Meet Banjo!
Last week we picked up our first puppy. He was born at the end of April, at our old kennel. We’ve been excited about it for months, bombarding all of our relatives with the pictures that we received from our friends in Särkimukka. The day finally arrived when we could pick up the little man, and take him home with us.
Puppy ears are a funny thing. As the cartilage develops you can end up with mismatching ears. Sometimes they stay this way, but Banjo now has two pointy ears.
It was wonderful to see all the dogs that we had spent two years working with. Johan and Sara, the owners of Explore the North, have been amazing mentors for us. Before I worked for them I didn’t think I would ever be able to own my own sled dogs, but now I feel prepared (well at least more prepared). So let’s talk about sled dogs!!!
It feels like forever, but it was just over four years ago that I was living a typical city lifestyle, when I had the urge to get up and get out! It was then that I moved to Alaska and started working with sled dogs. So, here I am, living in Northern Sweden with Jeremias, who is equally as interested in dog mushing. This is an extremely important quality in a partner. Dog mushing consumes your life, in a good way if you love it, but it takes a lot of time and energy. Having a partner who is equally enthusiastic is CRITICAL!
Building a strong bond between you and the puppy is essential.
Dog mushing is an amazing and rewarding sport. I always say dog mushing is only 10% standing on the back of the sled and 90% everything else. Between feeding, cleaning, health care, and just playing around, there’s a lot of work to be done. We have only two dogs now, but before we know it our kennel will grow. We want to have about 20 dogs in the future, and build that number slowly over the next few years. This will give us the time to learn as we go without feeling too overwhelmed (that’s the plan at least.)
Running dogs means different things to different people. From the extremely competitive dog mushers to the recreational tootlers, everyone has their own goals and expectations. For us it is recreational. We want to have the dogs to spend time with them on the trail, making trips with them here in Råne River Valley, and taking them into the mountains for those amazing spring time drives. We have an amazing opportunity to run some tours here in the future, which will be a great way to subsidize the cost of the dogs as well.
All the hard work is worth it for moments like this.
If there is one thing that every single dog musher has in common, is that they absolutely love their dogs! If you don’t love your dogs, you can’t be a dog musher. I can distinctly remember the moment when I went from just working with sled dogs to realizing that I wanted to be a dog musher. It was picking up dog poop. I started to genuinely enjoy that time. The time spent with the dogs, making their living space clean and cozy. The seemly mundane task became an enjoyable part of my day. It was then I realized that I had been bitten by the bug, as they say.
It is important to let the dogs know that they're doing a great job!
So you can expect more articles about dogs in the future. We won’t write exclusively about them, but they will definitely be a recurring theme….so get excited!
