Turning Heads Kennel

Alaska Dog Sledding Tours

Press

Turning Heads Kennel is Featured by The Seward Chamber!

· ·

turning heads kennel seward chamber

One of the truly wonderful things about living in Seward is our incredible local community. All our human food in our Iditarod food drops for the last several years have been donated by local Seward restaurants and organized by our friends, the Walker family. Our dogs eat the best dog food out there too.

Nothing has been sweeter than coming back to Seward after Travis Beals’ 9th place Iditarod finish to such a supportive community. Everywhere we go, people beam with pride and congratulate Travis!

Imagine our delight, when the Seward Chamber of Commerce reached out to us to be a member highlight. It was a lot of fun sitting down with their questions about our business. Learn about how we got started in our business, our most important business advice, and all about our dog sled tours!

Make sure you check out our Turning Heads Kennel Member Spotlight!

 

How To Host A Paint A Dog House Day For A Sled Dog Kennel

· ·

We are writing this article for our fellow dog mushing friends who are looking for ways to incorporate more local outreach into their kennel. After the Sockeye Wildfire devastated the mushing community of Willow, many mushers and non-mushers alike banded together to help the displaced sled dogs get new homes. Operation Doghouse became a community-wide effort dedicated to rebuilding houses for sled dogs that were lost in the Sockeye fire. Working together with #Operation DogHouse we thought it would be great if we could write about our own success as a kennel in hosting Paint-a-Pooloza and give advice on how to host a similar event.

It’s important as mushers and mushing fans that we work together to increase accessibility to our sport.

Paint-A-Pooloza was an event hosted at Turning Heads Kennel in May of 2015 as a way to involve the local community of Seward, its artists, and its children in our kennel. Running the event was a blast and we hope by publishing how we did this event that more kennels will be able to follow suit.

11229557 1099784530050890 8583639657494609197 nWe added our event to our local community event page, for Seward we have two local online places to submit events: www.SewardEvents.com and www.SewardCityNews.com. Seward City News is an online publication and we used this platform to promote our event in the three weeks leading up to it.

In addition, we created simple eye-catching flyers for our event and posted them throughout town with permission from the owners or managers of the property. Some high visibility places that we posted in our town included our local grocery stores, gas stations, and our public library. We also connected with key community leaders who were involved in boy scouts or girl scouts to help us promote our event and would ensure that families would know we were doing something. We advertised sled dog rides, because we are a tour kennel, but most children would be happy simply to meet sled dogs or learn about mushing. Children also love puppies so If you (or a neighboring kennel that wouldn’t mind sharing) have puppies, consider advertising that. We advertised hot dogs and root beer as well.

Preparing for our event, we choose several bright colors. We have always been a fan of bold “loud” colors because we feel like they make our dog yard a very happy place. In general we have found that a gallon of paint covers about 4 or 5 houses. We bought paint but also put out advertisements saying we were looking for old paint on local websites and our local Seward community Facebook groups. People are more than happy to get rid of their unused paint!

We then purchased the supplies we needed for our event. We estimated an attendance of anywhere between 50-100 people and realized unused supplies could be used later in the summer or for other events, as we frequently do staff barbecues throughout the summer. This may not be the case for every kennel however. We purchased 96 hot dogs and buns from costco, ketchup, mustard, relish, paper plates, plastic silver, and plastic cups. We also bought otter pops and ice cream as we were going to serve root beer. We also bought napkins, baby wipes, and purell.

For painting, we purchased 6 gallons of paint. We also picked up several different sized foam brushes as well as 4 brush sets (containing 11 brushes each) from Home Depot.

We choose bright colors for our houses.To prepare for the event we scrubbed our houses with a wire brush. Then we power-washed our dog houses to remove any old paint and dirt. We washed some houses the day of and during the event as we ran out of time. This didn’t prove to be a problem because they dried quickly.

We poured paint into plastic cups for painters to use. Each cup of paint came with its own brush. People were encouraged to share, swap, and be creative as possible. We provided painters tape to those who wanted more geometrical designs.

