Kelim Siberians

It's December already?

2011-12-06T18:17:00.001-05:00

We started training in October this year, it's been warm and rainy even though we had two good Holiday snow storms. We hope we get another storm soon as we are ready to be on sleds! This year we have 17 dogs in the training pool although Dodge will be retired from racing. We have 4 yearlings in the pool - Arthur, Merlin, Lottie & Morgana. All are doing great! Lottie is super amazing though, that girl is on the A team for sure! Every dog is doing well and running great! We are very much looking forward to racing this year. We plan on doing mostly sprints to 30 milers with two teams. The two new dogs, Sobe & Utin have settled right in and we expect them to be two of our top dogs. It feels so good to have a Skor son back in the team! We are thrilled to have another Watt daughter too in Sobe. Wired has really stepped it up and is knocking our socks off in lead. That girl rocks! We switched to Inukshuk dog food this year and think it's the best food we have ever fed. The dogs keep excellent weight and are full of energy! They also don't need to eat as much cups as previous foods to keep weight.

Yearlings Arthur & Lottie

Utin & Swift leading

Wired & Utin in lead

16 dogs on the move

Dogs are running superb!

Us with our leaders, Wired & Utin

Horseback Riding In The Clouds

2011-12-06T18:07:00.001-05:00

We can't believe it's been so long since we have written! This summer we stayed busy visiting our favorite place, the Castle In The Clouds stables! We have completely fallen in love with horses again (we used to have 2 as children). We have become good friends with the staff there and rode often. Check out http://www.ridingintheclouds.com/ for more info on horseback riding in NH. We did quite a bit of hiking there as well. Both litters of summer pups went with us often. It's the best place to socialize them. We can't wait to go back next summer!

2010/2011 Post Season News & Thoughts

2011-03-29T15:29:00.003-04:00

Snow arrived late this year but it's sure sticking around! It's April Friday and we are still running on sleds! Been having a great time running the Paxson/Wired kids in harness. Wow those pups drive! They are really amazing!

This season was kind of an odd one for us. We lacked ATV and early season runs (mileage) but the team just seemed behind and were not coming together with the spark and drive they had years prior. We figured it was something they would eventually get over. For the month of January they did quite well so things were looking up! After the Profile Falls fun run we started doing some longer 20 plus mile runs and the dogs seemed to tire quickly and were just slow overall. We figured they would come out of it but they never really did. Not sure why really, but we hope to not have this happen again next season. That's one thing about the sport of racing is nothing is ever the same year to year and there are always new challenges. But that's what makes dog mushing so exciting at times! We are sure it's something we did (or didn't do) but determined not to repeat the issues we had this year. They did well in the To The Dam & Back 20 and excellent in the 6 mile Tamworth Sprint race. They really gave everything they had at Tamworth and we were thrilled with how they did.

Paxson was the star dog of the season, frankly we do not have enough awesome things to say about him. In my eyes he is everything we want to breed for in a sleddog. He's flawless! We were really bummed Swift was out for the season as she was running so awesome we expected her to be one of our main A race leaders, next year is hopefully her year! We bred her to Paxson and she is due the end of May.

We placed a few dogs this spring. Molly is a great leader and always gives it her all but she has been battling chronic sore wrists for years. We tried everything on her: wrist wraps, supplements such as glucosamine and msm, even x-rayed her to make sure there was not arthritis but the vet said it's tendon/ligament. We had to take her off the team in February because she was just too sore to do the longer consistent miles we wanted. She is now living with Peggy Grass and is doing awesome! Peggy does less miles than us so we knew she would be a perfect fit for her. Elaine who has Gator was also looking for another dog so Powder went to live with her. We are sure Powder will be a great addition to her team. Qui-Gon was a very hard decision but he is going to live with Erin Kelley. He's really a A string dog but he has weaker pads and requires booties often and tough feet is a trait we want to keep in our future breedings so we decided to let him go. He has been doing a lot of leading lately and really doing superb.

