Seppness

Ridiculous

2012-02-11T22:45:00.000-08:00

The winter that was not, Hooked up 5 dogs to the cart to do a froze land run. Bella and Bushka doing great in lead, Haw out of the back yard , down the road, Whoa, Haw, across the bridge and down the road... Haw coming up.. road is like a skating rink here....Hmm Just not good conditions.. Dangerous actually.. blind corners.. glare ice, late in the afternoon low sun angle, Ridiculous. turn back home..
All for training in all sorts of conditions, Deadly conditions...pass.
Hey no smashed equipment, no hurt dogs, no injured drivers, a good run.. a good season! in those respects not all bad.

Naturals

2012-02-02T21:32:00.000-08:00

448 miles of running

2012-01-16T15:06:00.000-08:00

The Sum of our runs for the season....448 miles... Not bad... until ya know that is the SUM for all the dogs, not a team mileage sum.
Knew going into the fall that work overtime and finishing house remodel was going to take a toll on the training, On top of that it has been unseasonably warm and all over the Midwest races are being canceled, postponed or run on rocks and dirt for sections of the trail.
Our runs have been smooth though, even had the handler run a team with no issues, hooked two teams of six and ran a couple miles each team with a passenger.. Happy with that, they are trained as sleddogs and know what to expect and behave, more training then conditioning going on, we are always training lead dogs, I think all of the dogs have been up front at one time or another and given a go at it. Avery has stepped up in this area this year compared to last, more focused and is taking commands but like Albert he is polite and will not push his running mate to execute a turn, but will pull.

Daddy Sharky

2012-01-12T20:04:00.000-08:00

C litter of Seppness results of DNA testing received today 1 male 3 females sire confirmed Tsarko of Seppala.
Broken camera-No decent pup pics. yet.
Some real variety in color.

Who needs a dog?

2012-01-10T21:25:00.000-08:00

When you can help take care of ours.....
That's basically how we came to have Kennel help. Jeff called to ask about available dog/pup explaining that it was for son Jarred.. chatted dogs about son Jarred's interest in mushing, etc. and I proposed come work with our dogs Jarred and Jeff have been coming over to feed and scoop and get to know the dogs for a couple weeks now, not every day but 3 of 5 roughly... going great so far all work and no play.... No snow, warm weather, etc, etc. it seems has made this a blank year to date running the dogs. Been doing 4-5 dog cart runs random dogs teamed up, just enough to keep some basic civility to the runs and at least something for muscle tone..
Feb 12 we are scheduled to do rides and a demo about mushing as part of Rochester winter fest at Quarry hill nature center. Time to start regular cart runs, in case we get snow.
Sent DNA test swabs from the C litter, Sharky and Berry. 5-10 days for results
Pups are doing well, Runty is going to be fine it seems but has catching up to do yet.

Raining on my

2011-12-14T19:40:00.000-08:00

little slice of paradise all day, what little snow we had has washed away, But one item of the get the house done to be able to spend time with team was noted as an improvement to kennel chores and dog yard cleanliness, the gutter and downspouts are on the house and help divert the water away from the dog yard and make going in and out the door to the yard a lot more bearable in the rain...
C pups are starting to act dogish as compared to newborns eyes open barking and playing about, the runt is growing,,,, slowly. not as advanced in the eyes as the rest of the litter.. and still... well a runt not a fat little pup at all lean, working to get her eating from a dish to supplement mom..

Pound Puppy

2011-11-30T19:31:00.000-08:00

Well little runty made it to a pound today. born weighing just 11.6 ounces, she started loosing weight and seemed to be floundering.. With a bit of extra attention and supplemental feeding of canine milk replacer she stabilized, after dropping down to nearly under 10 ounces.. today at 10 days old her 3 litter mates weigh 3 times as much (at birth they were twice her weight) we have stopped the supplemental feeding as she developed a slight rasp to her breathing, assume she breathed a bit of milk replacer in, worrisome..
She is a fighter and will push her way in to suckle.. but it is getting tougher for her given the weight and size difference, so we have Berry and her out of the pen several times a day to feed on her own.
Chekushka - Meaning "Small hare" or "field mouse"

Not sure

2011-11-28T21:23:00.000-08:00

how I allow myself to get dragged into silly debates and get upset by comments from..... well bite my tongue, time to move on as they say.
Going to be a poor winter for getting to races/events witth the load at work and getting the house finished, Gutter and down spouts are done Plumber has a deposit in hand with the electrician and furnace guys going to stop in for same and discuss final details, after they are done I will need to do the Sheetrock, trim, flooring misc. finish work.. how does this relate to Seppala training ? well living in an unfinished house project and feeling every time we spend time with the dogs is not getting the house done and this becomes a wicked cycle of run dogs a lot neglect house , Focus on house neglect running dogs. and then work is looking like a 6-7 day a week deal for the next 6 months so might as well focus work at home and Job, and focus on lead dog training and small team short passenger or loaded sled runs, an aspect that can be worked on from home and that takes less time compared to loading em all and running conditioning miles, with no race plan for the year (other then 1 or 2 one day events we will try to do if not stuck working) and we want to do the Mush for a cure again this season (march) a focus on leader training and related team discipline along with heavy pulling works to the best advantage.
The 2012-2013 season will be soon enough, and our pups the A and B litters will be 2 and 3 year olds with enough race experience to come out running and not just learning the ropes as has been our focus to date.
Our one event to date in our type of distance was Mush for a Cure (Fund raiser for breast cancer research, 22 mile run on the same trail the Beargrease is run on.
http://www.beargrease.com/trail_maps/Beargrease_Marathon_Trail_Narrative.pdf Leg 6 - Trail Center to Devil’s Track
63.5 miles
Again, the route has changed for 2009. While the checkpoints are the same, we
have more than doubled the length of this leg compared to prior years. Teams will
leave Trail Center Lodge and travel northwest the length of Poplar Lake and then up
the trail to the vicinity of the Gunflint Lodge, out on to Gunflint lake before heading
crossing over to Loon Lake. After running the length of Loon Lake, teams will rejoin
the route they came up, taking the X-Trail to the campground on the west end of
Devil's Track Lake. Then it is about 5 miles across the frozen lake to the checkpoint
down to Devil’s Track. At 63 miles, this is the longest leg of the race, with 5 lake
runs totaling close to 20 miles. Past speeds in this vicinity would predict fastest
times for this leg of about 6 hours, while the median will likely be in the 6:30 to
7:00 range.

MFaC is run in the reverse of the Beargrease and runs 1/3 of this section.
It is not a race as no times are kept, but the dogs do not seem to notice this and we do some positive musher PR and good will spreading, Shellys grandmother is a breast cancer survivor and we run in her honor.
We feel it is a great venue to test the dogs and we keep our own times by simply taking photos at the start and finish.
Not a race but we did hear comments about the performance of the team.. one comment from a recreational siberian driver was " You did pretty well, finished up with the Alaskan teams didn't ya"
Yes we did, Thanks.
So we left a good impression of the dogs I think. and garnered enough donations to the cause to win a door prize (we were like 14th highest total or something like that, No booby prize anyway LOL)

In your Face book and Work

2011-11-21T21:07:00.000-08:00

or rather my employment along with the load of home fix up to get finished is sure putting a damper on fall/winter now that it has arrived, No time to run dogs at least not serious conditioning miles, fall cart runs are under 100 total miles.. more like 2 or 3 hundred standing cart miles for the driver running 16 dogs in teams of 3,4 or 5 at a time, Lot of good training and evaluation runs.
Albert is going to be a command leader, Sharky has learned some manors and is running well next to all but Maraq and Nuchok (although avoiding running next to each other avoids issue) Bushka is looking like a leader with a lot of drive,, Really not a lot of negatives as far as the team goes.
As a Kennel we seem to be going one by one through the dramas and tragedies that as the saying goes "Happen to the best of em." the latest was a female in heat escaping and going missing for two and a half days.. well with the whelping happening on the 20th that counts back 63 days to the day she went missing.

3 females, 1 male, we did mate Berry twice when she returned home and will DNA test to verify parentage.. Mother and pups are doing fine.
We are looking for another litter Xmas or the day after, if the mating took... of course that part went like clock work... so I suspect we will get nada.. seems like that's the luck around here.. when it goes well and as planned, the end result is anti climatic or fails to live up to expectations...

Oh yeah then facebook people.. well rather just people ... like what the hey? so I have a facebook Friend that is not well liked in the sleddog world.. as do a lot of other facebookers and so one person decides to go on a bent about this person and how that being a friend on face book is showing support to same and all this and that all seemed like a witch hunt with a lot of "WE" used in the emails..... Got me to look at facebook again and decide to deactivate the account.
But the whole fiasco and the things said leave a real foul taste in my mouth the back biting, personal attacks, assumptions and double standard double talk in the email exchange I had was insane I was sent unrequested email from an unfamiliar name and email address with a bunch of attachments and three letters of explanation.... "FYI" for all I knew the attachments were a bunch of viruses. From this I looked into the senders facebook posts and noted the subject of the discussion,
I got a bit irate about that and told him so in a reply..

