SPK Dog Log

All of us at SP Kennel are thankful for the tremendous community support we receive from people around the world and especially, Alaskans. This year, Aliy is trying to ‘give back’ to some Alaskan communities.

Since, Aliy considers personal health and fitness a number one priority, it only makes sense that she has become a public advocate and official spokesperson for the Healthy Futures Challenge and the state of Alaska’s Play Every Day campaign.

Aliy recording PSAs in studio; Aliy models the “Get out and Play!” t-shirt (Love the Red!)

Healthy Futures is an Alaskan health and fitness program that was started many years ago by Bonny Sosa. The program empowers Alaska’s youth to build the habit of daily physical activity. The state of Alaska’s Play Every Day campaign is a partner with Healthy Futures and the state-wide outreach continues to grow. Healthy Futures is in almost 200 Alaskan schools (including Two Rivers). The Challenge program begins when school starts in September.

Earlier this week Aliy was in Anchorage filming inspirational and educational videos. These fun clips were produced to motivate kids to sign up for the upcoming Challenge and stick with the it until the finish line!

Aliy was trying to convince the dogs that a “couch life” is only good in moderation; Aliy and the kids practiced their lines for the Healthy Futures video.

So… kids, adults and dogs: “Get out and play! Every day!”

‘Healthy Futures’ website is HERE.
‘Get out and Play!’ website is HERE.

Woof. Hi. Kia ora.

I’m settling in nicely and am enjoying my new life in small town Taranaki, New Zealand. My new BFF is Lexie, an 11 year old Gordon Setter and we hang out together during the day. I’m getting to know the new human members of my family but I’ve always been a bit shy of new people. I’m becoming more and more comfortable each day.

Every morning I get to go for a run at the nearby sports ground. I run with Lexie, chase the birds and catch up with all the new messages from the other dogs that walk there. Sometimes I even steal Lexie’s tennis ball.

After our run we head home for breakfast then my day is spent poking around the back yard, chewing on my bone or resting in my bed. Sometimes I get to go for a drive in the car to town or to visit friends. Then late afternoon sees a second run over at the sports ground followed by dinner and bed. I like my routine.

Although it is winter I haven’t seen snow on the ground here. In other parts of New Zealand it has been snowing but here where I live it doesn’t often get cold enough. There is a mountain nearby and it snows up there and we might take a road trip sometime soon to go find some.

Moira sometimes works from home and this is her home office. Notice Lexie has stolen her “office chair”.

I do sometimes miss all my friends back in Two Rivers but I love my new life here!

We still think of the Fire Litter as puppies, but truth be told.. they are not! Olivia and Nacho’s eleven puppies graduate to the SP Kennel Yearling Class this week.

We took photographs of the kids earlier this week. Out of the 556 pictures we took, we hope that we got 11 good ones! We’ll let you decide.

Glamour shot of Amber at 3 months; Amber at 1 year.

Glamour shot of Chena at 3 months; Chena at 1 year.

Glamour shot of Coal at 3 months; Coal at 1 year.

Glamour shot of Commando at 3 months; Commando at 1 year.

Glamour shot of Daisy at 3 months; Daisy at 1 year.

Glamour shot of Hotshot at 3 months; Hotshot at 1 year.

Glamour shot of Nomex at 3 months; Nomex at 1 year.

Glamour shot of Spark at 3 months; Spark at 1 year.

Glamour shot of Tinder at 3 months; Tinder at 1 year.

Glamour shot of Torch at 3 months; Torch at 1 year.

Glamour shot of Violet at 3 months; Violet at 1 year.

If you want to see the litter at 6 Months then check out this post:
FIRE PUPPIES IN HARNESS.

Here are the Newborn portraits!

It is obvious that most of the pups have their father’s coloration. At birth, they were quite challenging to differentiate. However in the past few days, they have started to gain some more individual characteristics.

Names will be coming soon. (After we are sure of who is who!)