Linc has officially retired from racing and more than likely Dodge will be as well. We will run Dodge on the ATV next season and see how he does.

All for now!

Kim

Groveton Race Recap

2011-03-29T15:12:00.000-04:00

We decided to put one 'A' team in the Groveton race. The trail froze hard overnight but it warmed up in the mid 30's during the race. I had a hard time picking which leaders to start with but settled on Sirius & Snitch. The team was Sirius, Snitch, Paxson, Obi, Wired, Flutie, Qui & Harry. We took off and the team did well for the first few miles. Then we started going up hills and the dogs were not interested and focused on running. They would stop and jump off the side of the trail to eat snow and roll around. After a few times of this I thought maybe a leader change would improve the team, so took Sirius out and put Pax up front. That helped the team stay on the trail but they were still not really working as a team and seemed to lack enthusiasm. Bailey Vitello caught as and we chased off him from a bit, but when we lost him the team just really slowed. At one point I got frustrated with them goofing off up the hills and stopped to do some ' Mushing Bootcamp' methods with them going up the line and pulling on their tuglines and telling them 'everybody pull'. This helped some as they stopped goofing some after that. We went through some twisy parts in the woods which the dogs really liked. Snitch was slacking off in lead after so I tried Wired up front with Pax. That went well for a few miles then she was being overrun because she was trotting too much. I put Sirius back up front and that went better. Nothing too exciting happened for a few miles, then came the dirt road you had to go down. It was bare dirt so had to run up it or the sled couldn't move. Another musher caught me and passed me through here. I got to the top of this mtn trail where it is all in the sun, Obi was slacking off and seemed to struggle being further up in the team so I put him back in front of wheel and moved Wired up there. He seemed better there and pulled a lot more. Obi is one of those dogs who doesn't have some of our other dogs top speed but he is a constant dog who keeps loping after 20 miles so he keeps the teams speed up the further you go. By this point Greg Vitello caught me and we traveled together quite a bit. We passed each other back and forth for a bit trying to get our teams to really 'leave' one another but we seemed to be going the same speed. At one point a few miles before the finish I called my guys up and they stayed in front of his team. They were loping down the hill and instead of going straight to the finish tried to go right. Got them going straight and we finished.

We finished 9th of 12 teams with a time of 2h 29m 1s for 27 miles. I was very proud of Paxson, that dog is amazing and a super dog. He always impresses me with his speed, drive, focus and amazing feet. I have yet to stress that dogs speed, it just always seems incredibly easy for him. It's a trait we really love and are trying to breed more for. We expect to have lots of Paxson kids in our future teams! The team just didn't have their usual 'spark' and 'edge' in this race. I know they are capeable of more, not sure why they seem bored lately but they are. Something to improve on and look forward to next year though! I loved the trail and really hope we can field two teams next year!

Sandwich Race Recap

2011-02-20T08:27:00.000-05:00

Sandwich is and always will be a technical, challening (and somewhat scary) trail. It has tight twists, turns, trees, steep up and downhill sections and side banked trails. Mushers often fall, get dragged and scared on this trail... but the dogs love it as well as specators & mushers (no one said mushers are a sane group of people!) With Thurs & Friday having temps near 60 with some light showers we were really questioning our sanity going to the drivers meeting. They assured us they would groom the trail twice before the race started. We decided to go Sat and if we got there and the trail was solid ice we would pull our teams. Saturday we loaded up 10 dogs (two 5 dog teams each) and set off for our 20 mile race. When we got there we checked the trail with Lidia, Jaye & Rob, it looked fast but not undoable. Poor Rob Cooke, I think we had him scared with our stories of this trail! We decided to just do it but we packed our helmets :)

Kelly was bib number 29 and I was 28. We were in quite a large field of 20 teams. We decided to mix the A & B string dogs together rather than have a super fast A team as neither one of us wanted to go THAT fast, lol! We only had two 5 dog teams because this trail is too technical (and dangerous) for blind Quest and Powder has been 'off' lately so she was staying behind as well. We booted all the dogs too because of the ice in the trail. It saves time to not have to worry about someone cutting their foot in abrassive conditions rather than having to get off and boot in the middle of race.

