With Quest going blind and Skor turning 9 next year this is the year we are training lots of leaders and trying everyone up front to see who we want to work with. Last year Flutie lead in two races and did well. He is having a fantastic season and will be an A team dog for sure, but we don't think he will ever make main leader status due to him wanting to visit people walking dogs etc on the trail. He never bothers other dog teams, he's just too nosey and distractable around people walking dogs. The rest of the team seems to be much better around lose dogs so we will be training other dogs as main leaders. Paxson is a good 'sled' leader, but is more distractable in lead on the ATV. We will try him up there a few more times though. If he ends up being a good 'sled' leader instead of fall leader that's perfectly fine. Gator has been up front twice and shows some good potential, she is for sure a leader in training. Swift has made it known since she was 10 months old that she was going to be a special leader. She has always had amazing drive up there and has trail tunnel vision but of course she needs to learn other things like gee over, commands etc. This year that is happening quickly. She's much better at gee over and is starting to take command, even pushing around her co-leader (which is a sign of a confident leader). She's really a neat dog.
Dodge leads during the fall, but is too slow once we get on sleds to lead most of the time. Same with Rainy & Molly. Molly is faster than Dodge & Rainy but she still does not 'get' commands and lots of time is battling sore wrists so we decided not to further her leader training. She's a solid dog up front and a dependable 'trail' leader and we know we can turn to her, Rainy or Dodge if needed. We tried Wired up front and while I think she will be a leader someday, she's too immature in the head to lead this season (which we don't expect much leading from our yearlings anyway, if they do it's just a bonus!).
Sirius & Snitch are both powerhouse leaders who work very hard and push for speed. Watch for both to lead race teams this season. Those boys ROCK!!!
The Jedi brothers Obi & Qui-Gon also had their chance up front. They are AMAZING, never have we had 2 yearlings lead like them. They are exactly what we wanted when we bred Linc to Swift, they have Linc's head in harness as far as wanting speed and loving to lope whenever possible and Swift's trail tunnel vision, they just want to go and ignore everything else around them. They are truley amazing, we are so blown away by them. They remind us so much of their grandfather Skor in lead... and they are only 1! We could go on and on about how impressed we are by them. :)
Skor, well we can never say enough great things about that boy. He's amazing, a once in a lifetime dog... end of story. We don't think we have ever trusted a dog as much as him to get us through anything and everything. Anyone who knows how special Grover was to Karen knows how important he is to us when we say - he IS our Grover.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Monday, September 14, 2009
September News
Can't believe it's been July since I last posted a blog entry! We just finished up our second round of obedience classes. This summer we worked with 6 new 'beginner' dogs and also did a round of advanced class. Of the 6 beginner dogs 5 passed their CGC tests (Obi, Qui-Gon, Paxson, Swift & Molly). Wired is just not quite ready as she's still a little nervous but she has come a long way. Maybe next year we will try her again.
Training season is here, yay! The dog truck isn't quite road ready yet, but should be by Fri. We have been busy sanding the boxes getting them ready for a new paint job. While on the roof taking off the sled boards we noticed the front of the roof was quite rotted so tore off the roof and put a new one on. Ordered stainless steel hardware as I am sick of rusty hardware. Don't dog trucks always need work?? :)
What do desperate mushers do without a truck after a few cold 'could be training' mornings?? Well they over load the mini van with 14 dogs stuffed 2-3 per crates of all sizes and head off for a run. Ran 14 dogs including Odie. Now mind you Odie is a 10 yr old dog who acts like a yearling. At hook up he was screaming (louder than the young dogs), slamming in harness and biting at us (nicely) as we hooked dogs in front of him. You would never know by watching that team that he was the oldest on it. He certainly doesn't seem to want to retire! While the van works it's really a pain in the butt to load 14 dogs by hand and get them in and out of crates, so we have been running small 6 dog teams 1/2 mile from the yard. Not enough to count for much but enough to make us and the dogs feel like we are moving.
Puppy News: Rainy is quite large and due in a week. Our guess is 5-7 in there. Gator's litter sired by Skor is our favorite Skor sired litter to date. The structure on these pups is excellent - love the croups, toplines, angles and balance on these pups. So exciting! We like them so much we really cannot decide who to part with. We can't keep 5 though, so let Caramello go this past weekend. Our reasoning with her was that her tail was a tad tighter as a pup, but now it's fine. Figures... but someone had to go. We have also decided to let Aero go. As far as the other 3, don't ask me how we will get it down to 2, LOL!
All for now!
Kim
Training season is here, yay! The dog truck isn't quite road ready yet, but should be by Fri. We have been busy sanding the boxes getting them ready for a new paint job. While on the roof taking off the sled boards we noticed the front of the roof was quite rotted so tore off the roof and put a new one on. Ordered stainless steel hardware as I am sick of rusty hardware. Don't dog trucks always need work?? :)
What do desperate mushers do without a truck after a few cold 'could be training' mornings?? Well they over load the mini van with 14 dogs stuffed 2-3 per crates of all sizes and head off for a run. Ran 14 dogs including Odie. Now mind you Odie is a 10 yr old dog who acts like a yearling. At hook up he was screaming (louder than the young dogs), slamming in harness and biting at us (nicely) as we hooked dogs in front of him. You would never know by watching that team that he was the oldest on it. He certainly doesn't seem to want to retire! While the van works it's really a pain in the butt to load 14 dogs by hand and get them in and out of crates, so we have been running small 6 dog teams 1/2 mile from the yard. Not enough to count for much but enough to make us and the dogs feel like we are moving.
