SNOWPAWS ALASKAN MALAMUTES

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Howde!

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Just up until a week ago, we had been taking our 2 , 10 month young mally’s down to the beach daily – they would run along the beach on the sand, roll each other over endlessly but NEVER venture into the water …until….a week ago.

Now of all the malamute books i have read not one of them says that mallys love to go for swims, even whilst out on our daily venture walks and conversing with other malamute owners – they all confirmed that malamutes definitely dislike the water, in fact it is a bit of a nemisis to them. Well, i can officially say now, my belief is …each malamute to themselves, my mally’s time and time again have surprised me with their little antics!

All in all, mally’s dictate their own social behaviour as well as their Likes and Dislikes…of this i am sure!

Remember to continue to love your mally’s by providing daily exercise!

We had recently had both our 6 month old malamute pups desexed and i can assure you it was ‘not’ all peaches and creme. Can you imagine trying to keep two 6 month old malamutes sitting down, quiet, no running etc to ensure their sutures stayed in tact! There are definitely a few things i would do differently next time. So i thought i would share a few tips of these ‘doing things differently’ they just may help you keep your sanity as well as your malamutes healing progress moving forward with leaps and bounds.

Tip One: Think about using a Veterinary Clinic that has a Veterinary Pet Hospital attached. In this way, after the surgery your malamute will be moved to the vet hospital for between 10-15 days, by where your malamute will be well taken care of by the veterinary nurses – any issues that may arise will be taken care of immediately. In the marjority of these veterinary hospitals as well, you will be looking at a flat rate of between $25-$30 per dog per day and that includes food and all of the nursing etc. This price may fluctuate depending apon the weight of your malamute and whether your malamute will share accommodation with another pet or have their own room. It all depends on what you would feel comfortable with for your malamute(s) and your current budget. There are also great perks for you too, it does not disrupt your working home life schedule neither, you are able to continue with your normal daily week whilst your malamute is living it up being pampered and well taken care of at the vet hospital. It also is great for your piece of mind ie there is at home care that you will need to do ie cleaning the wound daily, extra toileting all around the clock, more attention is required for your malamute as they become like little babies and want your attention and assurance pretty much every second of the day and if you are working and have children, it just may not be feasible to give your lovable malamute 110% of this attention that they would receive at the veterinary hospital.

Now dont get me wrong, for some malamute owners it may be that you think it cruel to leave your malamute in a veterinary hospital for that amount of days – and yes it may feel a bit like ‘palming’ off your malamute, but i can assure you it is nothing of the like. You should at least visit your malamute every second day if possible to let your malamute know you are not far, you are pretty much training them to understand that you will go away but will ALWAYS come back. Honestly, let the experts do their job!

Tip 2: If you have two malamutes that need desexing, think about only desexing one first! Having it the other way will have you running around non-stop, toileting, cleaning linen for their beds, twice daily at home cleaning the wound and ensuring it is not becoming infected, you will also be looking at keeping them both quiet, in one place (which for malamutes is not a given command!) As we have both a girl and male, if i had my way (for next time) I would have organised my female malamute to be desexed first and then two weeks later have the male desexed. This way it would have been easier to cope with the amount of work that is involved in ensuring their recovery is on target.

Tip 3: Use a veterinary clinic close to you: This way, if there are any issues or you need to take your malamute(s) for an urgent checkup, you can organise for the veterinary clinic to come and pick up your malamute for free (within the local area) this saves you time, energy and money from travelling backwards and forwards causing you anxiety as well as your malamute.

As we live on the central coast, Australia – it really is dog city here, there are veterinary clinics everywhere! As we wished to have our malamutes well taken care of by the best, we have travelled over 30-45 minutes outside of our area to the vets that were ‘known’ to be the best in the area. When it comes down to it, pretty much ‘every’ veterinary clinic is the same, its just whether you get along with the staff at the clinics and whether these people are qualified, go with your feelings and choose the closest most convenient located veterinary clinic for you.

Tip 4: Take time off work for full duration of their operation – it’ll be worth it in the end: This is a ‘must, must’. To try and leave your malamute at home in a boxed in room (yes, this is important as you dont want them running everywhere) who knows what they get up to whilst you are at work, they could be jumping around, ‘poo’ing’ everywhere, scratching the walls and doors etc and this is the very thing you donot want! So keep your sanity in place, take the time off work and stay home and supervise them, if you have a partner or someone to whom can help you, organise times, rounds, days – but dont leave your malamute at home by themselves, its not safe for them nor for you.

Tip 5: Daily cleaning of the wound: Even though the veterinary clinic we had gone to had not advised us to do anything with regards to cleaning our dogs sutures, myself being a nurse thought it most important to ensure our malamutes sutures were cleaned daily with medium to hot water (ensure the water was boiled then add cold water to cool it so as not to burn the dog, add 4 table spoons of salt) and stir until the salt dissolves. Then dab lightly and gently around the sutures, please ensure you donot push hard, all you want to be doing is lightly dabbing the area to cleanse and dirt, seepings material from the wound. By doing this, our malamute boy was perfect and his wound healed wonderfully, however for our baby girl shtiya it was a different story, she continued to walk around too much and the fluid from her body tended to enlarge her sutures, after taking her to the vet a siringe was used to withdraw the excess fluid, but keeping her still was the name of the game. She still continued to seep a bit, so i had cleaned her at least 2-3 times per day. It was a constant “Sit Down” command when i had left her off the stable lead. In any case her wound is recovering, but cleaning is an absolute must. It always helps when you have a frozen chicken to given your malamute(s) after this ordeal, they love it – a little bit of extra pampering goes along way too!