I hooked up Molly, Paxson, Wired, Obi & Qui. Kelly had Sirius, Snitch, Flutie, Dodge & Harry. In the chute... 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 go. I am off... the first mile of this trail is the most challenging and honestly very scary. After that first mile it's a sharp right onto a plowed road around a huge snowbank (which many hit) and then a sharp left back into the woods. I made it through ok and was proud my team did it correctly.

Kim at the road crossing (by Shane Buzzell)

Kelly at the road crossing (by Shane Buzzell)

Once in the woods another section of side pitched trails and close trees/corners. Just before the next road crossing I noticed a bunch of kibble spilt all over the trail. So either someone crashed and dragged here or someone is being a poor sport and throwing food on the trail to mess up other teams (yes, it has happened) but later found out someone crashed and lost their team. I got by no problem, Kelly who took off 2 minutes behind me didn't. She had a huge tangle where her leaders ended up behind her wheel dogs and in a knot. After this section there is another left onto a road and another right into a field. Paxson decided he was warm and stopped to jump in the snowbank to cool off. I could tell that Molly's wrists were bothering her and she was holding back so I took her out of lead and left Pax up there alone. He decided he didn't want to drive the team hard in single lead so I put Wired up there. That made the team go great for a few miles but Wired wasn't really pushing to stay in front and kept trotting too much and getting her tugline run over by the rest of the team. Qui was just behind the leaders and he looked like he wanted to drive hard, so I put him there and moved Wired back. As I was doing this #2 flies by (Bailey Vitello, an amazing kid in the 45 miler) and Kelly right behind him. Now the team is super excited and chasing Bailey. Qui & Pax were trying hard to keep up wtih him and loping well. Kelly's team was just trotting and we lost her. We followed Bailey for quite a while, was quite fun chasing his team down this hill where it feels like you are dropping off on a roller coaster. You just see the team and it disappears down, nothing you can do but hold on!!

We lose Bailey and now starts the head on passing, LOTS of it (we are almost at the half way point). Quite scary as the trails are very narrow, with sharp bends and hills. Passing goes ok, but Qui slows way down when teams come at him he didn't seem interested in driving hard in lead anymore either (seemed to be the 'thing' of the race so far except for Paxson). Molly wasn't holding back anymore so I put her up front. Kelly & I had a blast running our teams together (she caught back up). We turned into the big field with the church and our teams ran side by side through there, loping and edging each other on. The spectators seemed to love it and we had a blast! Back into the woods with some more scary head on passing, but this time with the 45 milers. We see Becky T, Jaye, Kasey, and Rob. Poor Rob, I think Wired was too far left and kind of ran him off into the soft stuff. Sorry Rob! Kelly & I were both kind of surprised we had not caught anyone yet. The teams were doing well, but were a little flat compared some of their recent training runs. They were doing a lot more trotting than usual. We really had to keep on them to get them to lope. Molly is holding back again in lead because of her wrists so I switched leaders yet AGAIN and put Obi up front. That was by far the best combo, Obi was really driving the team and we picked it up some. We finally caught up and passed 3 teams the next few miles.

Windy fields (by Shane Buzzell)

We come out of the woods and hit the fields and OMG I have NEVER been in winds like this in my life. Kelly's team was next to mine and her sled literally blew sideways right into mine. It was so windy it felt like you couldn't breathe. It was hard to see and the wind was so strong little snow and ice blew into your face and really stung. The dogs had their ears flat and eyes squinted. They could barely trot the wind was so strong and they would get moved around, again I have never seen wind like that (strong enough to push us and the dogs around). I swear it felt like 60 plus! Snitch & Obi were quite amazing and really put their heads down and tried to lope into the wind. We couldn't wait to get across and it felt like forever as it was impossible for the dogs to move fast, plus I was getting tired of feeling like I couldn't breathe. It was like sticking your head out of the car window on the highway! Many mushers later commented they couldn't get over the wind there and how it felt like Iditarod or Quest!

