SPK Dog Log

Happy 14th Birthday ChaCha!

The successes that SP Kennel has had over the last few years have been partially due to very selective combination of genetics. The dog that has contributed most to the successful SP Kennel gene pool is ChaCha.

These days, ChaCha surveys the dog yard from her prime position on her dog bed in the lounge or outside from the deck. She has a “coffee table crate” in the lounge where she sleeps during the day and goes upstairs to Aliy and Allen’s room at night.

There was a time, not too long ago when she was the kennel’s top racing dog and “Queen of All The Things” (just quietly, she really is still the Queen of All The Things despite what Quito thinks). ChaCha has an attitude the size of Alaska with a heart to match. Aliy uses the word “sassy” often when describing her.

Currently ChaCha has a dozen of her children and 25 grand children on the Dogs and Puppies rosters. Can you pick them all?

Cha’s “coffee table crate” in the lounge; upstairs during the night

ChaCha was born at Husky Homestead in the summer of 2001. Her mother, Alberta, whelped the ‘Dances’ litter: Rhumba, Lindy, Tango and ChaCha. Her father, Yuski, was originally born at Susan Butcher’s kennel.

ChaCha ran Iditarod eight times, won multiple mid distance races and was SP Kennel’s ‘go to’ lead dog for many years. She has always been smart, fast and ultra competitive. She would bark outloud for miles when she was excited or if she saw competition ahead of her. ChaCha is also exceptionally friendly and sweet. She wags her tail at everyone and kisses anyone who will let her. Even more amazing is the fact that during her successful years as a sled dog athlete she also had four litters for a total of 25 puppies. For the past six years, her puppies have been the core of every SP Kennel team. They are well known because they are smaller, happy and fast!

When the idea for a Kennel All-Stars page was first formed there were several dogs that immediately came to mind. ChaCha is one of these dogs. Quite simply, she is one-in-a-million!

There are few framed photos in Aliy and Allen’s kitchen but one that has pride of place is this one (right) of ChaCha with her son Dingle at the start of 2011 Iditarod. It makes us all smile whenever we see it, such is the joy on both faces.

Back in 2003-4 Randy Chappel was training and racing at SP Kennel and one of the dogs on his team was a two year old he purchased from Husky Homestead. Here’s Randy’s story:

In the summer of 2003, I was coming off a 29th place Iditarod finish as a rookie under the fantastic tutelage of Aliy and Allen. In an effort to add a few dogs for 2004, I headed south from Two Rivers down to Jeff King’s place near Denali in my dog truck. He had put out a list of some dogs for sale, and I had a certain older leader in mind that I hoped could help out my 2004 Iditarod run. Unfortunately, when I got there, that dog and a couple others I had been thinking about had already been sold.

Congratulations and many thanks from me to ChaCha! – Randy

Kennel Mom Mickey has a special affinity with the other Kennel Mom ChaCha. She shares a particular memory from 2007:

I do have a vivid memory of her a few days before she delivered the Car Litter, her second litter. Cute little Cha Cha face, a wagging tail and strong little legs that looked like toothpicks under her huge balloon body. I was afraid she would burst before those pups came out the proper way. Finally she produced 8 pups out of that petite body. One mom putting herself in another mom’s shoes. We were both relieved when delivery was over.

Below is a “Meet the Dogs” video from November 2008 with Cha as a seven year old superstar at the top of her game.

Congratulations ChaCha from all of us on your induction into the SP Kennel All-Stars Hall of Fame. You deserve it. Good girl!

Click the button below to go to the SP Kennel All Stars page!

We get this question a lot:

“How much dog food do you go through in a year?”

The obvious answer is… lots.
But, more specifically we feed literally, tons, of dry Eagle Pack Natural Pet Food.

One ton of Dog Food headed to SP Kennel from Coldspot Feeds.

During the summer months the dogs eat less. The temperatures are warmer, the dogs are less active and therefore they don’t need the additional calories. We try to keep everyone fit (including the mushers) throughout the year, so overfeeding anyone is a bad idea. On a warm, lazy summer day, the dogs at SP Kennel may eat 40 pounds of kibble per day.

As you might guess, during the winter months the dogs (and mushers) eat a lot. Colder days when the teams are training long mileage are the peak feeding days. It would not be uncommon for the dogs at SP Kennel to eat over 100 pounds of kibble per day!

Of course, the key is to watch each dog individually. We weigh in the dogs throughout the year and keep accurate records. Keeping everyone happy and healthy is what’s important!

