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Fairbanks trip



 
 
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  #1  
Old October 24th 07, 08:00 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
Melinda Shore
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Posts: 7,732
Default Fairbanks trip

[]
This past weekend I went to Fairbanks for the annual Alaska
Dog Mushers Association symposium, where I had an incredible
experience. This was my first trip ever to Alaska, and it
was actually quite a bit like going to Israel in that it was
simultaneously very familiar and very exotic.

I went up a day early and got to drive around and see a few
sights, including a visit to the UAF Large Animal Research
Station. The visitor center closes for the winter and there
are no tours, but there were muskoxen out grazing in the
field and after all these years of reading about them in the
arctic exploration literature I was pretty thrilled to see
them in the flesh. They're not quite as large as I expected
and the ones I saw weren't that pungent, although I
understand that they're a lot more aromatic in the late
winter and spring.

In Fairbanks you can't drive 1/2 mile without seeing a dog
truck, and there are several mushing outfitters that have
storefronts. The first morning I was there I went to
Denny's for breakfast ("The northernmost Denny's in the
world") and there was Mitch Seavey, eating pancakes. The
rest of the weekend was like that, hip-deep in world-class
mushers. I got to spend some time talking with Beverly
Stevens, who dominates six-dog sprint racing in Alaska and
whose dogs live inside her house. It turns out that she
lives *in* Anchorage in a subdivision, with 10 dogs. She
says her neighbors have no idea how many dogs she has or
that she's got this incredibly successful racing career.
She wrote a kids book about it:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/boo...=9781578333172

I wish I'd realized that the symposium would be streamed
live over the internet so I could let you guys know. The
content was outstanding. Highlights included two talks by
canine (and human) physical therapist Wes Rau, whose first
talk was on how to evaluate your dog for subtle orthopedic
problems and whose second talk was on shoulder problems.
There was a roundtable on alternatives to more traditional
kennel management. One of the keynotes was on reward-based
training and it wasn't that great. She was confused about
the difference between classical conditioning and operant
conditioning. That really doesn't matter in practice, but
she also didn't deal that well, I thought, with how to stop
problem behaviors. Still, I think this was the first time a
lot of mushers had been exposed to this kind of training and
the reactions were really interesting.

There were more veterinary and health talks on Sunday. One
particularly interesting one was on recent research finding
that sled dogs (and greyhounds!) typically have lower than
"normal" thyroid hormones and that they're probably being
overdiagnosed and overtreated for hypothyroidism. Saber was
just recently diagnosed but is otherwise completely
asymptomatic, and the vet directing the research is my vet's
ex-husband so he offered to fax her the slides with the new
recommended "normal" ranges for huskies.

Lance Mackey spoke on Sunday afternoon, which was another
"wow" experience. In a lot of ways he's a traditional dog
musher (if insanely successful), but he does some stuff very
differently, including not disciplining his dogs that much.
Dogs that really, really want to go will scream, jump in
their harnesses, chew their necklines, and generally carry
on, and he says he never, ever discourages them from wanting
to run, while usually mushers will punish dogs for things
like line chewing, obnoxious bouncing around, etc. You've
got to figure that a guy who can win back-to-back 1000 mile
races with the same team knows things about dogs that nobody
else does, and he was a terrific speaker.

For those who are interested, recordings of ADMA symposiums
are on sale at http://www.sleddogstudio.com/symposium/.
There's an awful lot of veterinary and nutrition information
at these things.

Arleigh Reynolds invited me out to his kennel for a visit
Monday morning. He's got a spectacular setup right on the
trail system in Salcha, so he can run 15 miles right out of
his yard without crossing a road. I don't know what to say
about the dogs, other than that they were breathtaking,
super social, and pretty amazing. He invited me to go along
on a training run but the temperature was -5F and I was
basically uninsulated (no long underwear, single-layer
fleece gloves, polypro toque, and hiking boots) so with a
lot of regret I had to decline. Still, I got to watch him
hook up 16 (!!! - you should have seen the length of that
gangline) dogs and leave the yard. Powerful, graceful,
enthusiastic - wow.

