Retired from racing, sled dogs are finding new homes with help from an Alaska nonprofit

Simply name her the fairy dogmother.

By serving to tons of of sled canine discover retirement properties, Julie St. Louis has earned the title.

From Aug Canine Headquarters in Chugiak, St. Louis runs the August Fund, an adoption company for furry seniors.

A contract author, she didn’t get up one morning and determine it was her future to be the director of a canine nonprofit.

“I had a number of careers earlier than I went to the canine,” she stated. “If any person had advised me years in the past that that is what I’d be doing … um, yeah. I imply, I’ve at all times beloved canine, however I had no thought that is the place I’d be proper now.”

After a quick profession within the tv trade, St. Louis turned a contract author for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service doing outreach and training for the migratory hen administration workplace.

The job included annual assignments to Alaska. She ultimately settled in Girdwood and opened a pet provide store.

Her involvement with canine began not with huskies however with beagles.

“I had two beagles that I introduced with me from Virginia, as a result of I used to be doing beagle rescue there,” she stated. “(I) love beagles, completely adore them as a result of they’re very ornery, cussed meals hounds.”

[4 dogs boarded a bus in Skagway. The internet rejoiced.]

Working the store led to her assembly Nic Petit, who’s now an Iditarod veteran however on the time was simply beginning out as a musher. When considered one of his canine, August, suffered a damaged leg, St. Louis began the August Fund to lift cash for August’s vet invoice.

And so a nasty break for August led to a terrific break for numerous canine as St. Louis found her present for connecting canine in want of assist with individuals who wished to offer it.

St. Louis had been fundraising for Petit’s inaugural Iditarod try in 2011, however after her marketing campaign to assist August, she determined to concentrate on canine.

“It was a fund to repair one canine’s leg,” she stated. “After which from there it turned, hey, all these folks in Girdwood and different locations have been like, ‘You realize, we’d relatively provide you with cash to assist the canine than assist this man run Iditarod.’ ”

Petit had been working with longtime musher Jim Lanier of Chugiak, and he inspired St. Louis to contemplate serving to rehouse among the canine in Lanier’s kennel. She and Jeannine Armour, who cofounded the August Fund, did simply that. Armour, who lived in Portage on the time together with her boyfriend, adopted August after a surgical procedure repaired his damaged leg.

Whereas St. Louis stated the ageing canine at Lanier’s kennel have been handled effectively, that’s not essentially the case with all kennels. However because of their coaching, the canine are sometimes superb candidates for adoption.

“All these canine … are tremendous good, and actually well-socialized as a result of all these individuals are dealing with them at races and so they’re round crowds,” she stated. “What sort of finish is that? They don’t deserve that. They deserve a greater retirement.”

Doing proper by their canine

St. Louis, who began the August Fund a couple of decade in the past, is fast to level out that the majority mushers deal with transitioning their canine out of competitors responsibly.

“It’s not all mushers,” she stated. “We don’t name ourselves a rescue. Nearly all of the canine don’t essentially want a rescue. They’re effectively taken care of, they’re effectively fed. They get train, they’re athletes. So we contemplate ourselves a rehoming service.

“In some circumstances we do rescue. In some circumstances, there are wannabe mushers who got here up right here from the Decrease 48, thought they wished to run Iditarod, had no thought what they have been moving into, and so they get a bunch of canine from a musher who’s blissful at hand you a bunch of canine he’s not utilizing, after which the subsequent factor you recognize, you’re in over your head. So, these usually are rescues.”

Some mushers contact St. Louis as their canine close to retirement age. Others have the wherewithal to place the canine they’re phasing out into good arms themselves.

“There are additionally mushers who for years, earlier than even August Fund was even round, already had their very own rehoming packages,” she stated. “Like Matt Failor’s sister helps him rehome their retirees to family and friends. Martin Buser for years has at all times executed a canine rehoming of his canine. And Aliy Zirkle, she was at all times rehoming to her followers and associates.”

