. The harder it gets, the harder he works. Always calm in harness, never barks or raises a fuss.
Other Considerations – Good appetite. Friendly with kids, but standoffish with strange adults. Never shown agression to people, but not overly friendly either. Very dominant, agressive with strange males. Both parents were leaders and siblings are good dogs, half became leaders.

Lucy:
Physical Characteristics – Lucy is one of the smaller dogs in the kennel - about 63 pounds. She’s a broad chested longer legged dog with a shorter body than some of the others. Very well muscled and strong. Feet like steel. Lighter medium coat, have to put coat on her below -25F on longer runs. However she does very well in warmer weather.
Working Characteristics - Young dog willing to run up front. Pulls hard 100% of the time. No dog in the kennel works harder then her and she always does it with tail wagging. Calm in harness, but will get excited if other dogs around her are acting up.
Other Considerations – Good appetite until she gets tired. Very friendly, absolute love bug with everyone. Gets sick when traveling in a car or plane. Both parents are good leaders. Mother is a nice big leggy female. Siblings are good leaders and working dogs.

You see, I don’t consider either a perfect dog, although Bing is pretty darn close. Some characteristics are clearly more important for a working sled dog then others. Just because Bing doesn’t crawl into the lap of everyone he meets, he won’t be eliminated as breeding stock. Also, you notice I didn’t say anything about color. I don’t care if they’re purple, makes no difference to me. I do have a soft spot for dogs with pricked up ears. So far all my dogs ears stand up, but if that changes in the future I don’t really care.

Will these pups become the tough working sled dogs I’m hoping for? Only time will tell. All have been introduced to harness and most took to it very well. They’re off to a good start. Hopefully this calculated gamble will pay off big.