The day of the event we closed our dog yard off but took turns taking small groups of people into the yard. Our dog yard is fenced. If you don’t have a fence around your dog lot consider getting plastic fencing or roping it off. Put up signs as well. We have a sign outside our dog yard that says “Not all dogs have good manners. Please do not enter without a guide.” Our dogs are used to guests and small children. If your dogs aren’t good with strangers, explain that. Every musher’s kennel is different and our dogs have lots of exposure to people they don’t know.

11147037 1099859396710070 31563207752755467 nAnother thing that you could do would be to set up a display of your winter gear to let kids try on or to see. It’s always nice to have an interactive element of some kind — just make sure everyone has clean paint-free hands before letting them touch your $800 parka!

To make sure your event goes smoothly, make sure you have plenty of volunteers on hand able to help. We had two people dedicated to grilling during lunchtime hours and other volunteers who helped refill paint cups. Additionally, make sure you have two or three trash cans available. Hot dogs and baked beans were easy and were a big hit. The root beer and ice cream proved to be a nice, easy treat for a sunny day that the kids loved too.

We set a time limit for our event and advertised it lasting from 11-4pm. The last visitors left around 5pm because they wanted to finish their design; we knew that it would probably last longer than advertised and didn’t have a problem with that.

Don’t forget that some people are willing to help clean up. You can set up stations for washing brushes and disposing of leftover paint. We let our houses dry for 24 hours before moving them back into our yard and in with the dogs.

If you have any more questions, please feel free to email me at: Sarah@SewardHelicopters.com

Travis At the Start of the Iditarod

· ·

The Anchorage Daily News stopped by the dog truck the morning of the ceremonial start to interview Travis. It was sort of an emotional thing for us. Chris, the guy who did the interview, came to our kennel in Seward, Alaska during the flood. We were really excited we had jut started doing our summer dog sled rides and were looking forward to doing a lot of work to our facilities to make improvements…instead we had to rebuild.

 

His interview helped connect us with some really wonderful people who helped us get to the starting line after the flood so it was nice to talk to him again at the start. He explains our dog truck, traveling on the road, and rebuilding.

Here’s Chris’ interview from the fall when our house and dog lot were flooding: Musher Undeterred by Seward Flooding

Travis Gets 7th in the Alaska Excursions 40/40 … Beats Jeff King!

· ·

This past weekend instead of doing the Sheep Mountain 150 Sled Dog Race which, unfortunately, was cancelled due to lack of snow, Travis took part in the two day Alaska Excursions Race. The Alaska Excursions race is typically a two day event where teams run 60 miles one day and then sixty miles the next. It is set up more as a sprint race than a distance race — in other words, you get to sleep in a warm bed at night. This year, however, due to lack of snow the mushers ran 40 miles each day instead of the 60 they usually do.

Travis took 7th place — something we are tremendously happy with in a sprint type race. So why was Travis running a sprint race? After all, we are a distance kennel! The answer is simple: experience. In fact 6 of the 27 participants will be running in Iditarod 2013 — with half of them finishing in the top 10.

Travis during the 2012 Alaska Excursions 40/40 with Boston and Zema in Lead ©2012HuskyProductions/DonnaQuante
Travis during the 2012 Alaska Excursions 40/40 – Day 1
© 2012 Husky Productions/Donna Quante

So lets break down the race results. First, conditions were hard and fast, allowing teams to really step up in the speed department. There hasn’t been a whole lot of snow so this wasn’t a real surprise. The first day of the event, Travis started in 29th placed and worked his way up to a 9th place finish. Passing teams takes time and can hinder teams in shorter events like this. Fortunately, our dogs passed like champs. Unfortunately, no matter how well our dogs pass, it is important that both teams involved in the pass do well. Travis didn’t have too many problems with other teams, but did mention their were a few “alligators” in the other teams. Alligators are exactly what they sound like —  dogs that try to bite  other dogs while they pass.

