Travel Buddy

I can't speak for all Malamutes, but Brooklyn has been an excellent traveler from the day I picked her up from Palm Springs, California and drove her back to Las Vegas. Upon picking her up, I had brought a little puppy crate for the fluffy 16-pounder but the breeder said that she'd be fine to just sit on my lap. To my delight, I obliged. True enough, Brooklyn laid on my lap and slept most of the way.

As socialization is paramount with any puppy that will one day make its transition into adulthood, we took Brooklyn everywhere and she was very used to sitting in a car. She then would start going back to Southern California and she's even made the trip to Seattle before - all without a hitch.

I had to travel to New Jersey and decided to take Brooklyn with me. True to form, an angel on the road. She has crossed the nation. She wanted to take a picture in mid-America, so here she is at the Kansas State Welcome Center.

While Brooklyn makes a great travel buddy, she nonetheless still gets an interruption to her normal schedule of eating and activity so there are some precautions to take during the road trip.

Brooklyn typically does not eat as much when she is traveling so this, I know, is normal. Either way, I carefully measured out her full daily servings of dry kibbles into Hefty secure ziploc bags for the road. Animals are super smart, so if she doesn't feel like eating the first day or so, it's alright. I'm not too worried. More importantly, however, is to make sure that they get enough fluids while on the road. Staying hydrated is super important and so at every pitstop for gas or a snack, I offer Brooklyn a potty break and water afterwards.

To also make her comfortable during travels, I bring some of her home toys with me on the road so she has the comforts of familiarity. She doesn't play with her toys a whole lot on the road, but she knows they are right there for her if she should want them. I bring her normal snacks and treats with us as well so other than a long car ride, I try to keep most everything familiar to her.

So I'll upload more pictures of her in other destinations soon!

Brooklyn is My Therapy

Life is busy as a business owner - entrepreneur - whatever you choose to call it. Either way, life is work from  the moment you wake up to the moment you finally let your eyes rest and close. Lately, it has been just that and today, I decided to take a partial day off to clean up and to catch up on some things.

Normally, when I wake up in the mornings, I let Brooklyn outside and she can "handle her business" as she likes. Then when I come home in the evenings, she mad dashes to me with tail swirling in a million different directions. She can't control herself - just excited to see mama! It's really because she probably thinks she's taken five naps through the day and that she hasn't seen me in a week! LOL

Well, today, it's a chill day and Brooklyn has been by my side like glue, but not the wildly excited Brooklyn, but the calm (as her disposition is) BFF that you can rely on no matter what. She is therapy. She is love. She is everything. She is my heart.

Today, we've been watching the pre-game show for Monday Night Football - Go Peyton! We made breakfast of oatmeal and bananas and strawberries with a side of kiwi. We organized the tupperware shelf and finally matched lids with containers. That was a long overdue project and we got it done! We made lunch together - marinated chicken on a Orowheat thin bun. That thin bun was a great discovery at Costco! Less carbs, low-calorie and holds your sandwich together properly. She meanwhile got me to give her a few slices of turkey from the fridge. We diced up her chicken breast meat that was grilled and gets added to her dry kibbles.

AND - lastly, our latest project which she has exuded ultimate patience for is the making of baked cinnamon apple chips! Her nose has been sniffing for the past few hours! They are finally on the cooling rack and it's pretty exciting to everyone!

While I'm still handling some work on my netbook, Brooklyn comes and rests her head on my lap (I'm sitting on a barstool) and I pet her head. While it may often seem like she's the one asking for love, she is...but she's giving me love and joy. Her eyes, her smile...she lights up my life and my world. I'm the luckiest mama ever!

Large Breeds Need Supplements with Age

Tomorrow is a special day for Brooklyn. It's her seventh birthday! As I plan for her little celebration, I am also reminded to plan for her health as well. This past year, I have been giving her Fish Oil supplements along with Glucosamine and Chondroitin supplements. Not that Brooklyn is that excited about taking pills, but I have found that when I cut open the Fish Oil and put it on her food, she really digs the fishy flavor!

I've spoken with my other friends who have large Nordic breeds and they, too, provide supplements to their pals. Another friend added that a nice joint massage never hurts! I don't think Brooklyn will object to that one! If you start to massage her back, she just stands there and is so happy. You can just see it in her face. It's priceless!

I haven't switched her over to senior food yet, but I know it's that time. I struggle with the balance of the large breed nutrients that she needs with the scaled down nutrients of a senior food that is for seniors breeds across the board. I'll have to speak with someone about this since the purpose of buying large breed food is more specific for Brooklyn. I'll definitely write on what I find out, but for now, I'll continue to do some more research.

Just Say No to Clumps!

It's almost June and the time has arrived for Brooklyn's shedding of her undercoat. I must admit, this year's weather in Las Vegas has been wacky and Brooklyn wasn't quite sure if she wanted to really let go of her coat yet. To give you an example, this past weekend saw a temperature high of only 77 degrees! What is going on?!?!?

Either way, I began to notice that during our near 100 temperatures last week that Brooklyn's hair has started to come out.

Step #1: PRE-BATH BRUSHINGS


As with any proper grooming, you need to prep the coat. While I have many shedding rake tools, I love to use the fine cat brush for getting the cotton-like undercoat out prior to the bath. I find that a shedding blade can almost take out too much hair in an uneven fashion. The parts of a Malamute that are prone to matting and tangling are their chest, underbelly and hind quarters. A cat brush separates the top coat nicely while grabbing the loose undercoat. After about a half-hour of cat brushing, she is ready to embark on her trip to the doggy wash.


Step #2: BATH TIME AND BLOW OUT

My long time groomer has gone MIA and I really have a hard time just sending Brooklyn to a new groomer who I can trust to spend the proper time on her coat without being scared of her. There's really nothing to be scared of, she's a big lovable ball of fur. So, until I find my groomer, I've decided to do the grooming duties myself.