The rest of the run back went good (got by the kibble spilt on the trail this time). Our teams loped together over the finish. Overall we had a good time and it was fun to race together! Kelly finished 6th with a time of 1hr 44m 55s (paid to 5th, darn!) and I finished 7th with a time of 1hr 47m 02s out of 20 teams. My 2 super stars were Obi & Paxson, Kelly's were Sirius & Snitch although no complaints with anyone.

Kelim's Swift, SD, CGC

2010-12-24T13:30:00.000-05:00

Swift was born in our first litter sired by Skor. She loves nothing more in life than to run. She's a hard driving leader who is always 110% focused. As a leader she is really everything we look for. She is one of the dogs I trust most in lead and when there is something we need to get through or around we like to put her up front. She has her dad's markings and 'look', at times when they would walk by in the yard we would call them by the wrong name.

Skor & Swift (father & daughter)

Skor to Kluane was a fabulous combination, we were frankly dumb not to keep more from that combo but we had no idea how good it would be :) We hope to repeat it in a way by breeding Swift to 'basically' her nephew Sirius this spring (Sirius' dad is very much the same pedigree as Swift). All of Swift's 6 littermates are main race leaders... which we think is a pretty extraordinary trait.

Swift is very smart in obedience but she hates to sit still. She's just a great dog! She's a very nice mover and we would show her, except she is just a hair too tall. Bummer!

Swift LOVES to swim too! We think she's a pretty special girl!

NorthWapiti's Skor, SDX

2010-12-14T13:00:00.024-05:00

Gone unexpectedly, never forgotten, greatly missed...

Skor was a super star dog in every way - a great leader, never tired, great feet, super appetite and work ethic, excellent mover, could really trust him with anything. Those things made him an superb sleddog, but other things made him just a special dog. He was very gentle, a real lover and not a fighter and he was just so responsible yet incredibly loving and trusting. We miss him greatly and often still find ourselves fighting back tears. His daughter Swift looks so much like him so we are reminded of him every day. In the past buying adult dogs from other kennels has not often worked out well for us, so I wonder how lucky did we get to share some great years with this wonderful dog - very lucky. We can never thank Mark & Karen enough for sending him here. He was our 'Grover' and will be remembered forever.

Here are some more of our favorite photos of him.

Skor as a baby pup

Great Leader

Handsome boy!

Skor with his brother Crunchie

Skor & Quest

Skor playing

Skor's excellent movement

Skor & Kelly

Kelim's Golden Snitch, SD, CGC

2010-09-27T12:30:00.008-04:00

It's hard to say you have favorites, but Snitch is one of them. He has the best personality and temperament and is a real character. He makes us laugh constantly. In the kennel he is such a silly boy you would never guess he was serious enough to be a leader but in harness he is very serious. He loves his job and works incredibly hard. We really think he is the hardest pulling dog we own. He wants to please in lead and really drives down the trail. When he's in lead we love to say, "chase that golden snitch" as his namesake fits him well from the Harry Potter movies/books. He actually could learn to pace himself a little because sometimes he tires himself out with his determination and drive.

He loves obedience class and even show handling. He's a nicely built boy and an excellent mover. We would love to show him but he's a little over height standard. He is one of our nicest dogs and a pleasure to live with. His litter was probably one of our all time favorites. Looking forward to silly Snitch pups someday!

NorthWapiti's Wired of Kelim

2010-06-20T17:08:00.017-04:00

When Karen Ramstead told us she bred Watt to Sprite we told her right away we want a pup from that litter - didn't care, male or female.

