One of the goals of Redpaw Feed is to promote and improve dog related sports, especially the various forms of mushing. This newsletter was created to contribute to that goal. Our aim is to create a forum for people to share ideas and experience. The contributors to this project have worked hard to make it a success and we’d like to thank them once again. We also welcome others to contribute, either by answering our question of the issue, posing your own question, or sending us articles.

We are always seeking ways to strengthen dog sports by getting fans involved as well as adding legitimacy and a level of professionalism. To those ends we have launched an exciting new project: collector’s cards. Our first set features six well-known mushers: Ken Anderson, Gwen Holdmann, Eddy Streeper, Amy Streeper, Buddy Streeper, and William Kleedehn.

You can show your support by collecting these cards. You can find them at events and races where these mushers are appearing. Don’t be shy to ask for their autograph! You can also get the complete sets from any Redpaw Dealer.

We’re also working on a set that features famous dogs from several sports as well as more musher cards. If you would like to be featured on your own card, please contact us; our phone number is at the bottom of this newsletter.

For the next issue, which should come out right around the start of 2005, I would like to open a discussion about breeding working dogs. When should a dog owner consider breeding his own dogs? What advice would you offer? Should breeding be left to a select few or is more diversity better? These issues have implications that go beyond our own kennels.

Randy Carris

Answers:

From Ken Anderson:

Gwen and I like to give the dogs a biscuit-type treat after a run. We also let the dogs loose and use the biscuits as a reward when they're called over to their house. In the winter time we will use a larger snack of some sort of fatty meat after a long run to give the dogs the extra calories they need. Soaked kibble works just as well.

From Rob Lombard:

I use some venison scraps as a motivator mainly. I use snacks occasionally just to serve as a reward for a job well done more than for nutritional value. I rely mainly on the dry dog food diet to keep them in good nutritional balance and then provide venison, herring, beaver meat , hot dogs or whatever sounds good to the dogs and that I have available at the time. I try not to make these snacks very large so not to offset their diet and upset their stomachs.

Mid-October, Fox Alaska:

Things were beginning to look a lot like winter a few weeks ago with a few inches of snow covering the ground. However, with the advance of a warm front, what little snow we had melted and it opened one last window of opportunity to finish up some last minute building projects. As most of you know, Gwen and I do a lot of traveling. My last project is finishing my dog trailer. The trailer looks sharp with aluminum doors and big, roomy boxes. It's an enclosed, car-hauling type trailer and it was pretty hard to make the first cut through the walls to mount the doors, knowing this trailer would be doomed to hauling dogs for the rest of its life.

In two days I am heading down south for the Apostle Islands symposium in Bayfield. To try and make a little money in a typically dry time for us, I am towing my big 24-foot trailer and hauling dogs and sleds for people. So far the trailer is full on the way down and what room I have left for the return trip will be filled with Redpaw bags. Hopefully this will be an annual affair, as many people have expressed a need for a cheaper alternative to flying dogs here and there.

We have been steady at training, running the dogs every other day. In fall training we are trying to focus on putting good muscle on the dogs. Our trails are quite hilly and we generally leave the motor off going up hills to let the dogs know they are in control and that it's up to them to make forward progress, not my right thumb. I find the dogs are more focused with the motor off and work better as a unit and actually enjoy the experience more, even though they're more tired by the end of a run. They're a pack animal and enjoy the sense of teamwork they get from running this way.

Gwen and I plan on going back to the stage races again this year. We experimented with a different preliminary race schedule last year, staying in Alaska and running the Knik 200, Kusko 300, and Tustemena 200. We missed being on the road and spending all that time with the dogs. I felt a certain disconnect with the team last year that I believe was from missing out on the quality traveling time with the dogs. I like the format of the stage races with having a pool to choose from. This way a dog can get the rest it needs to have a successful run every time it's hooked up. If it's not ready to run, you just give it another day of rest. In the mid-distance races, I found it harder to successfully build the dogs up and have a strong finish with each dog. Not that that always happens in stage racing, but in stage racing the probability of it is much higher.

Good luck in training.

