Is this your dog?

27. October 2008 stinkypup

Found Sunday, Oct. 26, 2008 across from Two Rivers School past the transfer station.

This dog was tied up with a blue tug line. He has a purple collar with no tags. The dog probably needs medical attention– as he is limping and has a messed up hip. Please call us, 488-9821 or 474-7518, to reclaim your dog! I really don’t want to take him to the pound, but I can’t keep him.

Random Dogs | 0 Comments »

First Sled Run!

23. October 2008 stinkypup

It snowed around 5 inches today. It was snowing when we left for work, snowing when we came home, and snowing during our evening dog activities. I thought I’d give the sled a go, even though it’s a little premature because there’s no way to stop due to not enough snow to put a snow hook into the snow. Greg got my sled ready, and we saddled up nine dogs. Greg sat in the sled for the first 4 mile run. It was very bumpy. We got through the route just fine. There wasn’t any open water by Helyn’s lake and most of the trail had already been opened by 4 wheelers. After the first run, we saddled up 9 more dogs and I took these guys for a run by myself. I was a little nervous, because the dogs I took are pretty wild during hookup and if I knew that I wouldn’t be able to stop if I needed to fix a tangle. Greg put 3 40lb bags of dog food in the sled. It was a great run. No tangles, few stops. Chester. our loose dog, got run over once, but it was his fault for laying down in the field right before the team. He was fine; growled at a couple of dogs but got over it. I sure hope it keeps snowing!!

Just a note about the new dogs:

• Dutchess is super shy. I’ve never met a dog like her and am not sure what to do with her. She pulls great, especially for a 10 year old. I haven’t seen her exceptional leader skills that her previous owner told me about. She’s a fighter. Fought with Spike a couple of times. Yesterday I put her in lead with Storm and she wanted to run down the street the wrong way, and then attacked Storm. We got her so she could train our other dogs how to lead, but it seems that she may not get along with other females.
• Spike is a very skinny mini who fights with Dutchess. We can’t keep them loose in the yard together. Spike is a line chewer and can crawl out of her harness. She’s a very sweet and loving dog to humans and to her boyfriends. Greg doesn’t like her very much– because of the fighting.
• Luke is a nice guy. He likes to run and is very strong, but I’m a little concerned that he has leg or hip problems. He has a funny waddle type of run.
• Rocket is a lover of humans, but likes to pick on Chevy. He’s got a funny looking snout. He’s quite strong. He’s a line chewer.
• Ahab is the sweetest guy! He doesn’t fight. He doesn’t sleep in his box. He’s just a happy guy. I really like him a alot.
• Chevy is working out to be a good lead dog, although he doesn’t know commands. I run him up front with Decker, and for the most part they make a good team. He gets picked on a lot by other dogs (Luke & Rocket, Rattles).

Ahab, Chevy, Dutchess, Luke, Rocket, Spike | 1 Comments »

“New Dogs” health report

2. September 2008 stinkypup

We’ve been slowly integrating the new dogs with our lot.  We’ve put the new dogs in the “downtown” yard on the wheel, while our gang is in the upper “uptown” yard. During parties, when we let all of the dogs run around, we keep the “new” dogs on their chain and let the stinkypup gang mingle with them. We then corral the stinkypups to the “uptown” and “midtown” yards, while the new dogs run around by themselves in the “downtown” yard.

This method was working for a while, until Rocket’s tail was bitten (either by Chez– who likes to bite tushies, or Chevy).  I think it was Chez. I didn’t know Rocket’s tail had been bit until Heather came over and said, “Hey, that dog’s tail looks broken.” I looked at his tail and he was starting to get an infection lower down close to the tail tip– where he was bit. We cleaned it up and took him to the vet. He should be okay.

The next victim was Dutchess, who has multiple health problems. I broke up a fight between Dutchess and Spike. Dutchess ended up with many holes on her head, neck, ear, and paw. Actually, the puncture wounds aren’t really that bad. What’s bad is the breast cancer. Greg brought her to the vet today for a spay appointment. The vet just called to let me know that Dutchess has several mammary tumors. She took a chest exray and the results were inconclusive– they show two small nodules, but the vet isn’t sure if the cancer spread or if it’s scaring from something else.  She said that she wouldn’t make life/death decisions based on the exrays. So, we are going to have the cancer removed and have her spayed. Poor girl.

Chez, Dutchess, Rocket | 0 Comments »

Drastic Doggie Changes

18. August 2008 stinkypup

I finally got enought strength to move Wild from the “Pet” category to the “Not Forgotten” category. We euthanized the beautiful evil creature from hell at home on July 22, 2008. It was an extremely sad event, especially since we euthanized her brother Bosco two weeks before.

We’ve moved Sugar into the house because she got beat up by Nutok. She’s been doing pretty well, although I haven’t moved her from the blog “sled-dog” category to the “pet dog” category because I’m not sure if the move is permanent.

We’ve been bringing Frankie into the house more and more as “dog of the day.”  Frank is a really good lead dog, but he runs like a duck and just doesn’t have the build of a sled dog. He gets very cold in the winter, and my plan is for him to stay inside on cold winter nights. When we adopted him, he was an inside dog– but his owners gave him up because he was high energy and was destructive. He’s been very well behaved inside, although like Chester, we don’t leave him home alone. He’s quite comfy on the couch– but Neptune doesn’t like this since the couch really belongs to him (Nep.).

Since I’m probably going to participate in the 2009 Serum Run, I needed to get some more dogs. Of the 25 dogs that we have, only 4-7ish can run 750 miles (30-60 miles per day). These dogs are:

• Nicky (Can run in lead, but doesn’t know commands).
• Decker (A great lead dog, but doesn’t know how to poop and run so she holds it in and has bloody diarrhea at the end of the day. She’s not a good eater on the trail).
• Storm (Can run in lead, but is petrified of snow machines because she got hit by one.)
• Simba (A good team dog, but has extremely BAD feet. I need to take diligent care of his feet, otherwise they’ll crack and bleed.)
• Higgs (A possible candidate. He tends to overheat and get tired).
• Asa (Higgs’ brother– a possible candidate, but has had some wrist injuries).
• Roo (A possible candidate, but Roo tends to not eat at all on long trips. She also crabs a lot (runs to the side) in Manmat harnesses and does better in a traditional x-back. She can run in lead, but gets tired after 20 miles).

Sooo, we got some new dogs from a neighbor who was getting out of mushing. This puts us back up to 31 dogs (ack!!!) The new guys are:

• Dutchess (A 10 year old female that we’ll use for gee/haw training)
• Luke (A 3 year old male)
• Spike (A 3 year old spayed female)
• Rocket (A 5 year old male)
• Ahab (A 5 year old male)
• Chevy (A 4 year old male)

I’ll post pics and bios soon.

Ahab, Asa, Bosco, Chester, Chevy, Decker, Dutchess, Frankie, Higgs, King Neptune, Luke, Nicky, Pet Dogs, Rocket, Roo, Simba, Sled Dogs, Spike, Storm, Sugar, Wild | 0 Comments »