Wired's Parents: Watt & Sprite

Sprite has been a main stay on her race team for years, was a leader and lead her team under the finish of the 2008 Iditarod. Watt was a super star, one of her very favorite dogs of all time, out of one of her favorite litters of all time and an Iditarod finisher. She gave us pick of two black & white girls, Sobe & Wired. We were more drawn to Wired so picked her - and boy are we glad we did!

Wired at 5 wks and 4 months

Wired is a beautiful dog, we love her head type, she is nicely built and is a superb mover, one of the best we have ever had. I would LOVE to show her, but she hates the crowds. She has a awesome personality and is one of our very favorites. She is funny her personality just draws you in.

Wired at the park spring 2010 - lovely outline and perfect mover.

Wired was always a solid yearling on the ATV but WOW did she shine once we got on sleds. She was fast and showed loads of potential in lead. She quickly made it on the A team and showed us she IS the top performing girl in our yard, she's a real gem in harness. She has super tough feet too and injury free. She leads quite well and has no problems leading a 12 dog team on a fast run. She's just so cool in many ways! We can see lots of Wired litters in the future!

Wired leading a 20 mile run.

K9 Love

2010-06-15T13:02:00.001-04:00

Never had two dogs so in love with one another like Paxson & Wired, check out pics by following link below:

http://picasaweb.google.com/Kelimsiberians/PaxsonAndWired

Tsuga's HollyWood of Kelim, SD

2010-05-30T16:28:00.016-04:00

Our first Siberian, the first dog who created 'Kelim Siberians'. Holly is out of a litter bred by Mike & Sue Ellis of Tsuga Siberians. Mike & Sue's first litter who went on to be and create record breaking dogs in the breed on the race trail. We remember Holly's parents Wyatt & Birch as pups. Wyatt a handsome black & white bi-eyed dog and Birch a sweet sable colored dog with pretty brown eyes. We knew Birch & Wyatt's parents well as we ran them and worked with them for years - Pete a very cool dark colored dog who was an excellent worker who produced excellent offspring, Alex a red 'showy' looking dog with great work ethic and personality, Amadour a shyer gray dog who was a great leader and Patu a very cute playful gray dog with blue eyes. Wyatt & Birch were very good dogs and leaders for Mike's mid-distance team at the team and we knew in our hearts we wanted a pup from the litter. We went to look at the pups and we knew we were going to get a girl as Mike & Sue were keeping the 2 boys. Our decision was between two buff/sable colored girls, one with brown eyes and one with bi-eyes. We were drawn to the brown eyed pup and a week later came home with Holly.

Holly has a awesome personality, a tough dog who always tries to run everything her way, playful, goofy and just loves life. She was the first dog we owned to have a litter for us. We bred her twice, the first time to our friend Gail Castonguay's dog Alkasiber's Frankly Speaking and the second litter we shipped her to Mark & Karen Ramstead's NorthWapiti kennels and bred her to her number one leader NorthWapiti's Super Grover. To this day we have her son, Kelim's Super Dodge, SDX, CGC (out of Grover) and his son (her grandson) Kazlo's Flyin Flutie, SD, CGC.

Holly's first litter of 5 with Stedman. Holly's second litter of 5 with Grover.

Holly was a fun show dog for us in her younger years and accumulated quite a few points in the show ring but she never finished her Championship because we stopped showing a few years ago. She's an excellent mover and many people commented on how nice she moves from the side.

On the trail Holly got her SD title and could also lead.

She's just a great Siberian Husky and a dog who made us fall in love with the breed. We are so glad she was our first Siberian Husky! Holly is looking fabulous as she ages. It's hard to believe she will be 12 yrs old in November!! Thanks Mike & Sue for a special gal!