In the end my dogs, my dogs ancestors and breeders were maligned and belittled, as was I.
to all that I say.
Whatever.

But wait there's more!
So I am told I should give credit for quoting here emails sent to me...
" Do what you will with the email and the docs, maybe this time you'll give me credit for quoting me. " Billy D.
Well fairly sure you got the documents from a show dog breeder in Canada that just happens to have the same last name as you, this is why I question motives...
"I don't remember belittling your dogs, I like the dogs. I belittled your way of choosing them." Billy D.
Mind readers ... Wow My way of choosing them? I do not recall discussing the totality of the way I went about choosing my dogs. But you like them ? Just not the way I chose them (at least as far as you THINK I chose them)
"I haven't entered a team of my own in a race yet." Billy D.
Hmmm interesting no team... yet. But still feels qualified to lecture and belittle me on how I select dogs.

And so the runt pup has been struggling and lost weight the first4-5 days, No obvious sign of trouble, seems vibrant enough,, although at day 4 after loosing 10% of her weight she seemed to be floundering a bit.. visit to vet. good heart and lungs, pallets ok and no issue with suckling.. perhaps gets pushed out by the 3 larger siblings, but we had been watching for that and intervening some to compensate... So we gave a bit of antibiotic, and started supplementing with milk replacer. feeding with a syringe slipped into mouth along side of nipple while suckling.. after 3 days of this we are at 1 week old today, the other 3 have doubled in weight and Runty as I affectionately call her has started to gain weight. Born at 11.3 oz dropped to almost 9 oz and today she is 13.6 oz and winning the push and shove to suckle against her siblings around 4 times her weight.

Handler ?

2011-11-07T19:31:00.000-08:00

Handler ?... Sure we heard of such "people" thinking we may need to work at cultivating an interested individual.. Work schedule is going to go to lots of OT weekends etc, here for a while..
Just sucks, being we have not been busy at all in the heat of summer when I work in a chilled environment.. grrr, Anyways..........

Wanted Handler/Helper/trainer southeast MN (Dodge Center) working with a dozen Seppala Siberians 6-8 dog team(s) For the right individual this could include the option to run team at races.

Contact
andy@seppaladog.com

Decisions,

2011-10-31T22:04:00.000-07:00

Decisions..
Dogs, Raise your own? or buy from someone else, Pups or Adults that didn't make someones race team, Purebreds or Alaskans, etc. etc.
Decisions.

Have never sold, given away, re-homed or lost a dog, Not that I have had that many dogs (at least not until getting into dogsledding and breeding) when we decided to get more 'invested" by getting a more serious sleddog then the showdog background Black and white "Siberian husky" Achilles that started us down this path. and then breeding, well the day had to come.... Time to sell/place some dogs.......... Decisions.

Achilles as a puppy he is a great dog, a command leader. affectionate, good feet, eats good and eats very little. etc, etc, etc. He will live his life out here running with the younger dogs and training leaders, He is Shelly's son Jeff's dog. With us until he cross's the rainbow bridge to be with Jeff again.
His brother who we went and bought after Achilles came to be with us is a long coat that decided after running with the Seppala's a couple times that his career as a sleddog was over.
Smart and affectionate knows lots of "tricks" play dead is one of his best, will learn about anything you could care to teach him.. We would really like to place him in a pet home and a more one on one relationship with a people pack.

He is on the left in the photo here, Free! to a good home.

Brothers Neiko And Zeus are also available free to a recreational sled team, good honest sleddogs.

Seppala's for sale.
2 of our A litter are for sale- Pedigree and Photo here
Gold medal winners as a team in the North Star Sleddog club recreational four dog class as yearlings in 2010-2011 season.
We are looking forward to possibly having a couple puppies available in March 2012, have not confirmed the pregnancies yet.
Contact andy@seppaladog.com for details.
Be sure to include your real name and location for prompt reply.
You can see more photos and commentary at Seppness Sleddogs on Facebook

Two years & Eighty post's

2011-09-27T20:45:00.000-07:00

and a bakers dozen seppala's, 11 months to 11 years, warm summer and fall this year, with just a few bike and cart outings.
The plan for this year I am thinking.... rather just realizing as I type this needs to be................

Fun
Nite.
Wanted to add to this post..
I had typed out what had been a plan to run a series of midwest races in the 20-30 mile range, with training to to make a best effort showing so to speak...
Well reality is..the weakest member of the team is holding us back..................

That's an xray of my knees, screws in the left are from 7 years ago getting a new ACL tendon installed, the left now needs replacement. A shot in the knee and wearing a brace puts off surgery until spring/summer, an easier time to deal with crutches and cane.
My employer is advising to be ready for 7 days a week overtime into early summer.
And the house fix up we undertook is in need of focus to complete.
Run for fun with a less focus on being ready for any given event, A couple events we would like to attend, but not signing up for anything until the last minute if at all.

Ok enough then..

2011-09-05T21:00:00.000-07:00

Of the heat waves
Weather said it was 39 F when we left home LATE at 7 AM for the 20 miniute drive to the Douglas Trail, 12 dogs and the rig, running 3 teams of 4, 1.5 miles for the youngsters and 3 miles for the older (second or more season) dogs.

Maiden voyage for us with new Dog trailer

The B girls natural born leaders

The A boys, Made em work more on the hills, Part of my own training in action, do less, less kicking, less talking,

This is a good photo showing me doing a better job driving (Mouth SHUT)

A great first outing, everything went as expected no real issues, A good clean set of runs allowing time and focus to evaluate individual strengths/weakness's.
Albert- Excellent, Time for one on one intense command work, more focused then last season ready to learn.
Avery- Not leading steady easily distracted.. will run behind lead for a time.
Axel and Argus- running solid team/wheel, Will move Axel up to run lead with Albert for a while.
Zena-Huge improvement, Last year she was new here and had a who are you on the sled worry going,No more looking over the shoulder etc.
Tyna and Vixen leading seems to be going the same as last year, Tyna the brain and Vixen the pace setter kicking up the pace, Ok on a basic trail but tyna will not bulldog Vixen enough to come gee/haw or complex maneuvers.. ok enough but am thinking Albert may have the charge and lead ability to complement Tyna, Vixen will get moved next to Sharky or Nuchok.. who both had good runs, Although Sharky was trying to eat grass for the water/dew way to much after the halfway point..
Babuska and Bella were the stars, first team run for them, I put ol dependable Achilles in lead with Bushka to start but... Less then half mile out she was banging into him to take the best spot on the trail, So I put her litter mate bella up front with her from wheel and they ran like one for the rest of the way, 10 months, first time in front of the cart, in a gang line..
Felt good.....

ENOUGH

2011-09-01T20:56:00.000-07:00

heat, here it is September 1st.. 92 degrees today and same forecast for tomorrow, its 9:30 pm and still 81 Degrees! Some relief in site with a low for Sunday of 45 degrees.
Bought a used 12 dog trailer

needs a bit of spiffing up around the edges, but basically good to go, with the 6 hole box we have to go on the pick up we now would be able to haul all our dogs comfortably and simply, A concern I have had as far as an emergency evacuation situation.... although I cannot think of any circumstance with a remote possibility that would require it from our location... Better to be prepared.

In their first season running in the sprint 4-dog sport class the Seppness A Litter (Albert, Alexei, Argus and Avery) garnered enough points in the North Star Championship Points program (NSCP) to be awarded the Gold medal! North Star Sleddog club news letter

We made the front page of the local paper AND the local TV station with a story on our participation in the MUSH FOR A CURE EVENT, we raise over 700.00 for breast cancer research, with the event bringing in over 30,000.00 dollars it was the largest total to date and we had a blast doing our part and looking forward to running the gunflint trail again this March mushing for a cure.

All good references as to why some one might want to sponsor our team, have an outline for a pitch for such inquires put together, Need to refine and put a packet together we do have a verbal commitment from our meat supplier to be a sponsor, and now that we have done some basic outings and garnered that exposure we feel comfortable asking sponsors for cash and or free services in that we have something to offer as far as proven-positive exposure for there product or service. 8-))

And the heat goes on

2011-07-02T11:59:00.000-07:00

Month since last blog and the heat is still on. 100 deg. F and muggy yesterday and looks like 90's for today.
had a house party with half the dogs (9) from the yard in yesterday, older dogs and those with less shade in the yard.
The fall and winter schedule at work is not looking good for training or getting to races, lots of overtime and weekend work anticipated... Not good, starting to think about a kennel helper training helper again...

Heat!

