The Complete Novice -- Building a Team
THE COMPLETE NOVICE starting out
in sleddog sport is confronting the most difficult aspect of the
game at the outset: getting a team of dogs together in such a way
that they all go in the same direction at once, that the direction is the
one desired and controlled by the driver, that the dogs do not fight or
cause tangles, that the driver doesn't lose the team and wind up on
foot in the middle of the forest, and that he is able to hook up the
team, go out for a run, and return home without undue incidents. It
is neither simple nor easy at first, but don't be discouraged, because
the further you go, the better it gets.
Those who naively assume that acquiring a
functional team is a simple matter are in for great shock and
disappointment. Okay, a few lucky individuals seem to be born dog
drivers and trainers, able to create a working team out of relatively
unpromising material such as dogs from the local animal shelter;
we've all heard of that guy, but come to think of it, somehow I've
never actually met him! Save yourself some grief and don't assume
you can do that, too. Likewise what I call GSDs -- not German
Shepherd Dogs, but 'Garage Sale Dogs' -- are not likely to be a
positive experience for novice drivers. If somebody no longer
wants those dogs and is willing to give them away or sell them
for an old song, they are overwhelmingly likely to be undesirable,
problem dogs in one way or another. Another thing to avoid is
BIG dogs -- most novices, especially those with the 'Jack London
complex', assume that sleddogs should be big hulking brutes of 85
to 140 pounds in weight. (How many times have I looked over
somebody's newly-acquired sleddog while being told, "Isn't he
great? He weighs a hundred pounds!") Nothing could be further from
the truth. Big dogs eat like horses, often fight like tigers, and have
neither speed nor endurance, only strength. Speed and endurance
are a lot more important than brute strength. Dogfood is expensive.
Peace in your team is highly desirable. Avoid huge crossbred
"huskies" and the large purebred varieties if you want to drive
dogs the smart way. And if somebody wants to give you or sell
you an entire dog team that he somehow no longer needs, you
might be better off to make polite noises and escape as quickly
as possible. You do not need his problems, especially if you have
little or no experience with sleddogs.
So let's be reasonable and assume that
you are a cautious and intelligent novice who would like to have
fun building and driving a recreational dog team, and (since this
is the Seppala Kennels Website) you have given serious
thought to the idea of doing so with Seppalas. But how to begin?
YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE TO TRUST SOMEBODY to a certain
extent. Your situation is a little difficult, because a serious breeder
is unlikely to offer the best dogs to a new and unknown novice
driver. The sport has a high failure and attrition rate, so in a
breed like the Seppala Siberian Sleddog, with a limited population,
a breeder wants to place good stock where it will make a
contribution to the development of the breed. You must
therefore explain your situation credibly and candidly, and you
must be prepared to make a serious commitment. Dogs of this
sort are not just a commodity that you can go out and purchase
with no commitment other than ready cash. So you must explain
that you want to build a team, and ask for the help of someone
who has the dogs you want.
Asking to buy a team is probably not
going to work. The asking price for a functional and complete
team would stagger you, and the seller would suspect that one
week after the sale you might return with big complaints, claiming
that the dogs were no good, totally unmanageable. Chances are
he already knows that you may not have the skills to take a going
team someone else has trained and keep it going, trouble-free,
through a change of ownership. Dogs, like people or even more
than people, are upset by major changes in their lives, so an
adjustment period is necessary.
OKAY, I'VE SAID A LOT about what won't work! Now you must be
wondering what will work. Try this. Ask the breeder whether he
has an older proven broodbitch to sell you, on the understanding
that you will breed her to whatever stud dog he suggests (whether
owned by him or by someone else), that you will keep the entire
litter, and that you will try to create your first team from that litter,
with assistance and advice from him. If a serious breeder trusts
you with one of his older trained females, you should understand
that he will want to keep some control over what happens and will
expect you to seek and follow advice throughout the process. After
all, his good reputation is involved. You, to start with, may know
very little. On your own, you might well make a mess of the whole
thing, and that would reflect badly on the breeder who provided
the female!
The breeder may not have a bitch he cares
to sell outright. In that case, ask if he will lease you a female for a
single litter. You'll pay to lease a bitch, though probably less than
you would pay to buy the same bitch outright. In any case, you'll
pay a stud fee for the breeding services of the male. Even so, this
is the cheapest and most effective way to acquire four to six good
young dogs. The youngsters will know you from the beginning and
you'll learn the sport together, so there will be no adjustment
problems. What's more, you'll probably wind up with sleddogs of a
quality that might be impossible to buy outright, and you will have
made a small contribution to the development of the breed.
