Breed Standards Seminar and Sweet Sorrow

Friday evening we bid farewell and good life to Sahara, our happy little dancing, food dish puppy. She is doing great in her new home, but I miss her silliness already. She has a great new friend (a red and white malmutexhusky boy) which she plays and cuddles with along with two wonderful children to be part of her people pack and to grow up with.


I am so very happy for her and for her new family, but at the same time, I always wish I could keep them all.



Saturday morning, Princess sniffed all through the house, whining at me and letting me know a puppy was missing. I tried to explain it to her, but I don't think she believed me. I gathered her, her crate and her grooming table up anyway, and headed out to the Breed Standards Seminar.

The seminar was awesome, and I learned a lot about what goes in to a breed standard and why, and how it applies to a dog. We learned how the bone structure of a dog affects its movement, and why particular movements are written in to the breed standards. It was a really great seminar and I'm very grateful to Laurin for putting it on! With this knowledge I'm now much better equipped to evaluate our future breeding program and how to choose pairings far more carefully to achieve the best results.

Princess was ecstatic to be with people and dogs for over 8 hours. She lives for this stuff, and loved the attention. She's such a wonderful personality. However, evaluating her with the newfound knowledge, I can see why she doesn't conform enough to the standard to win in her class. So she is being retired to the sled team where she still excells, as now I know why she was built for speed and can run so fast! She may miss showing, but will be twice as thrilled to make every race. In a way this makes me happy to know that she is sound enough to be a foundation of our racing stock if not our show lines.

Sunday was again rainy (Saturday too, but we spent the day inside on purpose), and I woke with a slight migraine. So instead of the flurry of activity I had planned, I ended up nursing my headache to prevent it from getting any worse. This turned out to be a good thing, as I was contacted by a person looking for a husky pup, and we had one left to find a good home for. Little River, my small cuddler and swift runner is a very special, smart, loveable little girl, so I was very cautious talking to them, but the more we spoke the more my fears were put to rest. She had read a lot about the breed, knew their flaws and their good points (which to some people are flaws, but to me makes them the best breed ever), had a fence and kids old enough to not be knocked over by an enthusiastic pup, but young enough to still want to play with and be active with the puppy. After a good exchange, she agreed to come by, meet River and her parents, and make her final decision.

River took to them right away, coming up and happily licking hands and faces without reserve, as if she knew she was meant for them. The children too, took to her, and it was obvious by all their faces the match was made.

So with happiness and sorrow in my heart, I said good-bye and happy life to my little River. It was an eventful weekend full of the good things, even the ones that make you sad, a sweet, sweet sorrow.

Interesting Times

So, we hit an all time record flood level Tuesday. This is what our highest road out of our area looked like. Seeing that, there was no question that the other roads towards town were flooded, so we buckled down, gathered the dogs and spent the day inside carefully watching the creek. Fortunately this pic represents the highest the water got before receding.

This morning at 5am, Demon began licking my face and hands. I told him 'no' and growled to let him know to leave me alone, but he kept nudging me with his nose and licking me. Bandit, with his back to mine and his head next to me, growled too, but Demon continued to bother me, which was unusual for him. Normally one 'no' would put him off and he'd go howl forlornly out on the back porch.

So I sit up and look around only to find little Sahara dancing around my room with her tail wagging a mile a minute. Demon had to let me know the puppies had gotten loose and were terrorizing him and the big dogs. So I had to rescue him from becoming a chew toy.

May you live in Interesting Times!

Of Puppies, Rain, Mowing and other world events.

For forty days and forty nights... well it seems so anyway. My rain guage topped out at 6" of rain several days ago. This and the fact I had a flat tire on my lawn tractor has made for an interesting jungle of grass and weeds on our 3 acres of cleared land, and very happy trees on the other 4 acres.

My husband finally got the tire fixed, so I went out to mow the lawn only to have the rain fall again. Saturday I finally finished the front and back, and got about another .75 acres mowed of side yard just in time for it to rain again Sunday. So, no weed and feed, or ant and grub control has been put down as yet. The good news is, all the rain has given me time to spend cleaning up mud... good news? hmmm...

