Husky Homestead and rain

Unfortunately the weather turned for the worse today and most of the day it was raining. In the morning we went to do the Husky Homestead Tour we had booked, this is basically a tour of the kennels of 4 time Iditarod champion Jeff King. As it was he himself drove the small bus that picked us up from a hotel down the road and drove us to the 50 acre kennel property closeby.

This is what the brochure and website advertise:
"Step back from the crowds and join an intimate group for a personal tour of the homestead and kennel of four-time Iditarod champion Jeff King."

We arrived and we were 4 people total in the bus. Great we thought, nice small group. We got out, got handed some 5 week old pups to cuddle and all was good. We all got to cuddle the puppies except for the woman of the other couple, who said she wasn't a dog person. What the hell are you doing on this tour lady, and what person doesn't like to hold dog puppies???? Are you a psycho or what the hell is wrong with you? Get outta here. It's a tiny furball puppy. That was the first person I have come across or had heard of who did not like puppies. Anyway, Simone and I enjoyed puppy time.

Little did we know that a few minutes later two bigger buses would pull up and about 40 people stepped out. We had to give the pups away as there obviously were not enough so everyone could hold one. Lame! I want ma puppy! And mine was fast asleep in my arms damnit! Rage!

How I felt when the kennel lady told me I have to give my puppy back:

So outside we got to hear about the dogs a bit, sledding, training and we also saw them being harnessed and put in front of a small ATV, going for their morning training run.

This is the running wheel that Jeff designed.

Jeff and his old dog Salem (12yrs old)

Inside we got to see the sled and various other equipment and Jeff told us about racing, his family life with the dogs and kennels etc. It was quite informative but from the pace you could definitely tell he's been telling the same thing three times a day for many years.

 Racer in full gear.

Puppies failing at french kissing.

Whilst I think we both enjoyed the dogs and got some interesting info out of it, I believe that the $59 you spend per person is too much for what you get, and the advertising is absolutely misleading. Stepping back from the crowds and joining and intimate group to me sounds as if I am there in maybe a group of 10 people max. Not two busloads of tourists.

"Meet champion sled dogs" - one dog was lead around that you could give a quick pat. From that statement I expect to meet several dogs and spend at least a few minutes with them.

It's all a very slick, streamlined commercial tour designed to make the most out of the summer numbers of tourists. On the one hand I can understand that they have to come up with a way to make money so they can keep the kennels running and get the $100k it takes to prepare a sleddog team for the Iditarod each year. The 12 employees need to be paid etc etc. But I also believe that you have to be honest in your advertising and that your price needs to be fair. This was not the case here and I wonder how many other people had different expectations.

After the tour which took about 2.5 hours we drove back to our place where we had to swap cabins. As the weather was horrible at that stage, the rest of the day was spent planning ahead for the trip, booking rental cars, writing blogs, watching videos and browsing the net (when the connection would allow it). Let's hope tomorrow will bring better weather, we are doing the ATV tour in the morning.