Next northern inuit society event General Chat

Awwww, I won't be able to make this one It's my OH's birthday on the 24th. I don't think he'd be too impressed if I buggared off to Essex for that weekend

Have a good time everyone, and Julie, if you have a go at sledging, I want ALL the photo's emailed to me ;-)

had a fantastic weekend,wether was good but very cold, and have now answered the question, are northern inuits any good for sledging???? YES they most definatly are. two short videos to follow.

Ohhh You got snow then... Fabulous that your NI's got to sledge...

Most poor Mals and Sibes have to make do with rigs and mud..

Did you use the fancy new sleds or a wooden one?

Glad you all had a good time, sorry we missed it!!

Glad you all had a great time

Hi Louise, no Snow just abit chilly, we used a rig, but can be lucky here to have snow, normally in jan/feb time so maybe the next snowy flurish we can use sleds lol.

Phil from Culpeppers kindly came and gave us a talk and demo, and allowed us to try out with our dogs, and WOW it was fun and something im sure we will take up soon.

here are a few short video's that sue took

sorry louise i have a wooden sled,but due to lack of snow we used a rig as most people would of guessed:?

No....most people would have thought you meant sledges as you said:? ....

think a few of us will be getting rigs and harnesses as christmas presants this year,and it was great to see how much the northern inuits enjoyed it

Hi Louise,

If its not called sledging, maybe you can give us newbies the real name for it so we use that in the future so not to get it wrong, and cause problems, thanks ;-)

Well most Mal/Sibe people refer to it as "working their dogs"..or "working in harness"

Never heard it being called Sledging before!!

Or the occaisonal person calls it mushing

well now thats clear,

here a picture of my girls in harness ( no they dont fit right i know), but it was nice of phil to let us have a go with his stuff;-)

tracey the girls look lovely, and were definatly the team of the day

Hope all the dogs 'sledging' had good hip scores, very bad for a young dog or dog with bad hips.

Funny that about the hip scores, i read somewhere that someone had said they needed to have good hip scores, but when we asked on the day we were told, it wasnt an issue of hip scoreing but more of fitness level in your dogs,

And to answer the question yes my girls both have nice hip scores ;-)

Good old Phil Dixon eh ?? He has some lovely dogs.

With regarding to 'Working' NO dog under a year old should be taking part anyway, and it IS better to have good hip scores, as a dog with bad HD would only suffer if worked, as it would with any strenuous exercise !!

Has anyone looked into the fact that NI's don't have the same construction as the original breeds, and therefore the damage it could potentially do to them ??

Just wondered, because many other breeds can't do this for that very reason !

hi malady,i will answer you as i know you are genuine and not just trying to pull are dogs to bits.the dogs used on the day were only dogs thought suitable,and only if the dogs wanted to pull,we did not try and force any dogs to pull.besides phil beeing there who is very experianced,we also had a person who is a dr of genetics and a vet there. i do understand what your saying about are dogs are built different to huskies and mals, and know we dont even come close to you guys in this field,but all it was was a fun day for the dogs and us.we proved are dogs can do it and enjoy doing it for fun.we ll probably never be up to huskie/malamute standard lol but so what so long as we and the dogs enjoy it.no dog was put at risk in any way.

Thanks for replying Julie.

It's just made me wonder, because with the GSD in the background also, (whom they would not work for health reasons, due to back and hindquarter problems) I wondered if it would have been a bit problematic..........not running them as such, but the potential health problems it could cause in the future ..... It's just something I personally would be wary of, simply for that reason, epecially with all 3 breeds having HD in them.

As for being up to standard in working them, I know many Mals that wont pull heavy loads and many Sibes that won't race fast, so each dog is different anyway, it was just the health side that had me curious.

Phil is very experienced and makes some very nice working stuff too (He's cost us a fortune in the past )

Phil is a nice man he made my girlie a collar for me.