Part One of this series talked about our sled dogs learning from their pack mates.
Part Two talked about them learning from their experiences.
In this final post of the series: “How our Dogs learn on Iditarod – Part Three” we look a dog’s most obvious educator: their musher.

Nacho and Aliy try to keep it calm at the Race Start; Olivia looks back for guidance; Chemo gets a pep talk.

Of course, a pack or a team must have a leader. In the world of dog mushing, that alpha is the musher. He or she is the pack leader. The musher makes all of the decisions for the team. The dogs expect this. No leader would ever put the decisions of the pack in the hands (or paws) of the team. That’s how indecision, turmoil and arguments come about. The leader also needs to make smart decisions.

Aliy talks to Bruce Lee about her race strategy during a rest stop; The musher must take care of the dogs and they will take care of the musher.

Overall, there needs to be a complete and thorough understanding between leader and team. The biggest failure a leader could make is an unwise decision which causes the pack to loose confidence. That would be catastrophic.

This blurb is from Aliy’s 2012 Trail Notes:
“This understanding consists of respect and love. It might sound cheesy but, to me, dog mushing is a fine balance between respect and love. I know what my dogs need, I know what they want, and I know what they will do for me. That’s where the respect and love come into play. I must respect their limits and abilities and only then will they continue to love me and do whatever they can to please me. I need to know exactly what I can ask from each individual dog. They are my teammates, my buddies, and the bottom line is this: their love and respect is my only mode of transportation through 1,000 miles of Alaskan wilderness.”

At SP Kennel we have some musher guidelines:

• Have fun. (This might sound silly and some dog mushers will surely scoff at this statement. But fun, to us, means: you stay positive, you smile and you always encourage your team. This creates an upward competitive cycle. SP Kennel is not a military Boot Camp. Our dogs were raised and trained in a positive, happy environment. Don’t change this just because you are racing.)
• Have high expectations. (Yes. We actually do want to win.)
• Play no favoritism. (Every dog on the team can effect your race’s outcome. Keep that in mind.)
• Enforce Team rules. (During training there were rules that the team understood and expected. These need to be upheld during the race. The dogs know and respect these rules. A musher must never change the rules half way thru the race regardless of whether he or she is tired, cold or miserable. A musher must stay true to their team.)
• Deal with problems quickly. (Bad things happen in life and certainly on the Iditarod. When there is a problem, fix it. Don’t dwell on negatives. The best example of this is dropping a dog. It is never easy to leave a dog at a checkpoint, but sometimes it must be done. Out of respect for the team, make the decision and carry on. The team will be together again at SP Kennel after the race.)

All in all, there is a lot of pressure on a musher. As there should be. For goodness sake… everything comes down to the choices that he or she makes.

I was watching the Iditarod Insider videos from the 2015 race. I saw quite a few mushers mentally coming to terms with the decisions that they had made for their teams… good or bad… or wrestling with decisions that they were trying to make. I’m sure that with my true insider’s perspective to the race, I had a different interpretation of some musher’s strategies and race plans. But, overall it was great to watch the mental mindset of a musher during the thick of the 2015 Iditarod competition. And I will admit that I laughed outloud at a few videos, sadly some of them featuring yours truly!

Spring in upon us in Two Rivers. The trails are mushy, the fields are muddy and the south facing slopes are dirt.
More than anything this means…

Spring clean up is here!

The first few days of snow melt always brings us grand surprises: finding treasures that were buried in the very first snow on October 4th. We try our best to deal with these surprises quickly or at least before the final spring melt. We find it is best to feed the 50 pounds of hidden turkey skins or 30 strips of beef snacks before they thaw completely. The dog dishes, feed buckets and coolers that had leftover frozen meals need to be cleaned before the thaw as well. Nothing like washing several hundred dishes at once. Anyone have a very large, commercial grade dishwasher in Two Rivers? No… that means we need to stretch the water hose out again. (‘Tis the season.)

Tidbits that seem to appear out of the thawing snow pack are dog booties, hidden dog toys and chew bones. The booties need to be dried and sorted along with the 2,000 used booties that came back from the Yukon Quest and Iditarod. (That will be an ongoing summer project!) But, the dog toys and bones are happily uncovered and thoroughly enjoyed by the pooches. We hope to resupply all the dogs with fresh bones later in the spring.

Each dog house was packed full of straw throughout the winter months. This straw has since been dragged around the yard and now adds to the muck and yuck. So a full day must be put aside to rake straw and clean out houses. Dog bowls need to be checked for any winter puncture holes. It will soon be the season when water can actually be left outside and not become an instant ice cube.

