Dog Welfare
It is very important to us that our dogs enjoy their work, but also get time to just be dogs. They live at home with us as much loved members of the family some dogs live out some live in depending on the individual and needs of that dog. They love running around the field, playing in the garden and snoozing on the sofa in their chill time.
It is very important to keep our dogs healthy and this is reflected in their working performance. We feed CSJ Dog food, which is a high protein high fat food for working dogs. They also get mince 3 times a week and raw, meaty bones. We do supplement with other vitamins and minerals depending on workload, time of year and age.
Hydration for working dogs is paramount and our dogs are fed and watered at various intervals depending on their working schedule. We use fast dog to help replace everything the dogs need after training or racing.
One of the most important pieces of equipment for a working dog is a harness. We only use harnesses that have been tried and tested by the top mushers in the world. We use multiple harness depending on the the dog and don’t believe one harness fits all so we use great brands and work hard with Emily at K9 Trail Time to make sure each dog has the right harness for them.
Training & Rescue
Owning a pack of huskies has been the biggest learning curve in our life with dogs. It has given us an invaluable insight into dog behaviour and what they need for a balanced life.
We train our dogs under the philosophy that they each have a purpose or job to fulfil in their own pack and it’s up to us to ensure it’s the right job. A fulfilled dog achieves a state of flow, which satisfies their most basic desire – the prey drive.
Every dog has some sort of prey drive, in its most simplistic form this is merely chasing a ball or you may have a super charged hunter like Dashka, incidentally it’s that drive that makes her lead dog. Prey drive can also mean satisfying your dogs working needs, whatever the drive it’s up to you to influence and take control over it, then your dog will look to you to provide flow and satisfaction. We do this in many ways, but activating the drive in your dog achieves a balance and flow that leads to a calm and contented dog.
Whether in schools or in front of large crowds we are constantly told how calm and chilled our dogs are. This is because they have achieved their flow from running as a team, they run in time with each other, not too dissimilar from how a wolf pack synchronise their movements during a hunt. This harmony of movement quenches their drive, so they return home fulfilled and happy. There are no fights, no arguments over toys, bones, food or even who gets the sofa. It’s not exhaustion a tired dog can still fight it’s a combination of fulfilment and successful pack hierarchy. We have an omega dog that is perfect for that job!
Famous for being stubborn and hard to train, huskies won’t work for dominance or positive reinforcement we had to tap into a way to stimulate their drive. Running in harness was the key. We are a resource for running and food, so the team look to us for their basic needs, which gives us our jobs and purpose within the social structure. We provide 2 key elements for our dogs lives, which gives us their trust, meaning they will listen to us.
If you have an unhappy dog or their balance is off, then please give us a call and we can try and help. We are happy to come to you and a one on one consultation is £25 (plus travel if outside Gloucester charged at 40p per mile).
We like to think we have a natural approach to dog training and because we have a working team it will probably be unlike most training methods you will have encountered before. We believe our dogs are the best endorsement we could have. They have never been to a dog class in their life except for a dreadful dog socialisation session in a local park enough said and are quite at ease being mobbed by children in schools, pulling the racing rig around at high speeds or running free in our local park.
We all want to love, enjoy and get the most out of our pets and we can help to find your flow for both you and your dog.
We get many calls from people asking us to rehome their dogs, unfortunately we are at full capacity. We will try and help you re-home your dog or can offer short term fostering. We do try and work with owners to learn how to manage their sled dogs properly and we do have some ‘delinquent’ dogs who regularly work with the team and then go home to their owners at the end of the day. Please give us a call to see if we can help you.