Nature's Kennel Sled Dog Racing & Adventures

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Monday, May 20th, 2013

Nature's Kennel

PO Box 5
McMillan, MI 49853
Tel: 1-906-748-0513
Email: info@natureskennel.com

Dog Blog

Adventure Journals

Welcome to the Nature's Kennel Dog Blog! Check out the latest kennel news, stories of your favorite sled dogs, Iditarod training adventures, and more!

Saturday, July 31st, 2010 Mallory is here, Tal has left, Maliko and Kelsie are busy as the devil, and Tasha is an angel. Our first new Guide for the 2010-2011 season has arrived! Her name is Mallory Sturmer and she is from St. Paul, Minnesota. Tasha and I are way beyond excited to have Mallory because she has a lot of dog sledding experience, a lot of Veterinary experience, and a lot of nannying experience. She has only been with us a week and already the dogs love her and best of all, Nate loves her! In order to get Mallory to join the NK Team we had to agree to take "Teton", Mallory's Alaskan Husky side kick. I am not sure who smiles more, Teton or Mallory. They are both awesome! Tal the puppy has left for his new home in Minnesota. For those of you who got to know Tal in our summer kennel tours, you know he is one of the sweetest puppies of all time. He is in the perfect home though so don't be too sad. Beth is now the human who gets blessed with Tal's presence. The neat part of the story is that Tal is named after Beth's Dad. THANK YOU BETH FOR ALL OF THE HELP THAT YOU GIVE US!!! See you in September! Maliko and Kelsie have gotten really busy with our summer kennel tours. We were not really sure how many people would have the sense of adventure to drive to the middle of nowhere to see our dogs but we have been pleasantly surprised. I think a huge part of the success is Maliko and Kelsie. Their guided tour of the history, equipment, dogs, and the all important puppies is thorough and very fun. Maliko is going to continue giving tours every day (except Tuesdays and Wednesdays) until after Labor Day. Come on out and play with 24 puppies! I am married to a special woman. I included a picture of my workbench (aka our dining room table). Harry Putney and I made several more sled stanchions for new sleds this winter for the touring business and racing team. I am now in the process of getting several good coats of spar urethane on the white ash stanchions. Not only does Tasha not complain about me taking over her house, she helps me build the sleds. (Don't worry Grandma's, we do not have Nate in the house while we are fuming up the place.) Posted by Ed


Monday, July 26th, 2010 I beleive this is an acceptable activity in the UP...baby quad riding! Don't worry grandma, Nate had his hat on for protection and we drove slow to Harry's house! I think he'll be ready for training dogs this fall! Posted by Tasha


Sunday, July 25th, 2010 Wow, have I been slacking with this journal. Here are a few bullets to get everyone back up to speed on what is happening at Nature's Kennel: Nate is still an amazingly easy baby. He has a few bug bites right now because the mosquitos have finally hatched but he does not seem to mind. He sleeps from 8 at night until 5 in the morning, eats and then sleeps again until 8. Mallory arrived and is ready to Guide for us this winter. She has tons of baby experience too and is excited to help us raise Nate. Tasha and I have moved into the Roadhouse and are doing some work on the Main house to get it ready for Guides to live in this year. The work is all fun stuff; finishing some drywall, painting, and putting up some missing pieces of trim. The puppies are growing like weeds and are in a growth stage were they look like they are all legs. Since Clark is the father of almost all of them and he is all legs, this growth phase may be here to stay. Maliko and Kelsie are busy with summer tours of the kennel and are both still doing a great job taking care of the dogs and puppies. Reports from Jake and Ryne in Alaska say the dogs are doing well on the glacier. Jen has 9 of our dogs on a ground operation in Skagway and she sends updates often about how wonderful the summer has been. Jen also has Ladybird with her brand new four puppies; Rock, Paper, Scissors, and Shoot! Einstein is the father of the pups so they should be smart. Tasha and I are busy staying ahead of schedule with projects to prepare us for a busy season of having fun with tour guests as well as training an amazing group of dogs for that silly race in Alaska called the Iditarod! (In the picture below I think Nate is as surprised as I am about how fast time is flying this summer.) (THANK YOU for the shirt Jim and Sally!!!) Posted by Ed*


Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 Well, I hate to rub it in to all those in the sweltering heat, but it's been POURING rain here all morning. Since Nate is sleeping, I figured I'd give everyone a short NK update. Yooper, who has been a kennel favorite, 4 time Iditarod participant, awesome sled dog, sister to Tasha Canine and son of Momo, has hit the retirment jackpot. He was one of those dogs that we thought we could never let go of. He seemed so bonded to us and was always a bit apprehensive of new situations. Well, guess we were wrong. He now lives with Opal Krout in Arkansas with his granddaughterWhistle and great granddaughters Nikishka and Oopsie Daisy. Opal recently took her crew to the photo studio for some glamour shots. I thought you'd like to read the update from Opal on her life with four sled dogs/house dogs/best friends: (Thanks Opal for taking such good care of Yooper and his little harem!) "They are getting along quite well with each other and also the smaller dogs. What a pack they make. Nikishka is going to be the Alpha Female. She and Daisy are 18 months old now. Daisy is the tallest of the 4 with Yooper just slightly shorter. Of course she is only 45 pounds, so Yooper at 63 pounds looks huge beside her. Nikishka is still my "Wild Child" and is constantly on the move. If she is sitting still, she is looking around to see what is going on in the back yard. If she's on the couch with me, she is looking at all the other dogs and the parakeets. Daisy and Whistle won't go outside without the other one along side. They are both so sweet.@ Daisy has discovered that she can "howl" and is trying it out each morning instead of using her shrill whine. Nikishka knows how to howl on command and I usually get her to do it when fishermen and boats are going past the house. Get a lot of comments from the lake, they can't see her up on the deck because of the trees, all they can do is hear her. I keep thinking that someone will complain about the "wolf" I have! Yooper can't wait to go outside in the morning and starts howling. He runs to the door and because I have laminate floors, he goes slipping and sliding all over the den and dining room to the patio door. The other day he came running and slid into me, almost knocked both of us down but somehow we both kept our feet under us. Daisy has decided that she can jump over the top of him instead of going around him and she does it so gracefully. Whistle likes to sit beside me outside with her paws and head turned sideways on my lap. She is so sweet and her guard hair has grown back in and she really looks gorgeous. She is the shortest and weights 42 pounds which surprised me because I thought when was lighter than that. All of them have been bathed in the bathtub and do real good. In fact, they run and jump in the tub when I tell them it is bath time. I bathe them one at a time and while I am upstairs with one the rest are downstairs howling and wanting to come up too. Yooper loves the couch and is sitting beside me right now as I write this. Everyone else is sleeping on the floor or in their crates.@ All in all, it has been an interesting ride with all of them and I wake up each morning wondering what they are going to do today that will make me laugh. We go for rides in the truck, the 3 girls in the back seat and Yooper riding shotgun. I tell them we are going to the store and they run off leash to the truck and sat at the truck doors, waiting for me to open them. They jump in and I hook them into the seatbelts and Yooper takes his place in the front bucket seat. They all loved the run up the road with my dry land rig but since then, it has been so hot that we will have to wait till fall to break out the harnesses again. As good as they eat, I hope the harnesses will still fit. None of them have had an accident in the house or their kennels. If anyone is wondering about your dogs and how well they do as a companion dogs after a life of being a sled dog....let me say they are wonderful. Very friendly and intelligent and most of all...LOVING!!!!! After a hard night at work, it is wonderful to come home to pure unconditional love.@ I will always be in debt to you and Ed for sharing your dogs with others....After all they are PURE LOVE ON 4 PAWS!!!!!@ Thanks for everything.....Opal and her kids.....Yooper, Whistle, Nikishka Blue and Oopsie Daisy." Posted by Tasha

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