Dog food labeling

When comparing the many brands of dog food on the market, it’s important to understand the labeling. On every commercially available bag of food you’ll find an ingredient list and a guaranteed analysis.

Ingredients are listed according to their weight before the food has been processed. This is important to understand because it can be a little misleading. For example, if the first ingredient is chicken and the second is corn, you might think that it has more chicken than a competitor’s product in which lists corn followed by chicken meal. Since raw chicken is 80% water, once the food is processed and the moisture is removed the chicken would drop down the list considerably. Chicken meal, on the other hand, typically contains 10% or less water.

One important thing the ingredient list does not tell you is the grade of ingredients used. For nearly every type of ingredient listed there are a multitude of commercially available grades. Higher grade ingredients are much more expensive but generally yield better nutrition for your dog. A good quality stool is one of the ways you can tell if the dog is absorbing most of the food, and as such, is one way to evaluate dog food quality.

The guaranteed analysis is a way of expressing the breakdown of these ingredients into their major components. All foods list protein, fat, moisture, and fiber. Again, these are listed by weight. Remember that wet foods, such as raw meats, contain a lot of water. As a result these foods seem to have less protein and fat than dry foods, which may not really be the case.

There are two other important components that are not generally listed on bags: carbohydrates and ash. Ash is anything that doesn’t fit into the other categories. Most people assume ash is bad because it doesn’t sound very good. However, important minerals such as calcium and phosphorus are part of this ash content. In general, high quality dog foods will have an ash content of between 6-9%. Higher percentages could indicate lower quality ingredients while lower percentages could mean a compromised mineral content. Your dog food manufacturer should be able to provide you with this number for their products.

Caloric Distribution

A better way to evaluate food for working and sporting dogs is to calculate the caloric distribution. These dogs have higher caloric needs for protein and fat, so they should make up the majority of calories in the food. Since most dog food companies do not publish this information you need to know how to calculate it yourself.

First you need the percentages by weight for protein, fat, and carbohydrates. Since the first two are listed you only need to find the carbohydrate figure. You do this by subtracting from 100 the values for protein, fat, moisture, fiber, and ash. For example, a 28/15 formula might contain 28% protein, 15% fat, and 35% carbohydrate.

To convert weight to colories use the following:

1 gram of fat = 9 calories
1 gram of protein = 4 calories
1 gram of carbohydrate = 4 calories

In the 28/15 example, for every 100g of food it contains:

Fat: 15g, worth 135 calories
Protein: 28g, worth 112 calories
Carbohydrate: 35g, worth 140 calories

So it contains 387 calories for every 100g. The caloric distribution then works out to 29% protein, 35% fat, and 36% carbohydrate.

The harder a dog is working the more it needs protein and fat. Therefore you should look for food where the majority of calories come from these sources. Dogs under hard working conditions should get as much as 50-60% of their calories from fat and 30-40% from protein. A good rule of thumb for average working dogs would be 40% fat and 30% protein by caloric measure.

THE CONTROVERSY OF VACCINATIONS AND NUTRITION

Let the games begin! In this article my hope is to give you some food for thought regarding the beliefs you currently hold about vaccinating your dogs and to give you some insight on how nutrition could be playing a key role in your dogs’ performance and health. Please note that all of the information in this article is my opinion based on my experiences and my research and that I am not a licensed veterinary or nutrition specialist. My hope is to spark a discussion about these issues. I welcome any and all input and opinions even if contrary to my own.

VACCINATIONS

There has been much discussion recently on different email lists regarding autoimmune diseases in dogs of certain breeds or lines. I think that some of these issues are being addressed on the surface without a lot of deep historical investigative work and thought. I am not suggesting that the reason below is all there is to it. I am simply trying to get you to think.

We had some issues in our kennel including an autoimmune flesh eating disease in one dog and an autoimmune hepatitis in another. Both dogs were placed on large doses of prednisone for immediate treatment and recovered. We point to the change in our vaccination protocol as the reason we have had no reoccurrences in either dog nor have we had any other autoimmune issues since our new vaccination program’s inception.

