Some Sled Dogs

Here are a few of the 60+ dogs here at the racing kennel. To start, puppies!

The Hellions. From left to right: Aleta (Mama dog), Puddle, Drought (only boy), Splash (top), Rain (bottom), Levy, and Drizzle. These are the "weather" puppies, the names based around rainy weather since this summer when they were born it rained almost non-stop.

Kubota. This guy is quiet and very polite. Doesn't exactly come when called, but he is an amazing sled dog. During a race sometime ago, his balls fell out of the ball bag thing that the males wear on really cold races and nobody  noticed until it was over, so his balls froze. An attempt was made to save them, but it was too late, so he was altered. He is not of breeding quality anyways but that really sucks for him.

 

Lark. Also quiet, kinda a one-man type dog but very sweet. A bit funny looking since her chest is very large and her legs long, but her head is pretty small. She's got real sensitive feet so care has to be taken when running her.

Makita (left) and Ryobi (right) share a house. They have two, but they think this is warmer.
Makita is quite sensitive and will flop over on her back if you show even the slightest bit of anger. She does not like the ATV (which we are using for training right now) so when she runs we strap a kennel on the back of the lead ATV just in case she won't run and has to be dropped.
Ryobi is a pretty cool dog and almost always comes out of her house to say hello to me unless it's really cold out.

Throttle. This guy just loves to eat his poop, and for a while that caused him to constantly have diarrhea and he was losing quite a bit of weight. He still eats poop, but he's doing better now and has gained a lot of weight back. Throttle is a total goofball and very wiggly.

A lot of the dogs look like Throttle, houndy in appearance with short coats. There are some husky-types but they are not the "norm" at this kennel. Most are a mixture of the two with quite a bit of variance in type.

Notes from a Sled Dog Handler

I have a new blog! It's going to be where the majority of the sled dog stuff is posted, but a lot of it will still be posted here on The Adventures of Conker. I have decided to make a new blog for the sled dog stuff since it really does not have anything to do with Conker, and I'd prefer not to have to sort through things too much in order to look back for a note on something.

Anyways, here it is!  (Needs a bit of work, but it's good for now.)
Notes from a Sled Dog Handler

Money spent in October/November

I didn't buy hardly anything this month(s) due to me suddenly out of the blue moving to Alaska, since I haven't had the chance to shop for any pet stuff (I've been to two local feedstores like, three times total), nor do I have the time, and I just haven't needed anything really.

So, here's the total for October and November combined into one post.


October 2012

• Food:  $40
• Supplements: $26
• Travel: $100
• Vet/Medical: $60

Total: $226

I originally was not going to include the travel/vet expenses, but since I didn't actually spend any money in November, I included it for the heck of it.

Food.
I bought another 13 pound bag of EVO Red Meat (review coming soon!) since I am quite pleased with the food, and because Conker was transistioned to it and it is available locally so I did not have to switch him to something else. Because we all know how fun that can possibly be with him.

Supplements.
I bought another bottle of K9 Glucosamine shortly before I knew about the Alaska gig.

Travel.
It cost me $100 to fly Conker in the cargo hold.

Vet/Medical.
In order for Conker to fly, I heeded a health certificate. I had to get a regular exam in order to get the certificate, both of which cost money, and since Jennifer was concerned about Conker possibly bringing up fleas, I also got him some Frontline while i was there.



November 2012

Total: $0

A new record low!

Well hello there! It's been a while. I have finally returned to the depths of the internet. A more detailed update will be posted later when I've caught up on some things and have some free time to write about what I've been up to in Alaska for the past 40+ some odd days.

Currently it's about -15 degrees outside, just thought I'd let you know.

Last hike at Cathedral Hills

Today Conker and I went on our last hike at Cathedral Hills. We took along my two youngest siblings.

 Conker and my youngest brother rode in the back, and made dumb boy faces.

 My siblings and Conker explored a lot of old logs and trees.

My sister kept climbing into trees and I took pictures of her (attempting to get a good one for her Senior picture) so Conker did his own thing most of the time.

Occasionally he'd come visit us when we made enough noise.

The hike was a lot of fun. My sister wants to start hiking regularly now, and since I allowed him to climb the trees my brother had more fun than he thought he would.

