SPK Dog Log

Congratulations to Kathy Ferrel who has won this week’s draw.

Kathy is a fan of LESTER

Lester is the little man that everyone looks up to. He has been the ‘steady-as-he-goes’ lead dog for several years now and despite his rather petite size and calm attitude, the younger dogs look to him for guidance. Lester is important and he knows it.

Kathy’s winner’s prize pack includes a mounted and signed photograph of Allen’s 2014 Iditarod team along with a few other fun goodies. Coincidently, Lester was on Allen’s team that year and, although you can’t make him out in the photo, he was there!

The next Thanksgiving themed fan club draw is on November 27th. If you haven’t already won this season or if you are a new member your name will be in the next draw.

Click the button below for instructions on how to join:

Click this button below to take you directly to the Dog Fan Page.

At it is Veterans’ Day / Remembrance Day in much of the world today, our Windback Wednesday takes us back to a few posts during the summer of 2012 by Kennel Mom Mickey. She tells us how SP Kennel was involved with a research project with Dr Mike Davis that directly helped the US Armed forces bomb-sniffing dogs!

Click on the red links below to take you to the stories including some great videos!

Helping the US Armed Forces

Vet Tech Christa, Ryne and Spoog begin research project in the new dog barn in 2012

Summer Research Means Summer Fun

Electrolyte Research Continues

Here are some excerpts:

SP Kennel’s close association with Dr. Mike Davis, celebrated physiologist from Oklahoma State University, has created an unusual opportunity this summer.

Dr. Davis is now working with the US Armed Forces to assess and improve the physical endurance of bomb-sniffing dogs, used primarily in current Middle East conflicts. And he has enlisted the help of SP Kennel to test the effects of varying electrolyte levels and different exercise regimes on overall canine endurance. We are honored to be part of this research.

Click on the link here to take you to a Youtube video of a TEDx talk Dr Mike did about the wider project.

Why name a puppy “Perky”?

Alaska’s White Mountains National Recreational Area is just an hour north of Two Rivers. The area is pristine and gorgeous. We have been trucking small groups of dogs (and mushers) to these training grounds so that we can all enjoy running in the snow on sleds.

Our early season fall training “Howler” is here!

We hope you enjoy reading about our puppies: the Coffee Litter and the Golden Harness Litter, as well as some history about the DogLog.

We give you a run down of fall training so far with some great tips on not only improving the fitness of dogs physically but mentally also! We want our dogs to be positive, excited and enthusiastic while they are working. How do we do that?

Click on the picture on the right to link you with a PDF version of the Howler.

Here they are:

We think you’ll agree, Jeanne has done a fantastic job once again.

We’ve been wanting to do these kind of shots for ages and Jeanne pulled them off spectacularly! They show so much personality.

Take a look at how much the FIVE litter have grown!

Rodney and Ernie

Five and Ginger

Scooby and Mama Chica

We’ve been working hard to update the Racing Dogs’ and Yearlings’ team cards to incorporate our new portraits so we hope you enjoy them! We wanted to make the most of the fantastic full-body pictures so we’ve completely revamped the cards.

Check out the new Dogs Page for all the info about your favourite athletes and see their new portraits!

Let us know what you think and which is your favourite in the comments below. And, check out the little surprise on Quito’s portrait!

We had a little fun during Portrait Day. Happy Halloween!

L-R: Barista, Bean, Creamer, Sanka, Perky, Decaf