this is not a real question, this is better for an article

"Why does everyone think that Steele is a malamute? I'm not saying that some people think so. Everyone thinks so. Everyone says: "Steele is very large dog, so it's an Alaskan Malamute". Although they say that they know the breed of dogs. But I have four very strong arguments to refute this. Steele is a husky."

To be fair, most people label him a Siberian Husky, not a Malamute, so I'm not sure where you're getting that from. Anyway, in the link bellow at 5:09, a piece of paper with photos of Alasken Malamutes are pulled out of a pile. The camera then pans over to production drawings of Steele (if anyone could translate, that would be great). I don't know if I would say this is a 100% confirmation, but that's where that "theory" comes from.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5D3g4zG3T4

"1. Steele has a blue color of eyes. This is typical for the Siberian Husky. Malamute can have only brown eyes. In addition, in the original script (the old design) the main antagonist was with different eyes (one blue eye and one brown eye). This is also typical for Siberian Husky."

Blue eyes is seen as a fault by the AKC, so it isn't impossible for a Malamute to have blue eyes... And keep in mind, the breed wasn't recognized until 1935, so anything beforehand didn't have to meet any requirements (besides what breeders wanted wanted back then). As for the previous design? It's irrelevant. Every character undergoes development with character design during film production.

http://alaskanmalamute.org/malamutes/breed-standard

"The size of characters. This is where many people stumble. Yes, Alaskan Malamute usually larger than the Siberian Husky. With this I agree. However, there is a nuance. The size of characters is constantly changing! I'm talking about the fact that their proportion and growth change in each episode. For example, Jenna is much smaller than Balto (but Jenna and Steele have the same size). But in the scene where Steele is bullying our protagonist after the race and Jenna separates them, we see that Jenna and Balto have the same size, and they are both smaller than an antagonist. Or another scene. When Balto catches Rosie's hat, he is larger than the antagonist. When Balto goes to Steele, Balto is still much larger. But when Steele and his dogs begin to mock, Balto becomes a very small (of course, we can say that the author shows the fall of Balto's self-concept, but it is shown a rather clumsy). By the way, at the time Malamutes were not so large as the Huskies. In addition, on the model sheet we see that in fact the hero and the villain have the same size (the difference is that Steele is much older than the Balto, Steele has a trained and quite strong athletic body, while Balto has a wiry, thin and slabsided body)."

I'm not sure that anything in this paragraph holds any water. Yes, Malamutes are generally bigger than Huskies, but even the real Balto was larger than Togo (even though Togo wasn't fully Malamute). I think what might be going on with the size variation is just flaws in the animation (I think you're still looking too deeply into this stuff). Nothing more.

"Anatomy of the characters. Jenna is a Husky. Look at the shape of the muzzle, neck, head, feet, paws, tail. Steele and Jenna have the same anatomy and the same markings on the muzzle and legs."

Besides a few similarities (which that in itself is not a good argument to use) in style, I have to disagree. Jenna and Steele's anatomy is hardly the same. While Jenna is more feminine and thin-framed, Steele is big-boned and bulky. I don't know how anyone can say (or think) they have the SAME anatomy when they clearly do not.

"This should be the most obvious argument. Steele is a purebred dog. He wants to find the same a purebred mate and to have a purebred puppies. But here's one problem. If he is a purebred malamute, he sticks to purebred husky. But their puppies will not be a purebred! Never!"

http://cdn.memegenerator.net/images/300x/6106868.jpg