2011-06-03T19:29:00.000-07:00

Record high temps all around the area today, 90-95 Deg F. Dogs mostly have blown coats, Hosed each down this afternoon, Nuchok was the best about this, Standing in the spray head up seemed to understand hey this is cooling.. he 's not trying to just hose me down and give me a bath...also one of the last to really blow his undercoat.

2011-05-28T21:54:00.000-07:00

2011-05-28T21:35:00.000-07:00

We think therefor we are...

2011-05-11T20:25:00.000-07:00

going to go the way we see as best.
We have in the past acted foolish and attacked others for going the direction that we are now choosing to go.
We listened to and read all the writings of the man..we accepted it all as he laid it out and did not research and verify..
We paid our money and we took our chances.

And so.

Seppness Shrugged

As the good we are not duty bound to support evil.

Super B's

2011-04-08T20:37:00.000-07:00

Babushka and Bella first run in harness as a pair at 5 1/2 months.

Dog Profiles

2011-03-28T14:23:00.000-07:00

Thought it about time to do a profile of each of our dogs, Not sure if it will be dog of the week, month or just as time allows.
Figure to add the description to each dogs page as it is completed.

The Running (Mush for a Cure)

2011-03-14T22:04:00.000-07:00

The actual running of Mush for a cure is not a race, no official times or order is noted, it is a FUNdraiser..
For us it is our second race environment exposure having run 2 four dog teams in Ham Lake 5 K sprint class in Feb. Plan is to run the course under 3 hours, this means slowing on down hills more then we would in a real race with an older more seasoned team and limiting driving them hard to passing quickly and pulling away, I tried to break fairly hard when being passed as well and in a real race not so sure I would yield that much on a 20 foot wide snowmobile trail

42 teams lined up for a sourdough start, .... Laying in my sleeping bag waiting for the shotgun blast to signal the start....
Midwest mid and long distance kennels here..
Jen and Blake Freking, Frank Moe, Matt Groth, Amanda Vogel to name a few.
Most of the rest of the teams I have seen on recreational class type race results and sign up sheets here in the midwest going back years and a lot have run this event before.
We have had no close mentors so to speak, got dogs read books and online tips, trained and here we are, .
Here we are 2nd event and it has a different start.. Frett
I was not impressed with the quick release we bought when it came, and thanks to Neil next to us asking if had come loose on us "YET" a few minutes ago and showing us his real nice 26 $ unit from XYZ, Inc. I am thinking it may be to late "NOW" to upgrade.....Frett

BOOM

From my Motorcycle drag race days I go into race mode consciousness, blocking out much of the world really, I see things in photos afterward that I had no idea were going on that you would swear a person could note miss.
Methodically I put on my boots lacing evenly and double a knot over the bow, get up start hooking harnessed dogs into the line, Axel first calmest at hook up then Argus who today decides he likes this racing stuff and is just a banging away to go, going nuts, then Albert and Avery steady but also getting worked up now, then the leads first Tyna-pilot then Vixen-throttle..Ok smooth so far...ooops straighten Argus out tug and neck are wrapped around the mainline 4 times already, Now connect Nuchok.. who is calm as a clam, and last its Sharky the slammer at wheel..
I reach for the QR, look up to check the trail ahead and see teams backed up single file from the chute at the end of the funnel going out as far as I can see in the snow across the Ice...
Its down to the last 10 or so teams to launch... whats the etiquette here? I point this out to Shelly and have her hold the leads steady....Do I go and try to hold em back in that line ? No way, they won't put up with it, would bang away till we went or drag us into another team, It's not a race, a fun run... If I sit here much longer (maybe 30 seconds now) they will break the QR or something for sure, Ok I see some other teams passing out there, wave Shelly off .. TYNA HIKE!

We are away and at the chute, TYNA GEE.

and we almost immediately start passing teams, I have seen a couple photos online passing Jen freking! WOW that's something...(She had a passenger) ;-}
We come off the ice onto maybe a mile of single track trail having passed perhaps 6-8teams on the lake, after the woods we cross the only main road (Gunflint trail) and there was a prize for first person to cross here... we did not win it. Dogs are dealing with spectators much better, and we have done so many road crossings in training that we breeze right on through, Tyna GOOD GIRL! Rolling hills with a constant more up then down now, wide groomed snowmobile trail with an inch or three of fresh fluff on it broken by previous teams and the run snowmobile trail breaker.
Based on the look of the trail I am in the middle roughly, I pass a few more teams and passed by a few, one big hill to climb, there is a map of the trail and a altitude graph here
Not nearly as bad as I thought it would be, the training trails we had run near home proved adequate.
For the middle of the route, roughly mile 5 to 15 I am alone, perhaps a pass or passed once or twice but relatively alone and cruse along simply enjoying the ride and view.
Dogs are all doing great all clean passes and only one little mishap in the single track woods where we were bunched up and slowed in sharp corner and Sharky at wheel and I got draged and tipped in the inside of the corner with a quick recovery.
At mile fifteen or so we came to three teams running together, I figure we caught up to them without chasing so we must be traveling faster, so I go to pass and drive them on to pull away, we pull away some but then one team is next to me again the other 2 teams are there as well...Hmmm this is just slowing us all down and risking tangles, So I let em pass and observe a bit, this jockeying around goes on for a while back and forth, so I brake set anchor and give em a break, figure to run cleaner behind again perhaps try and stick a pass again if we catch up, we do, I call trail this time and again it is just a bunch of back and forth again where I pass and get pushed along with a team trying to come around again...... Not sure if we are slowing down in front every pass or if they are giving chase after we pass..
Well anyway we are on the final lake now, run to the other end to the finish, so I climb in the basket and figure to just glide in, Tyna has stayed to the gee side and follows a set of tracks off slightly to the side of the trail, a bit rougher go with no grooming and drifts but we end up pulling ahead slightly now,

so I get back on the runners to steer them in and maybe help a bit and stick a clean lead into the finish, Loose a bit of that lead to having to stop Tyna and the team to get her to go Haw again onto the trail, seems she is trying to avoid the other teams...we get it over and finish up in front of this group.

~22 miles, 2 hours and 32 minutes. Happy dogs, Happy driver, a fine end to the season.
I am extremely happy with our run and the teams behavior, and thankful to have the best handler who puts up with me. My wife Shelly who without we would not have, or be a team.
Still green and young, but none the less I would say.
We have a team.

Cresting the hill,, I see spring

2011-03-07T21:07:00.000-08:00

The fast and the QUICK

2011-03-01T21:37:00.000-08:00

conditions and miles got to Tsarko, he has wore down his rear claws a bit to close to the quick of the nail.. Need to run booties on him, a few others need to watch depending on the trail conditions.
Being we never run them nor have we trained for them, well other then one time and that didn't go over at all...this may be a challenge.
Getting in some hill work, limited as it is compared to what the Mush for a Cure trail will have.
last run near Oxbow park on snowmobile trail from Pine Island, woods, hilly, narrow, fast packed trail. a lot of fun with some long steep hills... after 10 miles of more open areas we come to the wooded section and make it to the first downhill switchback turn (of several) to see a kamikaze squirrel in the trail.......
I ride the 2 brake spikes to the 3rd switchback at the bottom of the hill/ravine... Cool, I lived..they stick to the trail following the leads..Hang ONNNN were now off again in hot pursuit of what must be the last deer in the area after the DNR CWD kill of 400.. and apparently he feels hunted now BIG TIME! me the hollering blaze orange coat wearing hunter flying along behind a pack of 8 wolfs as far as this deer must be concerned,so we fly up the other hill side and proceed to whip through the rest of this 2.5 miles of woods, I am sure the team figures that damn squirrel is around each corner waiting again.

Leads- Vatyna and Vixen are working well together... , once in a while when traveling at speed we have had a few wild ride moments with last minute corrections, But overall getting better with dealing with all sorts of distractions, loggers with pick ups working to clear trail, a variety of bridges, Snowmobiles, farm yard cattle, horses near the trail.. the A litter 4 are solid calm hard workers in the middle and Nuchok and Tsarko running single file behind them,
Have to see how the booting goes...

We sure would appreciate more pledges towards our team.. Being a FUNdraiser we are competing for Highest Dollar Amount of Pledges, Highest Number of Pledges, First Team TO THE Gunflint, Pink Lantern and the crowd-pleasing Best Dressed Dog Team.

A pink lantern ? we will try to avoid that...

Mush for a Cure go to the donate area on the left side and enter "team #15" in the purpose area..

THANKS

Mush for a Cure

2011-02-16T20:16:00.000-08:00

Team # 15
We have signed up for our second event.

Being a FUNdraiser MFAC is promoted as a non-race.
A good cause and Shelly’s grandmother is a breast cancer survivor we will be mushing in honor of Violet.

And a good venue to run and evaluate our team along with others in a race format, learn the ropes of dogsled races without the race pressures. Be prepared as they say.