Cameras weren't allowed at the symposium but I took a few
around Fairbanks, which I've posted at
http://picasaweb.google.com/melinda.shore/FairbanksTrip

And US Airways? They seem to have straightened out their
baggage loss problems but are apparently now having serious
problems getting passengers delivered. It would take
another several hundred lines to describe everything that
went wrong with the travel for this trip. But at least my
bags arrived when I finally did.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community
  #2  
Old October 24th 07, 08:21 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
Suja
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,483
Default Fairbanks trip


"Melinda Shore" wrote in message:

One
particularly interesting one was on recent research finding
that sled dogs (and greyhounds!) typically have lower than
"normal" thyroid hormones and that they're probably being
overdiagnosed and overtreated for hypothyroidism. Saber was
just recently diagnosed but is otherwise completely
asymptomatic, and the vet directing the research is my vet's
ex-husband so he offered to fax her the slides with the new
recommended "normal" ranges for huskies.


Very, very interested in this. If you could get your hands on the numbers
(or literature), please pass it along.

Cameras weren't allowed at the symposium but I took a few
around Fairbanks, which I've posted at
http://picasaweb.google.com/melinda.shore/FairbanksTrip


Wow, they've got snow.

And US Airways? They seem to have straightened out their
baggage loss problems but are apparently now having serious
problems getting passengers delivered.


Oh boy! Sounds almost as bad as the experience my friends' parents had,
getting here from India on British Air. Short version is that an entire
planeload of people were unceremoniously dumped at Heathrow, and told that
they should fend for themselves. They started their trip on Thursday night,
and got here on Sunday morning, hours before their grandson's Baptism.
Shall we say that they were not amused.

Suja


  #3  
Old October 24th 07, 08:22 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
pfoley
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,285
Default Fairbanks trip


"Melinda Shore" wrote in message
...
[]
This past weekend I went to Fairbanks for the annual Alaska
Dog Mushers Association symposium, where I had an incredible
experience. This was my first trip ever to Alaska, and it
was actually quite a bit like going to Israel in that it was
simultaneously very familiar and very exotic.

snip
===============
Did you get to take any photos of Arleigh Reynolds and his 16 dog team?
The trip sounds like it was very exciting.


  #4  
Old October 24th 07, 08:41 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
Melinda Shore
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 7,732
Default Fairbanks trip

In article ,
Suja wrote:
Very, very interested in this. If you could get your hands on the numbers
(or literature), please pass it along.


According to my notes, here's what they're recommending for
"sled dogs" (mostly Alaskan Huskies):

TSH TT4 TT3 FT4 FT3

5-17 5-40 .8-1.6 3-24 2-6.5

There may be transcription errors, so I'd verify this with
the researchers and definitely not take my word for it. The
paper has just been submitted and if accepted won't actually
be published for ~2 years because of the backlog. Kriya
Dunlap gave the paper and I believe was the first author,
and you can find her contact information in the directory at
uaf.edu.

Wow, they've got snow.


It was beautiful snow, too. The people there complained
about it being wet, but *hah*. By our standards it was
fluffy, light, and delightful. There wasn't quite enough to
ski on, unfortunately, 'cause there are trails all the heck
over the place.

Also, people up there are just incredibly nice.

Oh boy! Sounds almost as bad as the experience my friends' parents had,
getting here from India on British Air. Short version is that an entire
planeload of people were unceremoniously dumped at Heathrow, and told that
they should fend for themselves.


Yikes. I've never heard of that happening before. That is
surely pushing the bounds of legality. When I was flying BA
a lot back in the late '90s I thought they handled problems
extremely well, and it sounds like things have deteriorated.

