Snow Pack Malamutes

Two important links above, how to naturally keep your malamute healthy and activities you can do with your malamute !

Nikki's blog 2

At 6 mos old, Nikki is confident and smart. She learns very quickly. It will be a challenge to keep up with her eagerness to learn.

Nikki did great with water dog training and tadpole test. 

With water training over, we will now turn to training on obedience and tricks and maybe some other things. We are excited to see where they takes us. 

It is hard to show in pictures 

Nikki is learning "up" "sit" "down" hand signals. 

She has these three very consistent now. So I will be adding three more this week. 

When she has them, I will add pictures or a video. 

I love my ducky, I take her everywhere. I keep her safe. 

A little hiking / backpacking with my friend Hana, she is a Newfie. 

4 wheeling - Webster Pass

Rya and Sakari ( and my son ) were with us. 

Nikki does well 4 wheeling. It helps to have other dogs with us and take several breaks to let the dogs out to play. 

Since I do occasionally use Diatomaceous Earth, I am not concerned about her drinking from creeks, rivers and lakes. This is pretty high up and the water is probably purer than most other sources.  The water is pure high mountain spring or snow melt water. Anything in it, like parasites from animals, the DE will stop. 

I have been wondering if Nikki would like a paddleboard or kayak. 
Well, we were at the lake and these two nice ladies were coming in off the lake. Nikki did not know them and had never seen them before. 
When the one lady got to the edge of the water, Nikki put her paws on the paddle board and stopped her. Then climbed right on and laid down. Of course, they said it was ok. Nikki insisted she was going to go with them !  I tried getting Nikki off and she got right back on. The nice lady had a good laugh and enjoyed Nikki's friendliness. 
MOM !!! What is that thing in my lake ? 
Silly Nikki 
This was an amazing adventure Nikki and I took with my son, Kurtis and his girl Rya ( Nikki's mom)
This is Grizzly Reservoir near Aspen, Co. 
Nikki really loves the water so I will do my best to take her as much as I can until it gets too cold
I am taking a short break from Nikki's blog to take care of puppies
January 1, 2023
I have decided to bring Sahara into the blog. 
Nikki and Sahara will be training together. I want these two, the two youngest, to form a close bond. So they will be spending a lot of time together. Nikki is pretty well trained, and she will really help with Sahara. 
This was Nikki and Sahara's first adventure together. They did very well. You can easily see the love between them already. 
I am really looking forward to working with these two together. 
Training

This is a good time to talk about training methods. I absolutely do  not support positive training with treats.  Page 1 of the blog shows amazing success. You can also check out the videos too. This is all done without treats. I do not BRIBE in any way to get a dog to do something. 


When you give a dog a treat to do something, it is a bribe! This teaches them to do something for something and when they no longer want the "bribe" then they quit doing it. 


If you teach the dog to do something then after they do it, reward them with love, hugs, positive words, then they are more likely to do it again simply because of the reward. There is a huge difference in bribing and rewarding - know the difference. 


The only time I use a treat is getting them to get in the jeep when they are young. But this is still a reward after a good adventure. 


The absolute best way to get a dog to do things is to spend quality time with them and build a solid bond.  

Hands on loving, touching, petting, hugging, positive emotions. 

This over food, this over a clicker. This gets far better results.

The dog knows the difference. 

The girls are very well bonded and right now, I am just focused on keeping it that way while Sahara grows.
It is mid February right now, it will slowly start to warm up but we are also heading into our snowiest months, March, April and May and sometimes in to June.  I plan on starting to take Sahara and Nikki out as it warms up. 
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Today, I thought I was going on a new adventure after a long winter staying home. 
Mom took me to Tractor Supply, made me practice my manners. Then to the park and more practicing manners. I met some nice people and another little dog. He was scared so I sat still. Mom made me practice sitting and staying. So I did, but I also practiced my dopey look ! 


Then she made me go to the doggy doc ! She tricked me! He said I was good for summer activities :)
Since I was so good today, mom took me to the river to play in the water ! 
Nikki was thrilled to be back here. 
This was the first place she learned about water.
One of the greatest joys of my malamutes is being able to walk with them anywhere in the wild and not worry about them. To get there, training starts young.  Nikki is pretty well trained at a year old and now I am using her to train Sahara.  The pictures below, Sahara is learning to go out through the gate and back in without a leash. She is learning to follow Nikki and myself. She is learning to be free and explore outside the gate. She is also learning that we go back in together. By allowing her to explore, this illuminates all curiosity. 
Sahara's first solo trip. 

Sahara's first adventure alone. Starting on the 20th loose leash. She quickly figured out the end and never tested it. She took to the water right away. Keeping in mind it was about 20 degrees and very windy. This river is in between to frozen lakes, so I am sure it is extremely cold.  I do allow my dogs to drink from lakes, creeks and rivers as we are pretty high up in the mountains and this water is about as fresh and natural as it gets. I don't worry about parasites as they are super easy to treat with Diatomaceous Earth. Just a little in their food or water or even on the ground in their bedding and it quickly stops any parasites they might pick up. 

The same as I started with Nikki, I always start with a 20 ft leash.  I don't use commands. Using this walk as an example, I walk along slowly, I allow her to sniff the ground, explore, build confidence, and just figure things out.  


It is up to Sahara to keep up with me. I am teaching her to be responsible and to think.  At 4 mos old and her first time without Nikki at her side, she is doing fantastic. I am excited to continue to work with her. 


She rode well in the jeep and got out with no problem. She is hesitating to get in. The next trip will probably include Nasboba? He is well behaved and gets in and out easy so he will be a good one for her to learn from. 

Video included on the video page !

One thing I would like to say is to make sure you enjoy  your pup. Give them time to grow and explore. If you just want a pup to own that will live in a house or a yard and you don't plan on doing anything more, please consider a different breed. This breed loves adventure! And more important, they need it to be happy.