Challenge to Seppala Siberian Sleddog fans and advocates Go to MFAC website and make a donation, in the purpose box enter "team 15"

Our Seppala Siberian's are 12 generations from Togo, who led Leonhard Seppala’s team during the diphtheria serum relay to save the children of Nome, following in their great…..grand-sire's paw prints running with other teams in a mush for a cure for breast cancer.

Race Day

2011-02-13T22:54:00.000-08:00

We arrive on time 8:30 AM, get a spot in the parking area, rotate the dogs out , unload sled and lines, Meet Ruth King and her husband Keven and daughter as they arrive, go to check in find out drivers meeting delayed slightly... Ok check out the start chute and they way up to same from the truck, mingle a bit look around, TV crew comes by interviews me?
Nervous, fret about dogs freaking and not running past crowds, balking at every spectator, passing other teams.. will they fight? tangle go onby?
?
Signed up to run 2 teams.
one in pro 4 dog, second in sport 4 dog same course 5 kilometers.
......
More fretting snow plowed from lot creates spectator standing seating area , bleacher like over the trail just to the inside of the curve coming out of the start chute..... Yep dogs will balk off to the left away from this and put us in the soft snow .. fret..
Drivers meeting rules rundown, call trail, let folks by, start times have been changed slightly... check sheet.
Start times
Pro Bib#101 11:30:30
Sport Bib#123 11:56:30
26 Minutes to run pro class starting 2nd position, finish, drop 4 dogs and hook in 4 others..

Fret..
look for bib number 100 to be ready to line up ... never did see him, gone from the line 20 seconds before I get to the line, I came to find out soon enough
Wait to hook up check my watch (must have been off from the official time) ok 7 minutes lets go up...
just shy of getting to the chute I am told by Shelly later the Count was at 10, 9, 8. I did not hear this. focused on the dogs and working the sled around to line up into the chute, 7, 6, 5. Lead dogs are at the line, 4, 3, 2. TYNA HIKE! 1
we lurch out, Tyna is thrown from her game by the abrupt almost thrown out the chute start due to my tardiness to the line.

Then the crowd sets the team left towards the soft outer snow, Maraq in front right lead pulls forward with Tsarko and Vixen at wheel..we move forward. far enough out now, Tyna see's open trail ahead and is getting her self going now, Sharky is tangled at the neck line, snarfing at Vixen thinking its has to be her fault.. oh no... easy,, easy,,, woooah ready to set hook and clear..... ok he cleared it HIKE.

We run smooth enough from what I can remember through the woods then onto the trail on the ice, I think I may have been passed in the woods by 1 team.. OK so onto the Ice for a run I would guess to be two thirds of the race straight out ~ 1 mile dog leg back about a mile, we are passed by 3 maybe 4 teams running out on the long leg, (Complimented later on our passing skills or ability to be passed anyway) after the race by one of these drivers, the last dog leg on the ice is loose sand like snow over ice.. tough pulling, and footing I note, It was just prior to this area that I whistled at the dogs to speed em up and may have thrown the team in front of be inadvertently as I noted them pull up.... hope not, they took right off again and pulled away as I recall.. So we come off the Ice on an abrupt little hill and curve back and forth through the woods a bit and round a corner to the finish.. with the crowd beyond the finish line along the trail....

OK so Handlers spotted (Wife and Sister) leading us back to the truck, Hot need to take off coat.... lift sled across raod black gravel stuff... jog.. dogs are still pulling .. ok snow, drop sled, ride brake.. dogs still want to go... head back to truck.. unhook four, harnessed and waiting four hook into line OK line s at like I see 118 ok OH crap..... get other bib race #.. take off 101, put on #123.. ok, head for line yep here we are.

Ok I take a half a breath here we are 90 seconds out,,, line tangled in wheel dogs.. point yell.. Ok were moving up 60 seconds, ok 1 handler on lead.. were next 30 and counting down Albert... AlBert.. Ok got ya.. 3.2.HIKE ALBERT. 1 ! HIKE, HIKE. HIKE and we are away oh oh little tangle on Axel.. ok so far..Albert pulling fine leading us out clean. smile for the camera brother Avery slack lining.. not balking but real distracted, Ok Avery gets the hint when Albert neck line tugs him and 2 strides and he is pulling tite... looking good slow up and easy boys...Axel hops and steps back over to his side of the gange line, KIKE HIKE ONBY BOYS....Road crossing... Flag man waving me on, Hike .. OH oh single team stopped just after crossing.. leader tangle looks like... No way to do anything but stay out of the way and onby.. ONBY...Boy's are looking good, gaining confidence, now we run a big circle around a ball field back through the woods and onto the lake. Ok we can do this now, We may have passed or been passed by another team in the woods.. I cannot remember now, thinking back I was so focused on the dogs at each pass and getting by clean.. I do remember a team coming up from behind I spoted as we went around the ball field fence..
we go through the last of the woods before the lake slowing for spectators and me shouting a lot of onby's.

On the lake trotting.... Come on boys pick it up! we are passed and the boys go into chase mode intent on being in front.. I give em encouragement.. By the end of the mile out run on the lake we pass maybe 3-4 teams clean, trying to call trail properly and avoid tangles or mishaps We get out in front of this group just before the turn and I fall forward.. seems the boys run best chasing as we jockey back and forth with I think #121 So the boys will not pull away, I start laughing... so I ride the brake a bit and ease them back to follow a ways on the first part of the dogleg return...as we come to the loose snow over ice trail area I urge the boys on for all I can and start to peddle for all I am worth to vault us by and catch site of the next team ahead to give the boys something to chase.. It works we are pulling away gaining on the team ahead coming up on the steep bank up off the lake fast now... the team ahead balks... Trail! trail we come up on them and stall as well...onby hike hike we are sitting next to them I am watching the dogs,, the other driver? the team behind is coming into us now..Oh NO!! 3 team pile up looming I jump off the sled run up and pull Albert and Avery ahead clearing the 2 teams, as I look back to check the status of the stalled team,, dogs coming at me! other team... grab the sled NOW!!! I grab.. HANG ON! and we are going.... the chasing team coming up next to us twisty trail ... Hang on tree! Turn... gee over boys turn, tree, turn cleared... Finish line.......
The dogs all did super I was amazed...
It all happened to fast..
Lots of photos on the Seppness Facebook page

2011-02-09T20:25:00.000-08:00

Our Nuchok of Seppala in a photo by Shelly made an Ezine cover of the Midwest Skijorers Club.

They organize the Skijor/seld race at the Ham lake snowbowl that we will be attending as our first race, 5 K 4 dog sprint race. our objective is to get around the course non-stop. Not sprinters and training for this amounts to running 2 four dog teams 5 K every day for 6 days now, we will run again tomorrow, not run Friday and race Saturday, we have been loading and driving to the trail head, two reasons for this.
1, A clean fairly flat trail 5 K uninterrupted no road crossings etc. and
2, get the teams used to that routine of loading and traveling.
Run times have improved each day, although computed mph is off the mark I think for a good showing compared to previous years race times,, The chosen training trail is an old rail road bed so no big hills, should be similar to the ham lake course so I would think the training run times to be in the ball park to what we could run there.... Assuming the leaders will deal with the distractions that a race brings.. They may not want to run into what to them looks like a crowd of people at a finish line or run out a start chute with people all around.. We do not get out much, meaning to say a lot of our running is in desolate open field snowmobile trails.
We shall see...

Ten more K

2011-02-07T19:54:00.000-08:00

2-Four dog teams 3.2 miles ~5K 10 F sunny, running at dusk felt fast running or loping good... Still slow mph computed..
We had a good onby with an on coming skijor'er single going great, she had given trail and had her dog loose.. lead dogs by,.... sharky...Almost by... small dog zips out at the last second to nip at sharky and with out missing stride he turned his head back and snapped at the offender, leaving him yipping at his owners feet, owner his shouting out apologizes and I am thinking sharky snapped the little dogs back or something they way it is carrying on as we keep going full bore (few hundred feet to trail head) I figure to stop and secure dogs. so as we do woman comes up the trail her dog seemed ok, Owner is again saying sorry and she says she was glad her dog got nailed, teach him to stay out of other dogs way on the trail and such... well we did get onby clean with out slowing and her dog came at sharky, so hey serves em right I guess , Hate to see Sharky show any aggression, but he did not pull up at all to fight , kept running and was clean onby, he did a defense move towards a dog coming at his Haw flank..
Still the speed.. Not adding up...

2011-02-06T19:42:00.000-08:00

Been doing 4 dog - 5 Kilometer runs prepping for our first race, a sprint event to introduce all of us to the environment of the race chute, crowds, large numbers of other dogs, etc.

