Overview: What I learned when I trained sled dogs for a day. I spoke with my friend Sasha, who works in Barentsburg training Arctic sled dog teams. Dog breeds like the Husky or Samoyed were traditionally bred in Siberia, but in the 1920s when international dog standards were developing, the Soviet Union was closed to the world. Because of this, these traditionally Russian breeds fell under the administration of the Nordic Dog Union. Today, this has led to a schism about the identity and origins of these dogs.