Puppy Training -- Laying the Groundwork
ONCE YOU ACTUALLY HAVE young
Seppalas in hand, how do you go about making them into
working sleddogs? Fortunately, that part isn't too difficult. It's
mostly a matter of introducing them to the idea of pulling in
harness in such a way that it becomes a positive experience.
From many generations of sleddog breeding, they are equipped
with all the right instincts and urges for the job, so it becomes
largely a question of encouraging their natural tendencies
and making sure nothing happens to mess them up. Many
Seppalas can be introduced to the harness as early as four or
five months of age provided it is done right. To do it the wrong
way invites disaster and a permanent negative attitude on the
part of the young dog.
Let's talk about the wrong way first. We
once had a Yukon neighbour, a young fellow in his twenties who
came into dog driving from dirt bike racing. He had mainstream
Siberian Huskies from a racing bloodline. He referred to his dogs
as 'units'. He had a going team of ten or twelve dogs, and he
always hooked every dog he had at one time. He bred a couple
litters and when the puppies were five months old, he proceeded
to hook up his big string and simply added the pups to it four at
a time. His adult team dogs were well-conditioned, with a lot of
miles on them; they went fast, they were strong, and they didn't
stop. The green pups were frightened, they didn't know what was
going on, and several of them just folded their legs and let
themselves be dragged along at top speed. The others were run
to exhaustion on their first two or three runs. He wound up
disposing of most of his pups as 'no good' and shortly thereafter
he sold the rest of his dogs and went back to dirt bike racing.
That's an example of how not to go about breaking young puppies
to harness.
THE FIRST STEP in harness-breaking young Seppalas is to get them
accustomed to a dog collar. In kennels this typically gets done at
four months of age, which is when puppies usually become too
much of a nuisance to keep in a puppy pen any longer, or to run
loose either. At four months sex hormones start to become active,
adult teeth begin coming in, social dominance behaviour becomes
strongly evident, and ongoing brain development has reached the
point that puppies become highly curious, inventive, and determined
to escape from their usual enclosure. For all of the foregoing reasons,
those who have kennels find it expedient to put collars around the
necks of the little free spirits and introduce them to the realities of
adult sleddog life, first and foremost the chain stakeout, at four
months of age. This is sometimes done gradually, often by putting
the pups on their stakeouts at feeding time (to soften the blow).
Usually there is some struggling and fighting the collar and chain
at first, but this quickly passes into acceptance of the situation.
Occasional howling can be expected during the pups' first month
of stakeout life.
Of course puppies can be broken to collar
and leash almost any time from seven or eight weeks of age on;
if you have the time to do it this is perfectly acceptable and all to
the good. However, for sleddog purposes, the self-training that
takes place when a young dog learns that it is no use fighting a
stakeout chain and that life is easier when one doesn't get tangled
up in the chain is a vital factor in harness-breaking. A stake-trained
pup already knows not to struggle against the lines and has some
experience in staying out of tangles or undoing them himself. It
isn't a good idea to dispense with stake-out training prior to
breaking puppies to harness.
Harness-Breaking -- When and How
THE BEST WAY to introduce a Seppala
puppy to the harness, needless to say, is not to follow my young
neighbour's example. Don't, whatever you do, throw a green pup
into a fast, hard, going-concern team. It might seem like the
logical way to teach him how to do it right, but actually that's an
almost certain way to sour him for life on the whole idea
of teams and harnesses. You can harness-break many puppies
as young as three or four months of age -- if you do it correctly
and make it a non-threatening experience, It has to be fun for
the pup.
This is best done one-on-one between
you and the puppy. Start with a harness that fits the pup (if we
are talking about a three to four months' puppy, it may have to
be an extra-extra-small (XXS) harness, which you might have to
special-order from your harness maker); too big a harness will
make it impossible for the puppy to run unhindered, by hampering
his shoulder action. Find something lightweight and non-threatening
to use as a drag. A twelve to sixteen inch length of snowmobile
track is ideal, because it lies flat on the ground and looks
inconspicuous. A log or a tire is less good; these may well be
too heavy for a young pup and will bounce behind him in a way
he may find frightening. Attach the drag to the harness using a
three-foot line with a snap at the harness end; the drag end should
be looped onto a piece of light chain bolted to either side of the
snowmobile track so that it pulls straight without flopping or
bouncing. Snap a fifteen to twenty foot line to the pup's collar (not
a five or six foot leash, because you will not have enough scope to
avoid stepping on the drag). You should be somewhere with a
clearly-defined, straight trail when you do this, preferably
somewhere the puppy is already familiar with from leash
walks.
