Vargevass, Scandinavian Working Siberian Husky Kennel

Journal 2008

13 April
Since the last update few things have happened. Life at the kennel has it up and down sides and one of the definite down sides is having to say goodbye to our wonderful four legged friends. Our most senior pack member and compagnon Amigo av Vargevass silenty passed away at age 13. He was a quiet and soft personality who never raised a hair to other dogs. In the team, he was a dedicated leader and together with his best buddy Houston, they made the best leader pair for many, many years.
After their retirement they had the privilege to go loose in our play yard all day long. It was deeply touching to see the strong bond between the two. Amigo followed Houston like a shadow on his strolls in the yard. Where Houston slept, slept Amigo and where Houston went, went Amigo. After Houston passed away in December 2005, we were afraid that Amigo would follow not long after, but luckily he found an alternative compagnon in Ewok. They shared kennel and dog house and it never gave any conflicts between them.
Amigo suffered from a bad back when growing older. Last summer he was detoriating so much after a fall in a ditch, that we felt we would have to make the decision to let him go, but as a miracle he recovered. Even though he was handicapped due to arthritis in his back and pastern, he was still enjoying life. Therefore it came as a shock when Karsten found him liveless in his house on the evening of March 28th. He had not been drinking his soup earlier that morning and when Karsten came home from Östersund from the start of Amundsen Race and went out to feed, he noticed Amigo was not waiting for his food. Amigo had quietly slept in on his 13th birthday. He will forever be in our hearts as the most kind dog we know.


	Best buddies Amigo and Houston	28-03-1995 - 28-03-2008	Polar Distans 2003

One of the up sides of life at a kennel is harness breaking puppies and see how they develop into the great athletes of tomorrow. Now winter decided to stay around some longer this year, it gives a great opportunity to start training our puppies. The three Libby/Peikon sons have been in harness several times now and we took the four young ones of Tiny/Ewok who are at Kjell's place out for a run the other day. We are very happy with how these seven youngsters develop and have high hopes for their future.
Otherwise our kennel has seen some changes with two dogs moving out. Evita x Putin daughter Streken who was on the yearling team at the WSA championships joined Britta and Horst Mair of Tirol, Italy where she will be trained for middle and long distance. Streken is a confident female who has all the potential to become a good leader. On her first outing in harness, she went in lead together with her mother Evita and behaved like a pro. We wish Britta and Horst all the best with this lively and bold little female.
Finnmarks- and Femundlöpet finisher Goofy went to live with our friends Fredrik and Nina Filander of kennel Arktisk Storm. Fredrik and Nina are both very active in mid- and long distance running and Goofy is a steady, experienced addition to their relatively young team.


	Libby x Peikon puppies	Libby and her 3 sons

	Tiny x Ewok puppies	Out on the trail

7- 9 March
We had no particular expectations when we spontanously and in the last moment signed up for the WSA sleddog sprint racing championships after we had seen our long distance racing season been destroyed by a throat inflammation issue. The dogs had been resting all through December and it was not until the middle of January that training got going again. The original plan of running the middle distance of 3 x 52 km. had to be abandoned as the dogs had not sufficient condition for running this distance at full speed over 3 days. Instead, we decided to enter in sprint 8-dog class because the dogs had only been trained over 16 km all through February.

Our compagnon Kjell Dannevall drove the 8 fastest dogs from Karsten's mainstring being: Noa, Putin, Grubian, Glimmer, Robert, Dante, Peikon and Goofy. On the first day Noa and Glimmer were in lead. They both set a good pace, but the team lost quite some time when they got into a tangle passing an open class team which blocked the trail due to a overheated dog. Later on, the team lost more valuable seconds when Glimmer, a young dog in his first season of racing, got scared of the crowd while going into the finish chute. The next days more experienced Putin and Noa went in lead and the finish went smoothly. Kjell's time of 46.14,0 on the first day, 45.59,3 on the second day and 45.56,4 on the third day was good enough for a third place out of 17 teams starting, thereby winning the bronze. It proves that long distance dogs can even perform well in sprint. On the team were three dogs which have finished the Finnmarkslöpet 1000 km. in 2006 as well as multiple Femundlöpets; Grubian, Putin and Goofy.