Traits

2010-05-16T10:17:00.004-04:00

I am always amazed at the traits that get passed down from generation to generation. We have had two litters of Rainy kids - one sired by Q and one by Odie. We have Sirius & Snitch from the first litter sired by Q. They have two unique and cute personalities. Snitch is a big kid, he loves life, is always happy and loves water. If there is water on the trail he wants to run through it and if we stop he digs in it and lays in it and gets himself as wet as possible. If there is a mud puddle in the yard at home he has to dig in it and get himself covered. Sirius is more dignified than Snitch and takes things more seriously. His cute trait is whenever he is anxiously waiting for something such as - waiting on the truck before hookup, feeding time and during obedience class, he holds one paw high in the air.

From the second litter sired by Odie we have Harry & Powder. Well Harry is 'Snitch' and Powder is 'Sirius'. Harry is a water hound and thinks life is great and is always happy. Powder is the more serious of the two and also holds her foot in the air the exact same way Sirius does when we go out in the kennel. I wish I had pics of Powder doing this and Harry being a water dog, but I don't. I will try and get some though!

NorthWapiti's Paxson, SD, CGC

2010-05-11T08:10:00.006-04:00

Since we want to write more in our blog, we thought we would go through our yard and tell you more about each dog, their personalities and how they came to be part of our team. The first dog is Paxson.....

(Paxson as a pup)

In 2005 I (Kelly) visted Mark & Karen Ramstead and their dogs for the first time. At that time they had a litter of 8 wk old pups out of Olena, the "Copper Basin" litter. At the time Karen didn't know who the daddy was, but of all the pups my favorite was a gray bi-eyed boy named Paxson. He was one of the sweetest in the litter (not evil like some of his littermates). If there was one pup at the time I could have taken home it would have been him, I didn't care who his daddy was (although I did correctly guess Squeaky and won Karen's "Who's Your Daddy?" Contest). In 2007 I made a second visit to the kennel and fell in love with Paxson again, but this time he was an adult and running in the team. I LOVED the way he ran in harness and thought he would be a superstar on my team at home and asked Karen to sell him to me, but she said no. We didn't give up that easily at first and kept begging Karen for him. Eventually a year later we pretty much gave up nagging poor Karen until one day she offered him to us (of course we said YES!).

Paxson came to join our home in November of 2008 and fit in with the team instantly. As the season went on we had no doubt in our minds that he was going to be a mainstay team member on our A race team although he was not a leader. Paxson has many traits we look for in our dogs on the trail - hard working, focused, fast, tough feet, never injured, great stamina and awesome around trail distractions. At home he is a dream to live with - quiet, gets along great with other dogs, good eater and very sweet and affectionate (he's earned the nickname Mr. Needy because he wants so much attention) and he can dig a hole 3 feet deep by 4 feet wide faster than any dog we know... ok so that's not a trait we love about him, but we forgive him for it :) As a Siberian Husky we love his type, structure, coat - really everything about him. In our eyes he's pretty perfect!

When he first came to us he had never been in lead. The first year we had him he did some leading for us but not as a main leader. At times he would show us great potential, and other times he seemed confused and would just run straight off the trail into the bushes. He also seemed to be nervous at hookup and when you put him in lead he would try and run back to the truck or pout aboug having to line out. Our gut feeling was he needed another year with us, he just had some small things he needed to mature and get comfortable with. Well our gut feeling was right!! This past season he has done tons of leading and lead our team in all 3 races this season (one a race win). He was the best dog on my Greenville 30 mile team and a great leader in the Wonalancet race. He has totally blown us away becoming the fastest leader we own. At the end of this season we noticed he is totally confident in being a leader, now when we put him in lead he lines out, wagging his tail and slamming in harness to go. He's very good at doing 'wheelies' at take off.

He's one of our all time favorites and will hold a special place in our hearts.

(Paxson leading Kelly's team to a win in 2010)

Kelim's Laika of Chetere Laiki, CGC, SDX, RE

2010-05-10T07:58:00.005-04:00

We are so proud of Laika & Sue's accomplishment's together. Laika recently finished her Rally Excellent title (and her SDX this past year)! Congrats to both of them! Laika is from our Lincoln/Diamond litter.

