IFAW's Continuing Northern Canadian Dogs Effort - Spring Preparations

The following post was filed by Jan Hannah, Project Manager of IFAW’s Northern Dogs initiative. This project runs in eight remote Cree communities in northernmost Canada, each between 15 and 25 hours north of Toronto.

It’s March which doesn’t just mean spring in Canada, it also means that planning for the upcoming Northern Dogs trip is in full-swing. This year, in between figuring out clinic dates, contacting schools to set up presentation times, booking plane tickets and ordering meds, I remembered… it was the first birthday of the most unique looking litter of pups I had ever seen.

It started last March when I was organizing the spring clinic. A woman from one of the communities the Northern Dogs Project works with called to ask if we would be willing to take a female dog and her litter of newly born pups south after the clinic in June. By that time, the pups would be about 12 weeks old and ready to start their new lives. (Puppies should stay with their mums and littermates until they are at least 7 or 8 weeks old even if they have been eating solid food for a few weeks and it seems that mum is no longer paying attention to them. This ‘family’ time is still important because the pups are continuing to learn acceptable dog behaviour from their littermates and their seemingly negligent mother.) The mother in this case was about two years old -- an unowned roaming dog which was well-known for making the dinner rounds each day. She had been taken in when she was pregnant and had given birth to the pups in the safety of a home where she would not have to protect them from the elements or from other dogs. I said yes and asked for a photo.

By the time I received the photo a week later, there was another dog which also needed a new home. I looked at the picture and read the accompanying email… did I think I could find a home for the both dogs and… would anyone really want the short legged one?! This community actually has quite a few vertically-challenged dogs and sure enough, the mother of the pups had short legs. Lab types, shepherd crosses, husky mixes with 6 inch legs abound. There was no question that such a unique looking dog would find a home and find one easily.

So we arrived in June and on the second day, a few of us went over to meet the pups who were now living in a pen on the front lawn. I have never seen such a variable litter of pups in all my life! There were six of them. Long-legged, short- legged, blue-eyed, brown-eyed, one blue/one brown eye, short-haired, long-haired, flop ears, erect ears, spotted… you get the picture. It was like walking into a candy store. I had spaces for all the pups in rescue and knew that these would find homes no problem. They were such unique creatures.

Except that it turned out I was wrong. After the vet team flew out, we went to pick up the pups for transport south. They reacted like wild things; flipping and flopping in our arms, biting at us, screeching. They had been raised inside and then moved outside but had not had appropriate socialization during critical periods of development. My heart sank. I couldn’t put them into rescue as they were and I had no Plan B. When we stopped for a “pup pee break” on the drive south, they were unmanageable when out of their crates. No more pee breaks. Thankfully, Plan B was forming in my head. I called Sue Armstrong of Ashiyas K9 Services and asked if she would work with some of the pups until I could figure out how to rehome them. I then called our humane educator, Jessica, and asked if she would take one pup, “Nascar”, to foster and work on. And third, my friend, who has two Northern dogs from the project, said she would foster the mum.

For the next two weeks, Sue and Jessica worked on their respective pups, handling them, socializing them and cleaning up lots of lots of puppy mess. Jessica fell in love and was having trouble parting with hers. Sue couldn’t wait to get rid of the ones she had! The pups still needed so much work and I needed Plan C -- I contacted the Animal Rescue Foundation in London and asked if they would take four of the pups. As is always the case when you ask for help, you often end up changing your ask. In this case, one of Sue’s friends had fallen for “Pluto” – he was one who was to go to ARF. At the same time, I had fallen for “Peapodz” who I had been fostering – she was also to go to ARF. After much agonizing, my commitment to ARF won over. I felt that I could not ask for them to accommodate four pups and then just give them two so I included Peapodz in the bunch. The next day I experienced the full affect of a poor personal decision. I went to the office and emailed ARF, explaining that I had made a mistake and that I felt I must have Peapodz back. Thankfully, it is not uncommon to fall for a foster dog and ARF agreed that my broken heart should be remedied by the return of Peapodz. And so it was… the most colourful and unique litter of under-socialized pups that has ever come into the care of IFAW’s Northern Dogs Project all found their happy endings.

Each one is now a year old and I expect that they will continue to garner the same attention that they always have… I still smile when a stranger asks me “What kind of dog is that?!” It’s a Northern Dog.