While Kjell had 8 dogs from Karsten's mainstring, I entered with a team consisting of five yearlings of 16 months old (Ulva, Isa, Streken, Myggen and Spot), one two year old male (Tug), one small female (Libby) and Finnmarkslöpet veteran Barney. Barney is a wonderful, reliable and hard working dog but he is not a speed monster. However, his powerful attitude on the uphills is compensating for his lack of speed. All three runs went without any complications. On day three I decided to leave out Tug who had been having diarrhea the day before and started out with the 5 females and 2 males. Luckily, we were able to maintain our position and even improved one place, ending on 5th place out of 17. It was very rewarding to see the dogs perform so well after such a troublesome season and for me personally to place in the top five in my first sprint race and fourth race ever. (2 x NSHK Vintersamling 50 km.,
1 x Polar Distans 180 km.)

12 March
The day after the WSA championships we took the dogs from Karsten's main string out on a trip of 30 km. as preparation for the 160 km. Polar Distans we were entered for. Mireille la Barre from Switzerland and me were both entered for the 6 dog class, starting on Wednesday 12th March. It was nice to see that this year the smallest class had the most entries with 15 teams starting!
My team existed of the same dogs who had been winning bronze at the WSA sprint championships being Putin, Noa, Grubian, Peikon and Dante and Barney as leaddog. Mireille had Glimmer, Libby, Exxon, Sujoz and Vikerkollen's First Earl as well as Alaskan's Chanel of Anadyr on the team. Hereby thanks to Frode Bakke of Isslottet kennel of loaning Earl to us.

Polar Distans started in warm temperatures and rain weather. On the first leg of 80 km. I tried to keep the speed down as to not exhaust the dogs who were now used to 'sprint mode'. It took us 6 hours and 17 minutes to the first and only checkpoint in the race where the dogs got a 6 hours mandatory rest. We were on third place when coming into the checkpoint. Karsten told me I could let the dogs determine the speed for the rest of the race, which meant that we went full speed out from the checkpoint. The dogs kept good speed for the entire leg of 60 km. and we made the distance in 3 hours and 47 minutes which was good to win the race. We finished the race in 10 hours and 4 minutes.

Goofy who was on loan on the team of Nina Filander helped Nina's team to a beautiful 3rd place in the same class. Nina's leaddogs Nymånens Ixius and Curry (by Ewok) have been formerly staying at our kennel and are doing a great job now on the Arktisk Storm team. Nina won only two days earlier bronze at the WSA middle distance championships in limited class with these two lovely males in lead. Birgitta and Mikael Sandin of Kennel Nymånen are breeders of Ixius and Curry.

Mireille la Barre from Switzerland was driving our second team. Sujoz and Alaskan's Chanel of Anadyr went in lead for the entire race. Polar Distans was Mireille's first race ever and it was also first time for her to drive in darkness. All dogs and Mireille did a great job and finished at 5th place in 11 hours and 14 minutes.

The race season was rather short this year. The dogs did two major races in the same week, separated by only 2 days. I think we can feel priviliged to have such great athletes in the kennel.

/Eveline Koch

29 February
Puppies from last summer have been harness broken this week, the 3 males and 1 female out of Tiny of Nome x Ewok who are at Kjelll Dannevall's place as well as the Libby x Peikon offspring. Photos coming soon...

