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an Appreciation Copyright ©1996 Isa Boucher |
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an Appreciation Copyright ©1996 Isa Boucher |
THE
SEPPALA SIBERIAN is a unique working dog breed; there is nothing
else quite like it among the northern breeds. Arctic breeds are not
exactly known for their sunny temperaments and loving natures,
generally speaking. If they are not truculent and quarrelsome, like
many Canadian Eskimo Dogs and Alaskan Malamutes, then they are cold
and aloof like most Siberian Huskies. Yet Seppalas seem blessed with
a very soft temperament and great love for their people, even while
they maintain a very tough-minded attitude towards the work in
harness that is their heritage. Their unique combination of work
ethic and affectionate nature makes them unquestionably the sleddog
of choice for the recreational musher.
The different nature of Seppalas becomes quite
apparent once you begin working with an entire team of them. To begin
with, they thrive on mileage. Most Seppalas want to 'hook up' every
single day, provided they are fed well, kept healthy and free from
injury, and not abused or subjected to unreasonable pressure. They
need both mileage and a certain amount of hard pulling to condition
themselves properly. Unless they are working in severely cold
temperatures or highly crystalline snow, they rarely develop foot
problems; some individuals, particularly those with longer coats,
must be watched in fresh snow for snow or ice balls between the foot
pads. But unlike many racing dogs who are kept in booties from
beginning to end of the snow season, Seppalas tend to have tough,
sound feet that seldom need booties.
Once they have been hooked up regularly for
awhile, Seppalas develop a highly co-operative attitude about the
mechanics of getting ready. Most individuals help the musher harness
(or unharness) them by raising first one forepaw, then the other
themselves. Most Seppalas, too, quickly learn not to tangle the
lines, either standing relatively quietly in position, or bouncing up
and down in place without interfering with their brace-mates or
crossing the central gangline.
A HIGH
PERCENTAGE of Seppalas are capable of becoming lead dogs. We find
that between thirty and fifty percent of our Seppalas learn to lead
competently, sooner or later. Certain puppies seem to declare
themselves as future leaders when they are first introduced to
harness (between three and five months at our kennel). We harness
young pups individually, tying a twenty-foot rope to the collar and
hooking a short section of snowmobile track to the back of the
puppy's harness with a three-foot tugline. A lead-prospect puppy will
often run out ahead of the handler at the end of the rope, pulling
the drag at a gallop; often such pups learn the basic commands to go
and to stop the first two or three times out (never more than a
quarter mile when they are this young). Then again, other Seppalas
show no signs of leader ability until their second or third year in
harness. We had one old female, speed-challenged all her life due to
short legs but who would never give up and always gave her best to
any team, who suddenly learned to run lead at age ten and spent the
last year of her life helping us train puppies!
Seppala leaders are typically very responsive to
their driver, keeping an ear cocked for commands, sometimes glancing
back occasionally for reassurance. One yearling leader prodigy
insisted upon responding with a renewed burst of speed anytime the
driver spoke to the team, whether to say 'on by,' to encourage a
lagging wheel dog, or just to say 'good kids.' Due to our often
dangerous Yukon trails, we use pace commands frequently, 'easy, easy'
to slow the team to a trot, 'okay, let's go' to resume loping. It is
heart-warming to see all the dogs in a team respond at once to these
commands without waiting to follow the actions of the
leaders.
POOR CONDITIONS or heavy loads only seem to bring out the best in Seppalas. Once the dogs have been conditioned, they adjust easily to unfamiliar pulling conditions. We never hesitate to carry a passenger on a run with an eight-dog team, even though this usually means that each dog must pull more than his own body weight; they never quit or refuse, but merely chug along making the best time they can given the weight and state of the trail. We have experienced a team of eight Seppalas, who had not run together as a team nor freighted at all that season, that carried an 800-pound load through a two-day, forty-mile-a-day event, through plus 5-degree Celsius temperatures, heavy overflow, and a punchy, badly-deteriorated trail -- while several Malamute and Eskimo Dog teams carrying half the weight quit cold, refusing to travel further!
WHEN THE
HARD WORK is over and the harnesses come off, the typical Seppala
response is to race for the door of the house (or tent!) in the hope
of being allowed inside for the night, or at least for suppertime.
Our first four years in the Yukon were spent in a 14' x 16' wall
tent, in which we often had from five to eight Seppalas at night,
some of them regulars, others occasional visitors. They would sit
gathered around us as we ate supper, quietly taking turns being fed
forkfuls of spaghetti! Even life-long kennel dog Seppalas seem to
adapt to house-dog status almost instantaneously. One nine-year-old
bitch leader, never inside throughout most of her life (before coming
to us!) now sleeps beside my pillow, sometimes resting her muzzle
lovingly on my arm as I lie in bed reading at night. Their desire to
share our lives is touching. A 60-pound bruiser of a wheel-dog, the
one who tries to pull the entire load all by himself, he who must be
hooked last of all lest he break his tugline in his eagerness to be
off and running, would head for the tent like a shot when released
from his stakeout. Once he had been inside for a single evening, he
would howl all night for a week, hoping to make his 'inside' status
permanent. When our house was finished, he was added to the house-dog
roster.
The gentle, affectionate nature of Seppalas is
their finest trait. Standing quietly in the hookup area to catch
their breath and drink after a long, hard training run, each dog
lifts his/her head to kiss the driver as she makes her way up the
team from wheel dogs to leaders. Driving a team of Seppalas is a
precious experience of the depth of bonding that can happen when dogs
are bred to love their work.
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P.O. Box 21162 Whitehorse, YT Y1A 6R1 Canada |
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