Door County Sled Dogs

5/9/2019
The musical tones of a coonhound in full flight – burning up the trail -pulling a SLED?????? WHAT ?????? Door County Sled Dogs first caught my attention through a post from Anna Nirva on “Life With My Rescued Coonhound”. Also catching my attention was the fact that the sled pulling hound in question was from my home state of Kentucky, notoriously lacking in animal welfare laws in general and overwhelmed with hounds in need in particular. I decided to contact the Door County Sled Dog founders because I was so excited to see a coonhound in this very untraditional role. A PERFECT opportunity to say, “See? I told you – hounds can do anything!”

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Bonnie Ulrich, who along with her husband Rick Desotelle, founded the Door County Sled Dogs – “a real traveling circus” as Bonnie laughingly puts it!! I am so delighted that she has given me the information and opportunity to share this wonderful story on my coonhound blog. The DCSD cares for and maintains 36 sanctuary dogs, mainly husky and husky mixes. I learned SO much from her about sled dogs. I had no idea that “Alaskan huskies”, the racing sled dogs, are often mixed with pointer or some type of hound. But according to Bonnie, this makes total sense because hounds have the muscle structure, speed, endurance and good feet to excel at this sport. The Alaskan husky is a working dog category with the AKC, but not recognized as a breed since they are a mix.
Sooooo, when there was an opening in her sled dog team, she went searching for some type of hound. Enter Chewie, formerly Joker. Another hound lover sent the facts on Chewie to them and she decided to take a chance on him. Chewie was a major project. He was housed at a shelter for a solid year, then sent to a foster home for some much needed TLC. He was emaciated, with infected ears, and worms so bad it took six different medicines to get rid of them.

Bonnie says that when Chewie was first around the other sled dogs , when they were going out, he raised such a ruckus that they decided why not? Let’s see what he can do. Chewie, in typical hound dog fashion would NOT be left out of all the fun. Chewie is absolutely a star. He has assimilated into an awesome sled dog. Bonnie maintains that he is a critical component to their education and support for all breeds of dogs, helping to connect dog lovers with possible homes for hounds. Both Bonnie and Rick have a special place in their hearts for the coonhounds of the South, and her Chewie plays an important role as ambassador for coonhound breeds. He is becoming a vital part of the education of possible future “houndies” that might take a chance and  appreciate the wonderful dogs we call coonhounds.

DCSD can be seen on the road with their crew, focusing on education about ALL dogs. This includes,the need for rescue, helping people know the difference between good and bad breeders, encouraging families to do the research to determine the right fit for their family when choosing a dog, good pet care, obedience tips,  and more.  The DCSD team works with thousands of young people about leadership qualities, and teambuilding. How lead dogs share the same characteristics as good people leaders, how to listen, follow directions, learn to plan ahead and care about their team members.  They let everyone know that although it seems that the leaders get all the glory, by having them see and meet the team dogs, they understand that without good team members, there is NO team. Another important part of their mission is to mentor those who may be struggling with dogs they already have, to hopefully prevent the dog from being returned to a shelter.  In addition, their focus on the historical contributions that dogs have made to our world, help people join in the celebration of the awesomeness of our canine companions. 

The Door County Sled Dogs in action !!! Enjoy !!!

DCSD is currently gearing up for an exhibit celebrating coonhounds at the Door County Museum and Education center. Bonnie is definitely a woman on a mission. Please check out their amazing work at DCSD and find out how much you are missing by not embracing  your inner “houndness”. If you are looking for a fun, joyful, goofball, then a coonhound is your dog !!!!

http://www.doorcountysleddogs.com/Education-Center—Ephraim.html

http://www.doorcountysleddogs.com/About-Us.html

I am very excited to work on this blog post. I am always searching for coonhounds being stellar in various, unusual and unexpected ways.  Soooo, this post highlights Tim Root and his beautiful coonhound Pandora, or Dora for short.  Dora is a TWC that Tim adopted from a shelter several years ago.  According to Tim she is a total couch potato and quiet at home. It is evident that he loves his girl. She even helped him with his wedding announcements !!

Tim also reports that his now wife was “less than enthusiastic” about adopting a coonhound, but Dora won her over and now “they’re almost inseparable”.  I mean seriously, how can you not fall in love with a hound that does your dishes????

Now to the “other side of Dora”.  Tim is a huge outdoorsman, and in the course of pursuing that hobby, ran into several deer hunters who complained about having sleepless nights because they were not able to recover their harvest after a successful day of deer hunting.  Tim did some research and discovered there was a “leash tracking” dog license in his home state of New York. He took the test, got the license, and Linwood Tracking and Recovery was born.  Hunters were skeptical at first but Tim reports that Dora is amazing and has turned skeptics into believers. He always hears  “That dog is AMAZING!” Dora’s current personal best is a track of about two miles straight to the deer.

                                                                                                                                     AHROOOO ! We did it Dad !!!!

Tim says he and his wife will always have hounds. He is sooo happy he picked Dora and cannot believe someone just threw her away  at the shelter.  The two most unlikely people to share a conversation, me a vegetarian since 1982, and Tim an avid sportsman and hunter. This is a good example of how opposite ends of the spectrum can come together. Dora and Tim provide a great service to the hunters whose prey would be lost and “wasted” if not for their service. Tim is a responsible hunter and absolutely treats Dora as part of the family.   I can totally appreciate that!!  Tim’s license does not allow him to charge for his services, nor does he expect anything when he goes out. He adds that if people want to give him money for his help, he donates that money to the shelter where he got Dora.

The beautiful and talented Dora. Couch potato princess by day, kick butt tracker by night!! Kudos to the fabulous coonhound. Dora proves my point so well, that coonhounds can do just about anything !! They are not “just hunting dogs”.  Thank you so much Tim, for sharing your story with me.  Please keep us posted on your adventures with Dora, and welcome to the family !!!!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Please check out  Tim’s facebook page for Linwood Tracking and Recovery.

  (www.facebook.com/LinwoodTrackingAndRecovery)

The amazing and beautiful Dora!

#Hounddogstellar

Julie Dutton’s amazing coonhound Ginny is a total super star !!! For anyone that ever doubted that coonhounds can be agility, obedience or any other kind of trained — well here you go !!!!

https://www.messenger.com/t/julie.dutton.714

From Julie  – the story of Ginny !

I adopted her three years ago (at the time she was estimated to be between 1.5-3yrs old). She was originally found as a stray in West Virginia and ended up at a Greyhound rescue in MA where I adopted her. I convinced my parents to let me visit the rescue for my 19th birthday (to actually originally look at a different dog) and within a few minutes of meeting her, I knew she was the one. Two days later, we brought her home and she has been such a blessing to have. I was working at a kennel at the time, but for the last two and a half years, have been working as a dog trainer at a training facility in Massachusetts. This has given me the opportunity to work with her around various distractions on a regular basis and as I learn more in the dog training world, challenged and inspired me to begin teaching her new things as well as practice what she already knows in various situations and environments. She still has a lot of potential in her training to learn more and while generally very good around every day distractions, still occasionally has trouble listening around certain distractions (I.e. deer), which we are working on. However, she has come a long way since I first adopted her, and I can’t imagine life without her!

Julie thank you again for sharing your amazing story and welcome to the family ! 

Your partnership with Ginny is just awe inspiring !!   

#hounddogsuperstar