Intro: Valley comes to us all the way from Costa Rica! He was bred by our good friends Glaston and Paula. I had no idea how far Costa Rica was from us until Valley had to endure a very long flight from San José to JFK. From the moment he got off the plane at four months old to now being the oldest intact male in our yard, he has been an absolute sweetheart. His temperament is 10/10 — just an incredibly happy-go-lucky boy who has never fought with another dog and never met a person he didn’t like. Valley has passed on his sweet temperament to his daughter Gracie, along with his excellent structure. His favorite activity is mushing, and he has run up to 10 miles. In his first show weekend, he went reserve winners dog to a 4 point major out of the 9-12 puppy class. At his first specialty, he went reserve winners dog to a 5 point major in a huge entry of 32 class dogs. At his second specialty, he again took reserve winners dog. He has received many lovely compliments from judges, exhibitors, and breeders. At 17 months and completely out of coat, he picked up his first and second majors under esteemed breeder judges Marie Ann Falconer and Dawn Eisele. A few months later, he took back-to-back Reserve Winners Dog at the Seneca Siberian Husky Club specialty under breeder judge Shira Barkon and at the Garden State Siberian Husky Club specialty under breeder judge Tom Schonberger. At the 2021 SHCA National Specialty, he won his sweeps class under breeder judge Karen Shaner. His first show back after the National, he snagged the last point to finish his championship at just over 2 years old.
Health & Conformation: Valley is OFA hips good and OFA eyes normal! He is a tall boy and has great coat/bone. He is close to top of the standard at 23+ inches and 55 pounds. We brought him in to our pack and to our breeding program because he has specific traits that we are hoping to solidify in our lines, particularly temperament, angulation, and pelvis length. We also love the type and movement of the fantastic dogs in his pedigree. Although he is tightly bred, he is linebred on dogs that are not common in US pedigrees, so he added genetic diversity to our lines as an outcross. He was also our first red dog ever, so that is very cool!
Temperament: Valley has a fantastic temperament, especially for a male. He only learned to mark at 11 months old and has never marked indoors anywhere! He is incredibly sweet with other dogs, including puppies, and all people. He is strongly bonded with us, and he prefers us to strangers. When he went off on a dog show trip without us, upon seeing us again, he was so overwhelmed he didn’t know what to do with himself. He and Serena have a special relationship, as they are only one month apart in age and basically grew up together. As a puppy, Valley used to bark when he couldn’t keep up with the older dogs in the yard. He is silly and goofy all the time, and is a very happy dog. As an adult, he usually minds his own business in the yard and prefers digging holes to playing most of the time. He often asks his humans for hugs, his favorite thing. His one flaw is that he is quite loud, and he does not have the best singing voice.
Drive/handler focus: Imagine our surprise when our puppy from Costa Rica turned out to have the most drive in our entire pack! If you so much as look at a harness or line, Valley starts flipping out and bouncing off the walls. He absolutely loves to pull in harness, and he is very strong. He is quite focused in lead and has done short runs of 5-10 miles on snow and dryland. Due to his size and bone/coat, he overheats easily at 20+ degrees, but we imagine that he would absolutely excel at -20.