Puppies and Puddles by Mandy

It’s Fall in Alaska’s Interior! The birch trees are draped in beautiful orange leaves... and most are already losing them. But Fall also means rain and mud.

Currently, Ryno Kennel has 12 puppies across 3 litters that are too young to mush. In order to get energy out and some love-and-care in, we take them on Puppy Walks. These crazy furballs will play with anything they find: rope, sticks, leaves. They romp around and splash into every puddle found along the trail. We bring kibble as treats to work on their recall and sitting skills.

My favorite part is watching a puppy run too fast and lose their careful balance, slipping into a puddle. Don’t worry, these guys are rubberbands and spring back into action—the only evidence of their mishaps are the splotches of mud covering their plump bodies.

The older puppies, around 7 months old, get to run off-leash as we drive ATVs. It lets them sprint, play, and be dogs at high speeds. The goal is to tire them out but there’s a pit of endless energy and often they’re still playing with each other in the dog yard afterwards.

Lastly, the race dogs. Before there’s snow on the ground, training begins with the gangline hooked to ATVs. We typically run between 8-14 dog teams. These dogs are power-houses and run through mud pits, puddles that overtake the trail, and even into rivers. I never realized how much they help keep the ATV from sliding around untiI driving the same trails without them—I got stuck once.

Puddles, and water in general, are great during Fall Training. It cools the dogs off as they run. We typically run in the morning for cool weather but even then, these dogs are built for snow and work hard. They’ll pull toward the puddles along the trail to make sure their paws soak it in.