Travis’ total time on the first day of the race was 3 hours 23 minutes and 18.00 seconds. The leader, Ryan Redington, finished in 2:49:29.00 — almost exactly a half hour ahead of Travis. With 2nd place through 6th place finishing in 2:55:49.00 through 3:04:43.00. The 7th place finishing team on day 1 (Jeff King) came in almost 15 minutes behind the 6th place finishing team (Robert Redington). Why the huge gap? Well, this reflects a difference in how these dog teams were run in comparison to the rest of the dog teams.

The first six teams are known for and train for speed. The top 3 racer — Ryan Redington, James Wheeler, and Ariane Jasmin — are not running Iditarod. This is important because it ultimately means that they are training differently. You don’t train for the 100 meter dash the same way you train for a 5K and you don’t train for a 5k the same way you train for a marathon. These guys are focused on speedy teams that will excel in short events like the Alaska Excursions race. As an Iditarod kennel, this was not Travis’ focus. In fact, Travis was (and I even more so) hesitant about doing this event due to how different it is from something like Iditarod. Ultimately, we do things like this for experience and for fun — not everything is about winning — at least, not all the time — but you do have to keep the bigger picture in mind.

Boston and Zema in Lead during the 2012 Alaska Excursions 40/40
© 2012 Husky Productions / Donna Quante
Travis Gets 7th in the Alaska Excursions 40/40 ... Beats Jeff King! 5

The fourth place team on day 1 was driven by Cim Smyth (6:04:35) and the fifth place team driven by Wade Marrs (6:07:02), are. Smyth and Marrs are both distance mushers, who are known for speed. They excel in the mid-distance circuit because their dogs are good at shorter races where their speed is an asset. Smyth won the Tustumena 200 last year. Smyth’s fast times in the mid-distance circuit, however, have yet to translate into true Iditarod success. Speed in Iditarod is actually less important then one might think. The important thing for an Iditarod team is the ability to keep moving and to stay in peak condition. Speed deteriorates a dog. It’s tougher on their joints and generally teams traveling faster (especially at the beginning of the race) require more time to heal up. Smyth’s best finish in Iditarod was in 2009 when he finished in 5th. In his last three Iditarods Smyth has finished 24th (2012), 21st (2011), and 23rd (2010). Marrs has been less active in the racing circuit but maintains a very competitive, fast team.  He and Travis are good friends and Travis has been training out of his yard recently. Wade has a team to watch out for in Iditarod 2013.

The next group of distance mushers were about 15 minutes behind the top six racers — the next distance mushers to finish were Jeff King (3:20:32.00), Ken Anderson(3:23:01.00), and Travis (3:23:18.00). King is an iconic name in dog racing. Having won four Iditarods, King certainly knows what he is doing. He scratched from the 2012 Iditarod due to sick dogs. King did not race in 2011. He has finished in the top ten of Iditarod 17 out of his 19 races, including 4 first place finishes, 2 second place finishes, and 6 thirds place finishes. To say King is an impressive dog musher is an understatement.

Ken Andersen, although he has never won Iditarod, still has an impressive record. Andersen finished 12th in the 2012 Iditarod and has finished in the top 10 four times out of the last six years. He has finished in the top 20 for the last ten years. Andersen is consistent and consistency is the mark of a good athlete in any sport.

Travis gives Donna Quante a hello During The Alaska Excursions 120.
© 2012 Husky Productions/ Donna Quante
Travis Gets 7th in the Alaska Excursions 40/40 ... Beats Jeff King! 6

On day one, of the Alaska Excursions Travis finished 2 minutes behind King and 15 seconds behind Andersen. Travis, however, was also coming off a multi-day camping trip. He signed up for the Alaska Excursions race as an after thought and wasn’t originally planning to race this weekend. He decided to race because it would be fun and it would get the dogs some nice training at passing. In fact, on the first day he passed 21 teams going out and then had to pass them all back as the course was an out-and-back. Most of the dogs in Travis’ team had done anywhere from 70 to 150 miles directly before the race with no days off — not exactly how you prepare if you really want to win. But Travis’ goal wasn’t to win, it was simply to do well and to teach the dogs to pass, to pass with confidence, and what it meant to be a winner. You don’t always need to win to be a winner, and the dogs certainly don’t need to win to feel like they’ve won. Like any athlete, they know when they’ve worked hard and done well and they take pride in it.

