Our Life

There aren’t many dogs out there who eat and eat and eat some more. We’ve started getting a reputation for those sorts of dogs — dogs who are essentially bottomless pits. I jokingly tell Travis that, “Ya, they take after me”  because I’m pretty sure I have one of the fastest metabolisms ever.

These are dogs like Wrangler. Dogs who see food and go absolutely nuts. In the world of long distance dog sled racing, having a good reputation for eating habits can’t really be topped. Good eating habits equates to more fuel in the furnace so the dogs can keep on running. “Attitude and Appetite,” Lance Mackey is famous for saying about the traits he looks for in his breeding program. Being a big Mackey fan, Travis has followed suit.

Wrangler, in our eyes, is the next big “it” dog in the world of mushing. In recent years, there’s been a lot of talk about the breeding the best of the best. Zorro, is a famous Lance Mackey dog that hundreds of sled dogs now trace their lineage into. Solomon is another. But we think Wrangler may have them both topped — and he’s still pretty young. He was born in May of 2012 and ever since has played a big part in our kennel and made an even bigger impression on our hearts. He captured the eye of Albert Lewis when he came to our kennel looking for Iditarod Athletes for his book Born To Run: Athletes of the Iditarod. Wrangler and his siblings, Carhartt and Levi were only weeks old at the time. Now, they grace the inside cover of the book!

As a sled dog, Wrangler is the complete package: he is a big eager and hard-driving. He has endless energy and enthusiasm. Most importantly, he loves running in lead.

After an 85 mile run recently, Travis told me “watch this.” Every other dog in the team had been put away, but there was Wrangler, standing in lead holding the line out. As Travis approached Wrangler, his tail began to wag.

I thought that Travis was simply showing me how tight Wrangler kept the line. It looked like if you had the acrobatics and training, you could have walked across it — he kept it that tight.

“Ready, Wrangler?” He said.

Wrangler, sitting at the front of the team immediately began jumping and barking — to the point where he nearly popped a snowhook.

“Good job, Buddy” Travis told him and got more tail wags in return. He kept jumping and barking.

This isn’t something I’ve just seen once. In the following weeks, it’s become a habit. Wrangler  will continue to bark and scream after every other dog in the team has been put away. It’s as if he is trying to tell Travis “don’t worry, Dad, no matter what happens to everyone else in the team, you still got me. We got this.”

Wrangler is a dog that Turns Heads. He is, generally speaking, the dog that everyone wants to take pictures of at races. At our summer dog sled tours everyone always asks “is he really a sled dog?” because he is big and brown instead of the traditional grey and white everyone thinks a husky should look like.

He is, perhaps, the friendliest dog in our yard. I can’t help but think he has a little popcorn in him as he is always jumping with excitement whether it is at races, over food, or just because he is so very happy because he is being loved on.

Wrangler is out of Fidget and Micah, who now runs in Scott Jansen‘s main team. We gave his brothers, Carhartt and Levi, to Nic Petit and they have been an integral part of Nic’s team, running in the 2014 Iditarod with him and are gearing up to be part of his 2015 team.

Wrangler, you are top dog and we are glad you are this week’s dog of the week!

Sorry, we’re a little late getting to this week’s dog of the week. It’s been almost a week of worry and anxiety here in our kennel over one thing or another so we got a little behind…but we really want to take the time to honor this week’s dog of the week. When I asked Travis who he thought deserved this week’s nomination for dog of the week, he said “Gremlin. Without a doubt.” A small female, Gremlin is spunky, fun and loves to run up front.

Gremlin joined our kennel when she was six weeks old back in 2011, along with her sister Goblin. She came from Dallas Seavey and is out of his 2012 Iditarod Golden Harness winner, Guinness and one of Mitch Seavey’s former main leaders, Gumbo. She’s a quirky little dog with a playful spirit who loves to work and run fast.

“She’s a driver.” Travis has been saying more and more about her in recent weeks.

I always smile a little bigger whenever Travis compliments Gremlin because Gremlin is my dog. Goblin is his. As the story goes, Travis was actually only supposed to come home with one puppy the summer he worked with Dallas and he’d picked Goblin.

He thought about it for a few minutes and then quickly changed his mind. “Actually, that won’t work Dallas.” Travis said when he picked out the fuzzy little black ball. “I can’t come home with a puppy and not have one for my girlfriend. I’ll really be in the dog house then.”

And that’s how we got Gremlin.

For what seemed like weeks she and her sister didn’t have names. They lived inside with us and played out in a pen during the day. At night, they wrestled, tumbled, snarled and hissed endlessly.

“They sound like demons from hell,” I told Travis one night.

It didn’t matter what we did, they never shut up. To this day, whenever they are playing together they are loud and snarl often.

“Goblin and Gremlin,” Travis said finally while we debated names. “The demons from hell.”

I laughed but the names stuck.

They grew slowly over the next few years. They never got to be big dogs and Gremlin was always more petite than her sister.  When we ran them next to each other, they would alternate between licking one another and playful biting one another. On long runs, when one got tired, they other would gently press her nose to the other’s face — a brief kiss and the simplest sort of encouragement.

They really are great friends and sisters. But this season they’ve spent more time apart than they have in their entire lives. Goblin developed a debilitating injury early on in the season and is still lame. While Gremlin trains, she stays in the dog yard to go on walk to the beach and on local trails. She is distraught without her sister and lights up whenever she returns home.

But even though they have been separated this winter due to training, Gremlin has really shone. We started working with Gremlin in lead this summer during our dog sled tours. Our summer dog sled tours are an excellent way for us to train new leaders because our tour trail is a series of interconnected loops where the dogs constantly have to make decisions. Our tours offer a fascinating glimpse into the world of training lead dogs because we don’t believe in just running our dogs. Every time we run them, they are training. And who better to work with then your leaders. “It’s not just a dog sled ride,” Travis likes to tell our guests. “It’s a show.”

This summer Gremlin ran in swing but quickly moved up to lead. Her small size and eagerness made her an ideal candidate for the position and she quickly excelled.

“Guess what!” Travis said to me one rainy summer day, a grin spread wide across his face. He was wet and he had freckles from the mud checkered across his cheek.

“What?” I asked a little skeptical. I’d seen that smile enough to know it could mean anything.

“Gremlin ran in single lead today!”

I burst into a grin at the news. “That’s great! How’d it go?” I asked curious.

“You’d never know it was her first time. She was great!” He said. “I think the guests didn’t believe me when I said it was her first time up there alone.”

I laughed — “Must have gone really well then!”

For all of September, October and November I set Travis on a challenge: Don’t run any of your lead dogs from last year. He accepted and was able to take a number of young, confident dogs and turn them into impeccable leaders, one of whom was Gremlin.

“She was killing it on the Knik 200,” Travis said. “She was the one setting the pace for the team that race.” He tells me, then adds “Man, do I feel like I let that little girl down!” He shakes his head off and smiles. “Her dad is one directionally challenged goofball,” he says referring to a crucial error that ultimately led to him scratching from the race. “I don’t know if we would have won or not… but we sure would have put up one heck of a fight!”

Gremlin reminds us that looks can be deceiving and a little sass in a sled dog is a good thing. She’s one smart little lady but what she lacks in size she makes up for in heart and drive.

This little girl is going to help get us to some pretty big finishes and we are so happy she is this week’s dog of the week!