Table of Contents
Editorial:
The Bigger
Picture
*
Featured
Inuit Dog Owner:
Paul Landry
*
Book
Reviews:
On
Thin Ice
Of
Dogs and Men
*
Poem: Brave
Little Heart
*
Janice
Howls:
Hypothyroid
Disease
*
Fan Hitch
Contributor Receives Writing Award
*
Expedition
News:
The
Thule 2000
*
In My Humble
Opinion:
Traditional
Advice
*
Updates:
The
Nunavut Quest 2000
Ihe
ISDVMA Meeting
Editor's/Publisher's Statement
Editor: Sue Hamilton
Webmaster: Mark Hamilton
The Fan Hitch Website
and Publications of the Inuit Sled
Dog– the quarterly Journal (retired in 2018)
and PostScript – are
dedicated to the aboriginal landrace
traditional Inuit Sled Dog as well as related
Inuit culture and traditions.
PostScript is
published intermittently as material
becomes available. Online access is free at: https://thefanhitch.org
PostScript welcomes your
letters, stories, comments and The editorial
staff reserves the right to edit submissions
used for publication.
Contents of The Fan
Hitch Website and its
publications are
protected by international copyright laws. No
photo, drawing or text may be reproduced in
any form without written consent. Webmasters
please note: written consent is necessary
before linking this site to yours! Please
forward requests to Sue Hamilton, 55 Town Line
Rd., Harwinton, Connecticut 06791, USA
or mail@thefanhitch.org
|
In My Humble Opinion: Traditional Advice
by
Mark Hamilton
Twenty five years of owning, breeding and raising Alaskan
Malamutes was not adequate preparation for the experience of
having sixteen ISD puppies (litters of 6, then 10, two weeks
apart) running loose in our backyard. First there was the
issue of just keeping track of them all. Then we simply
stared in disbelief when our small herd of puppies began
ripping up clumps of grass and stripping the bark off of
trees. It was the aggressiveness of their play however, both
within the litters and in our larger play groups, that
shocked us and for which we found ourselves totally
unprepared. We decided to follow the same advice we've
offered to others so many times in the past, we called the
breeder.
"Jayko, the puppies are fighting. I mean, this is serious
stuff, not play. Tiri's pups aren't even four weeks old
and they're grabbing each other by the scruff of the neck
and growling and shaking their head's violently. They
don't stop until the other one is shrieking. Amaruq's pups
are two weeks older and quite a bit larger, now they're
bullying Tiri's pups. What do we do?"
With a chuckle Jayko responded, “Let them fight. They
can't kill each other at this age." At the time we took
his admonition to mean, "Oh, it's nothing to worry about,
they won't do any permanent damage to each other."
Now, we realize he was saying so much more.
That is often the case with "traditional wisdom". Simple
sounding statements hold a depth and breadth of
information that is easily overlooked at the time. Another
of Jayko's pieces of advice will help illustrate this
point, "Don't feed them too much meat, their legs will be
too short."
Well, we accepted that one at face value, and since the
pups' primary food source was EAGLE POWER PACK we didn't
worry over the point. Later we mentioned Jayko's advice to
the chief veterinarian at EAGLE, Dr. Al Townsend. His
immediate response was that it was very sound guidance as
too much meat could throw off the calcium/phosphorous
ratio which would result in short legs. The thing is, at
the time we didn't realize Jayko was warning us to be sure
to feed a balanced diet.
Similarly, an ISD in the north learns from the start that
its job in the contract between human and dog is to supply
the
means of locomotion. Their natural instinct to pull
is reinforced as appropriate behavior. Arctic
mushers don't encourage bad pulling habits by “pedaling”
or running along side their komotik. I well remember
several times in Greenland when, faced with a long and
steep uphill climb, we offered to get off the komotik to
lighten the load for the dogs. Always the answer was quite
emphatic that the dogs would pull us up, and of course
they did. Now on reflection it sounds a lot to me like
Jamie Nelson's advice that you need to teach your dogs to
pull. These days we realize how much more Jayko was saying
when he advised us to "let them fight". He was telling us
this is a breed driven to established itself within the
hierarchy of dominance within their pack. They must find
their place and defend that position. Let them establish
the ground rules while they are incapable of doing extreme
damage to each other, because if you don't let them do it
when they’re little, you won't like the consequences when
they do it later.
|