I headed down to my local self doggy wash where I can let Brooklyn shake off all the water she wants. As the ratio typically is, I bath her twice to every one appointment with my groomer so I am definitely no stranger to giving her a bath, brush and blow out.

You see, when Brooklyn gets a bath, she's not the only who that gets soaked. I get completely drenched with every vigorous shake of hers and I am dripping but it's a part of the process. As you shampoo the coat, you'll see the drain load up with undercoat hairs, keep clearing the drain to let water pass through efficiently.

After the bath of shampoo and conditioner treatment after, a blow dryer that has sufficient power needs to be used in order to not only dry a Malamute coat, but to also blow out loose hairs of the undercoat. They are ready to shed anyways and a powerful blow dryer works great. You will find that most self doggy washes have these blowers and some even have ones with two settings. Having gotten Brooklyn used to high powered blowers since she was young, she loves the blow out part and sometimes even eggs me on to play with her during the dry session.

This first serious blowout will take about an hour plus for the coat to get dried and for a lot of the hair to blow out. You'll see hair floating everywhere....I mean it...everywhere but it will eventually settle down into a corner in which you can easily scoop up the piles of "cotton" for easy trash.

Step #3: AFTER CARE

Now that the bath and blow out are complete - the first one that is - it's time to do upkeep at home to further continue to help your Malamute through the shedding process. I cat brush Brooklyn at least every other day and this ensures that she remains mat free and looking great. Plus, her skin will be allowed to populate a great new undercoat once the colder season hits.

Approximately 2-3 weeks after the initial blow out, I'll repeat the same process again. This should definitely help get the rest of the undercoat out and she will be good for the rest of the warmer months. This attention to grooming ensures that your Malamute will never be shedding in clumps. They'll feel great with this type of attention and you'll feel great giving your buddy the best care!

Conversations with Brooklyn

One of the best traits of the Malamute is that they aren't real barkers. They, more or less, do a half-howl "wooo-wooooooo" that just makes you smile and laugh. Brooklyn's knocked her water bowl over before and I  give her a stern, "Brooklyn. No. Don't do that." She in turns says, "Wooooo-wooooooooooo." Now, at this point, I just laugh. I can't help it. Then we're back on good terms again. LOL

I'm definitely not the first to say this about their dog, but she really is like a person to me. She talks to me. She gets the last word in and many Malamute owners will tell you this. In conversations, she will almost always have the last howl in. It's simply too funny.

Some days, she talks a lot. Wherever we go, she is talking. Some days, she barely talks except for when I give  her the signal or command to speak. Most days, she is so quiet that you barely notice that the 95 pounder is there on premise. Most dogs give warning barks. Brooklyn, she just stares at you and with her wolf like appearance, this extremely gentle giant is a softy baby at heart.  Especially with kids, she is very very gentle, recognizing that they are little people.

I am a lucky mama.

Goodbye Holiday Collar

When you have a big dog that's a female, you tend to want to keep them a little "tough". I remember when my groomer once put pink bows in Brooklyn's hair just knowing that I would flip. She looked like a fruit cake! She looked cute...but still fruit cakey.

Her collar doesn't have jewels or sparkles, no jazz, just a standard black collar with her tags to show everyone that she is in fact a domestic dog - not a wolf or coyote as little kids like to shout when they see her. However, during the holidays, Brooklyn gets to sparkle. She has this red collar that flashes red lights all the way around with white snowflakes. It's extremely cool at night since the red blinks really stand out in the dark.

All December long Brooklyn does her rounds at her favorite human places and she greets people with holiday cheer. She brings smiles to people and gets a lot of petting from passers by. It puts a huge smile on my face when I see the smiles that Brooklyn puts on the face of others.

The unconditional love of a dog is something that I've never known until I got Brooklyn. No matter when or what, she's always got my smile. =)

Don't Call Them a Husky

Brooklyn at Mt. Charleston in Las Vegas, NV.

Rule #1: Alaskan Malamutes are not Siberian Huskies. Loyal and cuddly furry friends come in all shapes, sizes and temperaments, but in my most biased opinion, one of the best breeds ever is the Alaskan Malamute. I guess I blame the dog shows for not spreading the word about Alaskan Malamutes more - since the footage typically skims over the whole Working Group of dogs and then quickly skips to do up close profiles of any breed but the Malamute. 


Now, they dog shows more often than not show the Siberian Husky, which really can look a lot different than the Malamute. It's the mask. It has to be the mask. People see a mask on my Malamute (meet Brooklyn) and the first thing out of their mouths is, "That's the biggest Husky I've ever seen!" Okay. Newsflash! She is an Alaskan Malamute. This is the point in the conversation when I typically go over the different traits that exist between the two breeds.


Shorter muzzle. Ears that are more on the sides of their heads rather than on top. A more stocky body frame. A mellower temperament. That's just a few. I tell people to just do some simple online searching and put a Husky image right next to a Malamute and the differences should be apparent.


However, as expert as I believe that I am in identifying the two breeds, there have been one or two Huskies who have fooled me in the past. They were actually larger than typical Huskies which made me think, "Is that a Malamute?" 


Plus, don't let me leave this out - there's the standard Malamute and the Giant Malamute. Brooklyn comes from the giant family yet I believe (I can't confirm) that she is the runt of her litter. The breeder had told us that no Malamute of hers had ever stayed below 100 pounds but Brooklyn has. She peaked at 97 pounds and she now comfortably sits at 93 pounds. 


I love my baby girl. She epitomizes the ultimate sense of loyalty. Meet Brooklyn. Brooklyn, meet everyone.