Tuloon and Bazil

Bazil and Tuloon.

After a false heat in March which caused her June heat to be delayed a few weeks, Tuloon has granted Bazil the honors and yesterday at 9:30AM they had their first tie. Both being new to all of this, a full day went by with both trying but neither figuring it out. Fingers crossed, we hope to be expecting a litter of big, fluffy, happy and healthy pups around September 22nd.

Tuloon came to the Points Unknown Kennel from Kim Fitzgerald of Mush Knik Networking in Knik, Alaska in 2004. Tuloon is very intelligent and independent with an extremely dense coat. She comes from a lineage filled with leaders. Her excellent build and mellow temperament added to the qualities we wanted to pass along to a future generation. Had it not been for an unfortunate accident as a puppy, requiring a major leg surgery and months of recovery, we're confident she would have begun her leader training at a very early age. She has been working in lead for the past two of her three years. Her first year she was apprenticing under Zulu. Last year was her first solo year.

Bazil is Zulu's, our open country leader extraordinaire, son and has lineage back to Susan Butcher's famous leader Granite. Bazil is a big boy at 78lbs. He is extremely eager to please and one of the hardest pullers on the team. He comes from a litter of mainly leaders. Both parents are leaders as are many others down the line. He has been in another kennel for the past 5 years and has never been put up in lead. I believe that had he been, he would be just as amazing as his dad based on what I see in his personality and confidence level. Bazil is very muscular like his mother and, like his mother, has a shorter coat with a dense winter undercoat.

Our hope with this breeding is to bring out the longer and extremely dense coat of Bazil's father Zulu, while keeping the muscular build that came from his mother. Tuloon's dense coat can only add to the odds of more densely coated offspring. Both lines have a long legged and rangy body type which is also desirable. In addition, the temperament, overall personality and excellent health of both Bazil and Tuloon made this breeding an easy and very exciting decision.

Breeding isn't taken lightly. We assume the responsibility for any pups we have for their lifetime, be it with us or with friends, in another sled dog kennel. There are far too many unwanted animals on this planet as it is. At the same time, we see how important it is to preserve rare and truly unique lines and breeds. Tuloon and Bazil, have truly rare and extremely special lines, very much worth passing down.