(L – R) Treasures in the melting snow; Wasn’t that straw supposed to be INSIDE Mac’s house?; a little late in the season to use a sled for clean up.

The winter dog gear needs washing and sorting. Our dog coats, wind jackets, leggings and blankets were used a lot during the two very cold 1,000 mile races this season. A long day at the laundromat is imperative. Why not wash the musher’s gear as well? Perhaps we’ll even be invited back to the races next if we don’t smell like an end of the season dog musher.

It is the time of the year when a dog musher wonders… is it the end of this season or the beginning of the next? Hummmmm.

The exit trail from the kennel and across the field looks different but gorgeous in the Spring.

Here’s a video of the Clyde and Chica puppies at 9 months old:
Five, Ernie, Ginger, Rodney and Scooby.

The five puppies are 9 months old. They are sassy, fun filled and energetic.

The “Big Boys”:

“Five” is the biggest fellah weighing in at 50 pounds. He has a big head, big feet and a big cuddly attitude. Five is a sweetheart and will jump in your lap should you sit down.

Five has a thick blonde coat like his dad’s. His nose has a nifty pink stripe down the center.

Five was very excited when first put in harness. The first time was confusing, but he “got it” after 1/4 mile of stopping and going. Since then, Five has run in a dog team paired with Willie several times.

Five enjoys playing with rocks so he has been moved to a wooden platform just behind his Mama in the yard.

“Scooby” is no slouch, weighing in at 49 pounds. He’s not quite as ‘big-boned’ as Five. He has a racy build and is nonstop movement.

Scooby is the glamour guy at SP Kennel. He looks like a husky and acts like a husky: pretty and proud! He spends most of his time trotting around with a bone or rawhide in his mouth.

Scooby got the concept of being a sled dog as soon as he first left the yard in a harness. After that run, his enthusiasm got the best of his manners and he chewed, jumped and basically went crazy during the next few hook ups. Scooby was paired with Izzy, a gal who can ‘hold her own’. Scooby has a lot to learn about being a sled dog, but pulling hard and running are not on that list.

“Rodney” is a sensitive sweetie. He weighs in at 48 pounds although his very furry coat makes him look quite a bit bigger. He has pretty markings on his face and silly floppy ears.

Rodney also loves to chew things. His constant companion is a green-centered chew toy (now minus the green center!)

Rodney gets along with everyone. He was the strongest puppy in harness from the beginning. His eyes were straight ahead and he pulled like a pro. We were able to switch his running partners with out him even noticing so, he was paired with Nutmeg, Dutch and even his brother, Ernie.

How Big are they?
The 50 pound mark at 9 months of age is quite large for an SP Kennel dog. But, while these three boys do seem big, especially in comparison to their cousins Chipper and Sandy, they aren’t quite as large as their half-brother, Mac. We couldn’t find weights for Mac as a 9 month old pup but, at one year of age Mac weighed 61 pounds. At the Iditarod start in 2014, Mac weighed a whopping 71 pounds. And he looked GREAT!

The “Smaller Side” of the family:

“Ernie” is a sleek and fast little guy. He weighs in at 41 pounds and looks good! He is the spitting image of his uncle Beemer. He has a cute little button nose and a gorgeous build. He resembles the ‘ChaCha’ side of the family.

Ernie is high strung and likes to run. He and Ginger are best buddies in the yard and play constantly!

Ernie was a bottle rocket when he was first put in harness. There was no slowing down and certainly no stopping. He wore himself out on the first run. Ernie ran in harness paired with Chemo and his brother, Rodney, the next few training runs and calmed down just a little.

Ernie was constant movement in the garage. We were sorting post Iditarod dog booties and his nose never stopped sniffing. Can you imagine the “stories” that he smelled from 1,000 miles of Iditarod booties?

“Ginger” is sassy, loves people and is quite sure of herself. Her build is similar to her mother’s: stockier and solid. Her ginger-colored coat is still a stand out in the dog yard and only Scout has a similar hue.

“My belly doesn’t feel so good.”; One month later: Ginger and Biscuit “play”.

Ginger is 100% healthy now. She went through a phase of not eating well and then she simply stopped eating in late March. After several Veterinary consultations and extensive x-rays she underwent exploratory gastrointestinal surgery. The crew at North Pole Veterinary Hospital discovered a intestinal intussusception (more info here). They were able to remove the overlapping area, sew the intestinal back together and give her a chance to heal. Ginger is now 4 weeks post surgery and looks fantastic. This is a condition that may or may not occur again. We do not know the exact cause.

