On letting dogs go: Giving them a chance to be someone for somebody else

I keep a spreadsheet that calculates three years into the future for the dog team: total dogs in kennel, total dogs in training, total yearlings, puppies, total leaders. I’m always looking a few years ahead, while simultaneously looking at the dogs in front of me. It helps inject a sense of objectivity into what could be a very emotional evaluation—your dogs.

Going into this year, I knew I would need to let a lot of dogs go, part of the nature of a competitive racing kennel. After a year off of racing, there were 10 2 year olds and 2 3 year olds that I needed to understand what they could really do, what they were really capable of. Dogs don’t really mature until they are 3 years old. Understanding what these youngsters were capable of helped me find them the perfect home or kennel. I had many tough decisions to make about a team of very good dogs.

Chuck asks me often about how these decisions are made, what it is that I see. It’s hard to explain if you’re not watching the team run for hours and days and weeks, if you’re not working with these athletes to build a competitive team. Just as with human athletes, teams change and swap around. This year, the Shady Pines athletes have spread across the country and Canada, into some of the most tremendous homes. The dogs and I are very lucky.

Gem and Page running together with Sabrina. Page connected immediately to her and her family, and Gem has become a main leader from the get go. Gem of course has toys to play with, as I requested.

Gem: Gem, because of her age and her skill as a leader, I had hoped to find another kennel for by the end of the season. It took a long time, and a lot of ‘not quite interested’ mushers. I’m guessing this was mostly because Gem doesn’t have a flashy pedigree, despite her years of experience as a racing dog. Gem’s life here at the kennel started when she was only 2 years old, and she rose quickly to leadership as a three year old, and her race successes include the Can Am 100 2020 winning team, as well as leading most of the last Can Am 250 where we scratched. This year, Gem raced at Laconia and led Brianna’s Can Am 30 team with Aurora. Gem has always been a tough-headed happy hound, whip smart in her commands. In short, she is a very good lead dog and it took awhile to find the right kennel for her. A few weeks before Can Am, a friend in Quebec reached out and put me in touch with Sabrina Bernier, a young mom who has a micro kennel and was looking to add some leadership. She fell in love with Gem immediately, and also asked about Pagey.

Page: Page and those short little legs! Page has always been so driven, a front end dog developing into a leader, the best eater and drinker of the two year olds…. but just couldn’t quite keep up. Page has been a favorite since birth, the entire persona of her father Hawkeye in a smaller package, her calm demeanor and ease of handling. Page is a loud dog at times, but is mostly nonreactive to dogs around her, very calm and gets along with most anyone. This past winter, Page had a freak injury, she cut the inside of her wrist on her snap, and missed most of the racing season. Page went to Sabrina with Gem, and immediately enamored herself of Sabrina’s two young girls.

I love that these two went together, and I constantly see videos and photos of the two of them leading teams for Sabrina, and her occasional tour clients, but my favorite are the videos I see of Sabrina with Gem leading her four dog team, and her two daughters behind her with two-dog teams, which of course includes Page as the girls love her so much. Thank you Sabrina, and thank you Page and Gem. Gem was sponsored this year by Leah and Ashley Pales, and Page was sponsored by Sheridan and Debbie Brown.

Hoss: Hoss works so hard, and big beautiful long legged honest dog. But yet, something always seemed to hold him back. Hoss was the only dog that I advertised widely, and immediately a kennel near Duluth reached out. Another micro-kennel, who also had dogs from my friends Matt and Erin. Hoss caught a ride to MN after Can Am, where he has been hiking and snowshoeing, hanging out inside with their kids for Sunday dinners, and has already run his first race, the Dog Days of Winter fun runs in Grand Marais. Thank you David and Cristin, and thank you Hoss. Hoss was sponsored this year by Meg Lane and her family (including Thai!).

Orchid in lead with Nancy’s team, she fits right in.

Orchid: Oh man. Orchid. Coming to terms with Orchid’s capabilities was so hard. Orchid is a loving friendly dog, worthy of her own social media accounts, and a big girl who shined in lead when things got tough. When we first started running big teams on a sled, to boost up the speed, that was when Orchid started struggling mentally. Physically I couldn’t find anything, not even a nick on her toe. She moved to the slower smaller team, and onto Brianna’s team for the Wilderness 35 mile race. During the race, Orchid made it clear that she wasn’t meant to be racing, she got really stressed and Brianna had to work hard to get her happily back to the finish (go Brianna!). It was heartbreaking, but it was clear that Orchid needed a low-stress kennel. I reached out to friend Nancy Lang, who is an experienced musher in MN and has Oriana’s brother Paolo, and has a group of dogs that honestly look a lot like Orchid. Nancy’s kennel and her goals for her team would align with what Orchid was telling me she needed: smaller teams, not as long runs, and no pressure as they explore the woods of northern MN. I am so happy that Nancy fell in love with Orchid, and Orchid has settled in so well. Thank you Nancy, and thank you Orchid. Orchid was sponsored this year by her Orchid Fan Club: Pam Laflamme, Andy Deegan, and Gina Romano.

