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What is a Pure M'Loot?

There are no pure M'Loot's anymore. To answer what they are we have to go back to the 1930s.

During the 1930s there were two major Alaskan Malamute Kennels in the United States.

One, was Kotzebue owned by Eva B Seeley and her husband. They inherited some dogs when they took over Arthur Walden's Chinook Kennels while he was in Antarctica. They bought some from Frank Gough and Lester Corliss, Alaskan Malamute breeders in Alaska and they inherited some of the Labrador Huskies (including Rowdy - the first dog AKC registered as an Alaskan Malamute) from Admiral Byrd's first Antarctica Expedition (BAE I). Labrador Huskies were Canadian Eskimo Dogs from the Labrador region of Canada - similar to Alaskan Malamutes, but smaller. They also bought some malamutes from Leonhard Seppala when he decided to strictly race Siberian Huskies. Seeley bred to a standard she admired, smaller and gray/white. She got the breed recognized by the AKC. Over the years, the standard was revised upwards from the 23" dogs she preferred.

The other major kennel was M'Loot, owned by Paul Voelker. Voelker acquired Malamutes for his M'Loot Kennels from many sources. He traveled to Alaska and brought dogs back; traveled coast-to-coast acquiring Malamutes he liked; acquired dogs from teams sold to Hollywood for use in movies; acquired dogs from the army at Camp Rimini, Montana (including Dude's Wolf and Dodge's Lou found at the back of many malamute pedigrees). He accepted a wide range of breeding dogs and with saavy marketing put them in homes across the U.S. and Canada. The M'Loot dogs worked on sled teams and served with distinction in the military. A driver on the second Serum Run, used four M'Loot dogs on his team.
Voelker was an experienced sleddog driver. His Malamutes' ranged in colors, not confined to grey & white. His M'Loots were also heavier and taller and rangier than the smaller & more compact Kotzebue Malamutes. His male Malamutes reportedly averaged 130 lbs. Gentleman Jim, a M'Loot, served in World War II and is in the Hall of Working Fame.
Several kennels formed around M'Loot dogs, using them as foundation stock for their breeding programs.
One of those kennels was Silver Sled in Pewaukee, Wisconsin. From their breedings, Ch. Mulpus Brook's Master Otter and the first female champion of the breed, the great Ch. Ooloo M'Loot can be found at the back of many of today's Malamute pedigrees.
Description of Voelker M'Loots from LegacySledDogs by Jeffrey Bragg
"My first contact with M'Loots was back in my green days in Ontario when I used to visit with professional handler Lorna Jackson at her farm. Lorna was a real animal lover, a lifetime dog person, and had at one point been a breeder of Mals. When I knew her she had stopped breeding, but there were still two or three of her old ones on the property. And she had gotten her original stock from Paul Voelker. I remember chiefly a BIG cream-white male, about 130 or 140#, long-bodied, called Koonah, and a much smaller ancient white bitch named Kulik who had once whelped a litter of *19* pups. They were SO unlike the Mals I had seen in the show-ring, and a real piece of living history."

Many of those breeding M'Loots did not register them in the early days of AKC registration.

Fast forward to the 1950s.

The base stock of Malamutes dropped to 30 registered dogs (many lost to WWII and some in the Military Antarctic Expeditions), and the AKC reopened the stud books. The AMCA, headed by Seeley, was resentful of this as they did not consider other Malamutes "representative of the breed". However, M'Loot and Hinman-Irwin owners were very happy. To be registered the dogs had to be shown and gain points, with multiple view photos accompanying their registration application.

Still in the 1950s:

Robert Zoller - Husky-Pak Kennels
Zoller served as a naval officer in Newfoundland during WWII and was impressed with "appearance of fierceness and power, yet gentle disposition" of Alaskan Malamutes. He went to Chinook Kennels (Kotzebue ) to look at Malamutes, but found them too small. Chinook Kennels sent to see Dick Hinman and Zoller loved the look of what he saw (Hinman-Irwin dogs). He felt they compared favorably to both Seeley's and Voelker's dogs. He and his wife bought Hinman-Irwin, and M'Loot dogs. Zoller credited the Hinman-Irwin dogs with giving some balance to the M'Loots and making a better overall dog. He still admired the Kotzebue look and did incorporate them in his breeding program. The success of his crosses influenced other M'Loot breeders, who incorporated Zoller's Husky-Pak dogs into their breeding programs. Some incorporated Kotzebue's into their breeding programs, while some M'Loot breeders stayed with their own strain, as did many Kotzebue kennels stay with their own.

After the 1950s, the Alaskan Malamute became is mixture of Kotzebue, M'Loot and to a lesser extent Hinman-Irwin, which strengthened and improved the breed.

Are there any pure M'Loots left?

No, there are no pure M'Loots left. There appear to be only a handful of pure Kotzebue left.

Breeders over the years have mixed the lines to create the dogs they feel best represent the breed.

If you go way back in a pedigree of a show dog, you'll find heavy Kotzebue concentration, but more than likely will find the M'Loot presence from Ch. Mulpus Brook's Master Otter and the first female champion of the breed, the great Ch. Ooloo M'Loot.

Conversely, if you go way back in the pedigree of any of the giant or larger than standard lines, you will find a concentration of M'Loots including Dude's Wolf and Dodge's Lou, as well as Gentleman Jim. However, you'll also find that the last pure M'Loots (from Ro-Ala-Ken) in the 1970s were bred to Wakon dogs that did have Kotzebue in the back of their pedigrees. So you will find Kotzebue in the back of these pedigrees.

The modern Alaskan Malamute contains lines from both of those early major kennels (M'Loot and Kotzebue), and thanks to Robert Zoller the Hinman-Irwin dogs. Different breeders may concentrate their lines toward one or the other, but pure M'Loots are unfortunately a thing of the past, not seen since the 1970s.

For more indepth information on the history of Alaskan Malamutes, please go to our About Alaskan Malamutes page.