Husky vs Malamute: Why They Look Alike, How to Tell

A Siberian Husky and an Alaskan Malamute look alike because they were built for the same job in the same climate, but they are separate breeds with different sizes, eye rules, ear sets, and tail carriage, and once you know those four tells you will rarely confuse them again. PetMatch currently holds 530 Siberian Huskies and 135 Alaskan Malamutes in its match pool, and the two groups are among the most frequently cross-matched dog breeds on the site, which is exactly what you would expect from two dogs that share a blueprint.

Why they look the same

Both are Arctic spitz-type sled dogs: erect triangular ears, a wedge-shaped head, almond eyes, a thick double coat, and a tail carried up over the back. Both wear the same family of facial markings, a cap over the skull and a mask or bar across the face, usually on a gray, black, sable, or red body with white underneath. Both were shaped by people who needed dogs to pull loads across snow, and the same environment produced the same silhouette twice.

They came from different sides of the Bering Strait, though. The Siberian Husky was developed by the Chukchi people of northeastern Siberia and reached Alaska in the early 1900s during the gold rush era; the Alaskan Malamute takes its name from the Mahlemut, an Inuit people of Alaska's Kotzebue Sound region. The American Kennel Club recognized the Siberian Husky in 1930 and the Alaskan Malamute in 1935, and the two standards have described distinct dogs ever since.

The four tells

Size is the first and biggest. The AKC standard puts a male Siberian Husky at 21 to 23.5 inches at the shoulder and 45 to 60 pounds, with females at 20 to 22 inches and 35 to 50 pounds. The Malamute standard names 25 inches and 85 pounds as the desirable freighting size for a male and 23 inches and 75 pounds for a female. A Malamute is a heavy-boned hauler; a Husky is a lean endurance runner. Side by side the difference is obvious. In a photo with nothing for scale, it disappears, which is where the other three tells earn their keep.

Eyes are the cleanest tell. Huskies may have brown eyes, blue eyes, one of each, or parti-colored eyes, and all of those are acceptable under the standard. Malamutes have brown eyes only; the AKC standard lists blue eyes as a disqualification. A blue-eyed dog that reads as "Malamute" is a Husky, a Husky mix, or something else entirely.

Ears are next. Both breeds have erect triangular ears, but on a Husky they are medium-sized, set high on the head, and close together. On a Malamute they are small in proportion to the head and set wide apart, toward the back of the skull, so the head looks broader and the ears look almost like an afterthought. This proportion is one of the features a face-matching model keys on hardest, because ear set and spacing survive changes in lighting and angle better than color does.

Tail carriage is the last. The Husky standard describes a fox-brush tail carried over the back in a sickle curve when the dog is alert, not curled tightly or lying flat on the back. The Malamute standard describes a well-furred tail carried over the back like a waving plume. In practice a Malamute's tail tends to sit up and over more of the time, while a Husky's often trails when the dog is relaxed or working.

Coat and color

Huskies come in almost any color from solid black to pure white, and the standard allows a wide range of markings. Malamute colors run from light gray through black, plus sable and shades of red, always with white on the underbody, legs, feet, and part of the face; the only solid color allowed is all-white. Both breeds carry the cap and mask, so color alone will not settle a case. What tends to give a Malamute away is the plush, coarser guard coat standing off a bulkier frame, next to the Husky's smoother, medium-length jacket.

What a photo matcher sees

When you upload a Husky or Malamute to PetMatch, the model does not see "gray fluffy sled dog." It compares face geometry, ear set, eye spacing, muzzle proportion, coat texture, and marking layout against the whole pool and returns the dogs that sit closest. For most Huskies the top matches are other Huskies, and for most Malamutes the top matches are other Malamutes, even though a casual observer would sort many of them the wrong way. With 530 Huskies against 135 Malamutes, a Malamute owner has a smaller group to draw from, so a Husky with a broad skull and wide-set ears will sometimes appear in a Malamute's list, and that is usually the model spotting a shared feature rather than making a mistake.

If you own one of these dogs and want to see who it resembles, the husky twin finder post walks through what husky matches look like in practice, and dogs that look like wolves covers the wider family of northern breeds the pair belongs to. A free account takes one photo and returns your dog's closest lookalikes, sled dog or not.