Jameson: Sweet hardworking loving Jameson. The longer the runs got, the harder it got for Jameson to stay positive. I had thought I had figured out how to get him through, thought I had figured out how to harden his mind and have him trust his natural athletic gifts and love that I had for him. As a leader, I was hoping I could. I brought Jameson up to 50 mile runs, and he raced on my 1st place Wilderness Race team. I had hope that he was going to come together, as the most beautifully-built dog of his litter. And yet…..For all of the two year olds, Laconia was a turning point—many of them declared themselves racing dogs, but Jameson made it clear that this just wasn’t for him. Jameson moved in with Heather Eich and her family, a local family that is sled dog savvy as they’ve helped out with other local kennels and have adopted a retired sled dog of their own. They fell in love with Jameson immediately, with his affectionate personality and energy. Jameson has always been a dog that needs space to zoom and expend his energy, which they have all around them. Jameson will be a hiking and kick-sled buddy, as they live up against a State Forest. Thank you Heather and your family (including son Jameson, it was meant to be!), and thank you Jameson. Jameson was sponsored this year by our caretakers and housemates Patrice and Jackson.

Bruce: I know. Bruce. I can’t believe it myself, that I would let him go. Bruce has always been one of the strongest of the two year olds, second only to Wocket with miles and ability to hang with the adults as a yearling. Bruce has so much energy, and is a cheerleader with a big smile. Bruce struggled keeping up with the speed at longer runs, and ran with Brianna on her Can Am 30 team. I was fully prepared to keep Bruce, and Riptide, another year but there were still these nagging questions, especially looking two or three years out at the race goals. Melodie and Kevin, mushers who I had raced with at Can Am, were looking to add experienced dogs to their team to improve their kennel. I offered them Bruce, and Riptide, and they said yes immediately.

Riptide: Similar to Bruce, I had questions about Riptide. Riptide ran on my Wilderness Race team, ran at Laconia, and aside from his pacing gait is a fairly perfect sled dog. Riptide gets along with everyone, and was showing promise in the front of the team, and is a big lanky strong boy like his brothers. Rip has the toughest head of that litter, and was hanging with the adults as a yearling. Letting Riptide go was the hardest decision as he is a good dog with a lot of promise. It was a mix of things, such as his needing special treatment as a rock eater, and questions I had about him maintaining speed over long distances. Riptide is a good dog. A really good dog.

In talking with my friend Al, about the tough decisions of letting good dogs go, Al reminded me that sometimes it’s important for dogs to become something for someone else, to use the phrase he said when he gave Gemma to me. Thank you Melodie and Kevin, and thank you Bruce and Rippers. Bruce was sponsored this year by Bruce Clendenning, and Riptide by A Clendenning, part of the Clendenning family sponsorships.

And last, but certainly not least, is Speck!

In November, when friend Christine came up to train for a camping run, Speck! was added to her team for the second leg. She and I were running smaller teams as the trail was super iced over, and adding a dog at the second run after everyone was calmed down felt safer. Christine noted that adding Speck! to her team somehow made her team worse, as he goofed off, messed with his partner, and wasn’t working hard or consistently. A large and weirdly-put-together dog with a huge personality, I knew Specky would be a far better pet than a sled dog. There are endless people who would have likely stepped up and welcomed the creature, but I asked my friends Heather and Kevin if they’d take him in and add him to their farm life in Virginia. Speck! frolicks daily in their big fenced-in fields, and wrestles almost constantly with Flynn while their old dog Murphy looks on. Speck! is adjusting to the Virginia heat, and gets hot dogs, eggs, and lots of attention. I miss that emotional support animal, but I know he is living his life fully with Heather and Kevin, with Flynn as his new bestie. Thank you Heather, Kevin, Flynn and Murphy, and thank you Speck!. Speck! Was sponsored this year by the Eddys, and Lauren Rushfeldt.

The dogs and I are so lucky that we are part of a wide community, even larger now with teammates spread throughout the country and even internationally. Thank you friends, and thank you, always, to the dogs.

P.S.: Ariel: Ariel, my heart. Ariel has been part of my life for seven years, arriving as a spunky yearling in 2015. Ariel was slow to mature in the team, and even slower to mature in lead. Single leader, championship snuggler, I had a hard time imaging life without this sweet little redhead. Ariel is a thread to Wembley, to Brynnie, to Bayley, to lead dogs who have passed on, and for the past two years was a primary house dog. With a chaotic life like I have, traveling for work and moving around so many different houses, keeping house dogs is hard. Ariel led a few last puppy runs with her sister, bolting back to the couch when we got back, and then this spring moved to Canada with her biggest fans Terry and Connie Eddy, a companion to their other dog Azula.

I miss her so much. Thank you Ariel for years of companionship, and thank you Terry and Connie Eddy for giving her the center-of-the-universe life she deserves. Ariel was sponsored this year by the Eddys.