Pumpkin the musher

Poor Indy, give him a pat from me and a lick from all the sled pups. Some of my older guys are 1/4 Mal, and have thick coats, but I've never had problems with hot spots- I supplement w/ zinc and the proper balance of Omega fatty acids- Check on a couple of veterinary web sites, I can't recall the exact ratios, but I know that diet plays an important role in preventing hot spots in susceptable breeds. Good luck

Does any one know of a Pom specific forum out there? I've seen a few, but no-one seems to be home...

My husband calls Cricket the "velcro dog" - she even has a nest spot in the bookcase headboard of our bed so she can sleep right next to my head. The huskies are a different story however. because there are more of them than us, they have a more complex social structure and don't necessarily need us to interact- they have games that they have invented such as "pass the dish", where all the food dishes get moved around in the dog yard, with one or two dogs ending up with all the dishes. My lead dog Bug invented a game called "I think I see something". It goes like this: Everybody is snoozing and she will suddenly jump up on her house and pretend to see something reeealy interesting off in the distance, get all excited, whimper, cry and carry on till all the dogs are worked up, then jump down and pretend nothing happened, while the dimmer bulbs continue to act stupid. I swear she is really amused by this, cause I've watched her do it countless times, and have never seen anything that she thinks she sees. Weird. :niewiem:

Allot of people have asked me what my sled dogs do in the summer, so here is what happens at Snowfoot Kennel: As soon as the snow melts and it dries up a bit, everybody is let loose in the dog yard(about a half acre fenced) and all the houses are cleaned out, washed and allowed to dry. All the dogs who are shedding get a good combing out (the local birds love this- every nest in the area is lined with soft husky undercoat :D ) Toenails are clipped, pad fur clipped and ears washed . We usually re-arrange the houses so just about everybody gets a new neighbour. The houses get cedar chip bedding, and any repairs that are needed. Some like the way their houses taste... :o During the summer, they all get loose at least 3-4 times a week and have a kiddie pool to swim in and footballs to chase. A couple times everybody gets loaded in the truck and we take a trip to the lake for a swim. Otherwise there is allot of napping, hole digging(A husky specialty :cool2: and games of "collect the dishes". What this involves is that food dishes are passed around as play things, and there is always one or two dogs who, once they get a dish, won't pass it on and end up with nearly all of them. :wink: Along about September when the weather gets cool, we start training again - this year we are hoping to compete in the Beargrease 150 in N. Minnesota. Hope everybody (at least in the N. Hemisphere, has a great summer!)

This is a neat idea! Bug- The captain of the first manned mission to Mars Merlin- Stand up comedian Happy- Tortured Poet- ala Sylvia Plath Aesa- 16 yr old girl going on her first date Zeus- Commando- with James Earl Jones' voice Bernie- 16 yr old [u]boy[/u] going on his second date... 8) Tynan- 2nd in command on the mission to Mars Woofy- 3 yr old raised by monkeys :roll: Gemma- Olympic athlete George- Male Gigolo (sp?) and Cricket the Pom would be an all powereful Goddess- she who must be served, queen of everything.

If you check out the topic list on Sled Dog Central, there is a list of race results and races planned for the future in Australia. Maybe that would be a place to start looking for contacts- I've met a few people from Australia this last winter who were here for our N. Hemisphere race circuit.

Go to sled dog central .com- There is a list of resources as well as a mentor program. chances are you can find someone in your area willing to help you get started. Good luck!!

Just another of the 1 million and one reasons I have dogs and not kids. :evilbat:

I've had some dogs that have afraid of things in a funny/crazy way, and some that have been afraid in a sad way. I had a dog named Wallace who ran as a team dog on one of my training teams(team dogs are in the middle between the leaders and the dogs nearest the sled). We were going down a trail one morning and someone had thrown a bag of leaves in the ditch beside it- you know the kind that you get for halloween with the big googly eyes? Well old Wallace sees this and literally faints- stops running, stops pulling- out. I wasn't going too fast, so I stopped and went up there and by this time he had gotten back on his feet and was looking a bit sheepish- tail going, the whole works. One of the strangest things I'de ever seen a sled dog do. On the other extreme I had a Malamute/Alaskan cross that was a neighborhood rescue- the guy that had had her wouldn't tie or kennel her so she went around the neighborhood killing chickens, chasing cows and generally being a nuisance. One farmer next door called me up cause he knew I had sled dogs and asked if I wanted her because she was harrassing his cows(A [b]big[/b] no-no in Wisconsin) I took her, and she turned out to be the sweetest dog in the world(except for the livestock thing :roll: ) Well, the first time we mowed the lawn, we realized that not only had the guy that had her neglected her, he had abused her as well by chasing her with the lawn mower while she was tied up :( ! She would literally go into shock when we got the mower out, so after that I would put her in my dog truck travel trailer so she couldn't see the mower. Poor old dog. I have since placed her in a pet home and she is a very happy dog! :D