Line the puppy out in front of the drag, with
the rope coiled in your hand, and give the pup whatever command
you intend to use to start your team (we say, "wa-head!" because it's
easy to really belt it out and be heard over the clamor of hook-up).
If you are really lucky, puppy may take off down the trail like a
small rocket, leaving you gasping and wheezing behind. Once you
have gone fifty feet or more, yell "whoa" and immediately step on
the drag, making sure you have also reined in the line to his collar.
Praise the pup profusely, and after you have caught your breath (not
more than fifteen seconds or so) give him the go-ahead command
again. Proceed in this way for not more than a quarter of a mile total,
out and back. If all has gone well, your puppy is now broken to
harness! You'll want to repeat this exercise perhaps three more
times before you hook the pup with any other dogs.
I should perhaps warn that the above method assumes a breed that has a natural urge to go out front and to pull, a breed like the Seppala Siberian Sleddog with a lot of innate sleddog ability. It may not work so easily with a Border Collie or a German Shepherd puppy; teaching some breeds what is expected when the harness is put on can be a protracted process requiring a lot of patience.
IF THE PUP DOESN'T GO ahead at your command, then you
must step forward until you are alongside his head and gently
encourage him to move ahead, using the rope only as a last
resort and then only for a couple of gentle tugs. Don't stay
ahead of the puppy unless it's absolutely necessary; it's
much better if he goes ahead on his own. Patience and a
positive attitude are necessary for this. It's a critical
exercise in the pup's career as a sleddog.
This first exposure to harness and drag
will often reveal potential leaders, amazingly enough. One
of our best leaders, Tonya of Seppala, responded to her
first drag session like a little rocket and confirmed that
early promise in later training sessions. Don't make a young
puppy pull a lot of weight; it proves nothing, and may well
be discouraging or even harmful for the pup. The snowmobile
track section offers enough resistance for the pup to be
aware he is pulling something, but isn't heavy enough to
discourage even lightweight pups. Young bones and joints
shouldn't be exposed to the stress of pulling heavy weights.
It is neither necessary nor desirable to keep young puppies
working day after day. Three to six drag sessions over the
course of a month are plenty.
nbsp; Once you have a puppy going well on the
drag, it is time to introduce him to the concept of teamwork.
The best way to do this is to harness the puppy beside its
mother; five months of age is probably the lower limit here.
The entire team shouldn't exceed four dogs and it's best to
hook only one puppy at a time. If anything goes wrong you
may have to unhook the pup. Use the pup's mother and your
"senior citizens" (if you have other dogs) for these first puppy
training runs. Don't let them get up much speed. The pup will
probably lope no matter how slow the team is going; that is
normal. If you don't have other dogs, just hook one or two
pups with mother and don't go far at all. One quarter to half
a mile is enough the first couple times.
The key to successful
harness-breaking and puppy training is to proceed very
gradually with as little pressure as possible. It's okay
to talk a lot to puppies and to jolly them along; they can derive
a lot of confidence from the sound of your voice behind them.
(Normally you shouldn't chatter at your team, but this is an
exception.) Never overdo things with pups; they have
little endurance and the last thing you want to do is to exhaust
them. Always quit while they are still wanting more fun. NEVER
ever take puppies on long runs. NEVER beat on puppies in
harness! The most discipline they receive should be "NO" if
they try to chew the lines or snap at a teammate.
SOME PUPS simply will not respond successfully to harness-breaking at an early age. When this happens, it is usually due to lack of confidence or fear of unfamiliar territory. We have had dogs who later became fine sleddogs fail dismally as puppies. If a puppy hangs back on his neckline or lets himself be dragged, stop immediately, go up, talk to him, pet him and give him all the reassurance you can. then restart cautiously. If he continues to refuse to go, unhook him immediately; generally you'll only do damage by forcing the situation. If your training area is sufficiently safe (not near motor vehicle traffic or other hazards) you can just let a recalcitrant pup follow along behind the team on his own, running loose. You cannot possibly gain anything by trying to force-break a puppy. Dogs that hang back are candidates for long walks on collar and leash, followed by leisurely solo bike runs in harness (beside the bike instead of ahead of it, if necessary), until their fears dissipate. Believe it or not, a dog can turn around as old as two years, after refusing to go ahead as a puppy. It is mostly a question of varying rates of mental development, I believe. The late Dr. Roland Lombard, DVM, a world-renowned dog driver in his day, used to say that the three most important things in dog driving are "Patience, patience, and patience." Far too many drivers are neither patient enough nor sufficiently sensitive with young dogs in training.
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