Dogs in Our Lives

We have scouted the cyber-trails far and wide to find good, quality information on mushing and other dog powered sports to pass on to folks who visit our site. There are sites devoted to dog care, dog teams, weight-pulling, racing, even a few inspirational pages about how dogs help shape our lives.

We have thirteen dogs that allow us to share their home with them. Each one has it's own personality. When you have more than one dog an exciting thing happens. You get the chance to see their different personalities and how they interact with each other.

Take for example, Kantishna, one of our lead dogs. He's very introverted. That's a psychological term that means he's shy. It took him six years of running with the team before he finally had enough courage to get up front and lead the team. Before he was ready, every attempt to put him up in lead resulted with him panicking when he realized that there was no one in front of him!

On the other hand, Yukon, is left handed. When we go out for a run, he has to start on the left side of the gangline or else he will jump from the right to the left side forcing the dog on the left to jump over him to the right side. As long as he starts on the left, everything is just fine and we all enjoy the run.

Miki, our other leader, is getting up there in years. We got her eight years ago from someone who planned on taking her to the pound. She has turned out to be a super lead dog. She's the only one that "talks" to us during feeding time. All of our team love attention, but in Miki's case, when you walk toward her she immediately flops on the ground and rolls onto her back hoping to get her belly rubbed. Or she'll jump on top of her house and start prancing around on her front feet. Yeah, Miki is attention starved.

Our dogs are part of our family. At times, one might break his or her chain, or more commonly in the winter, Kantishna and Miatuq have learned that they can stand on their doghouses, lift their chain with their mouth and take it off over the top of the post. Next thing we know, they're running around the yard with a length of chain dragging behind. However, they are generally content with simply running around the yard harrassing everyone else (maybe they're just visiting?). Most of the time we find them waiting at the back door to come into the house, chain and all.

We collect all sorts of things about dogs. Our family and friends keep sending us things they get in their e-mail about dogs too. One recently sent us a document titled: "If A Dog Were Your Teacher." We want to share it with those who visit our page. It really gives folks a different way to look at life. Just take a look at a dog, lying on top of its house, or sprawled on its back in the sun ...

Every now and then we get an e-mail from people who want to know about how we raise and train our dogs. Some have just had a northern breed dog (a husky, malamute, or other "sled dog-type" dog) join their family. Occasionally we get questions about discipline problems someone is having with a rambunctious puppy, or what kind of food we feed our team. What starts out as an inquiring e-mail oft times turns into a pen-pal relationship between interested dog owners. Some even send us photos of their dogs. It's a great way to meet new people, and their canine counterparts, from around the world!