So I’ve been thinking a lot about how I first got into sled
dog racing…it’s hard to believe that I’ve been running sled dogs for over a
decade! I figured it’s time to put everything on paper before I forget. Believe
it or not, it all started in Arizona
as a little girl praying for a horse.
I was a typical seven
year old girl with dreams of having a horse. I basically played horses or
pretended to be a horse constantly. I even prayed for one, although we lived in
town. My dad once told me to stop praying for a horse because I was never going
to get one…no, I’ve never had one but little did we know I would end up with a
much more expensive hobby!
We moved to Idaho
before I was ten and in light of the move (the second within a year), I wanted
a friend and a dog I could handle myself. My childhood companion, a German Shepherd/Border
Collie mix named Sable, was dog aggressive and not suited for a little girl – I
couldn’t control her and was actually afraid to walk her if there was another
dog nearby. Still, I loved Sable and you’ll find her in many childhood pictures
with our family.
The most important
job she had, as far as I was concerned as a little girl, was to guard me from
the range cattle (many with long, sharp horns) which we biked through in the Arizona
back country. With her and my dad around, I would swallow my fear and follow
the family through the herd. Being the dog of my childhood also meant she spent
time as my confidant for those childhood meltdowns. It makes me laugh now; but
at the time she was a properly compassionate listener…and I now know that while
dogs can’t understand all your words, they read your body language very well:
they know when something is wrong and try to fix it in the only way they know
how.
So we were living
in the city in Idaho and I wanted
a dog…my own dog.
Back as far as I
can remember, I wanted a husky-type dog. Remember all the toddler picture books
with pictures of animals? Well, my favorite was always the wolf or husky. When
we moved to Idaho I began to want
a real one for my own.
My mom, being a
wise woman, told me to do my research and present my proposal to my dad in the
hopes of gaining his approval. I did my research, with her help, and decided I
wanted a Siberian Husky rather than a Malamute or any other breed. I then began
to talk with AKC breeders. Sadly, some of them were less than friendly to a
little girl who wanted to get her first dog. First lesson learned: don’t give
up just because some folks aren’t encouraging.
At last I found a
breeder with two 9 month old huskies. I wasn’t too concerned about the age; I
really wanted to get a dog and couldn’t find any puppies that fall. We saw the
parents, looked at pedigrees (nothing special there) and went home from the
first visit without a dog. We went back with my dad and he agreed to buy me my
first dog. I remember him asking me if I was sure I wanted the one I got – I nodded
and said, “Yes, I’m sure.”
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