Most of my guys have nick-names, sometimes more than one, probably similar to middle names. Here goes: [u]Cricket[/u] the Pom is Crickey-poo, Crick, Poofy-butt, or shnoozle. Out in the big dog yard is [u]Bug[/u], who also goes by Bugaloo, Loo, or Brown; [u]Merlin, [/u]who is also Squirrel or White; [u]Happy[/u] who is also Happy Malamute, or knee-biter (note: she is a nervous dog and her particular habit is nibbling the hair on her knee. Strange but true... :roll: ) [u]Aesa[/u] goes by Aesa, Aesa funny face or sausage, [u]Gemma[/u] is also Gemma the coyote cause she looks like one, [u]Tynan [/u]is Tynan the Wolf for the same reason, [u]Woofy [/u]also goes by Goofy for reasons that become obvious after you spend some time with her, [u]George[/u] is also Red or Collie dog,, [u]Zeus [/u]also goes by Zooo, old man, or Mr. Zeus, and his son [u]Washburn [/u]also goes by Bernie, idiot, Bernie-butt, ya big cow, or toad. Jeez, after I read this I sound like a total loon.... :D

That is how my first Pomeranian, Pumpkin, learned how to ring the bell- It was there for no other reason than it seemed to be a good place to put it, and one day she just walked up and rang it. The rest is history. The training was a bit harder with my new Pom, Cricket. She seemed to be scared of the door at first and did'nt want to go near the bell, so I put it to the side of the door. I got her to sniff the bell , and if she got even the tiniest of rings, i would immediately put her out side, then give her a treat when she came in. It took about 2 weeks, and now she is very good about ringing the bell to go out. Of course she also rings the bell to be fed, get a cookiee, play, so it can turn into kind of a guessing game :roll:

. I don't know if I want Undertaker Kennel blood anywhere else[quote] Although mushing is not the same sport as weight pull, I encountered a similar attitude from a musher that I had contacted about finding a male Alaskan for stud. His opinion was that his bloodlines were so good that if he began breeding his lines out, all the mushers that had his bloodlines would be beating him at the races. :roll: What that said to me was that he had no confidence in either his training or feeding/nutrition programs and was relying solely on bloodlines. While good bloodlines raise the chances of producing a truley great dog, they are not the only thing. Feed 'em good, train 'em good, treat 'em good. That's the best formula to apply. By the way- the aforementioned musher is now out of the business- the bloodlines that he refused to improve began to get less and less competative. Just my 2 cents.

I hear ya... I know a musher who said that dogs have never stopped howling since the beginning of canine history- That first dog howled, then the next dog howled , and the same howl has been circling the earth ever since...

My alaskans howl at sirens, coyotes, wolves, and the sound of my husbands' motorcycle. They can hear it when he is over 3 miles away- and it's not a loud bike. They also howl at each other or for each other- not alot, and the howl jam only lasts about 30 seconds to a minute. I kind of like it.

As the proud parent of 11 dogs, and an equally proud child-free person, it seems to me that Kity luvas definition of dogs applies more to the majority of children I've seen or been subjected to... :baddevil: Pumpkin is a bit testy today........ 8)

Hey Jackie- I'm right across the river in Wisconsin- If you want more info on Ski-jouring check out a site called "Sled Dog Central"- it's run by some folks in St. Croix Falls, and it's got a ton of info. Enjoy!

My number two lead dog,George, has Border Collie in his backround- although officially he would be considered an Alaskan Huskie. He definitely inherited the beautiful red and white coat, and has one amber eye and one blue. Good lead dog, but sort of goofy (in a good way!) He has one of the sweetest personality of any sled dog I've ever owned.

