This is my attempt at describing what it’s like for me in Alaska. I’ll take a typical day and break it into separate posts, so you aren’t overwhelmed by text. This is the fifth post, covering the sled dogs. Don’t miss the other posts: Mornings, Afternoons, Evenings, and Nights!

We have a lot of dogs here. Thirty-nine, to be exact. Out of those thirty-nine, nine are retired and don’t run the sled, four are puppies and don’t run the sled yet, two have congenital defects that affect their breathing so they can’t run the sled, leaving twenty-four to run, with a range in age from 2 to 13 years old. They are all Alaskan Huskies, which really have no overarching visual characteristics, so they all tend to look different. Alaskan Huskies are bred more for physical traits (non-webbed toes, brains, strength, speed, etc), and sometimes other breeds are mixed in to add some variation or boost specific traits. We do have a neighbor that runs full-blooded, gigantic malamutes, which basically looks like a pack of bears pulling a sled.

As any pet owner knows, every animal has it’s own personality. Sled dogs are no different. Each individual dog has a distinct personality, with all the features that go along with that. Some dogs are easy-going and get along with any other dog, some are aggressive with only certain other dogs (usually other dogs of the same gender), some take commands better than others (we call those “lead” dogs), some are kind of dumb but are extremely strong (we call those “wheel” dogs), some just love to run but aren’t so beefy (we call those “team” dogs) and some are lazy and don’t pull the sled as much as the others (we call those “get your lazy butt up there!” dogs).

Having worked almost daily with these dogs for over 6 months now, I can easily rattle off any number of habits or hang-ups for each dog. Meadow is a little nervous, and barks at anything she doesn’t agree with, like me moving faster than a walk. Ace is dumb and happy, and tends to follow around any other dog placed in his pen, much to the other dog’s annoyance. Whistler does a happy dance every time I start to put food in his can. Ghost will stand up and wrap his forelegs around you, staring intently into your eyes, hoping you either have more food or time enough to scratch his ears. Lu ran the Iditarod for another musher, but had to be dropped from the race because she wouldn’t eat. Now, she eats anything she can find, and has to be on a perpetual diet so she won’t resemble a hairy sausage with legs. Yes, I could probably go on forever, or at least a lot longer than most of you are willing to read.

Many of the dogs are related, and a good number can trace their ancestry back to Iditarod racers. The sibling sets here are: Boogles, Ghost, and Gusty; Motley, Goblin, Monster, and Beauty; Hunky, Icky, Ringo, Alex, and Rocket; Iceworm, Whistler, Moose, Chopper, and Stinky; Skyler, Indigo, Redoubt, Underdog, and Cindy; Noodle, Ace, and Picard; Mouse and Tiger; Can Can and Pumpkin; Rosie and Meadow; Feather, Shaman, Diggity, and Farmer. Match them to the pictures below for fun and genealogy!

As I mentioned, there are nine retired dogs who don’t pull the sled now. They are Skyler’s sibling group, Noodle’s sibling group, and Hunky. Skyler’s group is the oldest in the yard, turning 16 this year. Noodle’s group is next, turning 15. Hunky is 13 this year, and just wasn’t into running much anymore. Since we’ve been here, age and its related sicknesses have claimed three dogs: two from Noodle’s group, Buffy and Xerox, and a dog we think was 17 or older, Sister (who, despite her name, wasn’t related to any of the other dogs in the yard). Alaskan huskies live anywhere from 14 to 17 years, like most dogs their size.

Our boss takes great care to socialize the dogs, which some kennels neglect to do. These dogs are all very friendly, though they get excited to see new people and tend to all bark at once at first, which I’m sure can be intimidating to anyone who is nervous around dogs. But they are all very well behaved, and only bark on a few occasions: 1. Feeding time, 2. Hookup time, 3. Neighbors taking their dog teams out, or 4. Something unusual is happening (moose near the yard! strange car coming up the drive! loose dog!).

Okay, time to meet them. I’ve posted some pictures before, but consider this the high school yearbook of the sled dogs. All the dogs are pictured here, except Beauty, who was absent for picture day. I’ll add her in as soon as I get a make-up picture taken. Beauty has been photographed and added!

