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Old September 10th, 2009, 02:49 PM
Gail P's Avatar
Gail P Gail P is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Ontario
Posts: 1,301
Another vote here for socialization. Lots and lots of socialization with other dogs. I don't have mals but I've raced against some that wanted to eat my dogs out on the trail. (2 different teams) I don't know if the mals were reacting to my dogs not looking like most of the sled dogs they meet (border collies and mixes), or if it was just the temperments of those particular dogs but they seriously affected my dogs confidence in meeting other teams. I had to do a lot of work to get them over it to be ready for the next race season. I did a lot of training with a friend who has huskies and mals that are very dog friendly and we set up lots of passing opportunities to retrain my guys that not every dog that looks like that wants to have them for dinner.
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