You Are My Sunshine...

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Lupine Lullaby

    
Lupine Lullaby

Last night Benny spent his third complete night in the kennel without protest. Well, mostly anyway. He has also learned that peeing in the house is not on. He doesn't quite go to the door to tell us he has to go out, but we have learned to read a certain restlessness as the key sign. He will even lick our faces if we are sleeping, so as to get us up. So in my book, all of that makes Benny, after two weeks of living here, a real “indoor-outdoor dog.”

“Indoor-outdoor” is important to us. Our dogs spend social time with us in the house every day and sleep inside in summer when it's hot. But we also hope that before the winter is out, Benny will be happy sharing the big yard with Nico both night and day. Nico does not like being in the house once we start putting on fires and warming things up. Thunder has been his steady outside companion since he came here. But for Thunder, the time to be an outside-in-all-weather Malamute is passing. Malamutes are pack dogs and though Nico does not complain when left out alone, we don't feel good leaving him isolated. Indeed, the whole business of acquiring and training our young Benny is driven by the need to provide Nico with an outdoor companion.

Well, sort of. I'm really not lying: Nico does need someone who can stay outside with him and the discussion of getting another dog in this house began with that imperative. However I must admit that when I totally by accident found myself at the Nordiclight Kennel web site, gazing at a whole pack of stunning, working Malamutes and then saw the two shiny black four month old puppies portrayed on the page, “Available Now,” I was hopelessly and irrevocably smitten. Breeder Nathalie Roy's web site offers both photographs and video of her Malamutes working, training, and playing together. When I went to her kennel, I saw that her dogs are not only absolutely gorgeous, wiry muscled and fit, but they are also trained to work and highly socialized with each other. As for the young boys, “Available:” be still my heart!

Enter Benny, Nordiclight's Arnavik Benny: that's his official CKC name. We call him “Benny Coldfoot” because he looks so much like his father, Nordiclight's Arctic Coldfoot. Daddy Coldfoot is one impressive looking Malamute! Benny shares his markings and if we raise him up right with exercise appropriate to his age and good food there's no reason not to expect him to make his dad, and his breeder, proud.
Nordiclight's Arctic Coldfoot

Nordiclight's Iska: Benny's Mom!

But for the moment, our Benny is still just a pup. He just turned five months old and has proven to be irresistibly affectionate, gentle natured and very very smart. Another breeder I spoke with asked me where he came from. I told her “Nordiclight” and she sighed: “Ah. One of Nathalie's dogs. He'll have something between his ears for sure. She works her dogs. It's a passion.” While Benny, born in April, would have been far too young to have been in harness yet, it is clear from his behavior that he has spent all of his short life around older dogs who have a job and know how to do it.

What is it that makes a “working” Malamute different? I think it has to do with being very sure about their place, on the line in front of the sled, in the play yard and in the eye of their trainer/handler. Nathalie's dogs, I learned, work together and play together. There is an amazing video on her web site showing the whole pack, intact breeding stock included, running loose together in the yard without any signs of aggression or fear. Every dog in a working team has a purpose and a place; it seems to me this leaves the dogs feeling very much at ease with each other and themselves.
Iska: a working mom!

Coldfoot: also full time sled dog, but today he's taking the truck.

I described both Nico and Thunder to Nathalie, and told her how we hoped Nico would learn to get along with the new puppy. Nathalie chose Benny as the right dog for our pack. “He loves to run with the big boys,” she said, “but he is very calm and easy going.”

Benny is a totally laid-back puppy who showed immediately that he was indeed big-Mal savvy. His greetings to Thunder were entirely appropriate for a young dog approaching a senior. He did not fuss the old boy nor insist on attention. He simply walked by, holding himself most deferentially, and waited for Thunder to decide to pay attention to him. In Nico he spotted a playmate, but at the same time he sees that Nico is a big dog. When he feels overwhelmed, he comes to us for support but does not cower or cringe. He shows no fear, only due deference and the sense to find a way out when he thinks he might be in over his head.

Benny is remarkably like Thunder in his ways. We find this fascinating because as far as we know there is no breed line connection. Yet he walks like Thunder and talks like Thunder. By this I mean that he shows the same calm, take-stock-before-you-act attitude in new situations, especially those involving other dogs, that Thunder does. It really is quite a joy to see Benny and Thunder go down the trail together with my husband every morning.

First of all, the visuals are stunning. Benny and Thunder share the colouring known as seal and white, although as he has aged Thunder's black has more grey in it. Benny's black is the colour of midnight, rippling with the last vestiges of puppy fat and burgeoning muscle development. Rick wears a red plaid bushman's jacket; everyone who lives north of Highway Seven owns one. The trees are turning colour: orange, russet gold, brown, yellow and of course the red glory of the sugar maple.

But the most delightful thing of all is watching Benny try to cavort and play while Thunder motors forward, always forward, like the working sled dog he once was. What I think Thunder and Benny have in common is the sense of self that comes with knowing your job and knowing your place. When Thunder came to us that was part of his trained sled -dog package. With Benny his composure and good sense is probably genetic, but also due to his having been raised with working dogs like Thunder, who are sure of their value as part of a team.

Of course, Benny is a puppy, and sometime goes a little nuts. Thunder then has to tell him to cut it out. Because the leashes are involved this can get a bit dicey. One day, coming up behind them on the trail, I saw Rick in great frustration and confusion throw the leashes down, and then curse because all was tangled. When I caught up to him I told him, “Its alright to just let go if they get messed up. The dogs aren't going anywhere. Thunder's too old, Benny's too young.” Rick gave me a look that said, “And I'm too tired!”

Benny is wearing us all out, which as a young dog he should do. He gets lots of training and exercise for we are committed to raising him as a pack dog with Nico and Thunder, and as a pulling Malamute. Already he is learning to run beside Nico without getting in his face, and staying on the trail when we hit a certain speed. Although Thunder no longer runs or pulls, he is Benny's primary mentor in these lessons. Even while just walking on leash Thunder shows both Nico and Benny how a working dog does it. With such a great teacher, and all the right genes we're pretty sure Benny can't help but earn his identity as a working-dog, as “Benny Coldfoot,” not only in his looks but also in his ways.

Nico will do his part too for despite his fear, he early on learned to pull me on skis. He is a most sensitive trail dog, and no doubt Benny will learn his gee and haw from Nico, as well as whoa and of course, best of all: “Hike home for supper!”

For now though, Benny is still a puppy. Our job is to make him feel comfortable, secure and happy in his new home. That he is quiet and content in his kennel tells us that he knows this is a good place, and that he will be cherished and cared for even when he is not being held and cuddled. He knows now he can rely on Thunder to be steady, even if he's not much fun for play. And he knows that even when Thunder is in the house at night, he is not alone outside: Nico is standing watch in the yard.

Indeed: the second night Benny stayed out, he must have gotten lonely at around 3 in the morning. For we heard a few plaintive cries and some yips from the kennel. I thought about going out to him, but then we heard something else: a low throated moan that turned into a full voiced howl. Just one. Just enough to silence the little guy's complaint. Rick and I looked out the bedroom window: It was Nico. He'd he'd sung the little boy to sleep, then laid down at the end of the yard closest to the kennel.

A sense of place, a job you know how to do, a friend to share your days in harness and out, someone to watch your back when you sleep: this is the life we hope Nico and Benny will come to enjoy together. With Thunder watching over and telling us how to do it, I'm thinking its going to be a pretty good time for us all.

To see the Nordiclight dogs  in action go to:  http://www.nordiclightmals.com/ 

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