hi to all the BSSD students...we were wondering if you can help us?
ok... here goes...we race sled dogs in the uk, a little differently than you guys do in Alaska, shorter distances and sadly on dryland not snow... we dont egt much, i'll post a pic so you can see what i mean...
anyway.. we are planning a litter of pups in the fall/winter, we have excellent studs lined up to use and are breeding racing bloodlines to help us in the coming years
our dogs are pure breed siberian huskies, ok a little slower than the alaskans you guys use , but in the UK we are governed in our races by some rules set down by the kennel club of GB. rightly or wrongly they govern the breedind of the pure breds, such as the siberian huskies. alaskan malamutes, samoyds, border collies, german shepards etc etc, so the pedigree breeding of dogs in the uk. Most race organisors will only let pure breed dogs run in uk races, its complicated... but i think they are worried that alaskans will become more popular and will make the pure breeds suffer. there are a few races where alaskans can enter in open classes for non pedigree sled dogs but they are few and far between.
to breed a pedigree dog in the UK you have to register the dogs and the kennel name with the kennel club.
so... as we are breeding pure bred siberians we need to register a kennel name with the kennel club. As you might have guessed 'Tanglefoot' is our racing name and that will be our first choice for our kennel breeding name, BUT! you have to put down 3 names as they dont alway allow you your first choice if it has already been registered to someone elses kennel or is too similar to someone elses name for their kennels and dogs.
this is where you come in...
we would like some help in choosing a name for our 2nd and 3rd choice, we wanted a traditional alaskan word or name that we could put forward. either athabascan, yupik, inuit or some traditional name or word that has some meaning for you guys, maybe to do with dogs or mushing or maybe just a word or name that will sound good for our kennel name and the dogs, if it is chosen by the kennel club, and bring us all the luck and beauty of alaska.
i wondered if the students of the BSSD project could help us out?
we will, in return, if it is chosen by the kennel club, send out something as a thank you from us in the uk to the person who suggested it. their idea and kennel name will go down in history and the record books with the kennel club and cannot be changed or used by anyone else and will become the name of our kennels. any dogs we breed or are bred from them will have that name recorded as well in the kennel club register of dogs.
also when the litter is born we would like you guys to help by suggesting the kennel names of the dogs that are born. its a ways off with the litter being produced as we need the kennel name first and vet checks on the bitch we are going to use. she has to have her hips and eyes tested and if they are clear we can use her for breeding. she is a lead dog and runs in the team with us. she has been on our team this year winning 5 races and placing 2nd in two others, out of the 7 races we have run in this season, so she is fast, strong and good worker and an up and comming lead dog.
as for the dogs 'pet' names we wanted to use the names of famous mushers, so for boys we would use buser, mackey, seavy, boulding, king etc and girls, dee dee, aliy, susan, linda etc, they could be changed by any new owners of the dogs in the future if we sell some of the puppies, but the kennel names are those names registered at birth with the dogs,and they will go into the bloodline histories and will be forever known by that name.
so...
for example Lolly, the bitch we are using, is called 'SHABELSKAS BLAZE OF GLORY' as her kennel name
and 'LOLLY' as her pet name.
i'll post a picture of her for you all to see.
so would like some help from you guys with choosing
1. the name of the kennel i.e the 'shabelskas' bit,
2. the dogs 'kennel name' as in the 'blaze of glory' bit
once they are born, the winners will have the dogs named after their choice and we might have to choose a puppy to name after you as well!
i hope you can help us all the way over in england in the uk and we really look forward to hearing any suggestions you might have. we have about 1 month till we have to regsiter the kennel name and then the dogs name will be registered once they are born in the fall/winter.
thank you everyone i hope all the above makes sense and we havnt confused you all, im sure john or damon can help explain to you if you ask them nicely!
best wishes
Matt and Ems
tanglefoot sled dog racing team England UK
p.s. if anyone meets her on your reports for iditarod, Kim Franklin and UK musher we race with in the UK is running to nome this year! shes a nice lady and will i suspect be happy to talk to you. she races horses in the uk as well as sled dogs!