HURLEY was acquired by Seppala Kennels on Jeffrey's watershed visit to Carolyn Ritter's River View Kennels in 1991; he was just coming into full maturity then, and Carolyn was quite reluctant to part with him. HURLEY's sire was JAZZ OF WINDIGO (by Fast Fred of Sepp-Alta ex Dynamikos Badger of Windigo) out of POWDER OF MARKOVO (by Nutok of Markovo ex S-A Athena of Markovo).
As soon as we got HURLEY back to Spain, Jeffrey tried to make a leader out of him using the Fishback method of leader training. I mowed a small circuit of connected paths in the tall grass of our little olive orchard and worked the poor boy on foot with harness, ten-foot line and trekking belt! He was mentally too young for that kind of foolishness, I now believe. Perhaps it gave him some notions of gee and haw, but it also injected a lot of anxiety into the idea of following commands. HURLEY did become a reasonable leader, but he felt the strain of the position. Later on in the Yukon, he began to react against leading by looking for a way out -- sometimes taking unauthorised turns or trying to come haw and go back home. Big and strong as he was, he made an ideal wheel dog, so we began hooking him mostly in wheel position next to the sled, where he happily worked at full capacity. He remained useful as a leader in rig training or (especially) on the homeward leg of longer distance runs -- hooking HURLEY up front anytime after the turnaround point would give the main leader a rest and provide a strong drive in the latter part of the run.
Paired with XPACE OF SEPPALTA or with our Russian import SHAKAL IZ SOLOVYEV, HURLEY was the best wheeler we ever had. On rough, narrow, twisty-windy Yukon trails maintaining good control of the sled is essential. HURLEY's steady, strong reliable pulling was just what was needed to keep good sled steering and stay out of trouble.
HURLEY was a serious, good-hearted sleddog. He loved to run at wheel; he loved his people; he loved his food. In general he was a great big sweety, a real creampuff of a dog for all his impressive appearance. He was beautifully put together, and his standing side view photo has always been the one we tend to choose to represent the Seppala Siberian Sleddog as a breed. His colouring was the true, authentic "agouti," of which he was the most beautiful example we have ever known. All his life his one ambition was to be a house pet, but he lived the first nine years of his life in the kennel. Finally one day he gave up and quit eating; he looked very low and we thought he would be dead within 24 hours; Isa took him into the cabin. He didn't die that night. The next day he started eating again and was soon okay. We were never sure, but we suspected that once he got into the house he decided either that he couldn't die then, having just realised his ambition, or else that he had already died and this must be heaven! Anyway, HURLEY lived another five years as the happiest and most gentlemanly of house pets, despite a bleeding skin tumour that gave him trouble in his old age. His dear friend SEPALLUNA kept the tumour scrupulously clean for him and he never let it bother him.
Everyone loved and admired the "Big Brown Beautiful 'Berian Bomber Boy"! He was an honest, faithful sleddog and a true friend. Thank you, HURLEY, for being the ultimate Good Boy -- may you hunt in the Fields of Gold with your friends DREAMA, KIDRON, NORDE and XPACE until you decide to come back to us in a new body. What great dogs you old-style Seppalas were!