Saturday early, it was 37 degrees, and the dogs were all hyper, so I decided to work out some of the excess energy from Bandit and Bucky. I harnessed them up by 7am then realized my tires were low on the bike. Searching did not turn up the pump, so I ensured the tires were inflated enough to handle my weight, hooked up the boys, and was on down the road before 8. On the corner after the bridge a new family had moved in with an ornery pit bull mix that came rushing out aggressively and unfettered towards my boys. This made me mad, and I looked that dog in the eyes, pointed to it and screamed "NO!" Meanwhile Bucky thinks it's social hour and wants to go see the new dog. Fortunately the other dog got the message and stayed at least ten feet away from us as I finally convinced the boys is was more fun to continue down the road than to stare down the new dog. We were followed and barked at, but the new dog did not come any closer than ten feet from the boarder of its yard. Problem was we would have to go by him again on the return trip.

We went just over a mile and turned around, and on the way back the pit bull mix's attention was more on me than on my boys as he raced along the boarder of his yard but did not follow when I told him "NO!" again. That was a mild relief, and I'm hoping there won't be future issues, but this puts a serious damper in my training route. If I can't go that way any more for fear of a fight, I will not be able to train from our house any longer. As a full-time engineer that ends up having to work a lot of overtime, this is a very serious bummer, but hopefully the county land will be of great assistance to me once I have the chance to explore its boundaries.

I've also been able to spend some time playing with and training puppies. There is nothing so fun as working with young siberian puppies! It's very hard to get them to sit still long enough to learn something, but that is part of the fun. Their joyful exhuberance and intelligent curiosity are amazing to watch and impossible to control for long. Above is about the level of activity I strive for before beginning a very short training session. Note the temporary pose of depleted energy while the curious mind is working a mile a minute? Yup.

Worked on the outdoor puppy kennel as well Saturday morning, and I can tell you with experience that mixing and pouring your own concrete really sux. I know I have to finish what I started, but now that I've put in 60lbs, I'm ready to call a contractor, too bad that is out of my budget planning for now... sigh. I'll probably put in another 60lbs whenever it isn't raining this week. Are we beginning to see a pattern here?

While the world turns on and news reaches us of the demise of Osama bin Laden, I have to go back and think of where I was during September 11th, 2001, and the chilling reality which pulled me from my deer stand and into a realization that nothing would ever be the same again. Rather than dwell on this event, I will simply salute those active and veteran service members who defend our freedoms. May this always remain a free country.

Our First Specialty

My pretty, pretty Princess. She, my son and I had a great time in Cleveland, met some great folks, and saw some wonderful dogs.

She did very good up until the triangle. She got a little bit confused about going on the diagonal before going once around, and stared at me quizzically wondering what I wanted. With her head pointed at me, she crab-walked toward the judge. Ah well. She's still young, 17 months, so has plenty of time to get used to the weird things we do in the show ring. She did get many compliments, though, and that made her and me feel good.

More than a couple of mushing breeders complimented her running build and beautiful face, and it will be great when I can put her in the Sled Dog class. Maybe at the end of next racing season? The only problem is the requirement is on Snow. Not too much of that around here, and expensive to hit the races up north. C'mon lottery! heh...

Our drive back was dreary rainy weather, and this proved to be our undoing. When we pulled off on our state route to our home, we ran into a section of road that was under water. No biggie, we turned around and took the ridge line road, but it too had an even deeper run off. hmm back out and around the ridge roads and we found the resevoir land that had been fenced off with county signs of no entrance. So back around to the next road, and it too ended in a vast expanse of rushing water. By then we had started to get worried that all roads to our home might be flooded. Backtracking again, we headed further south towards Georgetown.

We made it back to our highway on the far south side, so turned north and headed towards the house. We came upon a stretch that was flooded, but I could tell it was shallow enough to pass through, so slowly I crept through the water to the other side and met someone coming the other way in a much lower car than our Expedition. I warned her that the road was flooded ahead, probably too deep for her car as it had been level with the hubs on ours. She told me the way ahead was flooded towards our home, but the mountain road was passable. So, we went on another round about tour only to find the road flooded again, backtrack, and one final try, only one more road to try that could possibly get us home. Thankfully it too only had a small amount of water on it that we were able to get through. The bridge to our house was barely keeping the floods at bay, with water slapping up against the side of it when we crossed and were finally able to pull in the drive. Whew!

It was quite an adventure, and it opened up many possibilities with finding the land that had been set aside for the resevoir. This coming weekend may be time for an exploration.

Aunty Moon and Uncle Buck

Freya's mission now is to socialize the puppies with the rest of the pack to remove her mothering responsibilities. Anytime she is left in the kitchen with the puppies, she breaks them out of their confinement, and lets the chaos ensue. Of course a couple of interesting things have come to our attention as a result of this new initiative.

