So the new plan was to take the dogs to some sprint races in Ontario with our 5 dogs running in the 6 dog / 6 mile class for both the Haliburton (weekend of Jan 21st/22nd) and Cannington (weekend of 28th/29th) races. The Ontario races also allowed Carolyn to spend the week in between the two races visiting with her sister. Josie forced another change to our plans when she came in season just before leaving for the races (a couple months earlier than expected). Carolyn still took Josie with her as she would be in prime season when in Ontario and we wanted to breed her to Pippin but we dropped Josie from the team and moved the dogs into the 4 dog class.

This was just the second race that Carolyn has been to with the dogs (last year she went to a fun race in NH), and the first time she has been on such a technical course with lots of hills and sharp turns with a much narrower trail then we train on. I laughed out loud when I got my first report from Carolyn after the run the first day of the race. “OMG the hills!!!” was the first words out of her mouth! Then I heard about Pippin jumping over a snow fence to try to take a short cut to where he could see other teams ahead of him. And something about a rhubarb patch and the sled over on its side for a while. But, at least she finished the first day of the race without loosing the team. That’s important!! The second day went much better. They managed to not just finish the race but also stay on the trail and not dump the sled!! I was very proud of both Carolyn and the dogs. These races were all about Carolyn and the dogs getting experience and us learning what training we still need to do with the dogs. Carolyn I think also leaned that not just the dogs needed more miles on them but that she needed to hit the gym herself!

After the Haliburton race Carolyn went back to her sister’s place to wait for the next weekend’s race in Cannington. Unfortunately, that race was cancelled due to lack of snow so instead of going to the Cannington race, Carolyn dropped Pippin off to Lyndsay Moxon to start his Ontario show career with her. Pippin will be staying with Lyndsay, going to shows in Ontario, as well as the Westminster Kennel Club show so a very exciting time for Pippin, Lyndsay and myself. This is the first time in 35 years that I’ve sent a dog to stay with someone to be shown in Ontario or to go to Westminster however, I felt, if at all possible, I wanted to give Pippin this opportunity. Pippin, in many ways, is a once in a lifetime dog for me. He is a Siberian who is appreciated by both Working and Show Siberian breeders, something that is very difficult to achieve with the growing rift between the working and show Siberian groups and something I’m very proud of. He has the structure that is an absolute must to the working people but also has enough “flash” to do well in the show ring. He finished his U.S. championship in just 8 shows with 4 majors and in Oct he was an Award of Merit winner at the U.S. National Specialty with an entry of over 400 Siberians! It is extremely difficult for me to send my dogs away and I am already greatly missing Pippin sleeping by my bed every night but the decision to do so was made SO much easier knowing that he is in the very best of hands with Lyndsay!! He will be a house dog and member of the family with Lyndsay and I can’t thank Lyndsay enough for this. I was told today that he has already picked out his night time sleeping place on the “hope chest” at the end of Lyndsay’s bed. Maybe that “hope chest” will help make some lifetime dreams come true with this very special boy.

“A wise and trusted counselor or teacher”

I’m of the firm believe that while we can mentor, we also should never stop being mentored – never stop listening and learning.

I decided to asked Karen Ramstead, NorthWapiti Siberians, if she still had a mentor. I found her answer profound and asked permission to share it with everyone on FB. Here is her answer.

“Now a days, when I want to learn, I watch those amazing athletes of mine. I firmly believe that everything I want to know about structure, type, movement, temperament, etc is there in front of me if I keep my eyes open, watch and listen to what the dogs are telling me.

This breed wasn’t developed around a table with a glass of wine in hand – it was shaped, molded and perfected on the trail. If I’m running often enough, far enough, fast enough, and in tough enough conditions all the lessons I need to know are there in front of me.”

Below is a link to some of Karen’s incredible mentors. These dogs just finished the Don Bower 200 Race (that’s 200 miles for those who do not race) in third place. Who could be a wiser or more trusted counselor than these dogs who are successfully doing exactly what they were originally bred to do!

I think all of us in the Siberian world who can not seriously run our dogs, owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Karen, and others like her, for allowing us the opportunity to be mentored by such incredible athletes. They have done the difficult work, all we need to do is to be wise enough to take advantage of the opportunity to listen and learn.

North Wapiti Blog: Don Bowers Memorial 200 Team – Bet
northwapiti.blogspot.com

I adopted Freya, Ch. NorthWapiti’s Freya, from Karen Ramstead in Nov. 2003.  I was looking to incorporate a girl from working lines into my breeding program and Karen was kind enough to let me have Freya. Freya was born, raised and lived with Karen and was primarily an outdoor sled dog for the first four and half years of her life. She participated in several races with Karen including being on her ceremonial start team of the 2003 Iditarod race. She also obtained her Canadian dog show championship while still with Karen.

