FIVE Pups are One Year Old

The FIVE pups turn one year old today. They are amazingly healthy, strong dogs. They will be our Yearling Class for the 2015-16 Racing Season. All five are extremely energetic, yet smart enough to learn quickly.

Physically, they are an interesting blend of their parents: Chica and Clyde. With many of our SP K puppies, we can point out the mother and father easily by showing certain outstanding pup/parent characteristics. But with the FIVE pups, they have traits that are not obvious from either parent. For instance, where do the floppy ears come from? Of all of the Alaskan Husky pups we have raised, we would have thought that these FIVE would have pointy ears. Nope.
Both of Clyde's parents, ChaCha and Lieutenant, have very husky pointy ears. So, we believe this trait comes from Chica’s pedigree. Even though Chica and most of her siblings have glamourous pointy husky ears, their mother, Venus, had floppy ears. Chica’s sister, Bonita, resembles Venus. Chica's father, Zorro, had somewhat over turned ears as well.


L-R: The FIVE pups father Clyde; The FIVE pups mother Chica; Chica's sister, Bonita


The FIVE pups lineage pedigree.

Earlier this week, the plan was to get great quality ‘Birthday Portraits’ of each dog. Even with a fantastic photographer behind the lens, we quickly learned that patience and many, many, many, many photographs were needed in order to get that one “perfect pose”.

We started with Rodney. He is by far the loudest pup and was vocally thrilled to be the first dog to model for us. As it turned out, Rodney was the most cooperative pup and gave us several profile shots as well as one fantastic face forward pose. Rodney has a large head with wide set ears but what really stands out are his forehead masking stripes. Gorgeous! Rodney has a solid build and long stout legs. He currently weighs 51 pounds.



Ernie was next. Not only is he is polite, but he also doesn’t have the same brute strength as his brothers. So he was the easiest to coach during his modeling session. He resembles his uncle, Outlaw. Ernie is smaller with a lot of quick energy. He is a light-boned racy dog and currently weighs 42 pounds.



Five was the third pup to model (Ginger made it known that she was not happy about that.) Five is BIG: big-boned, big-spirited and big-trouble. He was not easy to photograph or even handle. Tossing a dog biscuit to get his attention was a mistake as he dragged me across the gravel trail to retrieve it. He will be a powerful sled dog but he needs to learn some manners from some of the other ‘big boys’ at the kennel. He currently weighs 53 pounds.



Ginger couldn't wait to get her photograph taken next. She is a floppy eared, reddish blonde girl. Ginger much preferred sitting down for her photo session than standing. (More of a Mona Lisa style portrait, I guess!) Ginger has no lack of self confidence and will tell every one of her brothers that she is the best pup of the litter. She is 100% healthy and very sweet. Ginger weighs 40 pounds.



Scooby was the last pup. He is extremely strong. After running around the field for several minutes he calmed enough for a 30 second photo shoot. Good thing he is an extremely photogenic dog because most of his portraits were simply perfect. Good boy! He is still his mother's look-a-like but now weighs more than her at 50 pounds.