No, this started out just sort of normal-bad, with a missed
connection in Phoenix that resulted in an overnight stay
(not where you want to be when you've got Alaska on your
mind). I'd paid for a 1st class ticket and they screwed
that up on the rebookings, but that was just annoying while
what happened on the return trip has me swearing never to
fly that toxic waste dump of an airline again. I was
supposed to fly out of Anchorage at 4pm on Monday, but when
I was sort of idly looking at the rebooking slip from
Phoenix I noticed that the connections for the flight home
didn't look right. It turns out that they'd cancelled my
flight home and rebooked me on a 1:20am flight, with *5*
segments. Furthermore, they never let me know that they'd
cancelled that flight and moved me to the redeye. It took
52 minutes on the telephone to get that down to 4 segments
(oy vey) and back into first class, but then there was an
equipment problem in Phoenix and it was all downhill from
there. I think I had some interaction with the service desk
on every segment of the flight home, and had 3 rebookings en
route. I ended up having to pay for a hotel room I never
used, plus an extra day at the kennel for the dogs, etc. I
rarely hate anything but boy, I hate US Airways. I used to
fly about 70,000 miles/year on them and stopped because of
the lost bags problem (they'd lose my bags on both the out
and back of a single trip, they lost my bags 4 times in 3
weeks, they once sent my bags to Singapore and they don't
even fly there, etc.). I thought it would be an interesting
experiment to see if things have changed, and they have -
for the worse. Yech.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community
  #5  
Old October 24th 07, 08:45 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
Shelly
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 3,103
Default Fairbanks trip

(Melinda Shore) wrote in
:

he says he never, ever discourages them from wanting
to run, while usually mushers will punish dogs for things
like line chewing, obnoxious bouncing around, etc.


That seems related to a question Matt asked recently about Maybe and
leash manners. Interesting!

For those who are interested, recordings of ADMA symposiums
are on sale at
http://www.sleddogstudio.com/symposium/.
There's an awful lot of veterinary and nutrition information
at these things.


And quite reasonably priced, too.

Still, I got to watch him hook up 16 (!!! - you should have seen
the length of that gangline) dogs and leave the yard. Powerful,
graceful, enthusiastic - wow.


I'm jealous. It sounds like great fun.

I took a few around Fairbanks, which I've posted at
http://picasaweb.google.com/melinda.shore/FairbanksTrip


"Please keep off the pipeline!" I love it!

And US Airways? They seem to have straightened out their
baggage loss problems but are apparently now having serious
problems getting passengers delivered.


I don't think I'd want to even try flying these days. Yikes!

--
Shelly
http://www.cat-sidh.net (the Mother Ship)
http://esther.cat-sidh.net (Letters to Esther)
  #6  
Old October 24th 07, 08:47 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
Melinda Shore
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 7,732
Default Fairbanks trip

In article ,
pfoley wrote:
Did you get to take any photos of Arleigh Reynolds and his 16 dog team?


Unfortunately not. Flashing a camera around changes the
experience, plus I didn't want to be rude. There was an
older beater of a truck in the parking lot at the symposium
that was filled to the top of the box with a quartered moose
(or maybe more than one - it was an awful lot of bloody
meat) and I wanted to get a photo of that but didn't want to
be rude, either. But I saw a lot of great stuff that I'll
remember forever, and pretty much everybody was extremely
interesting to talk to (for example, on the flight to
Anchorage the guy sitting next to me had grown up in a
trapper's homestead in the Brooks Range, where his closest
neighbor was 35 miles away).

The trip sounds like it was very exciting.


It was extraordinary. I'd recommend going up there but
Fairbanks itself is kind of scummy. If you love the
outdoors, though, or if you're interested in mushing - WOW.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community
  #7  
Old October 24th 07, 09:07 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
BethInAK
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 452
Default Fairbanks trip


"Melinda Shore" wrote in message
...
[]
This past weekend I went to Fairbanks for the annual Alaska
Dog Mushers Association symposium, where I had an incredible
experience. This was my first trip ever to Alaska, and it
was actually quite a bit like going to Israel in that it was
simultaneously very familiar and very exotic.

