SPK Dog Log

Bronze gets tough with the Stuffed Bear

Allen talks CB300 strategy with Prata

Before the 2016-17 Dog Mushing season starts for us, we want to take the opportunity to go through the SP Kennel dogs in depth. This will be a Series of videos showing our Racing Dogs grouped by their age class. These videos are shot while Aliy and the dogs are in one of the kennel’s ‘Play Pens’.

Here are the 6 and 7 Year Olds

We generally say that our Racing Dogs are between the age of 2 and 9 years old. The youngest and oldest of these dogs will usually compete on the less competitive JV Teams, whereas the dogs who are between 3 to 7 years old are often on the Varsity Teams. There always have been, and surely will be, exceptions to the average.
The Yearling Class will also have a chance to compete in limited Races during their first season in harness. However, the Youngest Class — the Puppies — will not be in harness until they are mentally and physically able to succeed. This depends upon what time of year they were born and their genetics. They could be in harness as soon as Spring or as late as Fall.
Remember that all of our dogs are individuals and there are no “Age, Gender or Size Rules” at SP Kennel. Every dog gets a chance to race.

Before the 2016-17 Dog Mushing season starts for us, we want to take the opportunity to go through the SP Kennel dogs in depth. This will be a Series of videos showing our Racing Dogs grouped by their age class. These videos are shot while Aliy and the dogs are in one of the kennel’s ‘Play Pens’.

Here are the 4 Year Olds

The Secret Litter:

The Golf Litter:

We generally say that our Racing Dogs are between the age of 2 and 9 years old. The youngest and oldest of these dogs will usually compete on the less competitive JV Teams, whereas the dogs who are between 3 to 7 years old are often on the Varsity Teams. There always have been, and surely will be, exceptions to the average.
The Yearling Class will also have a chance to compete in limited Races during their first season in harness. However, the Youngest Class — the Puppies — will not be in harness until they are mentally and physically able to succeed. This depends upon what time of year they were born and their genetics. They could be in harness as soon as Spring or as late as Fall.
Remember that all of our dogs are individuals and there are no “Age, Gender or Size Rules” at SP Kennel. Every dog gets a chance to race.

The pups are named: ‘Gold’, ‘Prata’ and ‘Bronze’. While gold and bronze seem like obvious names for pups born during the 2016 Olympics games, prata might not. Some of you might think ‘Silver’ would be the obvious third choose. However, we were hesitant to name a puppy with the same name as quite a few other sled dogs in Alaska – including one very notable dog. Since ‘Prata’ means silver in Portuguese and many SP Kennel dog names already have an international flair… why not?

L-R: Gold, Prata and Bronze in a harness pile; Gold wanders around the house.

The pups have just turned 4 weeks old. They are happy and healthy. Gold is by far the largest and most daring. Prata is a cuddle bug and likes to stick next to her Mama. Bronze has an adventurous gene and is hard to keep up with now.

They are spending quality time in the SP Kennel house or in the Dog Room – always accompanied by Mama. They have explored the outdoors in the last few days and even had a tour of the driveway. However, the weather has been very damp these past few weeks so they will remain living indoors until they are older or more sunshine appears.

Most of the puppies born at SP Kennel arrive during the summer which is ‘down time’ for the kennel. This means when it is their birthday we have the opportunity to celebrate it.

But occasionally puppies have been born during the early spring or late fall during the ‘busy season’ so we haven’t had the chance to celebrate. Therefore, in a new short series we will wish Happy Non-Birthday to a few of these dogs. We’ll start with handsome boy Chemo!

Chemo’s actual birthday is April 20th so today, August 20th Chemo turns 6 1/3 years old.

Chemo and his sister I.V. were born at the kennel. Chemo and I.V.’s names may seem very unique and there is a great story behind them. Click here to read some background.

Chemo has gone on to be a very important team member. He ended last season with a third place in the Iditarod and second in the Yukon Quest 300. He has raced six 1000 mile races and a host of other middle distances.

Chemo is such a lovely boy. He is quite a sensitive soul and can be a bit shy when meeting new people but is very loving and affectionate to those he knows. Aliy wrote of him after this year’s Iditarod: “Chemo is an honest, carefree addition to any team. He is genuinely a happy character and likes to travel down the trail. He stayed healthy throughout the race and slowly moved his way farther up the team as we neared the finish. Chemo is definitely talented, but sometimes I had to convince him of that fact. I think he dug pretty deep to finish this race and I am proud of him for that.”

Chemo takes centre stage as the team pulls into Central during the 2016 YQ300 (picture by Julien Schroder)

He’s is happy to lead a team, and just as happy to run as an important team dog. He’s a talented, good looking and kind hearted boy. The perfect guy.

Meet him as a three year old in this video:

PS: Chemo’s sister I.V. unfortunately suffered a racing-dog career ending injury while she was playing in the yard a couple of years ago. Although she is not in any pain and it doesn’t stop her being a fantastic pet dog, she could no longer pull a sled so she retired early at age 4. Read more here.

This video was taken at 10PM on August 15th, 2016 off the SP Kennel balcony.
ENJOY.

The rain has been constant in July and August in Interior Alaska. But, there have been one or two nice sunny afternoons. Our Alaskan Huskys certainly are not accustomed to the heat that these rare rays of sunshine bring – so they hide as much as they can. No “basking” for these doggies!

Biscuit nibbles on his chew toy; Schmoe hides from the sun.

Dutch rests as far out of the sunshine as possible; Perky seems rather relaxed!

SP Kennel dogs have been shedding their fur for much of the summer. Some dogs “blow” their coats in one quick weekend while other seem to take a little longer to lose their fur. We brush the dogs whenever they need it and sometimes we can even recruit some help.
Earlier in the summer, the Voiles Family visited the kennel. The spent much of the afternoon grooming Scruggs and Chena. Thank you very much girls!

Chena and Scruggs get some extra grooming TLC.

The puppies are “draining” after a nursing power session.