The BOYS:

The GIRLS:

Day Two Pupdate is that everyone is healthy and growing. When they were born we took birth weights. Every pup weighed between 13 and 17 ounces. By day two, all of the pups had gained between 1 and 3 ounces. Chica is nursing the 9 pups on 10 teats, so there is no need for human intervention.

We let Momma and her youngsters have some alone time after the birth day. But during day two we spent a great deal of time with the family and took quite a few photos. Newborn portraits will be posted soon. But, some of the best shots are the ‘outtakes’.

Chica and Aliy look through the pups individually.

A little wave from SP Kennel; Snuggling up with Momma

Chica and a her little ‘look alike’ son have a moment just before his portrait session.

All photos by Barbara Swenson.

Nine Pups and a healthy Momma!

There are three dog house spots adjacent to Aliy and Allen’s house. Anyone who visits must walk within ‘petting’ distance of these dogs. During the winter, these spots are reserved for dogs who need special attention: puppies, retired dogs or indoor pooches. But during the summer months, when the racing dogs aren’t being harnessed, trained and coached everyday, everyone needs a little extra TLC.

The dogs at these spots are termed “Dogs of the Day” and all of the dogs at the kennel rotate through. Sometimes they stay for just a few days or even a week. Dogs enjoy the proximity to the biscuit bucket, frequent treats from humans walking by or full blown conversations with folks sitting on the deck.

We mix and match the dogs in these coveted spots. For instance, Biscuit and Olivia know each other quite well because they are often on the same team while training or racing. But their houses in the dog yard are 100 feet apart so they don’t visit much during the summer months. Last week, while in the ‘Dogs of the Day’ spots, Biscuit and Olivia spent time as neighbors and even playmates. Spark was the third ‘Dog of the Day’ last week and got plenty of loving from all the visiting humans as well as his mom, Olivia. Early this week, we selected two Fire puppies: Violet and Commando and their first cousin, Iron, as “Dogs of the Day”. Currently, Commando is still DOD, but Violet was replaced by her sister, Daisy, and Rambler needs a bath, so he moved up front too.

We’ve had numerous questions about the logistics of exercising the dogs during the summer. So I thought I would go into a little more detail.

We divide the dogs into groups of 6 to 8 individuals. Often there are siblings or team mates in the groups. (For instance; Sandy, Hotshot, Rambler, Lester, Scruggs, Viper, Willie went yesterday.) We have a walking schedule that we keep up to date in order to keep track of which group is next. We usually only walk one group a day.

We have a ATV trailer that hauls a 5 hole dog transport crate. It is usually parked in the middle of the dog yard. After breakfast and chores, we load dogs into the crate. We pull the trailer about a mile away from the kennel on one of our common mushing trails. Some dogs ride individually, while other dogs will double up for the quick jaunt. There is usually a lot of barking and excitement during the 5 minute ride. We then park beside the trail and unload the dogs.

Rambler cools off in the beaver pond; Sam rides in the dog transporter.

We walk away from the kennel for about a mile. The route is a muddy dirt trail. The turn around spot is a beaver pond. They can always get a drink there and only a few of them will swim. Sometimes we’ll see other dogs, horses, vehicles and wildlife. The dogs zig and zag, romp through the woods and race each other down the trail. They generally come when called and don’t get too far ahead of their human except when they know they are headed “home”. At the end of each walk, the dogs tend to race each other back to the ATV trailer. I guess that’s the “finish line” and they are race dogs, so we let them get ahead of us. Most of the time the dogs return to ‘check in’ before the humans arrive at the ATV. Sometimes they wait at the ATV and occasionally they load themselves into the transport crates.

Once in a while, we will put a GPS collar on a dog in order to document the mileage that they covered during the walk. Those are the orange collars in the videos. In general, dogs will cover about twice as many miles as their human counterparts.

We can walk dogs directly out of the dog yard as well. However, the predicament that we find ourselves in is at the end of the walk when they “race home”. There is no way a human can keep up with a racing sled dog. So, a half a dozen dogs would be back at the kennel mingling with neighbors, heads deep in dog food sacks and generally getting into trouble 5 minutes before any human supervision showed up. In order to keep the chaos to a minimum, we use the trailer.