If my mapping and timing of 5 K run is correct. we are way off the mark as far as speed.
These are not sprinting dogs, but 5 K we ought to be able to run 4 adults dogs at better then today's times bit warmer with 25 F overcast, packed trail most with 1 inch at least of snowmobile ground sugar snow surface sled pulled clean enough..
Baffled about the speed...
...
Signed up to run 2 four dog teams, one in pro class and one in the sport class.. so we get 8 dogs exposed to there first race.. Shelly was told we would most likely get sent out early in the pro class to have time to get back and run later in the order in the sport class... Perhaps as we get passed by the pros at 18 mph the team will gain some chase motivation.

The key

2011-02-05T23:06:00.000-08:00

"Avoiding the politics seems to be the key to Seppala's"

Reset

Photo from one of today's 4 dog runs.

havin fun now

2011-02-04T11:55:00.000-08:00

Enough politics time to have some fun.
Have dogs will travel... More to come

Had enough ?

2011-02-01T22:12:00.000-08:00

The Jan/Feb 2011 issue of Mushing magazine arrived the other day, I was looking forward to reading the article on Seppala Siberians,

Nice no politics article.

Apologies to anyone previously offended in this posting prior to editing.

hours on the runners and back where we started

2011-01-22T20:07:00.000-08:00

Spent probably 4 hours on the runners, cold 1 deg. F temps nice sunny, little wind, teams of 4 and 5 running the trails around the yard dragging angle iron and a couple extra drag matts.(Our low budget groomer system) clearing and packing drifts and last nites dusting of snow.
Like a round about in the photo the trials allow many commands, intersections and a run next to the chin-link dogyard fence to work onby command and observe any issues with that, We can loop way around the flood plane and back or up again to the road. A good solid workout and chances to note and work on command recognition, 5 different dogs ran in lead positions.
some solid team thinking from the dogs and

3 month old Babushka and Bella first time in harness today.
Training or Facilitating as I call it.

Lost the 4 - A litter one year old team today, as shown in this photo, not to worried... they were pulling a drag that you can see kicking up snow behind the sled.. got em back right after this shot.

New trail..

2011-01-15T15:08:00.000-08:00

Ran a new trail today, one a wrong turn added a couple miles to the run and our first haw-come, had to cross a shoulder-less car bridge in a god awful spot and managed to not get hit by an oncoming car, had switched dog feed yesterday and seems they all had the squirts along the trail, imposable to bag. so tried to stear off trail at these instances and drag mat over it at least to dilute for the snowmobile riders benefit... No handler at the pick up point (miss-communication) Thanks to the snowmobile rider that stopped to say hi and see the dogs letting me use his cell we got the pick up figured out.
The highlight? A perfect wide haw come with 9 dogs in front of 20 or so Idling snowmobiles to return to the new pick up point, hell I was impressed... GOOD DOGGIES!, Snowmobiles ran along with us after the turn to the next road crossing pick-up point, doggies tried to outrun em! To bad they were a bit tired by then and we got passed...;-}

Doing it... whatever 'it" is

2011-01-13T21:10:00.000-08:00

Were still doing it.. running and evaluating the fur kids, as a team and as individuals.
Often people ask when talking about mushing. gee ya gonna go mush the Iditarod or john Beargrease race.. No not us we just do it for the fun of being with the dogs, training and seeing the dogs learn is a joy in and of it self I reply.. Oh for sure we will go do a bit of racing one day, when we are ready..
that day more then likely will not be this year.
Never been to a sleddog race even as a spectator, but like photographic evidence of matings, Races are a proving ground for the dogs, a proving ground that has statistical evidence that it is more then just our word that the dogs are living up to there heritage and able to run reasonably well compared to other dogs under the same conditions on the same trail, So we keep training and just go for fun runs close to home, No kennel helper, full time jobs and a home fix-up/remodel project make it imposable to focus on speed and conditioning to the extent that is required to compete to the dogs full potential, I see no need to go to a race simply for some experience and screw up others while we get passing experience etc.
A race is no place to train in my view even a recreational race, Just not the way I do things.. I put up a start chute in the yard we can run two teams and work on passing/being passed, I run through a lot of different areas, wide road crossings,on roads with cars, through small towns, past bars with people standing outside smoking hollering and waving as we go by, past dogs, snowmobiles.... you name it. We have young stock, Males 4 one year old litter-mates, 1 two year old and 1 three year old. Females - 2 two month old pups, 1 six month old, 1 four year old and 1 six year old, with a couple more that are older that are passing on there experience in harness work, setting the example for this younger stock.

So we just keep doing it.... And it sure is fun!

Yorkshire pudding for the team... Almost

2010-12-25T18:06:00.000-08:00

Been having excellent runs with Vatyna at lead, especially at nite, it seems the less distracting environment of darkness helps her focus.. Todays run in daylight not so good with the Gee over and onby,

Although the Yorkshire pudding incident did not help..
Running the snow packed gravel road from home with 8 dogs, set 2 female leads followed by the 4 male A litter-mate yearlings 2x2, then Nuchok single and Tsarko single at wheel (so we are longer by 1 two dog section then the normal 8 dog side by side set up) So anyway we been this way before going the other direction its an up hill grade, and last time only 1 dog was out at this house we pass and we got by with it free running along yapping at us but not real clean, Tyna at lead had to drag Vixen and the pups by the driveway and I was real proud of her for that (This was at nite) So today I take the opposite direction setting us up to go by at speed and just blow by this little dust mop on the opposite side of the road. And as we approch the drive I see people out in the driveway... oh oh... errrr wait it's Xmas people visiting and what not... Good! dust mop will be in the house away from traffic of holiday visitors and passing dogteams... Hike hike I call out as we pick up the pace following with the idea of fly past before the dust mop can manage to get to the end of the driveway to the road....Oh no he heard me he is at the end of the drive and now already in the road.. the people were standing in the drive with a LITTER OF YORKSHIRE TERRIER PUPS must be a dozen flying out the drive way from behind the snowbanks.... ALL of them charging the leaders as we are hitting stride, full on, slight down grade softish snow pack road shoulder...the whole team swings left to meet lunch on the fly................................. S N O W HOOOOOK!!!!!

And it grabs...... So the dogs are at the end of his drive surrounded by yapping little Yorkie's! musta been at least a dozen.. I am doing all I can to keep the hook in the hard ice, snow, gravel road... and being we were on the far right and swung left I am in the middle of the road and looking for any cars coming screaming at Tyna to Geeehikedonteatthemutherfucker nononononNONONOgeeover godmiTYNA, and this guy has got a broom and I am about to scream hey don't hit my dogs mutherf... when he starts sweeping and shooing up the yorkies and using the broom to get his dogs out of the mess and Tynas starting to drag the team back right... no yorkies in any of my dogs mouth's... the guys apologizing for messin us up as we kinda start gong the right direction. yeah me to I says.. My lead dog shoulda taken us Onby I look ahead and one more is coming at us... oh shit...... it swerves around us to get to the rest of its litter-mates.. Had to untangle one dog after we got down the road a bit and made it home with no more issues..
That was to be the warm up take a little excess energy off the top before giving the grand kids rides around the yard loop.. I and the dogs needed to call it a day at that point unfortunately.

Snow !

2010-12-03T22:26:00.000-08:00

6 inches and counting...
Edit
here a few days later we have a blizzard + 12 inchs

More edits, For the month we have set a record and are at a season's total snowfall so far for the MONTH!

At it again

2010-11-07T20:33:00.000-08:00

Daylight savings time kicked in this weekend, this will mean training runs in the dark.
the A litter pups at 10 months are doing great as a team, Argus ran lead for a bit today and did well.
Ran Nuchok and Tsarko at wheel today with just a bit of grumbling from Nuchock but Sharky was a perfect gentleman.. They make a great pair, Nuchock seems to prefer left and Sharky right..
Running Vixen of Seppalta and Vatyna of Seppala as dual leads is a fast foursome but as to taking commands and at intersections we come to a stop as neither will take charge and the other follow, nor will they work together, If they do not happen to take the correct path right off I have to stop, they both look at me and after a bit of cajoling they both happen to jump the correct way at the same time I release the brake and give the hike, hike,,,, and away we tear.. the short term solution will be to run one single lead, Maraq next to the other female at swing with Tsarko and Nuchok at wheel.. This is a bit less weight pulled per dog at approximately 65 pounds per dog, a 200 pound handler riding along on the cart puts it at 105 pounds/dog.
Th 4 A litter boys run With our SH Achilles, this is going very well, Albert, Avery and Argus will and have all run in front single lead and Axel has yet to be given a shot in front, Argus did real well today picking up the pace of the run when moved into the single lead spot to finish the last of today's run.
Our B litter pups (Maraq X Beringa), Babuska & Bella at 2 weeks have opened what look to be blue eyes, about quadrupled there weight and are getting very active in the whelping pen, Berry being very protective with anyone except Shelly or me.
A late start to training this year due to a warm fall but from the feel of our runs so far compared to last year I think we are ahead of last year having had this same group of adults run together before makes the runs more condition miles then training and evaluation of who works with who etc.