All in all, our pups are both desexed and they are now lieing together in our lounge room nodding off to sleep. They still have their sutures in and those wont be taken out until Monday the coming week. After their check up yesterday, our boy malamutes sutures is perfect, however with our baby girl, she is still seeping a bit of fluids, so daily cleansing is the deal at present, but the vet said this was normal and the body is cleansing itself – will keep you posted.

All the best with your desexing of your malamute!

If you are concerned about your malamutes being bitten by a snake in your local area – here is the greatest invention i believe todate for preventing snake bites with your malamute dogs.

We Were At the veterinary clinic yesterday and had come across a really handy product that prevents snakes from coming within 30 metres of your home. If you are keen to find out more check out www.stop-snakes.com

I will most certainly be purchasing a few for my home, as we live up on the central coast, very hot and humid – this is classic weather for the most deadliest snakes alive and of all places, we live in ‘Beautiful’ Australia the home of the some of the most deadliest snakes alive!

Do yourself a favour and prevent your malamute from being bitten from snakes, the percentage of killings these snakes cause per year in Australia certainly tops the charts (see www.stop-snakes.com for further statistics).

Keep your malamute safe!

Find out more about snake prevention at www.stop-snakes.com

Is Your Alaskan Malamute Barking All Of The Time, At All Hours Of The Night, At Everyone And At Everything? Then What You Need Is The Dog Barking Relief System.

You May Have Tried A Number Of Humane Methods To Help Stop Your Malamute From Barking Uncontrollably And Are Now Fresh Out Of Ideas, Or You’ve Found You Have Just Purchased Your Alaskan Malamute And Want To Get Your Malamutes Training Off On The Right Foot!

Instead Of Feeling Aggravated, Frustrated And Down Right Miserable And Wishing You’d Never Purchased Your Malamute – Have A Look At This Training, Its Simple, Effective And You Dont Need To Spend An Arm And A Leg Hiring A Dog Obedience Trainer – You Can Do It In The Safety Of Your Own Home And Whats More Fun, The Whole Family Can Join In With You – It Wont Take You Long At All, Piece Of Cake!

My Two 16 Week Old Malamutes Have Learned To Be Obedient On Command, Im  A Malamute Owner That Believes There Is A Time And Place For Everything And Barking Or Wooing Is Within That Category. There Are Times When I Will Put A Piece Of Music On And Crank Up The Music (Closing All The Doors So My Poor Neighbours Dont Have To Deal With The Sound Coming Out Of My House) And Start Howling With My Malamutes. To Me, Its A Bonding Time And It Gives Their Vocal Chords A Good Churn! After We Have Completed Our Time Of Howling, I Give Them Both A Good Cuddle And Pat And We Resume To Quieten Down, I Head Off To Do What I Need To And They Head Off Outside To Have A Run Around. But They Are Never And I Repeat Never Allowed To Howl Just For The Sake Of Howling – We Howl At A Specific Time And Place And Our Puppy Alaskan Malamutes Know This As A Rule.

Click Here To Start Training Your Malamute Today

My two little malamute puppies are enjoying a bit of a laze around the house!

Kaskae Loves His Bath Time

Yes, it’s True!

You Can Get An Alaskan Malamute To Love Taking Baths! As you can see kaskae (our boy) had been taken for a long walk to the shops before we popped him into his bath tub for a bath and this was the result, he ended up curling up and sleeping in the towel we were using to dry him. Such a classic kodak moment.

From the moment we had brought our 2 alaskan malamute pups home, they have had a bath (every) week. Yes, at first it took a bit of coercing to get two (not one) alaskan malamute into their little tub, but now they go in naturally – especially when they know what they will be *receiving AFTER their bath.(A treat, all over body massage with their comb and lots of cuddles and attention), what malamute wouldnt want this!

The main reason you want to be bathing your pups from a young age is to get them used to the water, it is also a great time to extend your ‘Alpha Leadership’, in a kind but firm way. Your malamute needs to know who is in charge and if that means having a bath when the alpha says ‘bath time’, then guess what its ‘bath time’.

I have heard a number of malamute owners confirm that they only bath their malamutes every 6 months,  however my belief is it really does come down to the weather and climate in the place that you live in.  As for us and our malamutes, we live on the central coast, Australia – if you have ever been to Australia, it is ‘incredibly’ hot and can sometimes reach temperatures of well above 40+ degrees celsius! So, to ensure our malamutes dont have ticks, fleas etc we tend to wash them once per week with a non-allergenic shampoo.

For those of you who have old malamutes who are not too used to having a bath, a treat before and after is always a great way to start.

For more tips and to discuss this most interesting topic, you can leave a comment below or

click here to join us at the ‘ Alaskan Malamute ‘ Forum

Malamutes For Life!

Vanessa

Enjoying Some Fun Time Relaxing

Kaskae & Shtiya Learning How To Walk With The Harnesses

Shtiya, As She Chomps Her Way Through Her Cow-Hide Bone (Her Most Treasured Possesion)

Having Some Fun Playing ‘Growlies’…

What??? Sleeping Already….

Aahhh…Kaskae Giving Shtiya A Cuddle…