Life of a Handler Written by Kalyn
/I (Ryne) asked Kalyn and Mandy to occasionally write blogs for the website, and being the amazing people they are, both have agreed!
What is it like to be a handler? You might see us scooping poop, cutting meat, digging holes, resting in the dogtruck at races in a position you can only assume is comfortable due to lack of sleep, packing drop bags, watching over resting teams, drinking obscene amounts of coffee…The list is nearly endless.
The life of a handler is a variable one. We spend many winter months working for room and board and the chance to run a dog team. For most of us, our handling gig ends in March or April and we set out to find a summer job to feed the bank account. Many people handle for one or two seasons, then either start their own kennel or move on to the next adventure. Me? Let’s just say that this is my third season at Ryno Kennel and I’ve spent a couple years playing at another kennel before that. In the summer months, I’m usually guiding - aka getting paid to show people really amazing aspects of this earth. For several of the past few summers I’ve been guiding people on kayaking and bushwhacking adventures in southeast Alaska.
Many other handlers move to doing dog sled glacier tours in the summer. This past summer, however, was a bit different. Tourism didn’t exist. So, I applied for the Alaska Fire Service and got a job as a Wildland Fire Dispatcher out of Galena, AK. It was quite the experience and it had been many years since I’ve had an office job. The job itself was extremely interesting and it’s always fun to learn new skills - skills I can use in the event that I can no longer do a more physically demanding job. But I’m sure glad to be back home at Ryno Kennel staring at dog butts on the trail.
