Oooh a brush with fame!

The Head Cheese Human at Sirius has been gone on a road trip this week. She had sent out one of her resident dogs* to British Columbia to be a stud, and now the puppies were all born and weaned and she went down to reclaim him, as well as some of the puppies. The homestead was left in the care of us volunteers. In her absence, she mentioned that some researcher in canine genetics had asked to visit and examine some of the resident Sirius dogs, because they are from heritage lines of working dogs. Unlike my girls, who were bred for racing, the Sirius dogs are all freight dogs from ancient lines. In fact, the Alaskans are related to the Denali sled dogs. I agreed to meet this person, who showed up with grad students and totes of kits. Turns out... we were in the presence of fame! This was Heather Huson of Cornell, who had led the study on the genetics of the Serum Run Dogs.

I was very honored to introduce the Sirius Dogs to her. She took DNA samples of almost all of the heritage dogs (both Siberians and Alaskans). Most were via blood, but for the twitchier ones she did mouth swabs. She also wanted to take physical measurements from several dogs, who could be considered exemplars of their breed. She also took a portrait of each one, with their name on a white board. I thought that was adorable. Here is Burl getting his portrait:

And here is Oban getting his. Even the sweetest, most well-trained dogs are not super cooperative with this. They want to sniff the white board, then they want to kiss the researchers. It's very distracting!

I have a nicer photo of Oban, but of course I have no sign! I took it to go with the one I took of his sister Igraine. Very pretty dogs and very pretty fireweed!

Since Burl is so sweet, I also offered him to be measured. He was cooperative, but not pleased! After they left, I went back to him and told him I appreciated his sweetness. He gave me kisses, so I think he forgave me. Anyway, they measured his chin.

And the spacing between his EYEBOLLS.

And the length of his EARS!

And his clavicle!

And his neck!

And his shoulders!

And his paw!

Another sweet one I thought would tolerate this is Avett. Avett will do aaaaaaanything for attention, and sure enough, he ate it up. Avett is daddy to Levon, the Sweetest Boy in the World. Clearly sweetness is inheritable! Lookie as she ponders Avett's ear!

And then they measured his ear!

And his clavicle!

And the height of his shoulder!

And the length of his back!

And his wrist circumference!

Dear Avett, sweet Avett! Such a sweet, tolerant boy!

Here is a video clip of them taking Boo-Boo's blood sample. Boo-Boo is my personal favorite, although that's a tough thing to choose in this yard of giant Schweeties.

And here is one of them just trying to take Izzy's portrait! Izzy sweet? Yes, he iz! But izzy cooperative for a photo? No, he iz not! Izzy is Boo-Boo's son. And brother to Oban and Igraine, although from a different litter.

And here is a matriarch, long-retired Spook. Spook is Boo-Boo's mama (and thus grandma to Izzy, Oban, and Igraine). The researchers, of course, were super interested in samples from Spook, so they took blood, but I didn't let them measure her. We must Respect our Elders! (Well, Avett is also an elder, but he loves being manhandled, so it was fine for him!)

*Her resident dogs are distinct from the rescues. The residents are all purposefully bred and do tours to support the rescue. It's really a very lovely situation, the like of which I've never seen anywhere else. The residents are so sweet and well-behaved and contented that they provide comfort, ease, and good examples of behavior to the rescues, who are often from severe abuse cases. There are many rescues that are still so scared of people that we can't touch them for weeks, but they get playtime with the residents, which helps them relax and come out of their shells. And yet another benefit of this situation is that when rescues come in that are sled dogs, they can run with the touring team, which helps their confidence and sense of purpose.