28 January
It feels a kind of strange now the start of Femundlöpet is approaching (31 January) and everything is calm here at home. No stressing on training kilometres, no packing of food bags, no sorting out of equipment. It's all very relaxed and easy but also a bit empty. It is the first time Karsten is not with on the Femund race since his first entry in 2000. This year he will be following the race from behind the computer screen and cheering on the Siberian Husky teams via the mobile. We wish Nisse Uppström and Pierre Antoine Heritier all the best in the Femund 600 and Anders Hörnlund, Cato Lunde, Sigmund Alhaug, Eric Greger, Johanne Sundby, Pascal Rebord and Elke Becker a great running of the Femund 400. Happy trails to all! The latest updates on the race will be available at the Femundlöpets website.

In the meantime we have picked up on training again around the middle of January. The last bacterial test we took on the dogs didn't give any results; no particular infection was found.
It seems the antibiotics had it effect on the Pasteurella. With the exception of two adults and the three puppies, ALL the dogs in the kennel have been treated. We have concluded the three-week treatment now and it will be interesting to see if new coughing will come to the surface in the time ahead. The dogs are lively, happy and full of energy, but it is like starting from scratch to work up their condition again. One and a half month of total rest has been taking its toll. The weather conditions have been fabulous since early January with loads of snow and just below zero temperatures. As to make the best out of the situation, we are now trying to get the dogs in shape over February so we can make trips of 40-50 km. by the time it's spring.

9 January
Best wishes for 2008.
It would be nice to be able to write a very happy and positive journal here, but the only thing we can come up with is that hopefully the new year will get better than it started. The last months of 2007 gave some serious and sad happenings here. The Pasteurella bacteria which has been causing a severe cough is still not giving in and the majority of the dogs have been on a 10-20 day antibiotics treatment. We had to stop training completely through most of December and since that is the most important month in preparation for the Femund race, we feel it is unfair and dangerous to the dogs to expose them to the hardships of the race. The team is withdrawn and there will probably be no long distance races for them this season. Three more dogs were taken to the veterinarian last Monday to get a new test and we are now starting again on a new treatment of 3 weeks to most of the dogs. Otherwise, the dogs are happy and lively, they have picked up on appetite again and don't seem to be bothered.

In December we had to take farewell of two wonderful veteran dogs who have been of great influence to the kennel. Blanco was put to sleep 1,5 month short of his 14th. birthday. The strength in his back and hindlegs had diminished over the last few months so much that he had problems to get into his dog house. Apart from that, he had become deaf and started to loose sight. For a dog who has been so active all his life there was little dignity left we felt. We agreed with our compagnon Kjell Dannevall that Blanco's time had come.

Mörkki got very suddenly sick by the beginning of December when the problem with the cough was in full rage. For two weeks he refused to eat and fell down in weight very quickly. Also our two other pensionists Ewok and Amigo lost appetite and didn't eat for two weeks but they have come over it and are doing fine now. Mörkki got very weak and the medication didn't help. In the end, he could neither walk, nor stand on his legs and there was no muscle in him left. It was obvious it was only a matter of days for him. Mörkki would have become 13 years in March. Both Mörkki and Blanco were on Karsten's team when they won the Pirena in 1998 and placed 3rd in the Femund 500 race in 2001. With the passing away of Blanco and Mörkki, we not only lost two outstanding sled dogs, but most and foremost two truly great personalities.

In loving memory


	Blanco	Mörkki

New photos of Libby x Peikon puppies on their own page here.

21 November
Only few days after the first snowfall, we started training on sled. The first week saw perfect weather resulting in ca. 30 cm. of snow and awesome conditions. But the dream was short lived as over the weekend it got warm, turning the snow into water and then into ice since the temperatures dropped again on Tuesday. Karsten is training with a wooden toboggan sled weighing 50 kg. in order to give the dogs something to pull. The main string of 16 dogs is doing okay, but we do have a nasty cough going around which we are fighting with antibiotics right now.
Of the original 16 dogs which started training in August, one got injured and it turned out that he broke a bone in his pastern. Desmond is luckily recovering very well and according to the vet he should be able to handle light training again in four weeks time. As substitute for Desmond, Libby has been added to the main team and she is doing fabulously. She has been in serious training since the end of September and had no problems with her transition from being a mother in summer, leader of the yearling team in early fall to member of the main string. Libby is by far the smallest dog in the kennel, but she is gifted with great movements.