2010-10-24T19:38:00.000-07:00

Photo at birth of our "B" litter, (Maraq of Seppala X Beringa of Seppala) 2 females.
10/23 4:00 pm 97.9 Deg Berry is hanging out in the bedroom on her own, seems we have started 1st stage
10/24 6:50 am 98.1 deg. fidgety and anxious but no real labor yet,

10/24 2:32 PM First born 19.5 oz female black white forehead, belly, cheeks, tail tip, white spot on back of neck, left front leg half white, white feet. some brown shading

4:10 PM Female 15.98 oz black, white front feet, white belly, white forehead, some brown shading

Harvest time

2010-10-22T20:10:00.000-07:00

Running the cart out of the yard today on the gravel road over the river and back loop, I noted that the corn had not been combined in the field next to the T intersection we traverse, thinking how I really would like to see that harvested to allow seeing across the field for approaching traffic (what little there is) Anyway running ~2 miles Risdon Rig 2 groups of 3 adults and 1 run with the 4 "A" litter boys, Pull yer own weight runs with some hills. firming up and getting everyone back in the swing after a long hot summer with a warm fall and deluge of rain and flood of the dog yard. they look ready to start running longer runs, Dry land a necessity to condition the dogs.. Snow is in the forecast.. nothing of consequence yet... looking out the window across the river right now I see the combine in that field...
The power of positive thinking!

2010-10-05T21:32:00.000-07:00

Some photos of our 9 month old A litter finishing a 1.5 mile cart run, these 4 have only run with each other or with our SH leader Achilles, All started pulling a chunk of sled track, then running with them on foot, then the bike work then the cart. the lower photo has Albert in single lead finishing a 2.4 mile run. training has gone and is going excellent with these guys. and Albert all around so far is nothing short of one fine sleddog reincarnate.

PANIC!

2010-09-24T13:48:00.000-07:00

..Dog yard is getting way to wet this year. All safe..

Fall training

2010-09-13T19:13:00.000-07:00

top Photo Nuchok lower of Albert (left) and Avery finishing a 1.5 mile bike run, Been doing bike work , still really been to hot for anything serious, Caught a deal on used Risdon Rig cart so no need to rush a fix on the Jalopy cart I had been using, It has updated with better tires and only a few scratches, stored in a garage.. Well thats as described by June anyway, the previous owner she is hanging on to her sled but letting the cart go as her one remaining dog is 15.....Perhaps we get some lettering on the cart in Honor of her and her team......... going to pick it up Sunday, 10 hours round trip to Waukesha, WI
Mid sept. and no sign of females in season, males and females are in separate pens on tie outs, unplanned matings should be reasonably covered.
Need to upgrade to be able to haul more dogs, with our 6 hole box with 4 friends doubled up and 2 in the cab we can haul 10.. somewhat reasonably but that's a max and only for short jaunts.. nuff said........

Ok I came back to add, We picked up the new cart.. wow great shape and ready to roll.. well.. one rear wheel outer rail took a hit with a tree June broke 3 ribs and i think she referred to it as 'god knows what else" and set that wheel out of aliment (toed out) easy enough fix as it does seem to hinder free rolling a bit, but over all in great shape. June and the cart ;-) Thanks Junebug..
Been thinking the dog hauling over.. current F150 to a full time dog truck option ? hmm have to check what a good used box would sell for...

never mind...

2010-09-11T23:15:00.000-07:00

never mind... well I did have something to say but something Just dawned on me...
Carry on.

2010-09-10T23:12:00.000-07:00

Not a good foto but Albert and Achilles doing a bit of bike work here, Been in a funk mood about all the politics of dog registries etc., Hard to get out and work with the dogs with out the distractions coming to mind, got involved to help and had the friggen messed dropped in my lap, apparently because I complained and questioned the lack of progress and pushed to get things moving forward it all became my problem, The creator of the problem or most of em... he quit and took his marbles with him blaming me.
I end up with the few marbles I bought and an empty marble bag.

What if?

2010-09-07T09:27:00.000-07:00

Nuchok

Vixen

2010-08-29T20:53:00.000-07:00

Birds eye View of our dog yard(s). A sort of

U.S. top-secret maximum-security kennel deep in the north woods...

Life goes on... Ya think?

2010-08-11T21:53:00.000-07:00

So still to blasted hot to do anything training wise, keep the dogs watered, get em shade and let em cool off in a pool like Argus in the photo diving in after a hot August storm front moved by dropping a ton of water all at once.
Crazy out of whack weather, a huge chunk of glacier breaks off the other day floating off toward the atlantic, fires world wide , major catastrophes constantly one after another..yet life goes on, one day at a time.

Spite.... OH yeah! Well..... whatever,,,,,,,,,,,,,

2010-08-05T22:08:00.000-07:00

–noun

a malicious, usually petty, desire to harm, annoy, frustrate, or humiliate another person; bitter ill will; malice.

Dog spite...are they spiteful ?, at least towards one another? it seems that way sometimes.

For them I suppose it may not be petty.

Whatever..

2010-07-31T09:21:00.000-07:00

Still too hot here, Seems this summer has been rain or sweltering heat...

Out on a limb or can’t see the forest for the trees

2010-07-13T23:13:00.000-07:00

Out on a limb was what it amounts to, Not that the limb was sawed off behind us mind you..perhaps it was weak, thin barked with a one dimensional aspect to the grain and could not handle being jumped on... In all reality the limb amounted to a leaf... a seed in the mind, The sower of the seed.. Packed it in and left no fertilizer.
And more seeds too... odd hybrid's that at this point can only be planted and grown in Canada properly...and 4 of those seeds can grow no where I can see yet.

And no one could see the forest for the trees..

What a difference a year makes

2010-06-27T01:10:00.000-07:00

This July will mark one year of having Seppala Siberians here, it has been an eventful year......
It's raining out again and it seems we are in another monsoon season mud cycle..
Ups and downs, triumphs and tragedies the good the bad and the ugly...
Learned, and learning every day...
We got our litter as we had set out to do in this last year - 6 pup's of Seppala Siberian Sleddogs to build a team, MS pure no less ..
We lost the only Female and a fine male from the litter to a stupid mistake in judgment and basic kennel security on my part.
We joined International Seppala Association as part of obtaining our Seppala's
For any number of reasons it is at square one as an organization,

J.J. Bragg has announced he folded his Seppala Siberian Sleddog Project...
That was the organization that in effect tied it all together with the Working Canine Association of Canada.

Learned a lot in the last year about driving a team , training a team, the value of a good leader.
So a shake up in any organizational matters is still settling out and time may be all that's needed, Our team is fairing no better, We could not work out terms for(Xaros), the lead we had been training and performance proving and will be returning him to Seppala Kennels with a couple other dogs we had been helping out with, Our other lead in training (Vatyna) place in the team and kennel is still not determined, has had some issues fitting in, one of my favorite dogs, she likes to lead and please.
We just happened to fall into an affordable deal for a race experienced trail lead, Vixen of Seppalta. We hope she will help fill the void at lead... a 4 dog mixed, %, sorta, AKA, depends on who ya ask and the moon phase Seppala team,, ;-} (That's a joke people) is the best we will be able to manage this winter and the 4 yearlings to train. getting out meeting other like minded people, be it at races, fun runs or whatever is going to be a priority this year,
The International Seppala Association... Stagnant, No member involvement and the inquires I did of prior members on file produced no interest... We have put the ISA file at the bottom of the in basket for now.

2010-05-02T19:58:00.000-07:00

14 weeks time to learn the trade,

out for a run at 13 weeks-our A litter

2010-04-28T20:30:00.000-07:00

Have you seen these dogs ?

2010-02-25T21:50:00.000-08:00

Posting this (With more to come on this topic) to spread the word for Seppala Kennels this is from a yahoo group i belong to and I hope I am not in violation by reposting this but the more the word gets out the better chances some one will know there whereabouts.......

Olaf Of Seppala

Seppala Kennels would appreciate any information as to the whereabouts of two male SSSDs bred by SK:

Olaf of Seppala, male, brown eyes, jet black and white, body colour white with large black piebald spots, long coat. Medium size, weight probably 50-52 pounds. Tattoed in green ink, V2 24R right ear. This dog is somewhat shy but very sweet natured. He has a past history of occasional seizures and may not be receiving needed medication for his condition.

Valianka of Seppala, male, blue eyes, black, grey and white, face mostly white, asymmetrical markings, a lot of white on nape of neck; legs light tan (black saddleback). Small size, weight probably around 45 pounds. Tattoed in green ink, V2 5S right ear. Valianka is energetic and somewhat nervous. May be in poor shape, underweight and with a parasite problem.