Day one of the event Travis had a few problems. One of his dogs also wasn’t at a 100% due to the training she had done prior to the race so Travis was forced to take it easy. Another dog simply wasn’t up for the faster paces this race required. The good thing about this event was it meant that on day 2 he wouldn’t have to take her.Overall, he was happy with how he finished on day one.

Travis During the Alaska Excursions 120
Photo Courtesy of the Anchorage Daily News
Travis Gets 7th in the Alaska Excursions 40/40 ... Beats Jeff King! 7

Travis approached day two realistically. “I want to catch Ken,” he told me. At the time, he didn’t think he could catch King. Two minutes, even over 40 miles, can be a considerable amount of time to make up. We discussed his line up and he made a few changes. He dropped two dogs who weren’t up to the faster pace of the race — most of our dogs are slow and steady. Some distance mushers drive fast, speedy times with short runs and long rests (like Smyth or Marrs). Not us. We run tortoises. We go slow and steady. We run further distances at  slower paces but our dogs need less recovery time then dogs that run fast and short. If you sprint five miles you are going to need a longer rest then if you jog or walk ten — that’s all it comes down to. So we weren’t surprised. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have speed. Travis brought in a new leader (Madori) and she was excited to be out on the trail.

In a two day event like this, where you go home at the end of the night, one of the true measures of how you have run your dogs is your performance on day two. Always finish stronger than you started. That’s one of the things Travis and I have both taken away from working with various mushers. Build the dogs, don’t tear them down. What was really cool about Travis’ performance on the second day was how much they improved. His finishing time on the second day was 3 hours 8 minutes and 4 seconds. He did the same course only this time he finished almost 15 minutes faster. Wow.

The differences can be attributed to several things — dropping the dogs (Monroe & Mary) and replacing them with others helped. Madori, who was added on day two is a speed demon but had to learn how to pass during the race so while she brought speed she also had to do some learning while she was out there. Madori (mother to Bonnie & Clyde, two of our puppies this summer) loves being up front and is a stellar gee/haw leader. She isn’t the friendliest dog in the kennel like her brother Bud or her sister Zema. She’s shier and keeps to herself when there are strangers in the dog yard — but she’s one heck of a leading lady and when you put her up front you know you’ll have some speed. The faster times can also be attributed to the dogs knowing how long they were going and to pacing themselves. It can also be attributed to the fact that these dogs knew they were racing. They love to pass other teams. “I couldn’t believe how much they’d pick up when we saw another team,” Travis said. “It was like they hit a new gear.”


Travis during the 2012 Alaska Excurions 40/40
Travis is kicking to help the team to a faster finish on Day 2 of the two-day event.
Photo Courtesy of the Anchorage Daily News
Travis Gets 7th in the Alaska Excursions 40/40 ... Beats Jeff King! 8

For Travis, his goal was passing Ken. He knew he could make up 15 seconds. He knew all he needed to do was pass Ken and maintain a bit of distance. He and the dogs were working hard to do so and as they turned a corner and started climbing a hill, they came upon a dog team. Only it wasn’t Ken Andersen. It was Jeff King. “I was so excited,” Travis said. He passed Jeff going up hill — something Travis is truly proud of. Jeff stuck with him for a while. Typically, after you get passed, your dogs perk up and try to keep up with the team but after a while Travis and the team left them behind. They then came upon Ken and passed him too.

“I was really happy to see them do what they did,” Travis said. When Travis got to the finish line, one side of his dog truck had been taken over by Wade. It was the side he was coming from and he had no way to steer the dogs to the other side based on how things were set up.  Travis and Wade travelled to the race together to save on gas money . Travis drove the team past the truck, generally considered a difficult thing to do, and then made them break trail and do a turn around so he could hook them off properly. I think he turned some heads.


