Summer Heat + Swimming = Smiles!

Posted on July 10, 2010 by alaskanarcticexpeditions

Howdy!

Since it’s so hot outside and Melvin has too much pride to make use of his kiddy pool, we took him to his favorite swimming hole down the road.

And he was more than ready to fetch a stick in the cool water!

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When Melvin shakes off the water, his face gets downright contorted. Dogs shake off so fast you can never really see the details, but this photo sure captures a whole lot of goofiness… ears a-flippin’ and lips a-flappin’…

Lucky for us, his smiling face returns to normal when he’s all done!

Splish Splash

Posted on June 6, 2010 by alaskanarcticexpeditions

On summer days, Melvin gets hot from constantly fetching the stick, so we got a kiddy pool especially for him. But, Melvin’s kind of picky. If a body of water isn’t large enough to do cannonballs or swim around in hot pursuit of a floating toy or stick, he doesn’t want anything to do with it.

But, the new pool isn’t a total failure. Pete and Lupine, with a little encouragement from Joe, have taken a liking to the water.

Lupine, watching Melvin lying around on the beach, found it odd that he didn’t want to play in the pool.

“I thought you were supposed to be the water dog in the family!”

It’s not typical for malamutes to have this much fun splashing around! I don’t think we’ve ever had a malamute so happy to dip his toes in the water!

Triple-Teaming

Posted on May 29, 2010 by alaskanarcticexpeditions

We all know labs, right? They love to fetch. Melvin is no different.

But Melvin has some special obstacles in his way when we play fetch. Today those obstacles were Pete, Lupine, and Daphne!

Malamutes couldn’t care less about playing fetch, but they sure love to chase after Melvin when he goes to retrieve a stick or a ball. They don’t try to steal his toy; they just like to run. To test her interest, I threw a stick especially for Daphne. All she did was give me a blank look with her tongue hanging out the side of her mouth. Nope, mals aren’t geared right for fetch. But Daphne sure was on Melvin’s heels!

Pete and Lupine are learning how to play chase from Daphne. They aren’t fast enough to keep up, but they try. At times they seem to have more of a sit-and-wait approach. They let Melvin chase after the stick, then when he comes back to bring it to me, they get in his face, which gets Melvin very flustered. He hasn’t figured out yet that no one wants to steal his beloved stick. They just have a lot of fun antagonizing him.

Triple Threat

Posted on January 14, 2010 by alaskanarcticexpeditions

Melvin loves the puppies, but anyone who’s ever been a big brother knows how annoying little sisters can sometimes be.

Sonia + Baby + Daphne = TRIPLE THREAT

Poor Melvin doesn’t stand a chance against three little sisters. They were in his face all day…

except for when they were playing with his tail.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!”

Melvin kept his cool like a good brother would, but he made himself disappear.

“Where, oh where, did our brother Melvin go"?”

“Melvin’s really good at this hide-and-seek game.”

The puppies searched for him, but they got tuckered out before they ever found him.

But the funny thing is that Melvin wasn’t hiding at all. He was snoozing peacefully on the couch the whole time!

Do You Believe in Magic

Posted on January 9, 2010 by alaskanarcticexpeditions

The puppies’ morning started out fairly relaxed.

But Melvin jump-started their day by showing them his amazing magic trick. If he focuses on an object hard enough, like this biscuit, he can make it float in mid air.