The day I arrived home with Freya, I took her to a fun match where the SPCA had a booth setup for getting pictures of your dog with Santa Clause. I’ve included that picture because it obviously shows that Freya was a very healthy and very well socialized dog long before ever coming to live with me! There were numerous people and dogs at this indoor match and Freya was great with everyone including the strange looking man in the Santa suit.

Freya was a wonderful, valued member of my family who slept at the end of my bed at night and on the couch with my other dogs during the day. She passed the Canine Good Neighbour test with ease and went on to become an incredible Saint Johns Ambulance Therapy dog, bringing absolute joy to the many seniors she visited. Freya had a wonderful, sweet temperament, one that I’m thrilled she passed onto her children. She was a great mom! I have told Karen on several occasions that one of the best decisions I ever made was to bring this wonderful little sled dog into my life.

The mass killing of sled dogs in Whistler, B.C was certainly tragic and should be condemned but this was ONE person, just one bad apple, so to generalize what happened in Whistler to apply to all mushers by calling for the outlawing of tethering or sled dogs altogether is just as wrong as is Ms Taggart’s statement that “…the practice of continual tethering is the main reason it is virtually impossible to re-home sled dogs in a non-kennel environment”.

I do not agree with a dog in a pet home being tied out 24/7 with little to no exercise or companionship, any more than I agree with a dog being left outside 24/7 in a pen with similiar lack of human or dog interaction. I would never place one of my puppies in such a situation. But this is NOT the case with the many caring mushers that I have meant over the past 10 years. Their dogs are much loved members of their families. They are able to interact and play with their dog neighbours, they are extremely well exercised, well fed and their owners have a very close relationship with their dogs. These people should not be punished for the sins of one man or one situation.

The remaining dogs in Whistler are not in danger and the police and SPCA are doing their investigation. I say, let them do their job.

Brenda

Levi

Levi, my 11 1/2 year old multi talented – BIS, sledding, agility, obedience, and freestyle dancing boy has a new job. He has now been promoted to my MAIN Therapy Dog, taking over from his daughter Jive who will be busy in the show, obedience and agility ring in the new few years. About a year and a half ago I got Levi certified as a Saint John Ambulance Therapy Dog. The thought at the time was that Jive would remain my main Therapy Dog, with Levi just filling in when Jive was in season or having puppies. Well this summer Levi took over from Jive for an extended period of time while she was raising her last litter and he has made it quite clear to me that he WANTS this job full time.

This fact, once again, just amazes me about this boy because there are a lot of men in the seniors’ home and Levi, as a young dog was quite nervous of men. He has always been a ladies’ man, just loved his “girlfriends”, but he got a bad scare with a man when he was a young puppy so even at 3 to 4 years of age there were a lot of men he wouldn’t go anywhere near. Although I put him in agility and freestyle dancing to help built up his confidence, it was not until he was five years old that Levi had learned to tolerate men going over him enough that he finally entered the comformation show ring. Here I made the decision to put Levi in the trusted hands of my good friend, John Macdonald, who would become Levi’s first male “best buddy”. Levi and John hit the show ring running with Levi taking a Group 1st win the first weekend they were in the ring and then the very next show weekend they went all the way to Best In Show together.

Sadly, a neck injury that resulted in Levi having a permanent slight limp brought an early end to his show career but fortunately this injury was not serious enough to stop him from continuing to run in harness or do agility and later on Rally O obedience. But last year Levi retired from competition activities after obtaining his CKC Novice Agility and Rally Advance titles.

Since then Levi and I have continued to go for bike rides together but he has not had an outside ”job” or activity. Although I know Levi loves me, I also know he gets this BIG smile on his face when a stranger tells him what a beautiful boy he is. I thought that the Therapy Dog activity would give him this opportunity but because there are a lot of men in the seniors’ homes, I had wondered how much Levi would overall enjoy this activity. This is why I thought it would be an activity that we would just do occasionally.

However, as always, this boy just continues to amaze me. He took being in the seniors’ home with all the strange smells, objects and men much, much better then I ever imagined. Women were still preferred to men but as the weeks went by he became more and more comfortable being at the home and now I can honestly say that he would list several men among his favourite people that we visit in the home.

