We thought you’d enjoy this pic as much as we did. It was intended to be a peaceful Christmas scene with Tig the Lumberjack cutting down a tree and Lydia and Scout hauling it home. Instead it looks like Tig is an axe-murderer and Lydia and Scout are her next victims!
Happy Howlloween from all of us at SPK.
The crew and all the SPK Racers went on an early season camp out in late October.
First we exercised the three teams in and around the Two Rivers trails. Then we accessed a trail that we seldom use – this is a route that does not have any commonality with the Yukon Quest trail – then we parked the ATVs. After parking, we pulled the dog teams off to the side, gave them a meal and eventually, a straw bed.
Most dogs took the opportunity to lay in the sunshine. This was a great refresher about eating and resting whenever the chance might arise. Wes, Wendy and Mac made the entire experience simulate a Race Checkpoint as they greeted the teams and helped park everyone. We all relaxed and roasted hot dogs over the fire. We even had one of our neighborhood dog teams pass thru our camp spot. It was the perfect training experience.
After a short rest and fully bellies, the dogs and mushers continued their exercise program. We trained some additional miles and eventually returned to the kennel for an evening meal and a nice sleep back in their our own beds.
We’ve had a day of snow – let’s hope it sticks!
We thought you would enjoy seeing some ‘behind the scenes’ action from Portrait Day. Thanks again to Wendy, Karolyn and Mary Beth for your help!
Although Jeanne is a fantastic photographer, not all shots go according to plan. We thought you would enjoy seeing a few out-takes.
Training has been going well despite the warmer temperatures. Aliy grabbed a camera and filmed for a few minutes during this exercise. This is really what it’s like to sit on the back of a noisy, bumpy ATV 4 wheeler. YES – the dirty windshield does always get in the way. But… when the temperature drops and the wind chill rises, that dirty windshield is also a blessing!
Thank you to everyone who has joined our dog fan club – we are so happy to say that every dog has at least one fan and we are so grateful to you all for supporting your favourite team mate!
We’ve made our first random draw (using spreadsheet ‘random’ function to choose). Congratulations to Ariane Remien who is a fan of Cayenne, and is a first time dog fan club member! Thanks for your support Ariane. We will post you out some mushing treats: a Van Zyle’s ‘Iditarod Memories’ book plus some fun sled dog sticky notes to use as a bookmark. Of course we’ll add some other kennel goodies.
Cayenne really came into her own at the end of last season. She is a real contender now and we’re happy to see her live up to her potential and superior genetics. She can run in any position and she’s enjoying early season training. As a five year old she is in her peak years so we are excited to see what happens this season. Go Cayenne!
Find out more about our athletes at the “Dogs” page. To join the Dog Fan Club you can hit the “Become a Dog Fan” tab at the top of the page or click here.
Year after year our kennel photographer and good friend Jeanne Schnackenberg outdoes herself taking the formal portraits of our canine athletes at SP Kennel. We are sure you’ll agree that they are fantastic as you check out our refreshed “The Dogs” page.
You might wonder why we go to the trouble of taking formal pictures? Firstly, we love to have a pictorial record of all the dogs through their life and taking a formal picture gives us a visual library going back many years. We can compare growth and development in the dogs from year to year as we compare a snap shot rather than as we see them every day. We can also easily keep a visual history of our genetic lines. Our dog sponsors love receiving “glam shots” of their dogs in their sponsor packets, and we know you enjoy seeing the formal and informal faces of our dogs on their own webpages. Last season we even supplied them to the Yukon Quest visual content team to display at the Yukon Quest Prize-giving when Dutch and Commando received their Golden Harness awards.
Photo day is a real team effort. Wrangling puppies, attracting focus and attention, and wiping muddy faces takes a good deal of time and patience. This year, along with Jeanne and Aliy, we had invaluable help from Wendy, Karolyn and Mary Beth. Thank you gals, we could not have done it without you. Really. We couldn’t.
Each year it is the yearlings that show the most change. Look at how these three gals have grown! It has been interesting for us to watch them mature as they are not our genetics so we didn’t have a clear picture of what they might look like all grown up. Check out these comparisons…
Even with the same backdrop and similar poses to last year I reckon Jeanne has captured something different in each dog to show another aspect of their complex personalities. One year might show the playful, fun side of a dog then the next year we see a more serious side. It is fun to see the varying moods show through in picture form. Some of my favourites from this year are:
This shot really conveys a calm, friendly Felix with his sweet smile and soft expression. He was likely eyeing up someones lap to crawl into once the photo was done.
Jefe is strong and handsome and in this shot looks to be telling us he is ready! “Let’s just stop this photo nonsense and get racing!” Check out that sparkle in his eyes. Good boy Jefe.
Who can resist this sweet face? Daisy is a sweetheart and this picture captures an enigmatic, Mona Lisa smile and her beautiful brown eyes. I wonder what she’s thinking?
Blue-eyed Sanka is very serious in this shot. I reckon she’s telling us she is ‘on it’ this season and we can count her IN! She looks so much like Supermodel Mama Olivia here.
You can become a fan of these dogs, and any others of your choice by hitting the “Become a Dog Fan” tab at the top of the page, or just click here.
Thanks again to Jeanne, Wendy, Karolyn and Mary Beth. Together you have made some truly special pictures!
Of course there are some out-takes! We’ll share them with you soon.
-Moira
All the Junior and Rodney pups are healthy and happy. Two of these cuties are future SP Kennel sled dogs: Dr Bill and Wu. The two brothers are peas in a pod – they play constantly, tug ‘o war everything, eat together, sleep together and are never far from the other’s side.
The duo add just the right amount of puppy energy to keep SP Kennel fun and entertaining for all of us humans who try to “keep up” with the youngsters. Bill and Wu have the dogged determination of their Father and only sleep when they can literally, no longer keep their eye lids ajar. They often go to the local Kindergarten: Wes and Wendy’s house for a half a day. Wendy’s comments were “they don’t sleep as much as normal puppies.” Thanks to Rodney!
Visually the two pups are different: Bill has blue eyes and black eye circles and a white forehead from his Mother’s side of the family and Wu has brown eyes, white eye brows and a thin stripe on his forehead. They were somewhat cooperative for Portrait Day and Jeanne was able to capture them on film.
Okay, truth be told, the youngsters weren’t really very cooperative at all. Who would be at 8 weeks? Our phottag assistants were able to run the youngsters around for quite a while (which really just got them warmed up… Thanks again Rodney) and they settled in for the mere seconds Jeanne needed for several magnificent shots. Of course this was only after they chewed her camera, her nose, her hair and all the noise maker squeaky toys. “Oh… Portrait Day is FUN!”
The other six Junior pups went to new homes at 8 weeks of age. Three groups of two siblings live in forever homes in Alaska. Two sisters went to a home where they will be future skijor dogs and loving companions, a boy and boy and girl went to a family full of adventure and fun and the last boy and girl went to one of the Veterinarians from North Pole Vet Hospital who helped with Junior’s c-section. Apparently after only 10 seconds post birth… it was destiny!
It is new and different to breed SP Kennel dogs, only keep a few and share the rest with the world. It is not an easy change in our kennel philosophy but it would not be prudent to keep all eight puppies here at our kennel. This process was tolerable because of the fantastic new and caring puppy owners that we selected. We will be in the same situation when Izzy’s puppies reach the age of 8 weeks.
