SPK Dog Log

Training conditions have been perfect this October. Every SP Kennel dog — except ChaCha (13 1/2 years), Bullet (12 1/2 years) and Nutmeg (10 1/2 years) — are in harness on a planned weekly exercise schedule.

We have four manageable training teams right now. These teams are established mostly due to the ease of hooking up. In other words, the dogs in the rear of the yard: Driver, Iron, Amber, Clyde and Schmoe will be in the same team. The dogs in the front of the yard: Dutch, Scout, Boondocks, Lydia and Izzy will be in the same team. So, obviously this time of the year, our dogs are not differentiated into Varsity or JV teams. Experienced dogs, youngsters and “tweeners” are all still training together.

Since every dog — young and old — are training together, obviously they have different skills sets and abilities. The September and October SP Kennel exercise schedule is set up so that the least experienced dogs can succeed. This is accomplished by establishing an overall training schedule that very slowly increases in mileage and stays at a relatively slow speed. Not every dog learns at the same rate.

The reason that we do this ‘conservative’ approach is that we know who are “best dogs” were last season. Quito didn’t win the Yukon Quest Golden Harness two years in a row on a fluke. So, she and her championship Yukon Quest teammates, Copper Basin 300 teammates or Iditarod teammates can do an Olympic caliber training regime from now until March. But, we don’t know who are “best dogs” are going to be. This is crucial.

There is so much potential in every dog! We don’t want any individual to ‘slip through the cracks’ of training. Training to win races doesn’t happen overnight and it doesn’t even happen in a year. It takes patience, time and a willingness to give your future “best dogs” a chance to prove themselves.

This past week Aliy was asked to do several company presentations in and around Alaska. Since folks wanted to know what the trail looked like during the 2014 Iditarod, we compiled video clips from the “Aliy Cam”.

Enjoy!

Happy birthday to Schmoe, Scooter, Sissy and Spoog who turned five years old today!

Today’s Wind Back Wednesday (to replace Throwback Thursday this week) is from November 2009 which brought us pictures of the latest additions to SP Kennel – the Pepper x Ranger litter dubbed the “S” litter. How cute are they? All four have matured into great, hardworking and talented dogs with Sissy and Schmoe making Aliy’s 2014 Iditarod team!

We brought the pups inside for a while this morning and had a grand time with them.

L-R Scooter was active and outgoing, especially enjoying time laying on Allen’s chest; Schmoe played hard then crashed for a perfect little puppy nap.

L-R: Sissy has the best mustache in the Kennel… Perhaps in the entire dog universe! (We hope her doggie friends don’t tease her about it.); And then there’s Spoog… What more can you say than “Too cute!”

All the pups are doing very well and growing like crazy! Pepper is a very good mom, and all the dogs are helping to socialize the pups in the Kennel pack.

At least 7 inches of fresh snow by Monday morning!

Dingle enjoys the snow.(Look at the pups in the background.)

Four happy puppies: Ernie, Five, Ginger and Rodney. Scooby was off chasing his tail!

The finished product.

A few days later…

The 2014-15 Dog Fan Club is now open!

Last season we introduced the Dog Fan Club and it was a huge success! We received so much feedback from you about how much you enjoyed showing your support for your favorite dog or dogs. As you may know, we are in the fortunate position that all our SP Kennel dogs will have individual sponsors this season and we have a wait list for this programme. We have always had the policy of “one dog, one sponsor” and that meant that, in previous seasons, many of you could not directly support your favorite dogs. Now you can!

Will you choose Beemer, Kodiak, Schmoe or one of the others?

When you join the Dog Fan Club, your name is displayed on the Dog Fan Club page and every two weeks we make a random draw for a lucky winner to receive a topical prize. Last year we gave away prizes such as a signed CB300 poster, an Iditarod DVD and a Yukon Quest T-shirt!

This year also, due to popular demand, we have included “The Five” puppies in the Dog Fan Club. Their early life struggles and their determination and fighting spirit has earned them a lot of supporters so we have decided to include them.