Both dogs are last known to have been in the possession of Jonathan Nathaniel Hayes, Poland Springs Kennels, St. Agatha, Maine.

Seppala Kennels would like to contact whoever now has these dogs, in order to pass along important information for the dogs' welfare. We routinely try to track all dogs of our breeding to ensure their safety and well-being.

Your cooperation is appreciated.

2010-02-21T18:33:00.000-08:00

Winter Blues?

2010-02-16T21:04:00.000-08:00

The days are getting longer, the pups are growing (Avery is 5 pounds) signs of spring being around the corner, but still plenty of snow on the trails,
Running mainly a team of six Achilles or SH lead with Echo of Seppala on loan running in various spots in team,.
The other four-Nuchok, Tsarko, Vatyna and Xaros Are being evaluated/performance tested in harness as a prerequisite to breeding, and wanting to get in the miles necessary is becoming a bit of a grind..Spring off the runners and time working on finishing up the home remodel that has bee sliding by due to good mushing conditions..... Ah but pups to train and maybe a spring breeding for Tyna to keep in mind... Damn I gotta get the house done... I just have too damn many things to do.

Basket full of Love

2010-02-14T22:31:00.000-08:00

Valentines day and my sweetie Shelly rode in the basket for a couple hour run down the river.. here are some photos..

Running up the miles

2010-02-13T20:58:00.000-08:00

Today;s running frosty out beautiful, Well on our way to running miles and conditions to complete performance proving of the new dogs (Required prior to breeding)

2010-02-01T20:49:00.000-08:00

Had the grand kids out and harnessed up there Sheperd/lab/Husky mix and got a little surprise. He is a natural.
The pups are a week old now and one has doubled his weigh to 33 oz all 6 doing fine. Found time for running the dogs and did a 16 and 12 mile run this weekend on a new section of snowmobile trail, lots of hills and woods. looking like a team and they are in good condition ready for more miles....
The International Seppala Association, is now a Registered non profit Corporation in the state of Minnesota, We have established banking and the Board of directors are working through the items forwarded to them from the general membership meeting, I need to get the letter from the President for 2010 out to the members and it is already February.
Send your dues folks, due Jan. 1st annually!

2010-01-25T19:20:00.000-08:00

Our first litter of Seppala Siberian Sleddogs by Beringa x Orlov of Seppala, With this event We now need to make a final decision on a kennel name..... We took a poll and..
Introducing the A litter of SEPPNESS

2010-01-02T17:41:00.000-08:00

Snaps from today, Passing..

2009-12-27T17:00:00.000-08:00

Here is a six dog Seppala Siberian Sleddog team between giving rides, Short loops through the woods. Peaceful apparently.... little Austin (3 year old) riding in his brothers lap came back sound asleep after a longer run.

2009-12-16T19:54:00.000-08:00

Not much training going on.. We have snow a foot of it all at once in a blizzard, Had to make a trip to Seppala Kennels in Manitoba to pick up Beringa of Seppala Born: 19 December 2003. she has been Bred to Orlov of Seppala.

Berry is a proven mother of one litter just last year, The Seppala kennels K litter of 5 pups and was described as "a conscientious little mother."
We have High hopes for berry being pregnant with what will be our first litter of Seppala Siberian Sleddogs.

This photo shows Berry relaxing in the chair over Shaman of Seppala another Seppala Siberian Sleddog we brought home, (The green ear is from a fresh ear tattoo) He is Just a year old and as yet not broken to harness, as soon as he settles in we can get him started.. Shelly has taken to this boy and wants to work with him as much as possible.
Seems to me I have seen old photos of Leonhard Seppala standing on a boat with dogs that look like this boy, will have to look into that........

Going to change the blog post content a bit (Thus the blog title change BTW seppaladog.com is also a website we are setting up) Going to be less training detail and more just general commentary on the training... keeping a more formal spread sheet and detailed log for performance proving and evaluation with those details so will not duplicate here.
Going to start blogging a bit more on the background and specifics on what were about, Our involvement with The Original Seppala Siberian Sleddog Evolving breed, the International Seppala Association and the Working Canine Association of Canada.

2009-12-05T19:36:00.000-08:00

We ran a mixed bag of dogs today, and tried something new..
With the cart we ran 5 dogs ~10 miles then after quick breather for baited water we added 3 dogs to this string for a total of 8 dogs and ran ~5 more miles.
This added speed to the end of the run and no one was over worked. the 5 that went 15 miles were in good shape.. overall the SH's were panting a bit as noted by Shelly, The Seppala's were not panting at all at the finish of the 15 miles.

2009-11-30T16:44:00.000-08:00

Our Douglas trail runs, Short runs from home, one on one training with bike etc. not shown.

2009-11-28T10:33:00.000-08:00

Well the first group to run this morning got a mile and the cart broke The photo shows the best part of the day, Windy who has not really gotten the team running concept down, got to do some harness work, Used him and Achilles to pull the broken rear end back to the truck, he did fine at this slower paced work and pulled a good part of the load, Started out with no neck line on him at all then hooked him to Achilles after he got rolling... one more small step for Windy

2009-11-26T09:55:00.000-08:00

4 dog 5 mile run
6 dogs 8 mile run
Just another run with good and bad points, wanted to run Xaros at lead and started with him and Achilles, strong 14 min. ~3 mile start to black top crossing at Co. Rd. 3.. we got across and on to the trail again clean everyone pulling strong up the hill away from the road/river crossing and going strong but Xaros started turning around to check out Tyna insistently . So I moved him to wheel and put Sharky up front.... well true to form Sharky wanted to wander and stop at smells suddenly, so I swapped him to swing and moved tyna to lead with Achilles. Dogs are pulling strong at the end, need snow ... Allison ran Ello and the SH's back 5 miles, and had to turn them and back track around a fallen tree.. Going to have to go clear those out... 3 separate sections with down trees now... take the chain saw along on a run perhaps

2009-11-21T12:40:00.000-08:00

Ran xaros single with the Bike 1 mile, gets out and goes, Confident, strong, fast. Tried the cart with Windy behind Achilles and Vatyna, looked good at first across parking area and street but once on the trail and starting to run he balked again and as I was running no neck line and a long gang line behind him he turned back to run towards the cart/me.. ,... Disappointing to say the least.. he does not fear the cart but does not want to get out and run...
So we then ran the group in the photo with Ello and Achilles not shown a wheel, 7.5 miles Xaros is doing well as a trail lead.. Single lead seems to be his best... Started with Tyna as co lead but pulled her at 2 mile water stop and put in echo moving, sharky into co-lead. This was part trying new positions and part Tyna was slack lining next to Xaros and she seems to better chasing.. but I also wanted echo to run..
I am thinking next run I will run 6 dogs to this 2 mile point and then add in Xaros single lead for 7 dogs the last 5.5 mile section, adding him 2 miles in should help kick our speed up for the remainder.. and the first 2 miles any of the dogs will run up front more or less (No turns closed trail)

Windy joins the gang line

2009-11-19T16:29:00.000-08:00

Worked with Windy and got him pulling tonight.. cart still puts him off a bit (noise, skid of tire on gravel) but pulling! first next to Achilles in lead and then behind Achilles.. Then I hooked Xaros out front alone and he got out front headed down the road, Just up the street and back..
Windy looked fine and really leaned into it once we got rolling. He may need a bit of Jollying along next time we hook into a team and I would prefer it be on snow... but he is going to come around fine...He turned Three years old on November 2nd

Lookng like a team

2009-11-15T19:51:00.000-08:00

Douglas trail run to Rochester and back 8 miles ~9AM start Four of the dogs in the photo were not harness broke when we brought them home in July.... Xaros lead right Tsarko left lead, Vatyna swing and Nuchok left wheel with Echo right wheel. Multiple road crossings as well as 2 bridges Xaros did real well as a basic trail lead once I quit confusing him by calling out Achilles.. Still have issues with onby when we come to others on the trail but over all a good run...tight tugs no real tangles and ran a good clip for the whole run, Tsarko is a bit of a wanderer in co-lead. will be trying echo in lead (less easily distracted) with Xaros and move Tsarko to wheel with Nuchok.. as they are both tall and good steady pullers.. Although I think Nuchok as he matures (11 months now) may have leader potential he listens responds and looks back at me once in a while for direction. tried windy again after working one on one with him but he balked again.... More one on one..... From 7 minutes of video shot on the run the photo at right was about the best screen captue I could get.... need a cart with suspension......

Every one knows its windy!

2009-11-09T20:14:00.000-08:00

Worked with Windy Of Seppala pulling drag 2 days in a row and added weight 2nd day to the point of he had to lean into the harness and work, a good tite tug, Although he did not get out front as well pulling more weight as compared to the first day with half the drag weight, he pulled the whole walk and no balking. Plan to do a few more of these walks and then hook him single with a lead in front and no dog behind... and try the cart with me on bike next to him and a cart pilot.

