Musher Profiles!
Mick Byrne
How many dogs do you own, what breed and what are their names and why?
3 sibes:
Bruak male age 7 from bruach na frithe a peak on the cuillin ridge on skye
Koolin male age 5 the cuillin ridge
Bear male age 4 cos he looked like one as a pup.
3 hounds: (brothers born oct 04)
Diesel original name and kept as we liked it
Dyson the Hoover dog
Dennis as in menace.
1 jack russel x patterdale nelson age 13 was called tyson should maybe have kept this name as he fears nothing and rules the roost.
Oh and not forgetting Dodger and Digit (coming soon).
You feed barf how and why?
Why? A the decision to try this diet came 3 years ago when after almost a year of different diagnosis Koolin was found to have an enzyme deficiency, and was almost emaciated. At the same time Bruak was being fed a prescription diet to prevent bladder crystals.
We were living at the vets, so after reading give your dog a bone and the barf diet decided to try it with Koolin first, it soon became apparent that it was working and Bruak was also introduced to it closely followed by the then 6 month old bear.
How? With a raw food diet we attempt to achieve balance with a variety of different raw foods not all fed at the same time though. Roughly 60% of everything we feed will be raw meaty bones (lamb, chicken, pork, rabbit, and beef). 15% pulped raw vegetables (mainly green leafy types). 10% raw offal (liver, heart and kidneys). 5% fruit chopped or pulped and the other 10% is made up of things like live yoghurt, fish, various oils, extra vitamin E, kelp, eggs, rice ,oats, leftover scraps a bit more muscle meat sometimes. Recently we have been adding some kibble into the equation bones remain at 60%. 3 years on we have 3 stress free entire males who share the same pen eat together including bones, work well together as a team and are rarely ill.
What are your training philosophies?
Training is the time to get your dogs to trust you and you them by trying different things and dealing with any problems calmly trying to make sure everything ends up a good experience. We try to train with other people whenever possible good for safety and a bit of banter.
Your van……. How do you keep it so clean!?
Seen it recently? This used to be easy only a few dogs lots of storage space. But now more dogs less storage, one of Mick’s many summer missions is van layout.
You have recently decided to get some Scandinavian hounds, what made you take this step and how has it worked out?
In early 2004 we decided to move house which would mean yes! We could have more dogs. This would have been Siberians if either of 2 breeding’s had been successful, sadly for all involved they weren’t and after having spent quite a lot of time around and behind these other sleddogs, the decision was easy and we decided to go for it now instead of waiting a few years as was originally planned. And so we moved house in October yes start of rally season aswell, 3 pups arrived November, and to be honest it was insanity but things fell into place as they do, we made it to 7 rallys and were delighted with their progress so far,
Mick you have recently taken part in the canicross events. Can you see a future for this kind of event at SDAS if so why?
Definitely a few rallies last year saw quite a few entries, as with the scooter class it’s a chance to run older dogs or dogs that don’t make the team whilst also doing yourself no harm either (debatable).mass starts and dogs being called into the finish making people run faster than they’d probably like to: great stuff
What if any changes will you make for the next coming season?
Difficult to answer at the moment, there will be changes but what they will be will depend on how things go with the pups. One thing for sure is we need a passenger rig or similar. Another summer project.
What, who or k9 inspires you in this sport?
Iinspiration? Don’t need any we both enjoy the sport as much now as when we first started. I always wake up long before the alarm goes off even if we are just going training. Sad eh!
You recently went to Norway, tell us about the trip?
Aye, along with gregor, steven and keith by kind invitation from the hakadal sleddog club we spent 4 days there staying with snorre naess and attending a 2 day seminar. And apart from being a laugh a minute it was also very interesting, Norway is a real nice country and home to some quality sleddogs.
What is the best advice you have received to date?
There has been plenty over the years and I think you should always be willing to listen but the best advice I ever received came along time ago: “life’s too short be as happy as you can”
