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Siberian Husky

Siberian Husky Dog Breed

Aliases: Siberian husky, Sibe

Life Span: 11-13 years
Litter Size: 6-8 puppies
Group: Working dog
Recognized By: CKC, FCI, AKC, UKC, ANKC, NKC, NZKC, APRI, ACR
Color: black and white, Jet black, silver (dilute) black and redish black, Grey, Wolf Grey, Silver, Sable, Copper, Chocolate Copper.
Hair Length: Long
Size: Large
Shedding: Heavy Shed
Male Height: stands 21 to 23.5 in high at the shoulder
Male Weight: 35 to 60 lbs.
Female Height: 20 to 22 in at the shoulder
Female Weight: 35 to 50 lbs.
General info courtesy of terrificpets.com. Additional information about this breed can be found on their website.

Thyroid Disease - High Risk

The Siberian Husky ranks #25 among all breeds for autoimmune thyroiditis prevalence. There is a high risk of obtaining a dog that will develop thyroid disease. For this reason you should make sure you, or your breeder, are testing all dogs before breeding.  It may even be a good idea to test dogs that you don't plan on breeding so that any instance of disease can be traced back to breeding pairs and eliminated.

 Rank Among Breeds  Number of Dogs Tested  Percent of Dogs With Disease
 #25  1,498  11.7%

You can download the full report (on all breeds) by the Michigan State University Diagnostic Center for Population and Animal Health. Here

Other Health Problems

Common health issues are, eye problems and hip dysplasia ( From January 1994 through December 1998, a total of 12,087 Siberian Huskies have been evaluated by OFA for hip dysplasia. Out of this total, 30.5% of the dogs have received "excellent" hip ratings, and only 2.2% have been dysplastic.)