Animals, Photography Alaska, Life, Sled Dogs

We lost a dog to old age on Tuesday.

Xerox was 15, born here in Alaska while I was still in my junior year of high school back in Indiana. He was an excellent lead dog, and sired many of the younger dogs in the yard. I first met him when I visited last May, and he had dug a massive hole in his circle. The hole was big enough for several dogs to lay in, and he would drag his food bowl down into it and eat in relative peace, below all the ruckus generated by 30+ hungry dogs.

He would dance for pets, running around his circle and hopping, then coming back for more. He got sick a couple of months ago, and eventually stopped dancing during his slow decline. We kept hoping he would rally back and be fine, like some of the older dogs tend to do, but his downward spiral was irreversible.

Goodbye, Xerox. Run forever, now.

Animals, Life Sled Dogs

Two posts in one day, wow!

Remember those little puppies our boss brought back in October? These little guys?

Well, they’ve more than doubled in size, and are starting to look like sled dogs.

Animals Sled Dogs

In my ongoing attempts to show you the dogs that I work with (previous post here), here are a few more.

First up is Rosie. While she’s an Alaskan Husky, she was born with a congenital defect that causes her to wheeze uncontrollably when she exerts herself for too long, so she’s not a sled dog. She basically hangs out and runs around the yard.

Next we have Alex. She’s a funny dog, in that she looks like this (worried/unamused/mad, to anthropomorphize a little) most of the time, but she totally perks up when she’s getting fed or when it’s time to hookup to the sled.

This is Iceworm, brother of Whistler down below. We think he looks a little like Princess Leia, with his ear “buns.” He puts his nose right on mine, and stares at me with those wide open ice-blue eyes.

Boogles is one of the largest dogs in the yard, and also one of the strongest. I made a mistake while trying to put his harness on a couple of weeks ago (put only my index finger through his collar ring), and he jumped off his house before I could correct it, nearly breaking my finger. It still hurts, but I don’t make the same mistake anymore.

Motley is spotted, like a leopard. He also has two-tone eyes, as you can see. He’s very sweet, and dances back and forth on his paws when he sees me coming towards him for pets.

Rocket looks like he’s giving you the stink-eye here, but that’s just his face. He loves getting petted, but doesn’t get along with other male dogs at all. He once got so excited to be harnessed, he pooped on his house as I put the harness over his head. Usually he waits until he’s on the hookup line to go, but this was the first harnessing of the winter after all summer off, and…I’d probably have pooped myself as well?

Whistler, brother of Iceworm above (can you see the resemblance?), has the greatest expressions of all the dogs in the yard. He also has the best bark/howl that I’ll be sure to get video of. This one is what I call the “I’m a shyyy doggie” pose.

This one is “Omigosh, here you come! Pets/Food/Sled Run???”

Photography Alaska, Photography, Sled Dogs

After sleeping in until 8am, we awoke to find more snow falling from the sky. It was overcast most of the day, with intermittent snow showers. Not good photography weather, especially since we were also occasionally enveloped in fog/clouds.

I took advantage of free weekend minutes, and called my brother Justin, and my mom and dad. Having a blog means people can keep track of what I’m doing without my having to talk to everyone, but hearing the voices of my family is a pleasure that cannot be replaced with email, instant messenger, or WordPress.

Tonight, the sky is clearing, so the temperature is dropping. We gave extra straw to the dogs, so they’ll be cozy in their houses. We are forecast to get more snow, but I suppose that’s inevitable up here.

With all the snow, it’ll be time to trade the ATV for the sled soon. We’ve been running 12 to 13 dogs with the ATV, but apparently we’ll cut that back for the sled. Probably so we have a chance at stopping if we need to. We’ve definitely had the ATV dragged over the snow with the brakes locked and the wheels turned, with two people on the ATV. That’s some power!

Here’s a photo I took on Tuesday, when Skippy was off for Veteran’s Day and got to ride along with the boss on the ATV.

Home, Life Alaska, Life, Sled Dogs, Snow