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THIS^^^

I also have to believe that people think Steele is a Malamute because of his body build. I have to think he was drawn that way to look more powerful and dominating to the other dogs. He is the villain after all. Like you already said.

Heres a probably good thing to use


A Picture of a real siberian huskey



and heres Steele.

Its a pretty good match.

Probably a mix or pure breed husky or malamute.

^ Even then, there's never been a REAL answer to this. It's all been pure speculation.

he's a malamute. i have seen quite a few ones with blue eyes. trust me, i studied dogs for 2 years.

All we know is that Steele is a breed that is close or is to being a husky.

An Alaskan Malamute.Despite what many say,I don't think he's an Alaskan Husky.They are thin,lanky,have long muzzles,floppy ears,mottled coats,and are very goofy.Steele is strong,square,muscled,solidly-built,has small,pointed ears,a solid black and white coat,and is very serious.He's also too big to be a Siberian Husky.He is a Malamute,in my opinion.

If I may be pedantic here neither the Alaskan Malamute or Siberian Husky were a recognised breed back in 1925. Therefore there was no breed standard stating what a Sibe or Mal should look like or how big they should be etc. So what does this mean to us? Without guidelines for what qualifies as a type of breed, the only factor that would influence the type of dog would be the job that it is bred for. As a general result I'd suggest that there would have been two different catagories of working endurance for the colonists: power which would later be recognised as a trait of the Malamute; and speed, later to be recognised as a trait of the Siberian. Please don't confuse the modern Siberian bred as a pet with a true working dog.. a Sibe historically would have looked more like the Alaskan Huskies that were posted previously in the "What Breed is Star" thread.

In addition it is worth pointing out that "husky" is a generic term used for sled dogs taken from "Heskimo" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Husky

What would become recognised as Malamutes were bred for power rather than speed so it is unlikely that a championship lead dog wearing "the golden collar" would have been a Malamute. Steele could have just been a large husky and considering the size difference between modern male and female Siberians, when next to Jenna, it would be believable... with his blue eyes. Like wise I have known and raced smaller male Sibes that would have had the proportions as Star. Likewise there are lots of references out there on the net to the Malamute's ancesters being cross-bred with all sorts of imported breeds in order to "improve them". It would be likely that a dog resembling Steele in 1925 could be a mix of all sorts of different breeds. Ironically the "you don't need a pedigree to help someone" applied to all the sled dogs in Nome because none of them would have been KC registered!

So where I am going with this is that historically any dogs in Balto that we refer to as Siberians or Malamutes could have come in various colours, shapes, sizes etc and we probably shouldn't get caught up in details. The reality of it is that the original studio crew probably didn't go that deep into the details and most likely modelled Steele on a Malamute and gave him blue eyes to look more sinister.

This ^ I completely agree with you. I tried making this assumption but it clearly got overlooked by many XD
Its just a cartoon anyways so we really shouldn't try to annalize it too harshly. Since I'm almost certain the studio didn't really have it in mind to be 100% accurate as far as breed standards go.

But the breed standard for the mal is pretty exact. AKC now considers a mal w/ blue eyes to be a fault. I own a AKC Mal who I could show if I wanted to; I don't though. So I got in writting the standard.
Mals now'a days are only suppose to have Amber/Brown eyes. Blue is a fault.

But I'm not trying to say he's NOT suppose to be a malamute since its just a cartoon, its possible; as I said before. The studio could have overlooked all technicalities and just went with it.
Plus he could have been a husky but made to look beefier in order to grant him the look of an evil character. This is done all the time in cartoons, definitely isn't the first, nor will it be the last.

Very well said. BOTH of you.

This topic really didn't need to be bumped. It has already been officially stated (in another topic) that Steele is a Malamute. So really this topic should be locked since there is no further need to discuss this.

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