The yearling team consisting of 7 kids out of Evita x Putin are still as promising as they looked earlier this fall. Ulva, Isa, Streken and Raggen all seem to have leader talent. They are being trained for about 10 to 18 km. and they are focused, endurant and have smooth gaits. Their dam Evita is being trained on the team of our friend Kjell Dannevall this winter as well as Eddie.

The 7 yearlings and 9 yr old Barbie (point)

Going out		Coming back

Going out		Coming back

16 October
Pages of Libby's (4), Chanel's (1) and Barbie's (2) offspring updated

30 August


	Ukko av Vargevass 31 May 1998 - 30 August 2007

All too early we had to take farewell from our beloved Ukko av Vargevass. He was a very special dog who means a lot to us and the kennel. Not only has he been an exceptional good dog in harness, he is also the sire of present key dogs in the team Nathan, Barney and Desmond as well as female leader Libby. He sired 8 litters in his life time of which 2 in our kennel. He is the sire of this year's Swedish Specialty BIS winner Minto, bred and owned by fam. Hörnlund.
In our yard, he was allowed to run permanently loose. He was very much on himself and didn't bother much with the others. He was not the leader of the flock, but he was an authority among them. In harness, he made a great leader. He was fast, serious, focused and had a total lack of hunting instinct - rather unique for a Siberian Husky -. He was calm and patient and made a good teacher for the young ones. We had hoped Ukko could teach the Evita x Putin offspring this season the manners of the trail, but it wasn't to be. A tumor of the milt ended his life much too soon.

12 September
After we had given up hope to get offspring from Chanel, she was in for a surprise and whelped 1 female puppy on the 12th of September. Sire is Ewok

25 August
A lot has happened since the last journal entry. First of all, Ewok bred Alaskan's Chanel of Anadyr by the middle of July. Right now, it looks like Chanel either goes empty again or she will have a very small litter. Ewok became father two times earlier this year. In May he sired a litter of 6 and in June he sired a litter of 7. If there will be some puppies, we hope Chanel will deliver in good time before we are off to France where Karsten will be one of the judges at the French Specialty this year.
Libby who was expecting of Peikon, gave birth to 4 males and 1 female on the 24th of July. Mother and pups are doing well. All five puppies are very lively and outgoing. They have got their own page with pics and pedigree here. At the time of writing, they are just over 4 weeks old and have started to get out of their pen. We are planning to keep several puppies of this litter since both parents are fantastic trotters and have great attitude.

Besides new members on the puppy front, we also got few more members on the adult front. The youngsters out of Evita and Putin av Vargevass who were born and raised at Nordenstam dogschool have come to stay at our kennel now since the middle of July. They will be the yearling team this winter. We are very pleased with this litter as almost all of them have good built, lovely temperaments, wonderful movement and they are extremely quick and light on their feet.

The main team for the next season has also seen some changes. We got in two new dogs from our friends of kennel Moonruns who decided to give priority to the renovating of their house this winter. According to Richard and Josefine ' Tug' and ' Tanana' are the best dogs in their kennel but since there will be little training this winter they thought it to be best to see them in a home where they will get plenty of excercise. Both Tug and Tanana have picked up really well on training. It will be interesting to see what they are doing in the time ahead as they haven't gotten as much training as our yearlings from last year and they are also the youngest ones on the main team, turning 2 years old in December. Of our youngsters from last winter, the males Glimmer, Dante and Robert have made it to the main team. Dante won his first show certificate just few months back and has been showing great leader potential, speed and drive last year, so we have high hopes for this pretty boy, both on the trail and in the ring.