Next update will be from Alaska!

Travel day looms near

I gave almost all of my meat away today. It's kinda sad, I have no more meat for my dogs (sparing some treats I'd made and a couple meals for the Girls) and thus feeding the dogs has suddenly become really boring. But those people I gave the meat to looked like they really could have used some free meat, so it's all good. (Everything they got was human-grade stuff.)

Conker still hates the crate, I don't think he'll ever actually like it.

I am just about packed for Alaska and only have a few things left to do. The freezer is defrosting, the trailer is almost cleaned out (needs a good vacuuming), I cleaned my stuff out of Leo (my Jeep), and I am just about packed. Only a few odd things left to do here and there.

Oh, I found something out recently.
If you are a regular reader of this blog, you might know about something Conker creates I call Deathfarts. Well, I have found a culprit! Raw lamb. I have been adding lamb to his food for the past few days and the Deathfarts have been about overwhelming. When I remove the lamb, the Deathfarts go away. So, no more raw lamb for Conker.

Anyways, I am excited to go to Alaska, but not looking forwards to traveling. I really hate airports, they ruin the fun of flying (if there aren't a million people in the plane) and stress the crap out of me. The fact that I'm going to have a dog, my dog, with me on this trip is even worse. I already stress enough about him, so this should be oh so interesting.


I'm probably not going to have internet access (actually I will, but I most likely won't be blogging) for a short while after I get to Alaska, so the blog won't update for a little bit after Thursday.

It's Monday!

Nothing special really.

Today I gave the Girls some raw turkey yumms, since I am attempting to clear out my freezer before I leave.

Necks, gizzards, hearts, livers, and some pork meat. I took this hasty picture then promptly smashed the everloving shit out of those necks.

Then I took Conker to the vet to get a health certificate so he can fly.

He was NOT happy to be there. He was weighed (25.3 pounds! The heaviest he's ever been.) and examined. I also picked up some Frontline since the racing kennel is concerned about me bringing fleas up on Conker, so I got the preventive just to be sure. The vet also advised me to give him a really good and soapy bath before I put on the Frontline. But I really doubt there are any fleas, I've been flea-combing him every day since I landed this gig and haven't found any yet.
He's already been wormed with Panacur and got a heartworm pill today so he's good on those too.

Then, we walked home (since we walked there) and I fed Conker some Honest Kitchen (not sure what it was, I think Keen and Verve) with some random assortment of ground meats, which he loved.

I've been feeding him in this plastic kennel so he'll get used to being in one, but of course he hates it and if I close the door he starts to bitch about it. And instead of standing normally like any other dog, he curls himself up in the doorway so he's in the least amount of the kennel as possible.
He's such a dork.

Chicken, it's eeevil

Conker has decided that most chicken is EVIL. I don't know why, but for many months now he just will not eat bone-in chicken happily, or at all in most cases. So I have decided to only feed him chicken that is both bone-free and skin-free, since chicken skin is eeevil too. Flat yellow things are eeevil as well. Strange dog.
Oh, he also isn't very fond of the crate. Which he needs to get used to, because the both of us are going to Alaska.

Yep, Conker and I are going to Alaska. Soon. On Thursday.

WHY, you might be wondering, are Conker and I going to Alaska, of all places, right before winter? Well, I got a job as a dog handler for a sprint racing kennel. That's right! A sprint racing kennel! How random is that?

Best search term so far

So what IS Losech? I'll leave that up to you to decide.

Broth puck treats

I made some strange treats for the dogs the other week. I made some beef bone broth with a couple ribs in the slow cooker (overnight), then added a bit of ground beef to the rib meat and pulverized it all in the cuisinart. I poured the meaty broth mixture into cupcake pans then stuck them into the freezer. I made enough for two dozen 1 inch thick pucks. The dogs think they are great!

Look at how leggy my Shiba is.

Conker, like usual, takes the longest, and Sasha the shortest, to eat their pucks. The pucks are good since they offer some resistance so they do aid in cleaning the teeth, but they are soft enough that the dogs can easily break them up. (No broken teeth!) They don't have a ton of calories either so I can feed them often without the dogs getting fat.


In other news...

I am taking care of the neighbor's dogs again. Indie is still as handsome as ever.