Part of our vaccination program includes a rotation of titres checks on the dogs to determine the level of antibodies in the system available to fight that particular virus. The titres results are reported in a ratio. 1:64 means that the dog has enough antibodies to fight an invasion of that specific virus. This spring I had dogs test higher than 1:3000 after having the shot three years ago! What do you think the ramifications could be if even more antibodies are introduced to an already overloaded system?

NUTRITION

I am amazed by some of the responses I get when I bring up dog nutrition. Responses from “I try to find the cheapest dog food I can find because we have so many dogs and I have heard it really doesn’t matter” to “I heard a speaker years ago that said that as long as the dogs like it that is all that counts”. This well known musher/speaker ran dogs in the 1950s, by the way when even thoughts on human nutrition weren’t forward thinking.

A very special dog went through hundreds of dollars of tests because there was no weight gain, her coat was brittle and she had a history of not pulling. The diagnosis was not certain but it appeared as though she had an autoimmune protein passing disease and could never have enough stamina to be a working sled dog. When placed in a recreational kennel and put on a high quality dog food this dog gained eight pounds in two weeks, her coat became thick and soft and fall training has indicated that this dog is a harder and longer puller than most. What was the problem? In putting all the pieces together one might determine that, to begin with, this dog did not have the proper body type to be a sprint dog and just could not keep up, therefore could not pull. Secondly, she was on a lesser quality food that contained wheat and symptoms could have indicated a wheat allergy, as wheat is one of the top three allergens in dog food.

The fit working dog is somewhat of an anomaly to today’s veterinarian that is used to seeing fat couch potato dogs at least 10lbs overweight, day after day. As an instructor at a recent sled dog camp put it “that (sled) dog could stand to lose a Cocker Spaniel.” How true. This may be why, when confronted with an out of the ordinary problem, some vets don’t put the pieces together and maybe don’t even know what pieces there are to put together. What’s the answer? Be an active participant in your dogs’ health care. Do a little investigative work. Ask questions.

Please email your thoughts regarding the above for future discussion in this section.

I am often times baffled by the number of dog lovers that claim to “hate” wolves, or the wolf lovers that have no interest in or affinity toward dogs. Perhaps we need to take a few steps back and look at what we know about the relationship between the two. Every breed of dog we can think of,from Chihuahua to St. Bernard,descended from a gray wolf ancestor. There is some really fascinating new information coming from geneticists and behaviorists alike, which is only serving to spice our understanding of our best friends!

I am the director at a small wolf center near Forest Lake, MN. The Wildlife Science Center (WSC) is home to 46 wolves, including, Mexican gray wolves and red wolves. WSC is also home to 5 wolf-dog mixes. In addition, I am a dog owner. Most of my personal dogs are German Shepherds or some other large working dog. I am afforded the opportunity to compare/contrast wolves and dogs on a daily basis.

I cannot emphasize enough how much DOMESTICATION has been done to chisel away many wolf survival techniques, leaving behind the dog. Let’s start with a quick review of wolf life. Wolves live in packs, which are largely comprised of one breeding pair and their offspring for one or two generations. The male & female stay together in order to successfully raise young. The sub adults stay with the adults in order to more successfully catch prey. By the way, let me be clear—wolves kill large ungulates. No wolves are surviving in the wild by preying on mice. The pack survival strategy is one that combines cooperation with competition. In other words, the very pack members with whom you hunt are the same ones with whom you compete for limited resources…breeding and feeding!!

Wolves mature at approximately 22-24 months of age, at which point it is time to either move out and find a new territory and new mate or take over the home front. There are two ways to take over the home territory. #1. Wait until one of the adults dies from disease, fighting, being kicked by a deer, or from some other of a list of wolf mortality factors. #2. If opportunity presents itself, fight and kill the adult yourself, preferably with help from other siblings. The harsh realities of life as a predator mean that wolf-to-wolf fights are a part of life, which contributes to the most “fit” individuals becoming the breeders.

