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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
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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
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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
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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 |
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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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