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. We absolutely adore this young dog. He is a complete sweetheart despite being in the throes of teenagerdom and has never met a person or dog he didn’t like. He is super happy-go-lucky and enjoys doing absolutely anything with his humans. His favorite activity is mushing, and he is showing a ton of potential there. 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 field 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! We have done Embark DNA testing on him, and he does not carry any of the identifiable genetic diseases in Siberians. He is a tall boy and a bit heavier in 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 neck, angulation, and pelvis length. We also love the type and movement of the fantastic dogs in his pedigree. His dad is one of my favorite producers. He is 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 and all people. He is the only one of our dogs I would call “loyal” in that 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 are joined at the hip, as they are only one month apart in age. Valley is like a little boy who is always trying to get his siblings to play. As a puppy, he 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. He is very submissive to our older boys and looks up to them a lot. It is very cute to watch. He absolutely adores puppies and is very gentle with them.
Drive: 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 canicross line, Valley starts flipping out and bouncing off the walls. He absolutely loves to pull in harness, and he is surprisingly strong for his age. We haven’t done much with him yet, since he is still young, but he has shown good focus and endurance so far. He listens very well even when outside, a rare trait in our pack, so we think he has the potential to be a leader. He has a lot of growing up to do, but we hope to get him started more seriously next season. He and Serena make a great team!