Ginger has not run in harness yet. We believe that she will heal completely and will be as excited as her brothers when Fall Training starts in September. Currently she lives right in front of the house where she is monitored closely. Her brother, Ernie, is her best buddy. She was allowed in a play pen this week and was very excited to hang out with Biscuit for much of the day. (Biscuit found her: entertaining; yet slightly annoying.)

In our busy lives and in this day and age of instant messaging, texts and emails it seems to be somewhat of a dying art to get an “old-fashioned” letter.

That is why we enjoy this time of year so much – we receive so many of these “old-fashioned” letters written by youngsters. It is truly entertaining to read their letters, look at their enclosed photos of themselves, their families and of course, their dogs. Reading these letters is often a “reality check” because kids are honest and forthcoming in their assessment in our races.

We reply to every letter we receive with a return envelope. Although it takes some time, it is a fun few days for us.

We need to extend a BIG thank you to Pleasant Valley Store/Trailside Mail for sorting all our mail!

Our Post Office box was full today!

It is a post-season boost to receive a letter from someone who has been following the Iditarod and is so enthusiastic about the race and our kennel. The effort some of these kids put into decorating their envelopes or drawing a picture is humbling.

Here are the stand out quotes this year:

• “I think you are the best musher in the United States of America.” – from Ohio
• “We like how you took your breaks and you did pretty good for a girl.” – from North Carolina
• “Please remember that you’re awesome.” – from Maryland

If you know a youngster interested in our kennel check out these two pages that will hopefully be of use: our Students and Teachers page and our Dog Mushing Basics page (NOTE: the Mushing Basics page isn’t only for students!!).

Sled dogs learn from their “pack” or their team. But they also learn, like us, from their personal experiences.

The Black Team that Allen raced in Iditarod was our “young” team. In total, 8 dogs — or 50% of the team — were rookies to the race. They had never gone 1,000 miles. Therefore, they had no previous personal experiences to guide them this distance. With these youngsters it just takes time and patience. And each dog learns at their own rate.

Many people focus on the “running” part of a race. Yes, this is important. What speed is the team traveling? Or how fast did the team run from checkpoint to checkpoint? But, actually, the “resting” part of the race is more important than the “running”. And with a young dog, the “rest” will often determine the speed of the “run”.

Why is rest so important? A dog, like a human, can grind through a work day whether they had a good night’s sleep or not. How many people go to work on very few hours of sleep? You can ‘power through’ the day, barely keeping your eye lids open. But, when you are tired, you don’t really want to be at work and honestly, it’s simply not as fun or productive! We never want a dog to think “Hey… this isn’t fun!” And in order to actually make it 1,000 miles, a dog needs to be productive.

These photos are taken in Manley, only the second checkpoint of the race. At every checkpoint, the teams are allotted one bale of straw for bedding. Veterans Iditarod dogs love straw. It is cozy, warm, they can roll in it, sleep in it, hide in it… Straw is their signal to rest. And veterans know that resting is important.

(L – R) The Veterans: Beemer and Boondocks snuggle together; Lester has sweet dreams in his straw bed.

Rookie dogs don’t always understand straw. Should they sit on it? Play with it? Pee in it? Eat it? It’s all very confusing. They think “Shouldn’t this straw be in my dog house? Hey… where is my dog house!?”

(L – R) The Rookies: Junior plays with the straw as Allen doles it out; Commando sits in his straw and watches birds fly overhead; Chipper embarrasses herself by falling asleep while sitting up.

These guys obviously have a lot to learn! Allen reported that most of the youngsters finally got the hang of resting by mid way through the race. Early on he had to manually lay a few of them into their straw beds for them to sleep. Chipper was the slowest to learn. She didn’t want to go to sleep because “she might miss something exciting!” At the halfway point, in the Huslia checkpoint, Allen said the entire team finally understood: rest means rest. If you look at the team’s rest time at that checkpoint you’ll see that Allen choose to stay several extra hours — simply because they were all sleeping so well. It was an exciting moment for the team!

The experiences that the Black Team members had during the 2015 Iditarod will mold their future as sled dogs. While walking through the SP Kennel yard this Spring, these now Iditarod Veterans look different and act different than only a few short months ago. Each dog processed the Iditarod differently but in the end, they all learned the most important lesson:
I CAN DO ANYTHING!
And better yet… they all want to know: When can I do it again?!?

(L – R) The 2015 Iditarod Start: Bug-eyed Commando and crazed Driver can’t control themselves; Siblings Kodiak and Junior leave the starting chute in lead.