Now back to dogs. We are, by default, the pack members for our dogs. Dog owners would do well to understand this, and avoid leaving a highly social animal in solitary confinement for most of its life. Indeed, many behavior problems in dogs arise from this very issue. NO one knows exactly what the original contract was between humans and dogs, but likely it was a trade of food for service. Historically, we asked dogs to guard us, guard our dwellings and food supply, and to assist with the capture and management of our food. In exchange, dogs were afforded a steady food supply, something which evades wild predators. Over time, humans likely selected the most cooperative and least aggressive of these early dogs to serve our purposes, which means that the dogs LEAST likely to succeed were those which attempted to overthrow the pack leader( humans) or leave the pack. In contrast, the wolf MOST likely to succeed is the one which overthrows the leader or leaves the pack. At this point, I take for granted that my dogs are not constantly assessing me for my ability to dominate them, so I do not fear being killed by them should I trip or demonstrate infirmity in some way. After 19 years of watching wolves, I remain in awe of the level of scrutiny afforded any dominant pack member by his/her subjects, and the enormity of the risk of forgetting for an instant that these animals kill their own pack mates to survive. Captivity does not change this. Mexican gray wolves and red wolves have returned to the wild after many generations in captivity and kept their wolf behaviors intact.

In closing, let’s dispel some long-held myths;

1. Wolves and dogs are closely related. NOT TRUE. Wolves and dogs, though related, are separated by 15-20 thousand years of selective breeding.
   
   
2. Northern breed dogs are closer genetically to wolves than any other breed of dog. NOT TRUE. Northern breeds, like huskies, malamutes and Inuit dogs, are no more closely related to wolves than other breeds. The truly ancient breeds are the basenjis and shiba inus!
   
   
3. You can easily find out if your dog is part wolf. NOT TRUE. There is no DNA test to verify the countless claims of people owning part wolf/part dog.
   
   
4. Wolves and dogs are breeding in the wild. NOT TRUE. Wolves and dogs are not breeding in the wild. “Call of the Wild” is a beautiful work of fiction. Ask some folks that live in wolf country what wolves do to dogs- it is NOT romantic.

The Wildlife Science Center is open to the public year round. Visit us at www.wildlifesciencecenter.org for more information.

Editor's note: We'd like to welcome WSC as one of our newest dealers for Redpaw!

I recently had a question presented to me about good ways to implement a quick release method of snubbing a team for hookup, unhooking, and trail use. I have tried a few different products and methods with success but have not used all of them personally. I have listed several products available and the suggested usage for the different styles. There are a few things to think about when it comes to finding the best method that works for you when it comes to securing the team safely. There are also several different scenarios to think about when it comes necessary to secure a team.

First of all you want to find a very fixed object to secure or snub the team to. 8 dogs can jolt, move or even pop a parking break of a full size 4 wheeler with its parking brake secured! Never underestimate the power of the team and always keep them safely secured to something while hooking up. Next, you want to make sure you secure your snub line to the fixed object on one end and directly to the gangline, or trail snub line attached to the gangline, on the other end. Most people have a locking carabineer or two connected to the gangline where they attach the sled, the snowhook line, a trail snub line, and a hookup snub line. Do not connect the snub line to any sled part, rig, or ATV part; it is not a good idea to expect a sled to be the middle link between a snub line and the dog team. I have what I call a trail snub line which is just a section of poly rope about 6 feet long with a loop on both ends. One end is connected to the carabineer that attaches to the gangline and the sled rope. I have my hand through the other end at all times while running and it’s the first thing I grab on my way back to the sled after dealing with dogs. Yes, I have been dragged behind my sled with this line being my only way to pull myself back to the sled.

When I am in the yard I attach a 15 foot snub line wrapped around a tree and a quick release on the other end that I attach to my trail snub line loop that I mentioned above. I also stick my snowhook in as well as I can for secondary support. I then stand on the snowhook, pull the quick release, slip the loop over my hand, stand on the break and/or drag , pull the snowhook up and get going.

Another thing I do as far as quick releases go is to secure the front of the gangline also, in the yard I attach a short snub line to a post and attach a quick release to the loop in the gangline that the leader’s tugs are attached to. This helps keep the team dogs from jerking the leaders all over the place during the excitement of hookup. When on the trail I have a snowhook attached to a short snub line with a quick release on it and the snowhook serves as the fixed object when hooking up the front of the gangline. Of course you can’t always set a snowhook, so sometimes the leaders and team just have to work it out.

