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A husky is a sled dog used in the polar regions. We can differentiate huskies from other types of dogs by their style of fast pulling. They represent a continually evolving cross breed of the fastest dogs. (The Alaskan Malamute, by contrast, pulled heavier loads). Humans use huskies in dog sled racing. In recent years companies have been marketing tourist hikes with dog sleds for adventure travelers in snowy regions. Huskies are also kept as pets, and groups are working to find new homes for retired running and trekking dogs.

The word husky comes from the term referring to the aboriginal peoples of the Arctic, in general, the Eskimos, known as ‘huskies,’ a contraction of ‘Huskimos,’ the pronunciation given to the word ‘Eskimos’ by English sailors of the trading ships. “The use of husky is recorded from 1852 for dogs owned by the Inuit.

Lineage

The genetic proximity of almost all dogs to the gray wolf is due to the mixture. However, several Arctic breeds also show genetic proximity to the Taimyr wolf, now extirpated from North Asia due to their mixture: the Siberian Husky and the Greenland dog (which are also historically associated with human populations of the Arctic) and, to a lesser extent, the Finnish Shar-Pei and Spitz. A Greenland dog mix graph indicates an optimal 3.5% fit of shared material; however, a proportion of ancestry between 1.4% and 27.3% is consistent with the data and suggests a mixture between the wolf Taimyr and the ancestors of these four breeds at high latitude.

This introgression could have provided the first dogs living at high latitudes with a phenotypic variation beneficial for adaptation to a new and challenging environment, contributing significantly to the development of the husky. It also indicates that the ancestry of current dog breeds descends from more than one region.

Huskies are energetic and athletic. They usually have a thick double layer, which can be gray, black, coppery red, or white. The double-layer generally protects Huskies from harsh winters, and contrary to what most believe, they can survive in warmer climates. In warmer temperatures, Huskies tend to shed their undercoat regularly to cool their bodies. In addition to excretion, the Huskies control their eating habits according to the season; in colder climates, they tend to eat generous amounts causing them to digest to generate heat, while in warmer temperatures, they eat less. Their eyes are generally pale blue, although they can also be brown, green, blue, yellow, or heterochromatic. Huskies are more prone to some degree of uveitis than most other breeds.

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