An expert system for evaluating Siberian Huskies

The ideal physical structures of purebred dogs are defined in the American Kennel Club (AKC) standards for their breeds. One of these breeds is the Siberian Husky, a medium-sized working dog first bred in Siberia to pull dog-sleds. A rule-based prototype expert system evaluates Siberian Huskies with respect to their standard. The system's knowledge base is derived from the AKC standard for Siberian Huskies, the literature on measuring and evaluating dogs, and interviews with two experts. Given a collection of measurements and observations of a Siberian, the system generates a report that notes any of the dog's features that deviate from the standard. In tests on 22 Siberian Huskies, the system's evaluations closely matched those of the two experts and, in two cases, clarified problems that the experts had been unable to articulate.