I went up a day early and got to drive around and see a few
sights, including a visit to the UAF Large Animal Research
Station. The visitor center closes for the winter and there
are no tours, but there were muskoxen out grazing in the
field and after all these years of reading about them in the
arctic exploration literature I was pretty thrilled to see
them in the flesh. They're not quite as large as I expected
and the ones I saw weren't that pungent, although I
understand that they're a lot more aromatic in the late
winter and spring.


Its a seasonal thing? I never knew that. Sometimes the zoo musk ox reek to
high heaven and other times not.


In Fairbanks you can't drive 1/2 mile without seeing a dog
truck, and there are several mushing outfitters that have
storefronts. The first morning I was there I went to
Denny's for breakfast ("The northernmost Denny's in the
world") and there was Mitch Seavey, eating pancakes. The
rest of the weekend was like that, hip-deep in world-class
mushers. I got to spend some time talking with Beverly
Stevens, who dominates six-dog sprint racing in Alaska and
whose dogs live inside her house. It turns out that she
lives *in* Anchorage in a subdivision, with 10 dogs. She
says her neighbors have no idea how many dogs she has or
that she's got this incredibly successful racing career.


Lots of people in anchorage have more than the legal three and most people
don't care. There are lots of pretty rural anchorage neighborhoods too - you
wouldnt' consider them urban. I also know several mushing kennels who have
only house dogs -and I really really like that.


She wrote a kids book about it:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/boo...=9781578333172


I'll have to get this for The monk.


Lance Mackey spoke on Sunday afternoon, which was another
"wow" experience. In a lot of ways he's a traditional dog
musher (if insanely successful), but he does some stuff very
differently, including not disciplining his dogs that much.
Dogs that really, really want to go will scream, jump in
their harnesses, chew their necklines, and generally carry
on, and he says he never, ever discourages them from wanting
to run, while usually mushers will punish dogs for things
like line chewing, obnoxious bouncing around, etc. You've
got to figure that a guy who can win back-to-back 1000 mile
races with the same team knows things about dogs that nobody
else does, and he was a terrific speaker.


A musher who is a good speaker is a RARITY!!

For those who are interested, recordings of ADMA symposiums
are on sale at http://www.sleddogstudio.com/symposium/.
There's an awful lot of veterinary and nutrition information
at these things.


some of that sounds VERY interesting. Thank you.

Cameras weren't allowed at the symposium but I took a few
around Fairbanks, which I've posted at
http://picasaweb.google.com/melinda.shore/FairbanksTrip

And US Airways? They seem to have straightened out their
baggage loss problems but are apparently now having serious
problems getting passengers delivered. It would take
another several hundred lines to describe everything that
went wrong with the travel for this trip. But at least my
bags arrived when I finally did.



I didn't even know us air went to Fairbanks.

  #8  
Old October 24th 07, 09:07 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
Janet Boss
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4,368
Default Fairbanks trip

In article ,
Shelly wrote:



I don't think I'd want to even try flying these days. Yikes!


it's my last choice, but sometimes necessary.

--
Janet Boss
www.bestfriendsdogobedience.com
  #9  
Old October 24th 07, 09:13 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
Melinda Shore
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 7,732
Default Fairbanks trip

In article ,
BethInAK wrote:
I didn't even know us air went to Fairbanks.


They go to Anchorage. I flew Alaska Airlines to Fairbanks
and really, really liked them (plus the new terminal in
Anchorage is terrific). They handled my changes in
arrangements beautifully, check-in was quick and simple,
boarding went smoothly, in-flight service was simple but
good, etc.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community
  #10  
Old October 24th 07, 09:17 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
Suja
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,483
Default Fairbanks trip


"BethInAK" wrote in message:

I didn't even know us air went to Fairbanks.


And from the sounds of it, neither did they.

Suja


 




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