How do people choose a name for their dog? A name is for life and will be used a hundred or even a thousand times a day. A name has to be easy and familiar but also durable. After all it's going to get a lot of use. A name also has to mean what it says, it has to fit, it has to look right and sound right and it has to be memorable. To the dog as much as the owner.

To a Husky, a name is mostly the thing that invites him not to come to you when you call, unless of course you're waving food at the time. To a Husky that's outdoors, a name is just a distraction from the sounds and sights and smells of the world he lives in one and a half feet off the ground, and listening to his name is never as important as listening to the barking dog he can hear in the distance. You can't compete with it now, you probably never will.

Sam's familiar name is just Sam, but he does have another name, his registered name, Snowkeli Samson Bronze.

Snowkeli is the name of the kennel where he was bred and born, located in the southern suburbs of Sydney, Australia. Snowkeli is owned and run by Kylie Rogers, and few people could claim to be as loving and devoted to the breed as she is. Thank you, Kylie, for everything you've done.

Keli means 'dog' in Aboriginal so Snowkeli roughly translates as 'snow dog'. The kennel name is the first part of every Australian show dog's name and must be registered with the Australian National Kennel Council. Sam is registered of course, though he's not a show dog.

Samson has a meaning too, translated from Old Hebrew it means 'pleasant'. There are times though when that's not the best description of Sam, who like all Huskies has been known to test human patience to the limit. But he is always well loved, and around here Samson just means special.

Bronze. What colour is Sam? In real life he is shades of red and brown and white and even has a small mark of black on his tail. To call him just red or just brown isn't enough though, he changes with the seasons and sometimes from day to day. In Summer his coat is darker and his snow nose disappears. In winter he is lighter and the fur along his shoulders turns golden. Sometimes a single photo doesn't tell the whole story.

Sam is known to his friends as Sambo, Sammy, Samdog, Sweetie, Trouble, Stop It and No.

"Sam I am!"

Sam lives in the northern suburbs of Sydney, Australia with his adopted human, me. My name is Andrew and Sam has been with me since he was eight weeks old. I have torn tee shirts and rug stains to prove it.

Living with a Husky puppy is like living with a three year old. These guys will change your life and at times drive you to distraction with their stubbornness and mischief. They are the hooligans of the canine world and will turn your household upside down if given even half a chance. They're also the top dogs of the neighbourhood, even if it's only in their own minds, and feel they have something to prove to every dog they meet. But at the end of the day when they come home they still want their ears scratched and their bellies rubbed and to take up the best position in front of the fire while you sit alongside them.

If like me you think that their spirit and energy is the best part of them then you can't help but end up loving everything about them. And laughing at them. I laugh with Sam, and at him, at his constant antics, and at the power he has to make me do things for him. We're fooling ourselves to think we own our Huskies though, they belong to themselves and remind us every day they're only ours on loan. If you decide to invite one into your life you'll be changed forever and soon understand what it's like to be owned by a Husky. Be prepared.

A Husky will run 30 miles a day and will ask you to do the same, if you can keep up. If you love the outdoors you'll learn to love it all over again with a Husky by your side to lead you to all the sights and smells you never noticed before. A three hour walk can sometimes go by almost unnoticed. It's also near impossible to tire a Husky out.

Sam has learned, after six months of patient practice, that walking forward only happens when he's by my side. There is no skill he possesses that is more appreciated than this on long hikes, and to have a dog that pulls and weaves is the reason most dog owners stop taking their dogs for walks. Life would be unbearable for Sam without his daily outing, and these days even reaching for his leash sends him bouncing around the house with excitement.

In the middle of a thunderstorm there is no better place for a Husky to be than on the roof of his kennel curled up nose to tail, fast asleep. In the rain. These guys feel the call of the wild as strongly as any animal and go crazy if kept inside all day. They need to be outdoors and will do almost anything sometimes to get that freedom. They are the escape artists of the animal world. They live in another world, insulated from the elements by two inches of fur and a double coat that's almost impossible to wet right through. It's a good thing that when they do leap into that muddy swamp and come out carrying half of it in their coat that it all drops off when they dry out. Huskies are entirely non-stick.

Huskies love to run. And run and run and run. It's not fair to trust a Husky to walk with you off leash. It takes only one bird flying past or one small animal darting away and they are off and chasing. And it's not fair to then let them end up under the wheels of a car or lost and handed in to an animal shelter. Their sense of freedom is too strong sometimes for any amount of calling to bring them back, so don't trust it. Choose carefully when you let them run free.