Our 12 Dogs

Kessler (above) and Ali (below) are brothers and named after boxers, because Jesper loves the sport. We got them from Jesper's brother Jan (follow Dorthe's blog here), and they have their first season this winter. Especially Kessler is turning into a skilled sledge dog, while Ali is somewhat timid still.

This is a girl fight! Nalangi is teaching her daughter Donna a lesson - even though Donna is almost twice as big and heavy as her morther.

Good buddies are Qillaq and Chupi (the black one), and they have been with us all along are are excellent in front of the sledge:

Nanu is one of the young ones still, but he's testing his powers and are not rarely contesting the ranks of the senior dogs.

Bilik seems to get into fights way out of his league all the time - with a broken nose and bloody ears to show for it:

Ths boss of them all is Vavaq (the dark one) and Simba is the offspring between Bilik and Nalangi.

Mother and son. Salik (the black one) is from November 2007 and it growing fast. His mother is Amaroq, and she lets him eat all the food we give them, so we have to be extra carefull that she gets her share.

I love the dogs and almost consider them family!

Building a Shed

Amaroq (the Greenlandic word for ‘wolf’) is pregnant and Jesper spent part of the Sunday building her a shed for when she gets her puppies. Both she and the coming Dad – our almost black dog Chupi – were very interested in their new accommodations. Only, we’re going to move Chupi so that Amaroq can have the space to herself. It’ll probably happen within the next couple of weeks and I think it’s very exciting.

Jens Erik's Pics

2 ½ Months Old Puppies

Feeding the Dogs Cod

Dog's Life

The dogs can be utterly gentle and patient with one another like when the puppies are stealing the food off the grown dogs or biting their tails or jumping onto their backs. You’d think that the grown dogs would never put up with it, but surprisingly they do. On the other hand they accept no disobedience from other dogs that are below them in the strict and unmerciful hierarchy.

The dogs are put together in pairs and each pair inevitably consists of a boss and an underdog. The boss eats first, drinks first, talks to the owners first and generally controls every situation, whereas the underdog has to accustom to the moods and whims of the boss. The boss only has to grind his teeth and the underdog will start to smack his lips and whine and roll over in submission. They are very hard on each other, the dogs, and occasionally I wonder if groups of people are that different from them. I think that perhaps we aren’t, only we have more subtle ways of asserting ourselves.

Wet Dogs in a Wet World

After 2 full days the rain has let up leaving the air clear and drinkable and the ground wet and muddy. I feel sorry for the dogs and admire them for never losing their spirits. The grey clouds are still clinging to the mountain sides signalling that more rain is yet to come.