Fall Is Arriving at Dark Point Kennel

Fall seems to be arriving a little faster than we were ready for this year. The mornings are cooler, the nights have that unmistakable chill to them, and around the farm, everything is beginning to shift with the season.

Our garden has produced much of what it is going to give us for the year, and once again, it has been well worth the work. This season we grew tomatoes, hot peppers, sweet peppers, cucumbers, carrots, potatoes, onions, eggplant, spaghetti squash, Swiss chard, and an array of herbs.

One of our favorite parts of growing our own food is that very little goes to waste. Plenty makes its way directly to our table, while more is put away in the freezer so we can enjoy it long after the garden is finished. The pigs and other livestock benefit from the garden too, especially when we have extras, trimmings, or produce that isn't quite pretty enough for the kitchen. There is something incredibly satisfying about watching food go from a tiny seed in the spring to feeding both us and the animals by the end of summer.

Of course, the garden isn't the only thing noticing that fall is on its way.

The Dogs Know Fall Is Coming

Our Yakutian Laika are definitely feeling the temperature change, and if you know northern breeds, you know cooler weather tends to bring a whole new level of enthusiasm. As the temperatures drop, everyone seems a little more energetic, a little more playful, and much happier to spend time outside.

Fall has also brought another kind of seasonal change to the kennel.

Every one of our female Yakutian Laika has decided to come into heat, which means our males currently believe there is absolutely nothing more important happening anywhere in the world.

Needless to say, things are a little noisy and dramatic around here.

Despite what the boys may think, however, we are only planning one Yakutian Laika litter this year.

Reyka will be expecting her litter toward the end of October into the beginning of November, and we are incredibly excited to welcome these puppies.

Reyka has been such an important part of the foundation of our program, and every litter is something we put a tremendous amount of thought, planning, and anticipation into. We don't breed simply because we can. Each litter has a purpose within our preservation program, and we are looking forward to watching this next generation arrive and develop.

Royce as a young pup, soaking up the crisp fall air.

Victor Is Back to Being Victor

We also have a happy update on Victor.

Victor is healing very well following his neuter and is back to being active again. After discovering that he was cryptorchid, the decision was made to remove him from our breeding program and have him neutered. While breeding was no longer in his future, absolutely nothing changed about who Victor is to us.

And thankfully, nothing seems to have changed about who Victor thinks he is either.

He's back to his usual happy, active self and continues to be one of those dogs who just seems pleased to be included in whatever is happening. Breeding dog or not, he's our happy boy, and we're glad to see him feeling like himself again.

September Is Going to Be Busy

The cooler weather also means we're heading into one of the busier months we've had with the dogs.

On September 20, we'll be staying close to home and running FastCAT right here in Burnham with Odyssey and Sonya, our two smaller Yakutian Laika girls.

FastCAT is a timed 100-yard dash where dogs chase a lure, and we're excited to see what these two can do. Yakutian Laika were developed as working dogs with athleticism, endurance, and versatility, so we love finding different activities that allow our dogs to use those natural abilities.

Neither Odyssey nor Sonya may be our biggest girls, but we're pretty sure neither one received the memo that being small means being slow.

It should be a fun day, and we're especially excited to get some actual speeds on them.

Then, at the end of September, we're packing up and making the drive from Maine to New Jersey for the ICKC Big Hair Classic.

And really, if there was ever a dog show name made for Yakutian Laika, "Big Hair" might be it.

This trip will include two of our boys:

Nike — NorthStar's Just Do It!

and

Panda — Dark Point Kennel's Watch Your Feet

Nike is still one of the younger additions to our program, and we're excited to continue getting him out, building his confidence, and giving him experience in the show environment. He's growing quickly, learning constantly, and we're looking forward to seeing how he handles his next adventure.

Panda, meanwhile, gets to represent something especially meaningful to us: our own breeding program.

There is a different feeling that comes with walking into the ring with a dog that was born and raised here. We've watched Panda from his first moments of life through every awkward puppy stage, every growth spurt, every training session, and now into a young dog beginning to represent Dark Point Kennel outside of Maine.

Win or lose, those experiences matter to us.

One Season Ends and Another Begins

That's really what September feels like around Dark Point.

The garden is winding down. The freezer is filling up. The pigs are enjoying the spoils of harvest season. The mornings are getting colder. The Yakutian Laika are coming alive with the cooler weather. The girls are in heat, the boys have collectively lost their minds, and we're preparing for everything from FastCAT runs to a road trip to New Jersey.

And somewhere in the middle of all of that, we're preparing for puppies.

Farm life has a funny way of never really having an "off season." One project winds down just as another begins. Summer's work becomes winter's food. Puppies grow into young dogs with adventures of their own. Plans we've been making for months suddenly arrive on the calendar.

Before long, the garden will be completely finished, the leaves will be on the ground, and we'll be watching Reyka settle into the whelping barn as we wait for the next generation of Dark Point Yakutian Laika to arrive.

For now, though, we're enjoying the beginning of our favorite kind of weather.

Cool mornings, happy northern dogs, a full freezer, and a very busy fall ahead at Dark Point Kennel.