Now there are times, out in the woods or somewhere out on the trail, when you can’t set a snowhook and you need to snub to a tree or other object. This is when it gets a bit risky and tricky. It seems the trees are always a bit out of reach and you have to take the plunge to get to the tree with a snub line while the team is trying to pull away. This presents a situation for which many a story has been told of a lost or runaway team. What I use in this situation is a long rope for a snub line to give you some extra slack to work with when reaching for that snub tree. You also need to have a quick way to secure that snub once you get it around that tree. I do not use a quick release in this situation as I generally don’t have enough time to get the quick release locked in. Rather, I have a long snub line with three loops: one on each end, and one that is just within my arm length when the long snub is connected to my trail snub loop.

I have used this long snub two different ways depending on the situation. I have wrapped the long snub around a tree and then hooked my second snowhook ( I usually train with two ) through the loop end that went around the tree.

My snowhook has some tips on it that hold the rope, and the curve of the snowhook forces the loop to the middle of the arch. This actually works really well and it is fairly easy to pull the snowhook out of the loop to get going again. The snowhook is always within arms reach while I am standing on the runners. The other way I have used it is to wrap the loose end around a tree and pull it through the loop in the rope that is an arms reach away from the sled. I then tie a slip knot with the loose end. This holds them very well and because the slip knot is within reach from the sled it is easy to pull and get going again.

Skijoring is a sport that relies on the quick release to keep the person and the dogs safe. (Editor’s note: Skijoring is a sport in which a person skis behind a small team of one to three dogs) The quick release or panic snap is attached to the skijor belt loop which is like the carabineer to the sled gangline. This allows for quick release of the team if they were to pull you into a situation that could involve serious injury. While hooking up a team to your skijoring belt you want to secure that team to a fixed object prior to you taking on the lunging and excitement the same way you would a sled dog team.

It is important that you size your quick release to the number of dogs that you are hooking up as some are not intended to be used for large teams. Here are several quick release styles and rough costs for them on the market.

SMALL TEAMS 1-3 DOGS

This first style is a quick release that features both a fixed eye and a swivel eye and these models run around $16 for a fixed eye and $17 for the swivel eye style. They both come with the o-ring and poly pull rope.

SMALL-MEDIUM TEAMS 1-6 DOGS

Again this is a style that contains a medium size ring quick release with a bit more solid design than the above show small ring and supports up to 6 dogs and runs around $21.

This other style runs around $4.00 each without the cable or rope easy release. Around $7.00 with the rope or cable release which is very helpful if operating with mittens on. You can even order the quick release attached to a long snub line, with or without the cable or rope pull, as one unit for around $15. You can also can make your own with a section of 3/8" or ½" poly rope .

LARGE TEAMS UP TO 16 DOGS

Here is the large ring model in this style with and even more solid design and this one costs around $39 each.

Yet another style called the pelican style is a design used by Sailors for securing ropes on boats. Some are the actual sailor models while some are designs based off the sailor pelicans. These range in price from $22 to $25.

At Wintergreen Dogsled Lodge, kennel systems we've developed allow our 65 pure-bred Canadian Inuit sled dogs to spend the off-season (May to November) running free in open pens with their team mates. Here's how our open pen system came to be and how it works:

At most sled dogs kennels, the dogs are tethered to a 6 to 8 foot chain that swivels around a post, allowing each dog about 150 sq ft of space. For our first several years, we employed the same system here at Wintergreen. But then about 8 years ago, a pack of timber wolves paid us a visit one spring and, sadly, helped themselves to a litter of our pups that were running free around the kennel. The wolves stuck around and roamed the perimeter of kennel daily, hoping to find other loose dogs that might become a meal. We tried to scare them off, by posting flashing lights and blaring tapes of loud music around the kennel, but to no avail.

We realized that the only secure option was to fence the wolves out.