April News

2010-04-19T08:13:00.002-04:00

Even though we didn't get to as many races as we hoped this season due to cancelled races, we really enjoyed the 3 races we did compete in. We can only hope next year we get blasted with snow and can run everything on our schedule. We are already excited for next season and are still doing some spring ATV runs. At the end of this season it was becoming clear that Skor is starting to slow down (he turns 9 in June). It's always hard to see a incredible leader that you have trusted for so long getting ready to retire in a few years. The good thing though is that we have some great upcoming young dogs! Paxson has stepped up as the number one race leader for next season, and he is closely followed by Sirius, Snitch and Wired. Wired is only a yearling but we are sure she will be a force in lead for years to come. Swift & Molly are still great reliable leaders. Obi & Qui have been in lead a few times as well, so we will see what they do up front more next season.

A few changes in the kennel - Odie is headed home to NorthWapiti kennels in Alberta, Canada at the end of the month. At the age of 10.5 yrs he raced with us in every race this winter. He really is an amazing dog for his age and even on the spring runs he is still going strong. We can only hope his kids and grandkids in our yard have as long and wonderful careers as he did! It was awesome to get to know him since we have so many dogs related to him. We decided to let Gator go to a recreational mushing home. She is doing wonderful in her new home in PA. Thanks Elaine Bartholomew for giving her an excellent home! We still have 4 pups from our summer litters - Harry & Powder from Odie/Rainy are staying their full yearling year in harness. If those two run anything like their older half siblings Sirius & Snitch they will be amazing additions to the team. Spree & Breaker from Skor/Gator are also growing up nicely. Spree is the star right now and is just beautiful! We hope they follow in their daddy's footsteps! We also made the incredibly hard decision to place Rainy with Maggie Wey of Brayhill Siberians in Maine. Rainy is an amazing producer and has many incredible traits that she passed on in her kids. She has struggled a little with the speed of our teams the past few years and we want her to have a long career in running. She's an excellent leader and we really think she will be an invaluable dog to Maggie and helping give her young team some experience. We also hope in the future she has an amazing litter for Maggie, her kids are just awesome!

Dogs lives and careers are short, so we believe in letting them go to where they can get the most out of their lives, where they can excel to be shining stars. It's amazing how fast the years go by, we can't believe Lincoln is already 8! Feels like yesterday he was just a 2 yr old on the team. All for now!

Wired, Paxson, Wired, Paxson!!

2010-02-23T10:25:00.005-05:00

NORTHWAPITI'S PAXSON & NORTHWAPITI'S WIRED OF KELIM Those are two names we have been saying a lot around here... why? Because they are putting in stellar runs, and in lead!! Paxson is the fastest male we own, and he is going to become the new main race leader next season (and end of this season). That dog never tires, is always fast, never injures, has great feet and goes by anything. Wired has blown us away, she is very fast, hard driving, has great feet, never injures, eats awesome... she's just amazing for a yearling. No doubt in our minds she is the best gal in the yard. Last week Kelly put Wired & Pax in lead together for the first time and had the fastest run of her life. They are quite related as Paxson's mother is Wired's grandmother (Alaskan's Olena of Anadyr) and Paxson's sire (NorthWapiti's Robert E Lee - 'Squeaky') is a brother to Wired's grandfather (NorthWapiti's Sir Gallahad - 'Surge'). Not only are they great sleddogs but they have great personalities and temperaments. To us these two dogs are just ideal Siberians in many ways! We are so thrilled to have them share their life with us :)

Training Videos, January 20th

2010-01-21T16:02:00.028-05:00

Taking a break 25 miles out. Swift is still screaming to go!

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Lidia's team on the left, Kelly's in front and mine on the right.

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Kelly's team (Paxson, Sirius, Wired, Swift, Obi, Dodge) going up a steep hill. These uphills lasted a few miles.

