Sled dog breeding

[Americano Blue]

Well, I didn't expect to find a sled dog thread on BYC! How cool.

I have a sprint racing kennel of 17 Siberians in the midwest (though I'm moving to Colorado next year). Always happy to talk with other folks interested in the sport and answer any questions!

have you ever done a distance race?

 

[Starfire669]

Things have gotten really busy here for me. I kind of have a job, I'm working for Steve, my trainer, who is training me to be a professional dog trainer. He says I am a natural and have the right instincts to be a good trainer. Also, he isn't charging me for training all my dogs, he just charged me for 1, which is really great of him. He is also asking me questions about a new client of his, a Siberian a husky who was horribly mishandled and has bitten 3 people. Steve says that even though i habe some problems in my pack, they are actually good dogs who are well behaved, I just need help with pack dynamics, not training and socializing individual dogs. His read of my dogs is that Rascal is great, just needs a little more guidance and less self decision making. Dawn needs to learn humility, she is highly intelligent but is a bully with the other dogs in my pack. Sasha is perfect just the way she is. Phantom is a typical puppy who I need to slow down some before he hurts himself (he ran over the huge A-frame so fast last night he nearly summersaulted. It was his second time running the agility coarse off lead, guess he got too excited about that). Cheyenne needs to come out of her shell, she is still too scared of new people and dogs. But Steve did get her to come to him while she was off lead in a ring, so we are both hopeful that she can overcome the neglect she suffered at the puppymill I rescued her from. He did say she was lucky I found her, most people would have had no idea how to bring her as far as I have.

Steve is also helping me build some obstacles of my own. The idea being to use the agility training at home as exercise and obedience training. I am starting small, with jumps and will add new obstacles as we go. Though I think I will stay away from the full sized dog walk, teeter, and A-frame for a while. Don't want my kids getting over confident and injuring a dog on those big things. I will probably make minis of those for our personal use.

So I now am going to class on Thursday (with Cheyenne), Friday (with Phantom), Saturday (with Dawn, my kids take Sasha and Rascal). Soon my ring manners class will start up again on Wedsndays for Phantom to get more training in conformation. I also take Fiona, who I haven't found a good home for yet, on walks on Tuesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Fiona has put some nice muscle on her legs, she still has a lot of fat on her, but I can see a difference from the walks and the diet change, so I am very happy with how she is coming along.

I finally got Phantom's new, larger sized conformation collar. He outgrew the first one because I followed directions for sizing and the recommended 16 inch chain barely fit him. I purchased an 18 inch and 20 inch, and I also got 1 as a snake chain and 1 as a German made traditional chain with tiny links to see which I liked. Now I have to make Phantom remember his conformation training. He isn't so leg shy anymore, last night he actually let me hand stack him for the very first time. Yay! Still working on getting him to show his bite. I hope, that after a few days I can finally get that picture of him stacked! I'd like to see it now too. I need to know how much more to move his legs for proper positioning.

 

[SternRose]

If I remember right legs have to be square under him. But I'll double check.

 

[SternRose]

These are good pics of a good stack;

 

[SternRose]

Things have gotten really busy here for me. I kind of have a job, I'm working for Steve, my trainer, who is training me to be a professional dog trainer. He says I am a natural and have the right instincts to be a good trainer. Also, he isn't charging me for training all my dogs, he just charged me for 1, which is really great of him. He is also asking me questions about a new client of his, a Siberian a husky who was horribly mishandled and has bitten 3 people. Steve says that even though i habe some problems in my pack, they are actually good dogs who are well behaved, I just need help with pack dynamics, not training and socializing individual dogs. His read of my dogs is that Rascal is great, just needs a little more guidance and less self decision making. Dawn needs to learn humility, she is highly intelligent but is a bully with the other dogs in my pack. Sasha is perfect just the way she is. Phantom is a typical puppy who I need to slow down some before he hurts himself (he ran over the huge A-frame so fast last night he nearly summersaulted. It was his second time running the agility coarse off lead, guess he got too excited about that). Cheyenne needs to come out of her shell, she is still too scared of new people and dogs. But Steve did get her to come to him while she was off lead in a ring, so we are both hopeful that she can overcome the neglect she suffered at the puppymill I rescued her from. He did say she was lucky I found her, most people would have had no idea how to bring her as far as I have.

Steve is also helping me build some obstacles of my own. The idea being to use the agility training at home as exercise and obedience training. I am starting small, with jumps and will add new obstacles as we go. Though I think I will stay away from the full sized dog walk, teeter, and A-frame for a while. Don't want my kids getting over confident and injuring a dog on those big things. I will probably make minis of those for our personal use.

So I now am going to class on Thursday (with Cheyenne), Friday (with Phantom), Saturday (with Dawn, my kids take Sasha and Rascal). Soon my ring manners class will start up again on Wedsndays for Phantom to get more training in conformation. I also take Fiona, who I haven't found a good home for yet, on walks on Tuesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Fiona has put some nice muscle on her legs, she still has a lot of fat on her, but I can see a difference from the walks and the diet change, so I am very happy with how she is coming along.

I finally got Phantom's new, larger sized conformation collar. He outgrew the first one because I followed directions for sizing and the recommended 16 inch chain barely fit him. I purchased an 18 inch and 20 inch, and I also got 1 as a snake chain and 1 as a German made traditional chain with tiny links to see which I liked. Now I have to make Phantom remember his conformation training. He isn't so leg shy anymore, last night he actually let me hand stack him for the very first time. Yay! Still working on getting him to show his bite. I hope, that after a few days I can finally get that picture of him stacked! I'd like to see it now too. I need to know how much more to move his legs for proper positioning.

