We find ourselves in a very interesting position this mushing season. As many of the faithful SPK fans from years past know, we have dedicated incredible time, effort and resources into producing one of the very best, well respected sled dog kennels in the world.
Over the past 10 years, Aliy and Allen have built up SP Kennel to where it is today – always looking at the future as well as racing in the present. This can be seen in SP Kennel’s strategy of racing: “Give every dog a chance to race as much as possible in order to train for the future.” Traditionally, we decide what races are on the calendar for the season and then determine how many teams to enter in each. Often we raced two or three teams per event. We would choose a “winning team”, then choose a “junior varsity” team and, if possible, choose a “novice” third team. This strategy set us up to where we are today. And as we gaze out at the Alaskan Huskys at SP Kennel, we see that we have reached the future.
The dogs that we are training this 2018-2019 Mushing Season are experienced veterans and many of them are champions. 90% of these SPK dogs are Yukon Quest and/or Iditarod Veterans as well as experienced on numerous 200 and 300 mile races. Only four dogs currently in training have not competed on a 1,000 mile race team. However, three out of four of these dogs have raced in 200 and 300 mile races. This is an incredible percentage of experienced, knowledgeable, dedicated sled dogs. In years past, we have never seen such percentages. (These calculations do not consider the three yearlings who were puppies and not old enough to compete last season.)
The final 2018 -2019 Dog Roster on this website will be finalized on October 17th when the new Dog Portraits are posted. We will have a detailed Retirement Post soon after, so you will know where all the retirees now reside.
This season, the SPK strategy of racing is changing. This 2018-2019 Mushing Season we are refining and focusing. What does that mean?
All of this means that we will be focusing on just “the winning team”. We will have one team in the Copper Basin 300, one team in the Yukon Quest, one team in the YQ300 and one team in Iditarod. These four teams in four races will get all the SP Kennel focus and energy. It is an exciting change for us. We have been close many times before to “winning it all”! This season, with the incredible dog talent and focused musher dedication, we believe we have that chance in 2019!
So last week we rented a tractor, Allen fell back into his country Arkansas roots and jumped on board for a day plus of dozing, box blading and refilling holes. At the same time we had some hired muscle show up at the kennel. From Upstate New York, ‘Adirondack Arms’ moved nearly 50 dog houses over to the ‘Patriot Fan’ pressure wash area. All the houses were cleaned of this summer’s dirt and grim. We fixed all of the houses in need of repair and will paint a few more this coming week. Older or chewed on dogs’ name plates will be replaced and rotten dog dishes were removed. Then every house was wheeled back into the yard, filled with this season’s fresh straw.
What a great event! The Anchorage Heart Walk was today in downtown Anchorage. Literally thousands of people and hundreds of dogs did the 5 kilometer Walk in the name of Heart Health Awareness. Some people walked as heart attack/ stroke survivors, some walked in memory of family members with heart ailments, some people walked to support a team, company or individual who is passionate about the American Heart Association.
