Ultimate Survival Alaska back for second season! | Golden Skate

Ultimate Survival Alaska back for second season!

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
Anyone else watching? just started so I'm a little behind. football kinda got in the way of my getting to see this!
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
I am not watching, but it sounds very interesting. Not to take away from Alaska's pride of place in these matters, but we in the Upper Midwest and the Northeast are having our own Ultimate Survival fun this week as well. The other day, during a blizzard, I had to get myself to two unbreakable appointments, and I wore two coats at once. (Proving the Norwegian proverb that there is no bad weather, there is only bad clothing.)

By the way, I got the neatest book at a thrift shop--a huge-format Dorling Kindersley (DK) book that is a dog encyclopedia. Photos of about 400 different kinds of dogs (breeds and sub-breed variations). The most interesting category to me was what this guy called the Spitz-type dogs, which he said arose across the northern-tier countries worldwide. He includes spitzes and Pomeranians, of course, but also all the wolflike huskies, malamutes, samoyeds, Norwegian elkhounds, and so forth. There's a whole category of "laikas," Russian-bred variants from paces like Siberia. The author, Bruce Fogle, says that human settlement wouldn't have been possible in many of the northernmost locations without the cooperative relationship between people and these dogs. Hey, maybe we could use a few of them in places like Minnesota and Maine this week.
 

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
Sled dogs were key in Alaska - it's why the Iditarod is so important. Without it the breed "Alaskan Husky" would become extinct.
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
I consider myself a cat person, but I also love dogs, and I would be an ingrate if I did not adore them for their continuing contributions to our lives. I've been reading about Search and Rescue dogs for something we're doing at work, and it's amazing what they do. Also amazing is the bond between the dogs and their handlers. In one of the big disasters, I read a report that the dogs were searching the rubble (I think in Oklahoma City) and there were few remaining living people to find. So that the dogs wouldn't be discouraged, some of the handlers would hide in the ruins so that the dogs could "find" them and feel gratified.
 
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