Moony loves the puppies! She wants to have puppies so bad she is willing to take care of Freya's as if they were her own. Even up to and including licking up messes... ew... No licki-face for you!



She sooo loves the puppies though, its neat to watch her care for them.

Freya keeps watch, ensuring that everything goes as planned.

As surprising as Moony's love for the puppies was, Bucky surprised us even more. He's an even better nanny than Moon! Both of them hover over the puppies, guarding them, gently playing, and cleaning them.

Here River gives Bucky a puppy hug.

Huskies are not for you if....

He doesn't look a bit feline, but believe me, he is one big scaredy cat!

Which brings me to my humorous view of why you shouldn't own a husky.

If you don't think 65 pounds of husky on your face at 1:30am in a thunderstorm is fun, then huskies are not for you.

If you don't think dog hair is one of the five food groups, then huskies are not for you.

If you freak out at the sight of dead animals as food offerings, then huskies are not for you.

If you hate mud on the carpet, then huskies are not for you.

If you don't own a steam vac, then huskies are not for you.

If you have to wonder where that last grocery bag of meat went to, then huskies are not for you.

If you don't like being dragged or pulled around by your dog for an hour or more a day, then huskies are not for you.

If you are in to perfectly landscaped yards, then huskies are not for you.

If dog hair is not an accessory for your wardrobe, then huskies are not for you.

If teethmarks on furniture are not considered aged artisticly, then huskies are not for you.

If living with furry Houdinis makes you pull your hair out, then huskies are not for you.

If rough dog tongue to face, lips, and sometimes in your mouth if you open it seems gross, then huskies are not for you.

If howling in the evening and morning is noise and not music, then huskies are not for you.

If you don't join in said howling once in a while, then huskies are not for you.

If hearing a dog talk to you creeps you out, then huskies are not for you.

(I'll think of more later, but this is a good start. Feel free to add your own in comments.)

TP Bandit and Hiking Season

Bandit has learned that tearing up toilet paper rolls is fun! So we have had to hide the TP in places where he can't reach. As a large agile dog, this isn't easy to keep in reach for us. I am glad to say though, he hasn't had a seizure in 3 weeks. That being said, we had him in to be neutered on Friday, and when we got him home, he whined pitifully, obviously in pain, poor boy. I comforted him as much as possible, laying down next to him on the floor, holding and petting him. The shaved area looked very raw, so I put pain relieving ointment on him, and the cone so he wouldn't lick. He seemed to feel a little better after that and finally slept. Saturday morning he was again miserable, so I salved him up again and gave him his second pain med dose. After that, he wanted to play... go figure. But we had to keep him at low activity level, so he had to settle for a slow walk down to the bridge and back. He really enjoyed the walks on the long leash and now anytime I touch the long leash he gets excited. I've been working with him a lot and will work a lot more this spring and summer on commands, which usually consists of him in harness attached to me by tug and with a 6' leash to help guide when he's confused (which is very seldom). But he has been occasionally walked on the 30' lead. This is the first time it sunk in to him that the 30' lead means playtime, time to relax and just enjoy himself. It was fun to see. Sunday, the weather cleared up, and the hike my son and I had planned for Saturday began around 9am Sunday. We drove down to the dam with our snacks, drinks and packs, strapped on the dog pack to Zena who seemed not to care at all, in fact seemed happy to be on the trail with her 'dad' James. It was a beautiful day for a husky hike, starting out at around 37 degrees and warming up to close to 50 by the time we finished. Sun was shining and there was a brisk wind blowing. The dogs loved it, and we were having fun too. Runoff from the nearby hills makes for some beautiful pics. Along the route, we passed a lot of wildflowers, two rope swings, several benches, and stopped in a glen surrounded in mossy rock faces and shaded by large elms, oaks and maples. There was a fire ring and some benches, a great little place to water the dogs, give them snacks and eat our own snacks. There were several immensely old trees, many of them sicamores with their graceful white upper branches reaching for the sun.

We crossed a small wooden bridge on the way to the glen.

Ace had a blast.

James was in great spirits too, actually enjoying time away from his computer! gasp!

We passed some old barns on the way out and I photographed them on the way back, the ones that I could get a good shot of that is.

Since Zena carried the pack out to the glen, Ace carried it back.