Turning Heads Kennel

Alaska Dog Sledding Tours

Our Life

Garden Relocation

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Our "New" Garden. We recently had to move some of our flowers so work could be done on our house.

Due to some work we have to have done around the house, we spent much of yesterday moving our garden. The only trouble was we had differeing opinions on where it should got. We ended up going with the easiest solution: a garden bed that was not in use. The bed sits at the end of driveway and will be a beautiful greeting for guests who have come for a dogsled ride to our home in Seward. We hope all the flowers survive their transition.

The other benefit of the new location? Fewer puppies will go romping through it! For whatever reason, the old spot right next to our front door seemed to be a puppy highway. We love the new spot and feel that guests coming for our summer dog sled tour will enjoy being greeted by our cheery flowers.

 

 

Moe

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Moe will turn 2 this September.

Moe will be turning two years old in September and he holds a very special place in our heart. Travis got Moe as a young puppy and Moe spent most of youth inside. He’s a wonderful dog. When Travis and I were first getting to know each other, Moe was one of the  first dogs I met. He came on many hikes with us. We once went for a walk out near Kenai Fjords National Park with him and Travis got very nervous because Moe wanted to go swimming.

“He doesn’t know how to swim,” Travis told me.
“It’s fine, all dogs know how to swim.” I said.

“You don’t know Moe,” he said.

I watched as Moe looked curiously at the river moving swiftly past his feet. He stuck his head in the water first and took a long drink and then plunged in after a large stick I threw for him. I was right. He didn’t sink, but swam gracefully back to shore.

Moe still enjoys the water and going for hikes but also enjoys romping around the yard with our other dogs. He’s done well in the team so far and we’re excited to have  him trying out for our Iditarod team.

Moe received the “Dog of the Week” distinction for his wonderful attitude both in and out of harness. His happy-go-lucky attitude, his pretty boy charms, and his jovial spirt make him a guest favorite. He was also awarded this distinction for his skills as a drummer. Moe will often play with his dog bowl in the yard, jumping on it, pounding it — doing just about anything a dog can do really — to his bowl. His favorite game seems to be pushing the bowl around as quickly as he can throughout his entire circle without letting it get out of bounds (where he can’t reach). Travis and I often catch him at play and he must know we’re watching because he’ll always stop, stare at us as if saying “What? I’m having fun!” and then go back playing.

Age: Moe will be 2 in September.
Position: Team Dog
Interesting Fact: Moe has been swimming in Lost Lake! (Lost lake is at the top of a mountain just outside of Seward and is a rather long hike)
Relations in the Kennel:  None.

Iditarod 2013 Preparation Begins

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Well it may only be August, but we’re already thinking about Iditarod. While technically fall training doesn’t begin until mid-September, our tours have given us an excellent excuse to hone the skills of our lead dogs. Believe it or not, we’ve actually trained up several new leaders just by offering our summer dog sled ride. Plus, the colder weather we’ve been having here in Seward makes it very tempting to want to run our dogs further and further.

Travis handing in his $3000 entry fee for Iditarod 2013

So, how has running a tour business helped us train our dog team and new leaders? It’s simple — the trails we run on. I think we have a pretty unique set up in terms of summer dog sled rides. We don’t simply take our guests on rides – we put on a show for them. We have a small network of trails and over the course of the run our leaders travel through 10 intersections — places where they have to listen to what we, the musher tell them, and they have to react to. It really hones the dogs’ understanding  of our commands: GEE (right) and HAW (left). We’re discovering our Iditarod team will have a lot more leaders than we initially thought because we’ve had the opportunity to train them up each and every day.

We also recently expanded our kennel to get ready for Iditarod. Travis wanted a few older veterans to fill out our younger crowd of dogs. We went to Anchorage last Saturday night to pick up the new additions… the only problem? There were seven dogs and our dog truck is currently in the shop. Instead of fretting about it, we drove up in our small Honda CR-V thinking to ourselves, “How on earth are we going to fit 7 full grown dogs in our car?”

My second job as a waitress prevented us from leaving Seward until 11:30 and the dogs were coming down from Fairbanks with a friend. We didn’t arrive in Anchorage until 2 in the morning, shortly after the dogs arrived. We walked them around the Best Buy parking lot and loaded their crates on the roof of our car. All seven dogs seemed tired but they eagerly hopped in the back.

You’d think with seven dogs  in the back of the car you’d hear a bit of grumbling from one of them, but the dogs, tired from their journey, were relaxed and fell asleep, almost on top of each other. We felt like we were on a family road trip with 7 kids in the back. There sense of belonging to one another kept them calm and they seemed to enjoy their ride down. But you could tell they were excited to get to the dog lot.

We’ve ran the new dogs several times so far. Joe, a sleek black dog with the tiniest feet I’ve ever seen, will certainly make Travis’ Iditarod team. He finished Iditarod last year with Braxton Peterson who finished in 28th place with a time of 10d 22h 44m 4s. Apparently, he was barking and screaming to go under the burled arch. We’re also hoping that Marshall, a large houndy dog, will make our team. He’s trained with Lance Mackey for the last several years but has never made his Iditarod team.

Betty and Midnight have officially earned the title of “Tourist Greeter.” They diligently monitor the driveway and come up to anyone willing to give them a pat on the head. After a particularly busy day, they retired on the couch together (shown below). While most people think it’s strange for a cat and dog to be such good friends, Midnight, the cat, is really more of a dog. He eats (or tries to eat) with the dogs on a regular basis and goes crazy over dog food!

Well, that’s all for now. The pups in the yard continue to grow and we’ve enjoyed letting them run loose to play with the big dogs. It’s always fun watching the bigger dogs interact with the little ones. Zema, one of our main leaders, is particularly obsessed with puppies. Whenever she runs loose visiting the pups is her number one propriety. It seems, more often than not, that she forgets that they are not her puppies much to the chagrin of their real mother. Still, it’s cute to watch how excited she is around them.

Until next time!

 

Madori Had Puppies and Kennel Update

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The Following Appeared in the August 1st Issue of The Seward Journal

Things are getting busy here at Turning Heads Kennel. Madori, one of our lead dogs, gave birth to two puppies (a male and a female) on July 17, bringing our total number of puppies this year to 11. It’s more pups than we’ve ever had, but we are trying to grow our kennel. We certainly have our hands full but have enjoyed having locals and tourists alike come play with our dogs. Socializing them early is a critical part of sled dog development as when they’re out on the race trail, they will be looked over by vets and loved on by race fans.

Dogs and humans alike are also enjoying the exceptionally nice weather we’ve had over the last several days. Our new cart, designed for taking passengers out on the trail, arrived midway through the month and our dogs love being able to take guests out for rides. Our cart, locally designed be welder Nick Lester, fits eight people comfortably and really brings the thrills of dogsledding to life on the winding trails we have through our property. It’s also given us a great opportunity to work with our dogs and train them throughout the summer. In particular it’s really benefited our younger lead dogs as the trail we’ve been taking guests out on is a series of inter-connected loops. We’ve made a point of always changing the way we go so that the dogs stay focused and so they continue honing in on their commands. It may still be the summer time but our dogs are always working and learning just like us.