The Stardancer Kennel in Winter.

[Swanny1790]

I have an elevated deck against the house that overlooks the dog yard. This evening I captured an image of the view.



On the left there is a line of pens. The first in the row is 100 square feet, housing a single dog (often a dog needing special attention after a veterinary procedure or perhaps just someone who we need to keep an eye on for a few days due to some issue or another). The rest of the pens range from 150 to 200 square feet, and house dogs in each.

The pen in the back center is our "isolation pen", 150 square feet, where we can house a b*tch in season or can quickly convert to a whelping a puppy rearing pen.

In front of the row of pens I have two rows of 'swivel post' tethers where individual dogs can be housed. They are set up so that each dog can interact with at least two others, yet not get their chains tangled. If the interaction becomes agnostic (what some people refer to as 'aggressive'), either dog can disengage without risk of injury. A better description of how this system works can be seen in my blog at http://oldschoolak.blogspot.com/2008/07 ... hores.html

The post seen square in the middle of the photo is an anchor post for our "hook up line". This is a traditional picket line where we stage a team preparing for a run. Once on the picket line we can harness each dog in turn, then hook them up to the gang line (main line) to head out for a run. The exit gate to our feeder trail is hidden behind the two trees. When running two teams we can anchor a sled in between the two teams, run a second hook-up line on the right side of the trail, and essentially harness and hook up two teams of dogs simultaneously.

The open space in the photo was left open intentionally, It makes up more than half the space within our fenced in dog yard, and serves as a play yard during summer, when we frequently let play groups of dogs out of their pens and off their chains to freely run amok in the yard and play as they will or as they wish. I guess it's kind of like having our very own personal dog park.

There is a better description of the lay-out and configuration of our kennel that I posted on my blog shortly after rebuilding the yard to it's current configuration. That blog entry is at http://oldschoolak.blogspot.com/2012/07 ... ished.html

[Ari_RR]

And the 2 fuzzbutts on top of their houses? I assume it's warmer up there, perhaps for their feet? Or just better view?

[Swanny1790]

And the 2 fuzzbutts on top of their houses? I assume it's warmer up there, perhaps for their feet? Or just better view?

Most of the dogs enjoy being on top of their houses, often for the view and sometimes just to bask in the sun. That's why many mushers, including we, build houses with flat tops.

[ClareMarsh]

The fuzzbutt on the second kennel looks like a HUGE black cat

[Sweetie's Human]

I thought he looked cat-like too!

That's an amazing photo. What time of day was it taken. The light looks very eerie.

Rookie question I'm sure, but I'm curious - what do you do about water for them in freezing conditions?

[Swanny1790]

I thought he looked cat-like too!

That's an amazing photo. What time of day was it taken. The light looks very eerie.

Rookie question I'm sure, but I'm curious - what do you do about water for them in freezing conditions?

Black dogs are really difficult to photograph. I hadn't thought about Aumaruq (Inuii for Charcoal) looking so cat-like in the photo.

The photo was taken at 3:48 pm, under natural light (no flash) and a normal shutter speed, so it's a pretty accurate portrayal of the level of daylight at that time. Sunset was about 3:14, so you can see that twilight tends to linger this time of year. Sunrise to sunset today provided about 4 1/2 hours, but length of visible light was 7 1/4 hours. We are gaining about 6 minutes of daylight each day, and will continue to do so until nearly the summer solstice.

The feeding and watering routine works like this. First, each dog gets his or her ration of dry kibble in turn. Then we go through the yard giving each dog a quart of warmed water baited with ground meat or ground fish, to encourage them to drink it right down. Most of them do so. We then scoop the feces from the yard. This is done twice each day at fairly random times. We randomize the timing on purpose. Dogs have a GREAT sense of time and if we are out on the trail we don't want a team to stop or loose their edge just because it happens to be "feeding time". Because Trish works the evening shifts, when I'm home they are usually fed and watered somewhere between 6 and 9 am, and between 5 and 8 pm. When I'm at work they are more likely to be fed and watered between 8 and 11 am, and between 9 pm and midnight.

[DianeLDL]

Swanny,

You answered a lot of questions here. Thank you so much. These are all things we wonder about especially those who aren't is such cold areas. And good lessons for those he got hit with the abnormally cold temps last week,

I love th way you have it all organized. Trish must be a great woman to be able to handle all these things when you are at work. Kudow to her.

And, we have all we cqn handle with one dog who is a fair-weather dog.

Diane
PS-I love your quote at the bottom of your posts. Having a difficutl time with my dad and sister right now, this quote gives me something good to think about.

[ScarletSci]

Love the pictures, and the chance to get to see how a kennel set up works. I think we're very lucky to have you on the boards Swanny, not just for your insight into the working husky type breeds, but also to get a glimpse of true working dogs in a set up that most of us will never get to experience.

This is such a minor nit-pick, and I only mention it so that you know for future reference! But I've seen you use this word in this sense before...

If the interaction becomes agnostic (what some people refer to as 'aggressive'), either dog can disengage without risk of injury.
http://oldschoolak.blogspot.com/2012/07 ... ished.html

Agnosticism refers to the inability to know definitively whether or not there is a deity. The middle ground between religious belief and atheism! I think you might mean antagonistic, meaning interaction which is intended to rile up the other dog.

[WufWuf]

I think the word might be agonistic relating to fighting or competitive behaviours between members of the same species.

[Swanny1790]

You are very kind, ScarletSci. I appreciate your observation. My kennel is pretty much the center of my personal universe and I enjoy sharing my experiences with the Stardancers with others.

Your observation is not at all "nit-picky". As you've apparently determined, proper terminology is important to me, so I used my favorite search engine to double-check and ensure I'm using the term in the proper context.

WufWuff - click The term I should be using (or at least spelling correctly) is indeed "agonistic".

In the jargon of behavioral sciences, agonistic behavior is "any social behavior related to fighting. The term is broader than aggressive behaviour because it includes not only actual aggression but also threats, displays, retreats, placating aggressors, and conciliation. The term was coined by Scott and Fredericson in 1951.[1]" reference http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agonistic_behaviour

In the behavioral sciences, "aggression" indicates an intent to cause harm or increase social dominance.

In behavioral terms, the dog who is guarding a nice big meaty bone from the clueless pup sniffing around the perimeter of his personal space may be growling, snarling, lip-curling and doing his level best to look and sound like the Hound of Baskervilles, but he doesn't intent to hurt the puppy, so in behavioral terms his guarding is demonstrating agonistic behavior, not (yet) aggression.

Unfortunately, my computer's spelling checker doesn't recognize "agonistic" and I've allowed myself to trust the machine rather than looking it up for myself.

Thank you for pointing it out to me.

[ScarletSci]

I'm really glad you didn't take any offence, because that was the last thing I'd want. I'm also really glad because I've learned something new from this conversation! I wasn't aware of that term, so it's great to have some new terminology.