Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska New litter of Malamute pups:

Bred my most fleet-footed, spunky female with my biggest, hardest working wheel dog. The mother is from my kotzebue litter two years ago. When those massive northwest arctic ravens would come in to snatch a pup, all her brothers would high tail it into the whelping pen. She'd turn around and give chase to birds three times her size. She was different from the beginning.

When first introduced to the adults, shed cup their noses with her little bear paws, and pull their faces to her's. All her litter mates were scared of the adults.

The father is a harness-shredding brute. Never fights, never any paw issues and never a limp. Tug line is tight from the beginning of every run, to the end.

Should be some good pups, my personal best anyways, after 8 years of brew refinement:

Here is the father off to the right on wheel:

Congrats ! Kurt

Cute pups!

Beautiful country, where do I sign?

Blu cs, I'm always looking for a good dog handler or two. Old Alaskan tradition: teach a handler the dog mushing trade, offer free living and food, in exchange for a helping hand with all the many chores of the dog kennel. Right now I have a great Army veteran as a handler who used to be stationed up here in the same unit as me about 10 years ago.

Anyhow, pups are plumping up. Please excuse the hideous blankets. We use whatever scrap blankets we get from value village. We wont use straw on new-born pups. A lot of the Delta Junction straw has fox tails in it. When those foxtails get in a pups eyes, it can be a serious injury for the youngsters. Hard to find nice oat-straw up here.

Anyhow, lost a pup. It was a nice red female. She got crushed when the mother got startled during a series of sonic booms from the fighter jets off Eilson Air Force base. Much the same every year: breaking the sound barrier right over local residents. Some dogs and livestock don't do well with that stuff. In my opinion: A severe lack of military discipline if you can't keep that bullsht within the military training grounds.

Pups are now plumping up. During that days long 20-30 below zero spell, they were play fighting. Not phased by the cold.

They are also noisey a s s holes during feeding time. Sound like a pack of hyenas. Set my new winter rifle against the fence. Went inside to grab phone and snap a picture. They drug it into the fence barrel first, and were all congregated round the dmn thing chewing on the stock.

Puppy stippling definitely enhanced the grip area..

A s s holes!

Gun dogs huh! Lol! Great looking pups.

Big country out there. You ever see any polar bears while your out there?

But what is the winter rifle??

No but middle of the night at 30 below out past ivik, a caribou calf and cow ran right past the team. Then a single wolf blasted by too, hot on their tails. Dogs were going crazy

Would 've never experienced something like that on a machine.

PA, the winter rifle is a little 338 rcm carbine with an NECG peep. At 39.75 inches, fits under my sled handle in a vertical scabbard. Snowshoeing an 8.5 lb browning 1895 was a little too hefty. The 6.75 lb ruger feels like a feather.

Would rather it was a 358 win rs carbine, but can't afford the insane prices.

Got a ton of brass and 225 grain fusions. Should make a good winter caribou/spring bear bullet.

Beautiful pups, and growing fast. Brings back very fond memories of a Husky, Malemute, Wolf mix I had. Big pooch. Long gone and still missed.

Lovely pups!

Damn you make me wistful for my childhood!

I grew up north of Reno, NV with a registered malamute female... and her occasional litter (bred with other registereds from a farm back in the Nevada hills).

They got Mow-Lee as a pup when my older brother was 1 - I was 6 when we had to put her to sleep due to breast cancer.

Here are some pics - mostly my oldest brother, but some with the middle one and I - and one of her litters.

At Maternal grandparent's in Grand Junction, Co 1964


At Pyramid Lake, NV 1964

Sounds like they're going to be some great dogs.

How the heck did malamutes end up in the desert back in the 60's? Crazy.

We lock the grandmother in the puppy pen with them little knuckle-heads. She keeps them entertained. The mother dog has had enough of em. Genetics are weird, we have a male, with the rare mahogany-red coat. I only get that color once every 10 years.

The great-great grandmother of these pups has that coat.

The mother dog just now grew back an under coat. Still fairly thin though, even being supplemented 1lb of pure fat per day to her dog food. Hard on the mother dogs, especially the cold spells.

She is absolutely killing it in harness. Tug line always tight, immense focus.

Man! Those pups have grown! I think I know why Mama is looking a tad lean. Great pics and story - thank you for keeping us updated about their progress. And, don't blame the pups for chewing on something left in their reach. That is what I told my self when I left my 18mo old Brit in the wagon with a very nice Spanish 20ga double and my sheepskin gun case, while I ran into the diner to have breakfast with some buddies.

Seat belts are expensive too. I've several that need replacing.

I THINK I have both dogs calibrated to leave them alone now. All of them.

Honey HalfLab chewed the ones in the old 90 3500 up, and got reamed out for it (she dreads scolding).

End of problem. In the front seats.

"Oh, did that mean the ones in the back seat too? My bad... I thought you just meant only those up there....."

Not sure whether I should laugh or cry.

She has always been more into specifics than generics. Food excepted, tho she let it be known she knows better:

She had been getting into trouble for scarfing the puppy's free-feed food, off in his own feeding area, when no one was looking.

One day I fed her in her dish, at her place, at her time (twice/day).

She sat there looking at me funny, glancing from her dish (always immediately attacked with gusto) to me and back.

Oops - I'd put puppy chow in there.....