In recent visits, getting Levi from my van to the front door of the seniors’ home is quite the sight and brings back memories of trying to hook him up in harness. This almost 12 year old boys jumps a good 3 to 4 feet in the air in excitement while walking towards the front door of the home. But unlike hooking him up into harness, as soon as we get inside the doors of the senior home he turns back into a gentle soul ready to go to work visiting the seniors and showing off his various dance moves that everyone in the home just love to see.

So yesterday, as he was doing his dancing for everyone in the lounge area of the home I told the staff, residences and Levi that I had made an important decision. While I would still bring Jive into the home from time to time (she would kill me if I didn’t , this was now Levi’s official new full time job.

Good Job “Buddy”. Love you!

Brenda

Siri as a 7 week puppy

Then her owner Gina sent me some pictures taken at Christmas. I didn’t really think much about her colour until I was putting the pictures up on my website when I realized she looked like she had a grey outer coat with red undercoat! Was she a sable?

Siri looking like a sable instead of a red/white

I immediately emailed Gina who also thought she had some grey in her. To solve the mystery I got Gina to send me some update photos taken Jan. 31st. Turns out it was just the colouring outside and Siri is what I registered as – a red/white. It is just that her outer coat is a dark red (brown) especially when it was first coming in but is now starting to fad so you can see the red better.

Siri outside Jan. 31st, 2009

Siri inside Jan. 31st, 2009

In any case she is looking good and is certainly loved in her new home and that is what is really important.

Brenda

We took him to a fun match yesterday where he took a Group 3rd. Not bad considering he really gets no show training. It took us quite a while at the match just to get him to stand rather then to sit. We were going to put him in the HKC shows in Feb. but he started to blow coat so we are going to hold off until his coat comes back in. This is actually good because hopefully it will also give Mario and Barb some time to work on getting him to stand and having his teeth shown. I do think the boy is looking quite nice and hopefully we will have a lot of fun with him in the show ring. Mario and Barb have done a great job with him.

Storm standing outside of the match

Storm in the Group at the match, handled by my favourite junior handler, Colton

I want to be able to run my own dogs in harness but I often do not have the strength in my hands to hold back a 4 dog team anymore, let along a 6-8 dog team. Getting the big sled on and off the van is also not easy. I hate having to bother other people to help me with getting the dogs out sledding and only do so because I feel it is so important for the dogs. During the fall and spring when the snow is gone I run the dogs by myself, two at a time, on my bike using a springer. This works well for me and I really enjoy it. But the winter is a problem – until yesterday! Yesterday, I decided to buy a kick sled. A Kick sled is like a baby sled. The one I have actually has a brake and plastic runners and I was surprised at how well it handles. Best of all it fits inside my van! This means I can just leave the sled in my van like I do with the bike when the snow is gone. So, now, just like in the spring and fall, I can come home from work and just have to grab the dogs and go. Since I don’t have to stuggle with getting the sled on top of the van I also have a lot more time to run the dogs before it gets dark.

Sure this is not the same thrill of running an 8-14 dog team but the dogs will still get miles on them and that is what is important. Just because it is only a couple dogs also doesn’t mean I can’t do distances either. It just means it will not be as fast as an 8 dog team. I’ll still get together with friends to run a bigger team but if they can’t go then there is no problem. I have my independence back. If I want to take the dogs out – I can – all by myself.  I LOVE my kick sled. :)

Brenda

However, I have got out for a few nice runs with the Jive and Pippin on the bike including an 11 mile run and yesterday got the dogs out on the sled. This time Colton O’Shea, a dog show junior handler, who does a wonderful job of handling Pippin, came along to see Pippin in harness and try his hand at being a musher.

Colton in Sled basket

Also along were Becky Campbell who owns one of my “puppies”, Hobie, her daughter Sherri and Sherri’s friend Jess.

We first went out for a 2 1/2 mile run with Colton in the basket and my driving. Our team was made up of Jive and her three kids Pippin, Hobie and Arwen. It was Hobie’s first time in harness and Arwen’s 2nd. Jive already has her Working Lead Dog title and Pippin his Working Team Dog title but is training to be a lead dog.

Jive, Pippin & Colton

Hobie and Arwen

After the initial run Becky and I let the kids have some fun going back and forth with Colton driving the sled and Sherri and Jess taking turns in the basket.

Dogs taking off with Colton driving

Calm looking Colton although he did want someone in the basket so he didn't die alone. LOL

For more pictures go to my Picasa Photo site:

http://picasaweb.google.ca/Chimini12345/ColtonSFirstTimeSledding?feat=directlink

Brenda

Can’t seem to figure out how to put a link to my website on the sidebar so trying an around about way by adding the link to this post. So if you wish to visit my website at www.chimini.com click here.

Brenda