.com Forum · Alaskan Malamute

Hi all,
I'm interested in joining Alaskan Malamutes and I have a few questions. What is the current highest sop? How often do mals get group and show placements? What is considered a showable sop? How long do they take to session? Are many colours available?

Many thanks,
Holly

What is the current highest sop? There is one boy 96.35, a few 96.0+ and quite a few 95.95s.

How often do mals get group and show placements? Fairly often. I have a boy who gets group placements often.

What is considered a showable sop? I am showing anyone above 95.5 but that may change with the number of high sop pups whelped recently.

How long do they take to session? it takes about 21 days to get to 19-20-20-20 at which point they are good for the ring, it takes til about 35 days to get to 20 in training.

Are many colours available? yes quite a few, but many of the rarer colors are not at show quality.

I hope this helps, and if any of this info is not correct, I am sure one of the other Mal breeders will correct it.

Hello Holly, glad you're thinking of joining the breed, it's a fun breed with a tight-nit,and very supportive community, so I think you would enjoy it.

Stanza answered your questions accurately, but I just want to add that it takes 20 days to get to 19-20-20-20 not 21, and mals are ring ready by this point.

Also anything 95.4% and up is finishable, remember quality first, SOP second. The ring average is 95.55%

The colors that aren't up to showable SOP are the dark ones; Sealand white, dark red and white, dark blue and white and their sable variations.

All the other colors are represented in the ring. I will list them in order from most common to rarest showable colors: red and white, gray and white, blue and white, sable and white and the sable variations of red and blue.

Hope you will join.

Welcome! I'd regularly check the for sale page-there are some really nice dogs that come up, but they don't stay available for long! You can also ask here or in the forum if you are looking for something specific-right now, we are seeing a lot more dogs with 9.8 for size and head, I have not yet seen a 9.9 but we are close I think. 9.7 is the highest I've seen for coat. If you look back at page 2 of the community thread, Drake had listed the average traits for the breed (and will probably update in the next few days?) As Drake said, 95.4 is still finishable, and I'm actually 1 point away from a Grand with a 95.45 male with 19.5 SS-so the SOP numbers can be a little misleading as to the quality of the dog. Good luck!

Edited to add: Drake is really quick and already updated the community thread with the average traits for the month...really helpful to look at when you are evaluating a dog!

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Last edited by CS Astronomical on 3/31/2015 8:26:50 AM

Thank you all very much for the replies and the PMs I'm looking forward to being an active part of the breed and this all helps tremendously. I think this is the friendliest and most welcoming breed community I've come across on SD so I'm glad I chose mals to restart this kennel with. I've bought a few dogs to start off with (Thank you CS!) and hopefully I'll be in the showing ring soon once I've got my kennel organised.