Rigby earns his keep

Here's a scenario for you: You have a dog who's young (somewhere between 14 and 16 months), energetic (think "bouncing off the walls"), intelligent (will make his own "fun" if not otherwise entertained), and is very driven (a mix of two different herding breeds). The dog is extraordinarily loyal, and will follow you anywhere you go. What's the best way to keep yourself (and the dog) sane?

Well, the first steps would be: plenty of exercise, lots of training, and strict guidelines and boundaries. The absolute best thing for a herder, though?

Give the dog a job!

Most dogs, regardless of breed, do well if given a job. Even something simple, like fetching the morning newspaper, will give a dog a sense of purpose. Dogs of any age, size, or breed can learn to do far more elaborate jobs, though. If you've ever seen the television show SuperFetch* which used to play on Animal Planet, you'll know what I mean! Dogs can learn to do a lot of things for us-- from search and rescue, drug detection, and assisting the disabled, to things like taking out the garbage, finding the remote control, and putting the toilet seat down.

Quark's job when we're out in the field working? Looking adorable. Also, she growls if there are bears nearby, and will speak on command to make noise when we're entering brushy habitat. Rigby's job? Well, he happens to be the aforementioned young, energetic dog, so Rigby has been tasked with carrying trail cameras for us in his backpack.

The cameras, in their steel-case housings, weigh around four pounds apiece, so with Rigby packing one camera on each side, he frees nearly ten pounds of weight from my pack. On a day when we're hiking four or five miles to a field site to set cameras, my shoulders really appreciate not having to cart around those extra eight pounds, and the backpack helps keep Rigby focused.

To be perfectly honest, he tires himself out more when he's not wearing the pack-- he runs back and forth on the trail constantly, using the woods as own personal agility course. But the pack forces him to think more about how he carries his weight and how to move through the trees.

Rigby's other jobs include riding in the raft or canoe, heeling when we think there might be a bear nearby, and pestering Quark.




*For those of you with Amazon Prime, you can watch dogs learn awesome tricks here; I'm pretty sure Netflix has them online as well.

Hello everyone!

My name is Jenn and I'm here in Haines with my dog, Quark. I'll be working as a field assistant on the project and Quark is employed as Rigby's suitor. First order of business - raft the Chilkat River.

I came to Haines last summer and fall to work with Alaska State Parks. I fell in love with it here and vowed to come back the next summer, and here I am. One of the many things I love here is the subsistence lifestyle Alaska, and Haines in particular, has to offer. I would like to talk a bit about it because it's such an important part of the culture here. Wildlife management officials work hard to strike a balance between the subsistence fishermen and the commercial fishermen, which, of course, are constantly at odds with one another. Right now, I am camping at a friend's fish camp where we put out set nets to catch Sockeye and Coho salmon. Drift netting is another method of catching salmon, and is much more efficient. The Humpies and Chum are usually thrown back into the river as they have less desirable meat. If you catch King, it is mandatory to throw them back in unless you have a separate stamp; a subsistence license won't cut it. Basically, they taste the best. There are far fewer King in the ocean than any of the other species, therefore they are more heavily regulated. Here is my friend, Mike, pulling in a set net.

Then into the smokehouse they go.

Sick of salmon? How about Dungeness crab or shrimp? With a boat, you can go out into Lutak Inlet, which drains the Chilkoot river, or Letnikov Cove, which drains the Chilkat river. I went out to Letnikov with some subsistence fishermen to check crab and shrimp pots. All the female crabs have to be thrown back, and the males have to measure 6.5" or more across the largest part of their shell. Slow day, we only caught 4 legal crabs, but who doesn't enjoy an evening out on the bay?

We'll go out this weekend and set Halibut skates. They haven't had too much luck yet this year, but a single Halibut should yield a good 50 lbs. or more of meat. Once the fishing and smoking ends, everyone packs up fish camp and heads out to moose camp. I'll be spending one week at Assignation Creek up the Chilkat River this year for moose camp. Of course, I won't be able to hunt a moose. This management area only allows 25 resident permits which people had to apply for in February. If you are one of the lucky 25 to get a moose, clear out the smokehouse and start hanging meat! This is tiny part of a moose we were given last year. We hang it in the smokehouse for a day or two to dry out, then into the freezer it goes.

Hanging out with the locals is a great way to learn about this ecosystem. Working with Rachel, I'm given a chance to explore deeper into hard to reach areas, either by boat or on foot. It's great having Rigby and Quark around. They are hyper-vigilant to the sounds and smells of the forest and also make our pack a little bigger. With all the bounty of the land, the threat of brown bears is considerable here. Stay tuned for some great pictures and videos of our work here!

Welcome to Haines!

Hey everyone! Thanks to Yiwei for posting pictures of my journey north. The ferry left from Prince Rupert, British Columbia on Tuesday afternoon. It stopped Tuesday night in Ketchikan, AK. Then it made two stops the next morning: very early morning in Wrangell, and again a few hours later in Petersburg. From Petersburg we had a long eight-hour trip to Juneau, where we were in port for almost two hours. Rigby was glad to get off the ship. We walked around near port until it was time for the last leg of our trip.

After we left Juneau, it was another four and a half hours to Haines. We pulled out of Juneau right as the sun was setting, so it made for a very pretty evening.

Just an hour or so outside of port, look what we saw-  a pod of six gray whales! They were very close to the ship, and we passed them very quickly. I only had time to snap a couple pictures with my phone. Too bad I didn't have my DSLR on me.

After that I went to sleep. The ferry didn't get into Haines until 1:00 AM or so. Four days driving and another two on the ferry, and Rigby and I were worn out when we got up here. But not so worn out that we didn't immediately begin appreciating all Haines has to offer. Just look at the view from our campsite the first morning:

Thursday morning Rigby and I began exploring Haines. We made a trip to the visitor's center to see what sorts of information they might have there. We were treated to yet another gorgeous view.

Turns out Haines isn't short on pretty mountains.

About midday, I was able to meet up with an individual I'd contacted through the Haines Community Website, who offered an apartment for rent near town. I went to see the place and accepted it immediately, and was fortunately able to move in that afternoon. It's not a bad place. It's a studio, with a small kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom. Rigby has plenty of space to run around. There is water, electricity, and heat. Oh, and it has a pretty nice view, too.

After that, we made a visit to town for groceries. Yikes! Food is EXPENSIVE up here! It makes sense, since Haines is small and relatively isolated. Although one of the few towns in Southeast Alaska connected to the interior by highway, it's still 250 miles from the nearest city, Whitehorse, Yukon. Most of the goods travel here by ferry, so the expenses of transport really add up! There are three grocery stores here, including one small organic market. Produce is hard to come by, and sometimes trips to all three stores are necessary to get the ingredients for a single meal. Cereal up here, even the cheap stuff, is almost $6 a box! I can't decide whether I'll eat healthier here, since I won't be able to afford things like chips, or worse, since I'll have to buy the cheapest food I can find.

Ah, well. At least I can look forward to seeing this every morning!

Bears deserve respect. Man mauled in Alaska

Alone, no bear spray and no firearm is not a good idea when walking in brown bear country. A man and beagle surprised a sow with three cubs. He was initially thought to have non-life threatening injuries but it now appears that his injuries are worse than expected and he is in critical condition. We wish him luck. A reminder to be careful!

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/07/23/4650669/man-mauled-by-grizzly-on-alaska.html

Thanks!