Hugh and Judy Wakker
Blackwaters Turnagain Mist at Ceannabeinne
Bred by Peter and Donna Johnson, Blackwater Kennel, New Hampshire, USA. Owned by Devan and Judy Currier, Lara-Ke Kennel, Fairbanks, Alaska, USA.
Siberian Husky
Turner
¾ Anadyr/ ¼ Kodiak going back to Alaskan Nicolai of Anadyr II at 3rd generation, Spook of White Water Lake at 4th generation and Satan of Seppala IV at 5th generation
Turner has adapted very well to life with 6 rather than 60 other huskies! He doesn’t seem to miss his box and chain and loves his vet bed in his kennel! Despite never having been inside a house he is perfectly ‘house trained’ when he comes in and has even been known to sleep in the bedroom on the odd occasion when Hugh is away!
He had a huge coat when he came over, having just spent a winter in minus 40 degrees in Two Rivers. Thankfully for him, but sadly for us (it was such a beautiful coat) he lost most of it in May/June. He still has a very thick coat so we do have to watch the heat.
The day after we picked him up we ran him a short distance at Thetford. As it was mid March, the temperatures were rising and given his huge coat we then just walked/jogged/used the mountain bike until September, apart from a couple of short runs with a friends 12 dog team. When we began training him with the rig our biggest concern was how he would adapt to the short sprint racing on hard ground given that he was only used to mid/long distance running on snow. He was great running on the flat and has such power on the hills but at first was not happy on fast down hills. However after a few months of training he can now easily cope with anything we run here in the UK.
Anyone who has seen Turner at the start line will see how excited he gets about his runs. He doesn’t think too much of the mud and rain and we have to keep a close watch on his pads. We have not booted him so far but next season we think we will. His pads are taking a time to toughen up enough to cope with some of our rougher trails and we are regularly rubbing in a pad protection cream.
Given Turner spent the first 5 years of his life running wheel in a 10-16 dog team in mid/long distance races, living on a box in a dog yard in Alaska he has adapted very well to being part of the family, pulling a rig with three others around Carron Valley, Glen Devon and various races sites! Is he happy…….ask those that know him.
We were visiting Judy Currier at her Lara-Ke Kennels when we went to Alaska on holiday in 2002 to watch the Iditarod. Turner was standing on his box, right on the edge of Judy’s dog yard, howling at a moose standing very close to him. Hugh commented ‘I could take that dog home’. Judy mentioned that she was thinking of re-homing Turner as in her words…. ‘he has slight back injury that bothers him after about 1000 miles a season!’. (Devan and Judy were gradually moving from Siberians to Alaskans. In 1999 and 2001 their Iditarod teams were Siberians but the last three years Devan has run Alaskans.)
When we got home we began looking into Pets Passport and asked Judy if we could have him, as long as the quarantine laws were relaxed. He was already vaccinated for rabies as all dogs that run the Iditarod are vaccinated before they take part. He was blood tested and issued with his ‘pets passport’ in July 2002 so he would be ready if/when the laws were relaxed. (we made many, many phone calls to DEFRA over the six months to enquire when the change in law may happen). In December 2002 Pets Passport was introduced for dogs from the USA. Turner’s ‘6 months’ was up in January and he eventually flew over here in March 2003, a year after we first met him.
As mad as it seems, we re-homed Turner because we met him, really liked him and were luckier enough to be able to do it.
As far as we know we were the first people to import a siberian husky from the USA via Pets Passport. He travelled the 400 miles from Fairbanks to Anchorage by truck because the Alaskan Airlines planes flying between the two cities were not big enough to take his size of crate! He then flew Alaskan Airlines to Minneapolis and North West Airlines to Gatwick. As at the time there were no airlines authorised to carry ‘pets passport’ dogs from USA to UK he had to go into quarantine for a couple of days while his papers were checked.
He left Anchorage on Thursday 6 March 2003 and arrived at Gatwick on Saturday 8 March. He was released by customs on Tuesday 11 March. Everything went smoothly until the DEFRA vet looked for his micro chip. The vet checked the normal places (between the shoulder blades) but for 2 days couldn’t find Turner’s. Only after emailing Judy Currier did we find out that Alaskan vets chip behind the left ear. Within an hour of finding the chip, Turner was allowed out of quarantine.
As we have said, Turner spent the first 5 years in Alaska, living in extreme temperatures, running miles on snow. He came over in March 2003 and didn’t see snow in Scotland until November. We were so excited to see how he would react……….he went to venture out of his kennel, put one paw in the snow ….and went back to his vet bed!
Turner ran wheel for Devan Currier in his 2001 Iditarod team. That was the year with very little snow for the first part of the trail and sadly Devan had to scratch due to injury to too many of his team.
Turner qualified (gaining his Stud Book Number) and went to Crufts in 2004.
He has sired two litters, one before he came to Scotland and one since he arrived, One of his daughters from the first litter ran the Junior Yukon Quest this year and another has won many Skijoring races in Switzerland.
Hopefully Toddy (Sassacaia White Mist at Ceannabeinne), Rio (Sassacaia Rionach via Navajos) and Fudge (Sassacaia Ice on Fire) will follow in his footsteps!
Turner