All proceeds from the Dog Fan Club go directly to the dogs! The winning dog also gets extra treats that they often share with the rest of the yard.

It is not a popularity contest and we don’t tell the dogs who has the most fans but, just quietly, our superstar Golden Harness winning leader Quito ended up having TWO fan club cards as she had so many supporters and fans.

Last season Mismo (right) was our first winning dog – who will it be this season?

Show your support for your favorite dog today! The Fan Club is open from October to the end of March. The first random prize draw is Friday, October 17.

You will soon start noticing updates and changes to our DogLog as the season opens “proper”. Our “Dog” and “Puppies” pages have updated team cards and once we get our new season’s portraits they will be updated again. We’ve moved some things around and cleared the Team and Dog Log supporter rosters ready for the season.

Today we’ve opened up the Red Team and Black Team memberships for the 2014-15 season. A sincere thank you to all those who joined the team for the 2013-14 season, your support is so very appreciated by us all here at SP Kennel.

This season we’ve changed up the merchandise that comes as a “thank you” for joining the team. If you join the Red Team you have your choice of an iconic red SP Kennel beanie OR an SP Kennel neck gaiter. You’ll also receive a fantastic, mounted, Jeff Schultz print from the 2014 Iditarod that has been signed by Aliy. To thank our Black Team members we have an SP Kennel travel cup – suitable for all your favourite hot or cold beverages.

Click the button below to take you to the “Join the Team” page.

We have many other options for supporting SP Kennel including our “Dog Fan Club”, which will be open on Friday, Support the Dog Log and other sponsorship options. Watch this space…

You will notice that some of the faces on the “SP Kennel Dogs” are missing. This is true. So the questions is: “When do you retire a dog from SP K Racing?”

That’s often difficult to answer because, you guessed it: everyone is different.

The long answer to this question starts with our belief that each dog deserves quality individual time. In order to give the youngest SP Kennel members an honest, quality shot at becoming the absolute best sled dogs that they can become – we must spend enough time and effort with each youngster during their training years.

Let’s be honest… I enjoy watching the SP youngsters. And it is critical that we get to know these future All-Stars while they are developing. I have no desire to turn our young dogs over to someone else to raise and train. They are our future. We want to know every little detail about them. Imagine the high we’ve felt while watching Quito grow from a scrawny puppy; to a tall, thin yearling; to a novice, budding two year old and now a two-time Yukon Quest Golden Harness recipient and Iditarod All-Star lead dog. It is incredibly rewarding to know that we have been with her through all of these times of her life.

So, in order to have enough time, effort, space and money to care for, train and race each SP Kennel dog, we have to keep our overall dog population in check. That means we carefully select who will retire from SP Kennel racing, who will move to the couch and who will move on to a new home. The number of dogs that we retire each year is correlated to the number of puppies we raised the previous summer. It only makes sense that the SP K ‘newbies’ will try to replace the SP K ‘retirees’.

If you have followed the kennel for any length of time you know that the ‘Puppy Class’ from 2013 – now the ‘Yearling Class’ – is very large. There are 11 Fire Pups plus Champ and Cayenne – a total of 13 one year old dogs. Due to our kennel management technique, this summer we needed to retire the same number.

It was incredibly challenging to choose who would retire. And just as challenging to let go some of these guys to far away homes. Not only did a few of these dogs have another year or two of racing under their harnesses, but also because they were part of the SP Kennel family. But, the knowledge that we find every dog the right home at the right time makes the process doable.

All of these dogs went to forever homes. Sometimes it’s an easy transition and sometimes it’s more challenging. The most important thing is that these new owners can find the joy that each individual dog has to offer.

1. Bonita
2. Boris
3. Fang
4. Honda
5. Kipper
6. Malibu
7. Pud
8. Ranger
9. Shiner
10. Spicy
11. Spoog
12. Tatfish
13. Tug

Everyone loves Tatfish; Pud and new puppy buddy, Aria; Spoog and new BFF, Edie.

Tug (right) and friends look for squirrels; Yes… that is a cat couch surfing with Malibu!