Most Alaskans are born without rear dews, and I have the fronts removed because they can become torn or broken when the dog pulls through deep or crusty snow. It also helps to get booties on them, although trying to bootie my 8 dog training team can become quite a circus... :multi:

That was the entire team that I ran that day. It was a one day race for 6 dogs/ 30 miles- we completed the course in 2 hrs 16 mi. for a respectable 4th place finish out of 22 teams. I say respectable because my Alaskans have some Malamute in them which makes then a bit big. They average about 55 lbs, where short mid distance dogs are about 45 to 50 lbs. I make up the difference by having a small kennel, only 12 dogs total, and can spend lots of time with each individual dog. I also "cook" for my dogs, especially in late fall and during racing months-brown rice, eggs, pasta and beef fat mixed with their meat and kibble. During race weeks they eat about 8000 calories a day. I've seen lots of different dogs used for racing- Standard Poodles, Irish Setters, Border Collies, GSD's . These are usually in smaller local races though- longer races have a rule that states "only dogs of northern heritage are allowed to complete at descretion of race judge" . Of course that description covers a huge range of dogs!

Thank you soooo much mouse! Someday I'll get a computer. Promise. :D

tweeeet. Time out! I'm not a 100% gung ho supporter of the Iditarod- I agree with 6jd that it is more about money and hype than racing- allot of the mushers entered do not even own or train the dogs they are racing and have no winter survival skill to speak of. This, I beleive puts more dogs/ mushers at risk than any other factor. Also the monetary expeditures required to run the race are prohibitive to allot of native mushers who probably represent the true history and meaning of mushing more most. Yes, dogs die in the Iditarod, but it is not because of neglect or abuse- any time you bring together that many dogs there are bound to be losses because of physical problems that cannot be forseen. As I said before regarding the myopathy- dogs also die of this defect as SAR dogs, herding, agility and even in active pets. I have been mushing for over 23 years now and have never killed a dog I did'nt want, or lost a dog because of overwork- the same is true for all the people I've become aquianted with over these years, including the musher in the infamous dragging dog photo. I've also met a few mushers whose methods I disagree with- but they quickly become disillusioned because you can't win races with dogs who are not properly cared for, both physically and emotionally. that is all.

As I have said before- I personally know the musher in the picture, and the object reportedly a dog being dragged is in fact a piece of black plastic that was blowing across the ice. The dog next to the "dragged dog "would also show obvious signs of distress as it would being pulling the "dragged dog" with it's neck line. Most of the writers listed :Orlando? Miami? Yeah. Real hotbeds of mushing. As far as what they do in Florida, I'm against the fact that everytime a poor helpless 10 foot alligator rips the arm off someone or eats some toddler off of a playgraound they immediately kill it. The sports writers in Florida should sweep their own doorsteps before they start writing about something they know nothing about. As for my opinion of PETA? You don't want to know. p.s There are no anti-inflammatories allowed, in any dog race that I'm familiar with. There is a very simple blood test that is performed on each dog in the Iditarod. Not bias. Fact.

I realize that the comments are not directed at me- I agree that not everyone who is a musher takes good care of their dogs- but there is not a [u]single[/u] musher entered into the Iditarod who does not take impeccable care of their dogs. How do I know this? Because I've gone through vet checks at races in the lower 48 from vets who also work the Iditarod; and they are tough. Really tough. Secondly, you can't just go sign up for the Iditarod- you have to run at least three qualifying races to prove that your dogs are capable of doing that kind of mileage. These dogs are born to do this- and of course not every genetic or underlying problem can be seen- especially heart defects that may become lethal under stress or a disorder called sled dog myopothy which is probably the reason most dogs die under stress. BTW, this also happens to sheep trial dogs, hunting trial dogs and SAR dogs. The comment from Newbie that mushers simply shoot unwanted dogs is pure hogwash- any Iditarod musher can sell all the puppies they produce to mushers both competitive or not. My final point is this- if I chose to neglect, underfeed, or socially repress my sled dogs, or any mushers' sled dogs they [i]would not pull[/i]. It's that simple. You cannot make a dog pull- either the whole team pulls, or they don't. People don't finish the qualifiers with neglected or abused dogs. The simple fact that the sled dog action coallition resorted to using a doctored photo to prove it's "point" is evidence for me that they are completely mis-informed.

Having read all the posts from "Newbie" it is readily apparent that they have never seen a dog sled race, a mushers home/dog yard and are getting their information from the media, which is as we all know, completely unbiased and truthful.... :roll: I don't intend to waste a single brain cell on that one.

Go to Sled dog Central.com and the picture on the home page of Snowfoot Alaskans is us!!! From left, they are Merlin,Bug,Happy,Aesa,Zeus and Thea. That Picture was from 2 years ago at a race in Aitkin MN. There was snow then... :D