Travis after finishing day two of the Alaska Excursions 40/40
Zema (Left) and Madori (right) stand with Travis at the finish of the race
Photo Courtesy of Greg Sellentin.
Travis Gets 7th in the Alaska Excursions 40/40 ... Beats Jeff King! 9

At the end of the day, the results from the Alaska Excursions don’t mean a whole lot but it gives us a bit of a feel for how our dogs are doing compared to mushers with similar running styles (King & Andersen). Travis walked away with a new pair of beaver mitts for his 7th place finish — majorly awesome  because we didn’t have any good hardy gloves and he had begun worrying that he wouldn’t have anything to keep his hands real warm during Iditarod. More importantly, however, it gave Travis and the dogs confidence. The dogs learned how to be speedy — this was probably the fastest running they’ve done all year — and they learned how to pass. One of the great things about where Travis started on day one, was that he got to do a lot of passing but he was only passed once and quickly passed that musher back. This does wonders for our dogs confidence. They never got passed so for all the dogs know (and for all the love Travis gave them) they think they won. Good. We wouldn’t have it any other way..

Photos in the post were courtesy of Donna Quante & Husky Productions, The Anchorage Daily News, and Greg Sellentin.

2012 ATIA Conference & Fall Training

· ·

We woke yesterday to snowflakes drifting carelessly through the air. They landed haphazardly all around us, stayed for but a minute, then melted. After the busy fall we’ve had, it’s hard not to anticipate the simplicity that winter brings. For now, we are content to be running dogs again on a four-wheeler that finally works. Happiness, is watching the smooth rhythm the team gets into.

For awhile, it seemed like we would never run dogs again. The chaos that followed the flood seemed unending. Rebuilding the doglot, demolishing the downstairs, picking up the scattered debris…but bit by bit everything has come into place. This past week, we were fortunate enough to attend a tourism conference up in Anchorage and it seemed like the first real moment we’ve had to take a deep breath and to think of all that has happened in the last month.

The Alaska Tourism Industry Association’s annual conference was a three-day event that combined workshops with networking which was great for our young business. We were fortunate enough to receive a scholarship courtesy of GCI to the event. The best part? We met a distant relative, Andy Morrison, who is the owner/operator of Alaska Backcountry Access, a company in Girdwood that runs snow machine tours and jet boat tours. Talk about awesome!

Sarah & Andy at the 2012 ATIA Conference.

It was great to to have someone who was able to show us the ropes and introduce us to people in the industry. We were definitely the youngest business owners there and it would have been really easy for us to have been intimidated, but Andy took us under his wing and said “nope! no being shy dog mushers” and enthusiastically introduced us to people from all over the state. We learned a lot about how to promote our summer dogsledding business.

It was wonderful spending time with Andy and at the end of the conference he took us out on his jetboat…. for people who hand’t been out on the water all year it was a magical experience. Skimming out across the bay towards the endless horizon, made us want to run dogs more. There is something about traveling, no matter the means, that calms the soul. We took the boat  out to Fire Island where they are currently putting in wind turbines, 11 of which are already installed, and their was something very beautiful about them. Their blades, slowly turning, had a sort of hypnotic beauty over us and it was hard taking our eyes off of them.

After our boat ride, it was time to say goodbye. We were both ready when the conference was finally over: we had a wonderful time but it was time to go home and take care of our dogs, whom our friends had been watching. Since we’ve gotten back we’ve taken two or three teams out a day. The trails are still limited due to flood damage  but the dogs seem happy, at least, to be stretching their legs again. We certainly aren’t going as far as we would be had the flood never hit, but we aren’t worried.

The team looks strong, and more importantly, they look like a team. They’re strides are in synch with one another and they travel with a graceful elegances. Most of the time, it looks as if the dogs aren’t even really working — something that every musher aspires too.

We’ve already ran one team this morning under the cold grey skies that have descended on our quiet town. As I write this, the dogs sit outside their houses looking towards the sky. They hope, like us, that the tiny flakes we saw yesterday will come again and that this time they will stick.