Are Alaskan Klee Kai Dogs easy to train?

Answer 1

Actually, every dog has different personalities and it's this personality that determines what they would do well in regardless of breed. So to answer your question, most Malamutes are good as sled dogs, working dogs, and some are hunting dogs while some are bad at all of the above. In order to understand why, we need to take a little step backwards in the breeds history. As a person with knowledge and experience, I can help give you some ideas as to determine whether your Malamute is still suitable for a hunting dog or if it's just another one of those working types.

Back in the early days, the Inuit people in the tribe responsible for the breeding were VERY picky on the quality of their dogs. Breeding of the Malamutes were divided between the working dogs and the hunting dogs.

Hunting types:

In the old days, the Mahlemute tribes bred these dogs mostly to be working dogs, some as hunting types. Hunting Malamutes were bred to be friendly with humans but maintained most of their high prey drives for wild animals and were known to assist their human hunters while sled Malamutes were slightly smaller in size and focused on the simpler tasks from pulling heavy loads, navigation purpose, or even baby-sitting children. Some escape artists at the time were also known to bring home mostly rodents and fish (despite their sizes, they cannot take down caribous or muskox like their wild wolf cousins due to their teeth being not strong enough to crush the bones of a medium sized hoof runner). During seasonal hunts, a hunter would shoot a caribou multiple times to slow it down, sometimes in the ankle if they were lucky and then a group of hunting Malamutes would race ahead to help bring down the pre-shot caribou, in this case, finishing the animal off by the neck. So yeah, these are just some examples of the hunting types and the ones that CAN be trained as hunting dogs. Sadly though, during the Gold Rush, people began breeding the Malamutes primarily for working purpose so the modern day Malamutes have quite a lower hunting instinct than that of the early hunting ones. Alaskan Malamutes were also used to find seal holes and protect the camp from bears and intruders.

Working types:

The working Malamutes were the most common dogs in what's now known as Alaska and some parts of Yukon. They took no part in the hunting and were less aggressive than the hunting types. Working types did assist the people in gathering the leftovers from the hunt as well as guiding their human companions out of harm's way (such as disobeying commands by steering away from a direction where the dog senses danger like thin ice or the presence of a bear). Some also carried thin wood for fire. There is a lot of stuff that the working types were responsible for that I cannot list it all here. While working dogs can also hunt rodents on their own, they cannot take down any pre-shot caribou like the hunting groups so all hunting were left to the hunters and their hunting Malamutes. Both hunting dogs and working dogs did have one thing in common was that they can pull sleds.

Modern types:

Today, due in part to us human relying more on the markets and in some cases, using hunting rifles, hunting Malamutes are no longer necessary so the hunting type Malamutes have virtually died out. While minor hunting instincts can still be found in a lot of the modern day dogs, it is mostly the working instinct in this northern spitz type dog that has survived and so I recommend teaching your Malamute how to do tasks that are suitable for a working dog than how to hunt. In the case with most modern Alaskan Malamutes, most breeders look for qualities that are suitable for a working or family dog. Personalities play a role, those with the rare aggressive dominant behaviors would be rejected from breeding. This also meant that certain traits like being easily distracted by a passing stranger or even getting friendly with a cat that would have been considered unwanted for a working or hunting type dog began to rise in the breed as well. VERY FEW modern day Malamutes can still take down a pre-shot running caribou but most of them would more likely be pummeled by the hoof runner's strength due to their lack of experience in hunting. The modern types are also sub-divided into different groups. The most popular are the Kotzebue, the kind that are extremely friendly with people and are more suitable for a family's dog and the M'loots, the larger ones that still have most of the working instinct from their Working type ancestors. Most of the Alaskan Malamutes that you'd run into around the world are Kotzebue while M'loots are far more rare and are exclusive to Canada and Alaska.

Answer 2

That depends on your definition of "easy." They are incredibly smart, but stubborn, dogs. If you have the will and the patience, they are very easy to train as they learn very quickly. The problem lies with getting them to concentrate on you! With my pup I found using treats and keeping training sessions very short at first, 3-5 mins or so, worked very well. Be patient, positive and consistent. Remember to always end with a success, then they will be eager to please :) good luck! They are amazing dogs :)

Answer 3

they are a smart do so they pick things up fast but they will challenge for alpha position in the family from time to time by pushing there luck i.e. chewing, peeing in the house etc