Female Flirt who was on the yearling team last year has traded her sledding career for a career in obedience. She already showed great promise as obedience dog when she stayed at Nordenstam dog school in November last year. She finished two courses with flying colors in only one month time. When she came back to the kennel, she picked up her sled dog trade just as easily and showed great leader capabilities. Her built is not her best side, but she does well at showing. Head and mind are just tough as a nail. Flirt is very convinced of herself and extraordinary smart for a Siberian Husky so we are sure she is in the right home now as her brains are being put to work and she will be active in occassionally sledding too.
The cute siblings Ixius and Curry have joined kennel Arctic Storm of our friends and race handlers Fredrik and Nina Filander where they will be trained on their distance team. Pigen has retired at our German friends and neighbours fam. Mair who give her a loving home with plenty of excercise with their two Siberian males. We are lucky to still be seeing her a great deal as our friends have a house in the same neighbourhood.

Our pack has coped very well with the introduction of 9 new dogs and after two weeks of careful monitoring all new members have been fully integrated in the flock and run loose together with the rest of the pack during the daily play hours.

Training for the new season has officially started in August, but we have tried to keep the dogs in shape over summer even though that was a serious challenge. Now, at the end of August, training becomes more regular and we cannot afford too many days off anymore. Soon, we will start to increase the mileage and the Evita x Putin youngsters were harness broken just the other day. We can consider the season in full swing again!

/Eveline

29 June
With midsummer behind, it is hard to believe the days are getting shorter and we are heading towards winter again. Plans are being made and Karsten and Kjell are plotting out new sleds for themselves. Training activitiy has been low because the last two weeks it has been too warm to do anything so the dogs are being excercised by running free in the 15.000m2 play yard during the day.

Female leader Noa has still not shown any signs of an upcoming heat, so she will not be bred this year as it will be too late in the season. Chanel on the other hand, seems to be on her way and we have plans to breed her this year. Last year she was bred to Blanco but remained empty. Libby is expecting of Peikon and the litter is due around the 22nd of July. We have been extremely pleased with these two young dogs last season. Libby has been a leader for the yearling team and did very well. She only had a quarter of the training the mainteam had, and yet she finished Polar Distans. She is the smallest female in the kennel but her movement is compensating for her size as she keeps a flawless trot even at high speed.

At the beginning of August, we plan to attend the Swedish Kennel Club show in Svenstavik as the judge is known to be a working dog advocate. We have entered Ukko, Robert and Evita. Ukko still needs his 3rd certificate to his show championship and time is running out as is he not getting more enthousiastic over the years to show himself :-) On the 12th of August, Karsten will be judging the 4 polar dog breeds at the Norwegian qualifier for Crufts in Oslo and on the 22nd/ 23rd of September, he is invited to be one of the judges at the Siberian Husky Specialty Show in France. All in all, a busy schedule for the summer.

All for now.
/Eveline

5 June
Summer has come for full to Raftälven since a week. Temperatures are between 22 and 25C. during the day, but can go down as low as 2 degrees at night. We have been able to train the dogs late in the evening/early night. It makes for wonderful training runs because it is light
24 hours a day and the wildlife is thriving. During the day the dogs take it easy while it is too warm for anything else. The small forest in the excercise yard is a popular place to be around in as it gives good shelter from the sun and there is always something interesting to find.

The kennel page has been updated with some more impressions of this week and last winter. More photos of the SPHK show of May 20th. in Östersund are to be seen at the show page of Vox Celestas kennel. A very good resource to get an impression of the Siberians at Swedish shows.

23 May
As we could see from our home that our local mountain 'Ansätten' is still covered in snow, we decided to try one last trip by sled for the season. We loaded the dogs in the truck and drove for an hour to the starting place. Our plans seemed a bit too optimistic when we came at 700 metres alt. and there was no snow. But..., first we had to see how it was higher up. When we reached the parkinglot we usually start from, there was still a good amount of snow left and the trail was not too bad. We hooked up an 8 and 10 dog team and went off. After only few hundred meters the snow turned into water and was flooding the swamps. It didn't matter really as there was so much water that the sleds were gliding smoothly. However, there were a number of creeks to cross and the dogs had no choice other than to jump and get wet and we of course with it. We got really impressed on how easy they took all these water hurdles. Even the young dogs who had not been in similar situations before, jumped without hesitation. After 10 km. of waterskiing and at least 3 good bathes, we called it a day and went home. We really have to accept now that the winter is over.