Puppy News: Rainy is quite large and due in a week. Our guess is 5-7 in there. Gator's litter sired by Skor is our favorite Skor sired litter to date. The structure on these pups is excellent - love the croups, toplines, angles and balance on these pups. So exciting! We like them so much we really cannot decide who to part with. We can't keep 5 though, so let Caramello go this past weekend. Our reasoning with her was that her tail was a tad tighter as a pup, but now it's fine. Figures... but someone had to go. We have also decided to let Aero go. As far as the other 3, don't ask me how we will get it down to 2, LOL!
All for now!
Kim
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Introducing Skor x Gator's 'Candy' Litter at 10 days old
Kelim's Reeses Fast Break - "Breaker", Black & White Male
Kelim's Caramello - "Caramello", Black & White Female
Kelim's Twix - "Twix", Black & White Female
Kelim's Aero Bar - "Aero", Black & White Male
Kelim's Spree - "Spree", Gray & White Piebald Female
The two girls, Twix & Caramello.
Spree in between her two brothers Aero & Breaker.
Gator curled around her kids, upset we moved them from the pool. She is always a happy, goofy dog and always has a 'squish' ears down, smiley face!!
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
New Rally Advanced Title Holder
Introducing Kelim's Laika of Chetere Laiki, CGC, SD, RA. Laika is owned and loved by Sue & Robert Bain of Chetere Laiki kennels in MA. We are so proud of them and what they have accomplished with Laika. She is the first 'Kelim' bred dog to obtain her RA title! Way to go Laika & Sue! Laika is from our Lincoln/Diamond litter. Now we really need to get working with our dogs and get them in the Rally ring! :)
Monday, May 11, 2009
April Showers Brings May Flowers? And...
After seeing lots of Blogs out there we figured we would get with the times and create our own. We are sure everyone has heard the phrase - April Showers Brings May Flowers - So what does spring bring around here besides black flies, ticks, shedding dogs and mushing withdrawal? Lots of cleaning!!
One big chore every spring is cleaning all the old hay out from the dog boxes and crates where our dogs sleep at night so they don't wake up the neighbors with a group howl at 4 AM. The dogs love their crates and all race up the hill from the tie outs to the large green tarped dome 'garage' that they sleep in and where much of our kennel 'stuff' is stored including sleds. It's funny to see which dogs prefer which spot, some like the crates and some like our old dog boxes. This past week we cleaned out all the hay from the boxes and washed the crates down. We also raked the dog yard to remove leaves, sticks any dog hair etc so it looks neat, dumped sand from the dog houses, repaired any houses that need it and are always raking in holes the dogs dig. It's been 3 years since we brought new sand into the dog yard, so that is the big project this spring/summer, along with making about 8 new dog houses and building a new large kennel for Quest & Holly. We figure along with a large puppy kennel it would be nice for Quest (since he's blind) to have his own space. All older dogs retired from running will move there as well once they need to. Every 2 years we also replace the chain on each tie out since we use the light chain and we don't want the dogs to get the chance to wear through it plus it gets rusty and it looks ugly. The swivels and s-hooks are also a few years old so they will get replaced as well. They still work fine but we like the look of new hardware. The posts the dogs are on will also get painted black.
Spring baths have started (not that our dogs don't get bathed often anyway!). One thing I do miss about the winter is the snow as it just keeps the dogs so clean! Obedience classes start soon. Sirius & Snitch will be in advanced class and the two 'Jedi boys' Obi & Qui-Gon will start beginner class. We will probably do a second round with Wired & Quest in beginner. Quest has been through class before but we want to keep his mind active since he lost his vision. I may drag Linc through an advanced class as well. The dogs all love obedience class and get very jealous when they don't get to go.
All for now!
One big chore every spring is cleaning all the old hay out from the dog boxes and crates where our dogs sleep at night so they don't wake up the neighbors with a group howl at 4 AM. The dogs love their crates and all race up the hill from the tie outs to the large green tarped dome 'garage' that they sleep in and where much of our kennel 'stuff' is stored including sleds. It's funny to see which dogs prefer which spot, some like the crates and some like our old dog boxes. This past week we cleaned out all the hay from the boxes and washed the crates down. We also raked the dog yard to remove leaves, sticks any dog hair etc so it looks neat, dumped sand from the dog houses, repaired any houses that need it and are always raking in holes the dogs dig. It's been 3 years since we brought new sand into the dog yard, so that is the big project this spring/summer, along with making about 8 new dog houses and building a new large kennel for Quest & Holly. We figure along with a large puppy kennel it would be nice for Quest (since he's blind) to have his own space. All older dogs retired from running will move there as well once they need to. Every 2 years we also replace the chain on each tie out since we use the light chain and we don't want the dogs to get the chance to wear through it plus it gets rusty and it looks ugly. The swivels and s-hooks are also a few years old so they will get replaced as well. They still work fine but we like the look of new hardware. The posts the dogs are on will also get painted black.
Spring baths have started (not that our dogs don't get bathed often anyway!). One thing I do miss about the winter is the snow as it just keeps the dogs so clean! Obedience classes start soon. Sirius & Snitch will be in advanced class and the two 'Jedi boys' Obi & Qui-Gon will start beginner class. We will probably do a second round with Wired & Quest in beginner. Quest has been through class before but we want to keep his mind active since he lost his vision. I may drag Linc through an advanced class as well. The dogs all love obedience class and get very jealous when they don't get to go.
All for now!
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