[Bad weather snarled holiday travel for many. Flight cancellations cost one Alaskan a new heart.]

St. Louis cites Invoice Cotter of Nenana as one of many mushers who acknowledged early on that the August Fund may present a worthwhile service to the game.

“It’s form of onerous to ship any person 5 hours from Anchorage to have a look at a canine they may or may not need,” St. Louis stated. “And Invoice would relatively we assist choose. So he sends them in to us, and I’ll foster them.”

She stated they spend round $250 every week on meals and dietary supplements for the typical of round 20 canine that the fund helps. Because the canine are older, they attempt to hold adoption charges low and provide a single payment of $250 for anybody who adopts two canine.

Loads of canine have discovered properties in Alaska. However St. Louis stated they’ve additionally discovered properties for the retirees in New York, Maryland, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia and the Pacific Northwest. Folks from as distant as the UK and Finland have adopted canine by means of this system.

Discovering the proper match

St. Louis stated their careers within the harness make sled canine particularly appropriate to being adopted and adjusting to new conditions.

“They’re probably the most adaptable canine,” she stated. “They may not know the fundamental pet instructions like sit, keep, down, roll over, all that stuff. They usually do want, in lots of situations, to be housebroken, nevertheless it doesn’t take very lengthy. In case you concentrate on it for just a few days to every week, they’re good. They study so quick.”

One a part of the equation for St. Louis when she’s looking for a match is placing the proper canine with the proper folks.

For Joe Davis, an infantry officer within the Military at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson who works with Alaskan Command, he discovered a working buddy.

Annie got here from Bethel after a musher handed away and now serves as motivation.

“She clearly likes to get out and run too,” stated Davis, who lives in Eagle River. “I form of really feel responsible if I don’t get her out to run as effectively. It’s simple for me to skip out on my mileage objectives, however I form of take a look at her and say, ‘Properly, I must at the very least take her for a run.’ After which when you form of get going, it’s simpler to maintain these miles going.”

Some adopters look to the August Fund to search out easy companionship — for themselves, and canine they have already got.

Chugiak resident Jackie DeCoup adopted 13-year-old Lizzie by means of the August Fund in 2020 to maintain her canine Opus firm. When Opus needed to be put to sleep lately, the retired FBI agent stated, “Lizzie was despondent … so I believed effectively, I’ll contact the August Fund. … I don’t care what sort of canine it’s. I simply love sled canine.”

Zorra and Coo, each 10, got here to Greg Patz and his spouse, Edy Rodewalde, by means of the August Fund and went proper from one harness to a different. The couple is retired in Anchorage and each skijor, and Patz stated retired sled canine make nice skijoring companions.

“They’re skilled at pulling They know what it’s all about,” Patz stated. “After we put the harnesses on them, they know what to do. They took proper to it. There was nearly no coaching required. They’re actually good for us. It’s good to have the ability to maintain them and provides them a pleasant dwelling.”

Anchorage residents Laura and Todd Atwood even have two Aug Canine. Stripe, an 8-year-old feminine, is a retired dash racer. Gordon, 11, is an Iditarod finisher.

Laura says Stripe was a really shy, timid canine after they obtained her in 2021.

“It took some time for her persona to return out,” stated Laura. “And who knew what a giant persona was hidden in there. She’s a really good canine, a extremely humorous canine — she’s actually entertaining. I practice together with her now, we do lots of trick-dog coaching and he or she loves to coach. She catches on actually rapidly, so we simply actually take pleasure in her and having watched her simply blossom.”

The couple adopted Gordon in June, and Laura says that “Gordon cracks us up.” Regardless of an arthritic shoulder, “anytime we are saying, ‘Let’s go on a stroll,’ or we head towards the door, Gordon is true there and able to go. Nothing holds this one again.”

Anybody all in favour of donating to the fund or sponsoring an adoption can go to theaugustfund.com/donate.html.

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