Photos: Denali National Park Kennels

[my_daroga]

Here it is, folks: the end of the Alaska trip series. The last day was mostly travel, and before we left my brother, sis-in-law, and I only had time to get down to the kennel where they keep the sled dogs that still patrol the park in winter for poachers and signs of motorized traffic. Dogs are still more efficient than snowmobiles for this purpose and less invasive. The Alaskan Husky is not bred to an AKC (or any other) standard but for the qualities--both physical and temperamental--that make them good sled dogs. So they all look a little different. These dogs are also bred for friendliness to strangers, as they spend a good part of the year as a visitors' exhibit. Even so, the dogs all have their own space and can choose to interact with people or not, as they wish. They seemed pretty happy when I was there.










This dog, younger than some of the others, slipped his collar while they were getting the other dogs hooked up to the sled. And ran them on a merry chase, not running away, just... running.

Comments

[my_daroga]

Most of the aesthetic absurdities we do to dogs aren't even "cute" to me, anyway. They're sort of horrifying. And I think it's entirely unreasonable. It's like torture, visited over generations.

Huskies/Malamutes are very cute, but yeah, I see a lot of people not knowing what they're doing. I especially like watching people put those harness leashes on them, and then wonder why they're getting pulled down the street. Also, when you go on petfinder or other sites there are a LOT of these types of dogs that say "no cats" next to them, which indicates a high prey drive. That's something people need to keep in mind, too. And lots of highly intelligent dogs just aren't good pets for a lot of people.