Our Two 2009 Litters

2009-12-22T08:21:00.008-05:00

Skor x Gator (Candy Litter) - We have Breaker, a black & white male who we are keeping for sure. There were two girls in that litter we really liked and wanted to keep, Twix & Spree. Twix went to Gail Castonguay of SecondWind Siberians and Spree is still here. We LOVE how Breaker & Spree are growing up. We have to recheck some dog numbers this spring, but we hope to be able to keep Spree as well.

Breaker & Spree

Odie x Rainy (Harry Potter II Litter) - We were trying to decide between 3 pups, a female (Powder) and 2 males (Harry & Howl). Karen Ramstead is taking a puppy back and we decided we wanted to keep those 3 between us for now. After Bolt, Lucky & Keeper left Howl started squinting all the time, he ended up with two entropians (when the eyelids roll in towards the eye and the hair will rub on the cornea). He had his surgery last week and is doing very well. Rainy had a pup with this (Snitch) in the last litter so we decided that we will not keep Howl as we don't want too much of this in our yard genetically. This spring after Iditarod one pup (either Harry or Powder) will go to Karen and one will stay here, just not sure who but we have time to think about that.

Powder & Harry

Dog Weights

2009-12-22T08:16:00.003-05:00

Yesterday the dogs went to the vets for a bunch of rabies shots, so we weighed everyone and thought we would share.

Skor - 53 (M)
Linc - 52 (M)
Dodge - 52 (M)
Sirius - 52 (M)
Quest - 51 (M)
Paxson - 50 (M)
Snitch - 50 (M)
Flutie - 49 (M)
Obi - 49 (M)
Odie - 48 (M)
Qui-Gon - 47 (M)
Swift - 45 (F)
Gator - 44 (F)
Rainy - 43 (F)
Wired - 43 (F)
Holly - 43 (F)
Molly -39 (F)
Breaker (6 mos) -30 (M)
Spree (6 mos) - 27

On Sleds, December Training

2009-12-22T08:05:00.002-05:00

We are on sleds and running two 8 dog teams. Odie has done good enough on the sleds that he will be staying for the winter to race, mostly on the B team. Everyone is doing quite well. Quest had a few tougher runs, when the trail isn't groomed wide he has a problem of falling off the side of the trail in the unpacked snow. Molly is dealing with sore wrists after runs. It hasn't held back her performance yet though. We are working a lot with leaders to see who will do what. Skor is still the #1 leader. Sirius & Snitch are both leading a lot and we think those 3 dogs will be 3 of the 4 main race leaders when we mix the A/B teams for a few races (Sandwich, Wonalancet). Paxson is one FAST dog and when he is in the right mood does excellent in lead. You just never know when you take off on a run with him in lead if it's going to be one of his great days or goofy days. We are still working with him. Swift is a very good leader and always 100% reliable up there to do her job seriously and get the team moving well but she does not push for top speed like the boys have so far. Obi has lead twice and is really good, there is a good chance he is going to lead some races. He runs a lot like Lincoln but is more smart, exactly what we hoped for when we bred Linc to Swift. Yesterday Kelly has Skor & Pax in lead and Pax was being a goof, so she put Wired up there with Skor. Wired was FANTASTIC for a yearling leading with Skor on a 8 dog team. She drives hard, loves to lope, has lots of speed and just goes. She is trying to show us that she wants to be the number one gal in the yard! We are doing 14 mile runs and hope to move up to some 20's soon... as long as we don't get rain which will ruin our snow.

Leaders, Leaders, Leaders!

2009-10-20T12:08:00.004-04:00

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.

September News

2009-09-14T15:42:00.002-04:00

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

Introducing Skor x Gator's 'Candy' Litter at 10 days old

2009-07-02T16:15:00.022-04:00

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!!

New Rally Advanced Title Holder

2009-05-13T10:37:00.000-04:00

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! :)

April Showers Brings May Flowers? And...

2009-05-11T09:10:00.000-04:00

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!