We designed a system of eight 1000 ft sq pens (each 50x20 feet) that would accommodate 6 dogs each. We opted for plywood walls (rather than chain link) to avoid 'fence fighting' and to dampen kennel noise. For the first few years, the dogs were tethered year-round inside these pens. But then about 6 years ago, we tried an experiment. Little by little we began turning the dogs loose in these pens during the off-season.

Given that our pure-bred Canadian Inuit dogs are famous for their survival-of-the-fittest instincts, we were skeptical this would work.

And, sadly, fights did result in a few serious injuries during the first couple seasons. On the other hand, it was apparent that the dogs were quieter (no more boredom barking!), happier and healthier in the open pens -- they were getting more exercise and far more socialization with their kennel mates. In fact, because they were now better able to sort out their pecking order during the off-season, we were experiencing fewer and fewer fights during the sledding season each winter.

As they got used to the open pens, dominancy issues seemed to be increasingly resolved through posturing rather than fights. Nonetheless, fights would still result in an occasional puncture wound and we worried that more serious injuries might still occur. So two years ago we modified a technique employed by the Polar Inuit in Greenland, whom we've been visiting each spring. They remove their dogs' canine teeth when their dogs are quite young to avoid fight-related injuries.

We found that we could simply dull down the tips of the dogs' canines, rather than removing them, and gain the same benefits. Most all of our dogs have now undergone that treatment. It's working. We haven't had a serious injury from a dog fight since. We simply give them a mild anesthetic and then use a dental tool to round off their canines. It only takes a minute to do each dog, they show no apparent pain from the process and, of course, it only needs to be done once in their life. Furthermore no dental problems have resulted since we began employing this technique a few years ago.

The Greenland Inuit not only remove their dogs’ canines but often the molars as well. This prevents the dogs from chewing their harnesses which are custom fitted to each dog and then left on throughout their lives. But it also means the Inuit must take extra effort to feed only de-boned meat and blubber to their dogs, foods that don't require chewing.

Our dogs still have their molars intact and can chew (we're careful to take their harnesses off when they're not pulling). But with their canines shortened and rounded they can no longer tear or puncture.

They still snarl, posture and, occasionally, fight with each other when dominancy issues are at stake. But they can't do any damage to each other (or to people who might get their hands in the wrong place while intervening during a fight).

Fights weren't the only issue we had to overcome in gaining confidence with our open pen system. The other was feeding: Sled dogs are notoriously impolite eaters so how do you feed 6 dogs in an open pen all at once? Well we tried using long feed troughs but the most dominant dogs would of course get most everything. Then we tried using 6 separate buckets in each open pen and that worked marginally well. But the faster eaters would sometimes bump the slowest eaters out of their buckets.

So then we accustomed our dogs to being fed inside their houses: we cut a feed port in the back wall of each house through which we scoop their feed. That has worked very well. In fact, we employ that technique year-round now. In the security of their homes, the dogs seem to eat less frantically (which probably means less chance of bloat-- though we've never experienced that). And many dogs now go in their houses as soon as they hear the feed shed door opening, which makes for a quieter feeding time.

During the summer months when the dogs are loose in their pens, their houses are all lined up along the front fence line. At feeding time each morning, we scoot along the front fence lines of all 8 pens and scoop dog food from a bucket into each house. That allows us to feed all 64 dogs in less than two minutes, which significantly reduces the feed-time frenzy and noise. For watering, each pen has a 15-gallon galvanized washtub that we fill daily.

Our plywood kennel walls provide ample shading options in each pen for hot days. But to enhance the shade, we put "Christmas trees" in each pen. We harvest 10-20 foot pine trees from nearby power line right-of-ways that would otherwise be cut down by the power company and we pot them in water buckets throughout each pen. They provide shade (and a touch of aesthetic greenery) for several months before they go brown and are replaced with a new batch. We also have a couple rotating sprinklers mounted on fence posts in the kennel. During the few days each summer when the temps top 80 or so, we'll turn those on during the heat of the day to cool down the entire kennel.

To enhance summer socialization, we rotate a few dogs each week among the different pens. Most of our dogs get along with each other but we've identified about a half dozen "incompatible pairs," dogs that simply can't be kenneled together. We avoid mixing fertile males (nearly all of our males have been neutered) with females that may be coming into estrus, but otherwise we're able to mix genders without any problem.