Grandsons were out on the weekend so I hooked 3 dogs to the cart and gave them a quick little ride (it was in the 50's so a short out and back) I noted a huge difference in the strength of the 3 compared to even four hooked at the start of our fall training.. we have not run long runs but these short runs with a fair load behind them is putting on muscle and it is noticeable. No Snow yet within a reasonable drive from here.....

Working on details or De Tails

2009-11-07T19:17:00.000-08:00

The main reason we are doing fall training is just as it sounds it is training- Not like a lot of regular miles conditioning 6 new dogs, Four were not harness broke and none had run in a team with me, So getting them into a basic running group before the snow flies is our main goal and to look for leader potential in the pack, The lead we have Achilles is a SH and I have already noted that he can not keep pace with the SSS's, The progress has been good on the running team, To date the average of our run's is 3.9 miles and that's about all we care to do so as to not abuse feet .. even with that we have had a few abrasions and minor cuts... Lead dog training has not really been worked on, but evaluating the likely candadates has and it looks like Xaros and Windy are the go to guys. Xaros has been running good but is a little independent where Windy seems to want to please just based on personality, Picture is of windy a few days after we brought him here. deal with windy is he balked both times I hooked him into the team.. Really did not want to run so we unhooked him and did the runs without him and have been meaning to get to work on some one on one with him... Well I did finally take him today. First Shelly manned the cart and I hooked him up on a long tug and tried to lead him out front on a leash a bit and see if he would pull the cart alone like this... Well that was a no go he balked and did not like the big ol cart behind him.
so I went back to basics and hooked him to the Snowmobile track drag and we went for a one mile walk, at first the track was a bit bothersome to him but by the end of the driveway he was pulling away and getting out front on his own. went around the streets of Wasioja allowing calling out commands at intersections and such. By the end coming into the drive and towards the house he picked it up and ran it home good on his own so I called out "take it home" to set that in his head -to speed it up for the final run... Will be doing this walk with him as many days as I can manage for the next week or so, adding a bit more weight to the drag every day ... not a lot, just a pound or two a day to gradually step him up to really leaning into the harness.. Interesting that 4 of 5 Seppala's that were not harness broke took right to it with probably less then a mile of this drag mat training, and Windy is probably the most eager to please and tractable of the 5.. So go figure.
On a side note Windy and his brother Echo from another litter (repeat breeding of the sire and dame) are not our dogs, they are here as a favor to us by there owner http://www.seppalakennels.com/ to fill our team, And were helping SK out putting them to work and training... They are possibly available to the right person, and I would keep em both if I could afford it... I have to say Jeffrey and Susan are Very attached to each and every one of the furkids as I call them and if your interested you might want to go find a lake and verify your walking on water skills before you inquire... You would not only have to pass SK muster but I assume my opinion of any one coming here to look at them would be taken into account as well... and well.... as the step dad and living with these guys now for a few months, I will hold a very high standard for anyone asking. I'll leave it at that.....

Fun Run

2009-10-31T23:58:00.000-07:00

The North Star Sled dog Club (We are members) held the fall fun run and membership meeting this weekend we attend today Sat. only, This was our first time at an event with other dog teams. Heard a great presentation by Dr. Jerry Vanek on canine parasites, but did not get notes... Grrrrr. Ran 5 SSS and Achilles estimate a 7.5 mile run on the looping trails Very nice, We are now to the point that It is obvious Achilles cannot keep up with the Seppala's after just a short time, he does not have the stamina ( and he has the most miles in this fall out of any dog here)... He gets tired by trying to keep up the pace and starts to sour as a lead not taking commands.
The SSS are starting to respect me as boss, gaining control little or no snarfing in the team, Although I think a big part of my problem was having 2 new females (both going into heat not long after arriving here) along with 5 new unaltered males all into a new kennel and new owner with our 4 SH's and our GSD mix.
We learned that we need to work on onby with other teams passing head on as the two times it occurred we did not get onby... no major tangles but not a clean pass. Did not get a chance to overtake and try a pass as the situation did not present itself.
The run host Rick and Annette Johnson were very gracious and real nice folks. http://www.sleddogcentral.com/displayads/johnson.htm
We also met Ivy & Mike who may come down to do some running of dogs with us. The have 2 dogs and run them with a trike, (Not sure if they have a sled as well)
Will be running all SSS in team from here on in and using the SH's as a second team to work on passing etc.

First Run on SNOW!...sort of

2009-10-24T15:06:00.000-07:00

Ran 2 teams of 5 today. Couple of photos, In the 2nd photo you can see we have dogs waiting, We did a drop and put the dogs out on drop chains, and did more then one run from this spot to basicly practice a travel situation.
This weekend is the Northstar Sleddog Clubs fall fun run http://www.nssdc.biz/events.html We are planning to attend Sat. Never traveled to an event nor met any other members so it should be interesting.

Clean run -- Leader thoughts

2009-10-18T09:50:00.000-07:00

6 dogs, 4 SSS and 2 SH's -5 miles. Video of our finish .. Interesting run in with 3 deer, we came over a rise and about ran into them, 2 ran right, 1 left.. this confused Xaros at lead with Achilles enough that I went from whoa to onby and got them running on with out so much as stopping ... Xaros is sill to independent.. Starts out snarfing at Achilles a bit then settles in but is looking around a lot, turns around on stops to interact with team... I will move him to swing for a while, and run Achilles single lead, Swing's can learn by following instead of Achilles having to Shove and pull.. and blowing commands..
Not going to try and push lead on a SSS, Best to let them learn running in the team for the short term... They have not been here long enough to place me as "The Boss" Need that before I can get a real lead training routine going..

" And now, time for someone completely different"

2009-10-17T21:30:00.000-07:00

We have a training helper Allison and her Alaskan Husky Ello, The deal is she works Ello with our Siberian Huskys and they become a team to practice with, passing etc. So anyway she has ridden the cart once - 3 dogs in the photo on the Douglas trail, Today she is going to run the dogs from the house here on the road, I am paranoid, will Achilles do this, will they be hit by car, dragged away after a cat, can she hold on? etc. ... Hook - Achilles at lead with Ello (Her Alaskan) And Neiko at wheel with Maraq of Seppala (Zeus cut a toe nail and has an infection?), So I ride the bike as chaperon a run to the loop (1.5 mile round trip) make it fine ... I crash trying to kick a stick out of trail while riding at a good clip. But the dogs do great. Achilles has no problem passing from behind as several times he cruised right by me close, with no issue.
Allie then runs again after dogs get a drink and quick break, Her friend .... Michael..... anyway he rides the bike and they run it again no big issues... Good dogs could be heard all around.....

Xaros of Seppala is the leader in training, Running in the morning.........

2009-10-15T20:36:00.000-07:00

Went from home on a 4 mile run with 4 dogs 3 SSS and Achilles great going out but turning around and going back the way we came has never made sense to Achilles so at every intersection he wanted to take the path not taken...
Thinking back Echo was the star of the run but I did not note it at the time, he was no trouble and stayed calm when Achilles goofed the 2 turns..Did well running with Tyna... But he is probably the most seasoned of that run... More later

2009-10-10T10:13:00.000-07:00

Cold today 1/4 inch of ice on the water dishes this morning. Down tree across trail at 6 mile point had to lift dogs over in pairs and then loft 150 pound cart over tree, Seemed the best way as turning back to take the black top bike path intersection was at a farmyard crossing gate intersection ( "Gate" consisted of a couple strands of barbwire electrified) with goats, ducks, chickens and all sorts of interesting distractions just beyond, that I had just gotten the team to go onby with only a slight stop to look over the menu....
Good run over all. and teaming over that log was great practice for something no doubt! Photo is of the road crossing at 5 miles.

2009-10-06T21:36:00.000-07:00

Well it is still raining here... We have good drainage in the dog yard but after so many days your gonna get mud, Tsarko(Sharky) is cleaning up the pink dinner mix bucket in the photo, He is like a cat with his affection, aloof at times and other times he will rub against your legs and roll on the ground belly up and swat his paws at you ... Just like a cat.. We had him here 2 days and he was acting like he was born here. Watch this video I was amazed at how calm he is (2nd day here) .. He took to me right off when we first met as well. I was worried he was gonna be some sort of slacker in harness... Nope took to the harness like he was born with it on, and running with some of our Huskies He was kicking the pace up constantly, tight tug and leaning into it on the hills... He's young ( going on 2 years) a natural sleddog to be sure.

Running in the rain

2009-10-05T16:27:00.000-07:00

Coming off the trail to the parking lot, End of a 7.5 mile run, Oct. 3rd
Steady rain the entire way.

2009-09-10T03:28:00.000-07:00

A place for our training progress to be posted.