There is also a technic that you could use, since you don't have a grooming table, clicker rain him to free stack. You teach him one leg at a time, on lead then off, soon he'll stack willingly 24/7 on or off lead.

 

[Tabbyhusky]

have you ever done a distance race?

I did a 22 mile race back in 2012 with an 8 dog team. Wouldn't really consider that a distance race, more like what they refer to as mid-distance. But that's the longest race I've participated in yet.

I would actually love to do some more long distance racing, but it's difficult to get the training miles in here (another reason I'm moving to Colorado! more trails, more cold days!).

Things have gotten really busy here for me. I kind of have a job, I'm working for Steve, my trainer, who is training me to be a professional dog trainer. He says I am a natural and have the right instincts to be a good trainer. Also, he isn't charging me for training all my dogs, he just charged me for 1, which is really great of him. He is also asking me questions about a new client of his, a Siberian a husky who was horribly mishandled and has bitten 3 people. Steve says that even though i habe some problems in my pack, they are actually good dogs who are well behaved, I just need help with pack dynamics, not training and socializing individual dogs. His read of my dogs is that Rascal is great, just needs a little more guidance and less self decision making. Dawn needs to learn humility, she is highly intelligent but is a bully with the other dogs in my pack. Sasha is perfect just the way she is. Phantom is a typical puppy who I need to slow down some before he hurts himself (he ran over the huge A-frame so fast last night he nearly summersaulted. It was his second time running the agility coarse off lead, guess he got too excited about that). Cheyenne needs to come out of her shell, she is still too scared of new people and dogs. But Steve did get her to come to him while she was off lead in a ring, so we are both hopeful that she can overcome the neglect she suffered at the puppymill I rescued her from. He did say she was lucky I found her, most people would have had no idea how to bring her as far as I have.

Steve is also helping me build some obstacles of my own. The idea being to use the agility training at home as exercise and obedience training. I am starting small, with jumps and will add new obstacles as we go. Though I think I will stay away from the full sized dog walk, teeter, and A-frame for a while. Don't want my kids getting over confident and injuring a dog on those big things. I will probably make minis of those for our personal use.

So I now am going to class on Thursday (with Cheyenne), Friday (with Phantom), Saturday (with Dawn, my kids take Sasha and Rascal). Soon my ring manners class will start up again on Wedsndays for Phantom to get more training in conformation. I also take Fiona, who I haven't found a good home for yet, on walks on Tuesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Fiona has put some nice muscle on her legs, she still has a lot of fat on her, but I can see a difference from the walks and the diet change, so I am very happy with how she is coming along.

I finally got Phantom's new, larger sized conformation collar. He outgrew the first one because I followed directions for sizing and the recommended 16 inch chain barely fit him. I purchased an 18 inch and 20 inch, and I also got 1 as a snake chain and 1 as a German made traditional chain with tiny links to see which I liked. Now I have to make Phantom remember his conformation training. He isn't so leg shy anymore, last night he actually let me hand stack him for the very first time. Yay! Still working on getting him to show his bite. I hope, that after a few days I can finally get that picture of him stacked! I'd like to see it now too. I need to know how much more to move his legs for proper positioning.

A good trick in regards to stacking is to practice in front of a mirror. You can get those tall, narrow mirrors at the dollar store for just a few $$s. Put them up horizontal against a wall -- if you get several, you can practice gaiting in front of them too and be able to see your dog's movement. Luckily for all of us, Siberians are really good about free stacking!






His front is a little under him in this one, which makes his back look shorter. I always use this as an example to show people how much a change in feet position/camera angle can change the look of a dog.

Same dog in harness, definitely not short in the back:

 

[Americano Blue]

I did a 22 mile race back in 2012 with an 8 dog team. Wouldn't really consider that a distance race, more like what they refer to as mid-distance. But that's the longest race I've participated in yet.

I would actually love to do some more long distance racing, but it's difficult to get the training miles in here (another reason I'm moving to Colorado! more trails, more cold days!).

a short distance is about 100 miles. Jr. distance races are 100 miles as well.

the only distance race i can think of kinda of close to Colorado is http://www.rmsdc.com/ (the link has the race info.)
Race to the sky in Montana is another one a lot of people go to.

Hey SternRose, You live kinda close to Colorado, if you still want to mush when your older you could move there.

 

[SternRose]

a short distance is about 100 miles. Jr. distance races are 100 miles as well.

the only distance race i can think of kinda of close to Colorado is http://www.rmsdc.com/ (the link has the race info.)
Race to the sky in Montana is another one a lot of people go to.

Hey SternRose, You live kinda close to Colorado, if you still want to mush when your older you could move there.

I could, well see

 

[Starfire669]

So here is my youngest son working his girl Sasha on the large dog walk. Sasha has such a great temperament and my son is doing such a great job handling, that I was asked if they could join the demo team.

 

[Windrider]

Though I think I will stay away from the full sized dog walk, teeter, and A-frame for a while. Don't want my kids getting over confident and injuring a dog on those big things. I will probably make minis of those for our personal use.

So here is my youngest son working his girl Sasha on the large dog walk. Sasha has such a great temperament and my son is doing such a great job handling, that I was asked if they could join the demo team.

Geez, I shuddered when I saw that dogwalk. You are quite correct to keep your dogs off this (and the teeter or A-frame if similar) for fear of them getting injured, and not because of over-confidence. While I understand that not every training facility may have the trial regulation rubber-granule running surfaces, the running surface of the contacts need to at least be well-textured for simple safety reasons. Even my Sheltie would come flying off that dogwalk due to lack of traction at the speeds she hits the contacts, let alone a large dog like a husky.