Racing around in the open pens together ensures ample summer exercise. But on cooler days, we're also able to take them for a run with our Norwegian "Sacco" carts; lightweight rigs with 4 bicycle tires, a bucket seat and a steering bar attached to yokes that two dogs are harnessed into. When the driver gives the commands for turning left or right and then turns the bar, the yokes turn the dogs. In that way, the carts serve as an "instant lead dog training machine." They're also great fun!

Here are some of our other kennel practices:

• In addition to routine vaccinations, we keep our dogs free of worms and parasites by dosing them with Ivermec several times a year.
  
  
• Since our dogs are roaming the same sandy open pen areas month-after-month, we freshen the pens by roto-tilling the sand and spreading granulated sweet lime or diatomaceous earth over them spring and fall. We also rake the pens free of any rocks and organic materials every few months and add clean sand as needed.
  
  
• Just for fun, we've painted all our dog houses in bright colors-- yellow, red and orange. While the dogs could probably care less, the color adds some cheer to the kennel.
  
  
• "Pooper scooping" is done daily and the feces is placed in composting bins where it is dusted with lime and layered with straw to assist decomposition. Our kennel is largely odor free.
  
  
• We use only Red Paw feed, which is specially formulated to meet the metabolic needs of Canadian Inuit dogs. Our dogs thrive on it and their stools are small and firm (a dog musher's dream!) During the pulling season, we supplement their dry feed with fat to ensure that they hold their weights.
  
  

For those who like details, our main kennel consists of two sets of 4 adjoining 50'x20' pens. The two sets are separated by an 8' access aisle. The entire complex is 108' long by 80' wide and comfortably houses about 50 dogs (6 per pen, our other younger & retired dogs are kept in nearby pens). Materials needed to build the complex included 100 8' half-round treated posts, 24 sheets 1/2" treated plywood (cut in 18" strips & sunk in ground along fence lines to keep dogs from digging out), 80 sheets of 1/2" plywood (which we stain annually), and 56 sheets of 16' long x 34" high "hog panel" fencing. The materials cost to build the complex at today's prices is about $5,000.

We're hoping to convert our entire kennel to a complete "open feed' system whereby each pen has a trough filled with food that dogs eat as they choose. But, as they say, it's truly hard to teach old dogs new tricks and most (but not all) of our older dogs over-indulge when given the chance.

However, we've found that dogs that grow up from pups with that system adjust very well to it. They don't become ravenously attached to the sight of food and they eat only what they need, when they need it.

Currently, 6 young dogs (from Thule's litter born March 2004) and 4 adult females are together in a pen with the open feed system and doing very well on it -- none of them are hoarding the food or getting fat. Someday, we hope to have the entire kennel converted to open feeding.

We don't claim to have all the answers regarding dog care and we're always open to new ideas and to experimenting and innovating. If you've got suggestions about how we can improve our care of the Wintergreen dogs, we'd love to hear them. Thanks!

Remember, this newsletter was created for you. We encourage your input on any sporting dog related topic. If you have tips, questions, or suggestions, please send them to us.

Training Tips: training@redpawfeed.com

Dog Health or Yard Maintenance: dogyard@redpawfeed.com

Traveling with Dogs: traveling@redpawfeed.com

Feeding Strategies: feed@redpawfeed.com

Gear Reviews or Suggestions: gear@redpawfeed.com

Question of the Issue, Either your answers to the current question or to pose a question: QOTI@redpawfeed.com

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440-522-2244 (Ohio area)
509-999-5118 (Pacific Northwest area)

What is Mush with P.R.I.D.E.?

P.R.I.D.E. stands for Providing Responsible Information on a Dog's Environment. The relationship between sled dogs and humans is one of the oldest bonds of its kind. Modern sled dog owners are proud of their dogs as canine athletes that are bred and trained to do what they love: run as part of a team. Mush with P.R.I.D.E. supports the responsible care and humane treatment of all dogs and is dedicated to enhancing the care and treatment of sled dogs in their traditional and modern uses.