What do sled dogs do during the dog days of summer? Summer is an important time for our dogs to relax, rest, eat tasty food, and just act like plain old dogs. Kennels exercise their dogs in many different ways during the summer, depending on how large their kennels are, where they are located and what type of set ups the kennel has. Our small kennel is located in a neighborhood, so we don’t let the dogs run wild. The Comstock dogs take turns playing in the play yard. This is a fenced in area that allows the dogs to run and play in a safe contained environment. The dogs also like to go on field trips, to the beach, the hot springs, hikes on the tundra or even the dump! While the dogs are busy playing and resting us humans are working on doing repairs to the dog yard and houses. Both take a beating during our long harsh winters and so it is important that we fix them up during the short summer.

The summer temperatures in Nome range from the mid 50’s with cloudy rainy days, to the mid 70’s with lots of hot sunshine. The mid 70’s is a heat wave for the dogs. When it gets really hot we make sure their water bowls are filled up several times a day and we set up water features for them in the play yard. Unfortunately The Silver Queen a.k.a. “Naughty by Nature” chewed up the slip-n-slide. Of all the dogs, Mouse enjoys playing in the water the most. During these hot spells they enjoying eating frozen fish for dinner and occasionally we give them all dog ice cream that Burr found at the local store. While we all enjoy our summer break you can bet that we are dreaming of cooler days when we can start running again!