To preface this; I’ve had Malamutes for over a decade now. My boy we got from a nice woman in Oklahoma and he ended up being a Giant Mal. We had no idea he even had Giant in his lines as his parents didn’t appear overly big. Fully grown was 115lbs and that looked thin on him. At some points he was more like 125. He was easily taller than me on his hind legs and I’m 5’2”. Now our girl is the runt of her litter and unfortunately has had some health issues. She’s 1.5 years old and hovers around 70lbs. We realize she’s still growing, but our vet has told us she probably won’t get too much heavier. When she’s on her hind legs her head comes to about my neck. Basically I’m saying this all so you know I do know a thing or two about Malamutes and I’m not talking blindly.

I don’t have some super long tangent. I’m more so curious what others have to say. I see a lot people talking about how Mals should be 115 lbs and they should all be sooo massive when they’re full grown. They call 80-90lb Mals small or just post to ask if their’s is small for only being that heavy. When in reality Malamutes aren’t classified as a giant breed. They’re a large breed with the females averaging 70-80lbs and the males 80-95ish. A lot (not all) of Giant Mal breeders sacrifice life longevity and health for size and personally I think it’s sad. Again this is just me, but I’m not a huge fan of breeders that breed for size when it comes to Malamutes. Malamutes are meant to be strong and have high endurance. They weren’t ever intended to be super massive dogs. I feel like those facts got lost or blurry at some point in Malamute history though.

Again this is just my two cents, but what do you all think?