Dog of the Week

I find that I have little epithets or sayings  for each of the dogs. For Check, it’s “Check marks the spot.”

Check is a reserved dog. He is slow to show his excitement but is a steadfast worker. He is a happy dog who lives to eat and run. He is beautifully gaited.

He isn’t much of a socialite when compared to some of the other dogs in our kennel, including his brother. He is happy to be pet and may come up to you asking for a scratch on the head but he’s not a jumper. He is never, it seems, out of control with excitement.

To me, Check seems to be a very methodical dog. Watching him develop as an athlete has been especially interesting. He enjoys his job but seems, to me at least, that he also enjoys figuring things out.

   
 He is a dog who likes to know what is going on. With that attitude, running him up front had been a no-brainer but with so much talent he hasn’t spent a lot of time up there.

He is one of those dogs that you know will lead but is still trying to find himself so the continual stress of being in charge seems unnecessary.

Honestly, Check is already an out standing dog. That being said, I think Check has only begun to scratch the surface of his talent.

I think the best of this dog is yet to come. He has that slow burning confidence. When he truly comes into his own, this dog is going to be unstoppable. 

His first few weeks of life, Teddy lived on the floor beneath my desk with his sibling Fergie and Mama B. He was not a planned litter and came in the late January of 2013, right before Travis’ first Iditarod. It was a miserable January — we’d had so much rain — so I choose to raise the pups inside.

He was jet black and from the beginning he stood out. Last year, many visitors who came for a dog sled tour were convinced that he wasn’t even a dog but was actually some sort of wolf-hybrid.

“That’s a wolf!” I remember one woman saying.

We assured her he wasn’t but she still seemed skeptical. “No, he’s definitely a wolf!”

But Teddy is anything but a wolf. He is one of the friendliest most playful dogs we have. He takes after Mama B and is somewhat a quiet dog. He knows his job and he simply does it.

After Iditarod we were given a generous package of chew toys from Nylabone and Teddy has been in heaven. He not only enjoys chewing his bone but he simply enjoys having it and often plays soccer with it, scooting it along in his circle with his nose before pouncing on it.

Teddy you have brought so much joy into our lives! Thank you for all your hard work. We are so proud of you for finishing 11th place in Iditarod 2015. Keep up the good work!

 

Fidget is a dog of humble beginnings who rose through sheer determination and will to be come one of the most outstanding dogs we have ever seen. Fidget came to our kennel at 7 months old the summer of 2011. At the time, she was shy and didn’t like people. She hid in her house and came out only to eat. We’d spend time in the dog yard taking extra care to stop at her house, even if she wouldn’t come out. We ate our lunches with Fidget and slowly, our little turtle came out of her shell. .

Over the next few years she slowly found her confidence in the team. In 2013 she was the 16^th pick for Travis’ rookie Iditarod. By the time he had gotten to Nome, Fidget had proven herself more than once. The small shy girl who Travis had almost left behind stood out. “She was the best dog in my team,” Travis said when he got to Nome.

That summer, Fidget worked in lead in our tours. Every tour she ran she was up front and the guests who visited us in the early parts of June truly got to experience the magic of training a lead dog with us. Today, she stands proud and tall at the front of the team and has become Travis’ go to race leader. This year, she single handedly led Travis 700 miles in the 2015 Iditarod to an impressive 11^th place finish. It didn’t matter how short the rest was or how cold the temperatures got, Fidget always rallied the team behind her.

All three of her 3 puppies also ran this year: Wrangler, with Travis and Levi and Carhartt with Nic Petite.

We are excited about her future litters as this little dog is a champion in every sense of the word. We will be breeding her again this summer and are looking forward to raising her pups alongside her.

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!