On Sunday we visited the annual dog show of SPHK Nedre Norra and were pleased to notice that judge Lars West liked our young dog Dante. He won the Open Class and became Best Male and Best of Opposite Sex, winning his first CAC certificate. The other 3 dogs we entered; Robert, Flirt and Ukko were all placed 2nd in their class and got 1. prize with CK/HP.
Thanks to Jachym Lukes of kennel Kipp d'Amundsen for the pictures from the show.

As what goes for the summer season; we will be entering some dogshows and Karsten will be judging the 4 sleddog breeds at the Crufts qualifier of the Norwegian Kennel Club in Oslo on the 12th of August.

The puppies out of Evita and Putin at Geir Nordenstam's trainingcenter are now little over six months old and have started school. They are being educated in obedience and agility by behaviorial instructor students at Nordenstam's dogschool. More pics of them here.


	Puppies introduction and socializing with the students; the easy part.

	Paying attention... not quite as easy

1 May
The dust is wiped of the fourwheeler. We did not have use for it for 7 months, but now the snow on our home trails has melted it is time to go back on the wheels in order to keep the dogs in shape over summer. All the dogs who are supposed to be on the main string next season are being trained in 1 team, which means we have 18 dogs on the team. The males Ukko, Eddie and Ewok and female Pigen are retired from active racing and will either be trained with our 2006 puppy team next season or on the team of Kjell Dannevall. If the temperatures keep down we can still make some occasional trips to the mountains to train by sled as there seems to be plenty of snow left.

In June, a litter is expected of Ewok and Tiny of Nome. Tiny is owned by Mireille la Barre from Switzerland and is acknowledged (angekört) by the Swiss breed club. She is residing at and trained by Kjell Dannevall since 2004 and has been doing very well in his team. We hope for some more puppies this summer as we have plans to breed Noa. She has been leading the team in both the Femund and Polar Distans race and has shown great drive and speed. As of now, all potential puppies are spoken for.

The website has been seeing some updates. Most of the dogs bio's are written now. Have a look at the individual dog's pages.

21 April
After a break in training, the dogs are up and running again. Since last week, we are driving two to three times per week to the local mountains. The conditions just couldn't be more perfect. Freezing night temperatures and clear blue skies with sunshine during the day make for fantastic sledding weather. The trail surface is so hard, one can go off the beaten tracks and drive wherever one likes. Great leader training!
Kjell Dannevall has been joining in with his team, meaning we are out with three teams and 28 dogs.

11 January
New snowfall has made it possible to drive with the sled from home again after almost two months of trucking the dogs to suitable training grounds. Karsten even had to take his refuge in Swedish Lapland since the conditions in Lillholmsjo deteriorated over Christmas. He spent the week between Christmas and New Year in Aukstjaur at our friends Mikael and Birgitta Sandin of kennel Nymånen. With him were longtime friends Bernhard and Carola Schuchert from Germany who are training their team of Alaskan Huskies for this year's Iditarod. Thanks to Mikael and Birgitta who offered their spare house to the two mushers in need. Karsten and Bernhard were able to continue their team's training program as planned. Our dogs seemed to enjoy the new trails and surrounding and Karsten was very happy with their performance. The two youngsters Peikon and Noa (by Mörkki av V.) have been doing very well so far, but upon arrival back home Peikon was limping on his left hindleg. He has been resting since the 2nd of January and we hope he will soon be fit again otherwise he will be out for Femund. Noa has been showing great potential in lead. She has very good drive and is full of confidence, a definite key member on the team.


Flirt	Dante	Libby