I finally got curious enough to do an
embark on Princess Cricket.
Jodi has her actual family history going back at least 6 generations, and I know that she is mostly Alaskan Husky with some houndiness (pointer). The pointer lines have been bred into sprint-racing Alaskan huskies for a while now, and while Cricket is not quite as houndy as they are, I guessed that she was about 10-15% hound. However, her results came back 100% Alaskan husky. She also has only 5%
Coefficient of Inbreeding, which means Jodi has been very responsible with her lines! (
Raven, the rando stray dog off the streets, has a COI of only 2%, which is excellent and very lucky considering how many relative-matings often occur in stray dog populations in small villages like hers.)
Like Raven's, Cricket's results also came back negative for all of the genetic health conditions that they test for. Wonderful news, but unsurprising since we know how careful Jodi is about breeding. She also has no known close relatives, hahahahaha. But the reason for this is obvious: Mushers who breed their own know what they have and do not do Embark tests! So none of her many known relatives are in the database.
But let us talk sled dog genetics. The Alaskan Husky was originally a landrace breed, and it is said that every Alaskan husky today has some of this lineage. However, nobody has DNA from dogs from pre-contact times. Post-contact, European and American settlers bred in lines that made the dogs suit their purposes, whether that was for delivering the mail, running traplines, serving as a main mode of family transportation, or, more recently, racing. And even among racing there is a split between distance and sprint dogs. So... while the modern Alaskan Husky does indeed have its own genetic signature, I suspect that that gene pool is quite large and quite deep, and is now so redefined that it includes the bit of hound in Cricket. Even dogs that have a known pointer ancestor are having their results coming back 100% Alaskan Husky. I do wonder what this ancestral ur-AK husky looked like. Then realized hey, the Malamute is the state dog! Is that it? But according to my friend Cole, who runs a trapline team of old-style Alaskan huskies and studies sled dog genetics as a hobby:
Recently, animal geneticist
Heather Huson took DNA was taken from the famous sled dogs of
Leonard Seppala, but his dogs were Siberians. She did visit several local kennels around town to collect DNA from heritage Alaskan huskies, and
I got to meet her and she was super interesting! She collected DNA from heritage dogs all over the Interior.
Here are some of my photos showing AK husky genetic diversity.
First up, my Autumn, who to me is the cannonical modern Alaskan husky. She probably could have trained to run the Iditarod, but she would not have loved it. She's strong, but not crazy strong. She's fast, but not crazy fast. She's versatile, and she lived to be nearly 18!
Then her sister, my Linden, who is practically her twin and has the same characteristics. Also lived to be nearly 18, and strong, active, and possessed of all her marbles until her very last few days.
My Starbuck-a-Roo. I always suspected she was part Golden Retriever, but who knows? She was soft of fur, soft of temperament, and very loving. But I'm sure if I had done an embark test on her, results would have come back mostly if not all AK Husky.
Queen Thistle would certainly have come back 100% AK Husky. She's from distance racing lines and full of perseverance and grit.
The data nerd in me was disappointed that Cricket's hound genes were not reported in her DNA results, but I think they were rolled into the modern definition of AK husky. Her hound genes added a bit of civility: She has the best recall of any husky I've ever known. Houndiness also adds strength and speed. She is bulging with fast-twitch muscles, and when she snuggles you, it feels like you are wearing a lead vest. When I used to skijor with her and Thistle side by side, she would be trotting very quickly while Thistle galloped! She was a star skijor dog with our friend ET, who is a Canadian long-distance skiing champion of some renown. She said once, she was in a 40-mile 3-dog race, and the leader started to lose interest. So she stopped, swapped them out, let Cricket lead, and won! The cost of the houndiness is the fluffy coat. Cricket's is not very thick, and she did NOT appreciate sleeping outdoors on the Iditarod. By the time I met her, she had taken to sleeping in the handler's cabin, snuggled up warm.
This is Cedar, also 100% Alaskan husky but physically Cricket's opposite: He's huge, fluffy, intractable, and did I mention huge? He's half Hedlund.
Here are four of his puppies. Very cute!
Here are a bunch of his nieblings. They ahhh let me think. Cedar's sister is their mama, if memory serves.
And here is Levon, the Sweetest Boy in the World. Like Cedar in build but like the Dalai Lama in temperament. I wish more mushers would make Levons! 100% Alaskan husky from freight lines.
And here is Pepper, the canonocal houndy-hound sprint dog. She is a pet and recreational mushing dog, but her family members who do competitive sprint racing can run 3-4-minute miles! Also 100% Alaskan husky!
And finally, here is my Raven, who is much to my surprise 0% Alaskan husky, although some folks would call her that since they use "Alaskan husky" as a catchall term for any Northern sled dog who lives in Alaska, as in a literal husky who is Alaskan. But she doesn't have any AK husky genes; her husky genes are Siberian!
