The Admirals – Brian Hill
Admirals Dog Report 1971-1972 Brian Hill
Sam Kovik Wear Waldo
TEAM Myff
Kursty Ari Hamish Dai
My first introduction to the Admirals was in Dec. 1970 when, along with Sam and Kursty, I was flown out to join Sledge Tango [Steve Wormald & Ali Skinner (Geol.)] in the Traverse Mtns. on the Palmerland Plateau. Steve Wormald was then driver, and I stayed with the team until they were flown out from the field at the beginning of February 1971. I was very fortunate as it made the final handover of the team to me at relief very easy. Of course, I had still much to learn, stuff that can only be learned by driving the team oneself, but I had no team difficulty when I finally took over.
DOGS
Myfanwy Leader. 5 years old, sister to Dai and Waldo. A great little bitch with endless enthusiasm. She revs and often barks in her impatience to be off. She can be very stubborn at times – prefers her own direction to the one asked of her; insisting on going to turn one way rather than the other. Usually, these are distractions caused by other teams or people, but occasionally, she decides on a traveling day that she knows best and insists on ignoring the commands and pleasing herself. Throughout the year I have been doing mainly plane table traverses where straight lines are continually required. If she starts acting up, probably initiated by boredom, then it is necessary to show who is boss. A telling off may have to be reinforced with a beating. This is nearly always sufficient and we get no more trouble. She always tends to sulk afterwards, she is in a way rather spoilt, but she is very keen to please you and if she does sulk I make a point of chatting her up in the evening. While plane-tabling you demand much more form your dogs, particularly the leader, so when not doing so I leave Myff to choose her own line when , say travelling from once camp to another. She loves this, with boss not yelling at her all the time, and she develops great enthusiasm. She really deserves this kind of break.
In thick mist and whiteout when on compass bearings, she tends to maintain a straighter line than in other conditions. Once, when in such conditions I didn’t have to give her a command of direction for over two hours. Perhaps because nearly all her sledging career has been devoted to geophysicists and plane-tablers who constantly demand straight lines, her response to the turning commands are only a few degrees at a time. This is usually all that is required, but for a large angle turn one must yell and repeat the order a few times.
She is very jealous of every other bitch and if one gets near her and whom she doesn’t take a liking to, she’ll start a fight. She is not a good fighter and usually gets smashed and goes away to sulk. Never leave Wear and Myff spanned together for this reason. I always let Myff off when harnessing up and unharnessing. She gives no trouble with Wear then but if a dog fight should start for some reason or other, then she’ll go straight to tackle Wear. It’s quite safe to let Myff off and she’ll come when called.
One other point, is that when stopping on the trail, she’ll tend to c come back down the trace to chat with the 2nd pair. For this I yell “Get up!” which is fairly successful particularly if she’s reminded now and again that it can be painful.
Her heats take on a variety of natures. Some have passed with barely any symptoms on her part and without the dogs getting interested. On others she has become absolutely red hot. Her last heat lasted for over 20 days, much longer than usual.
Dai. Back pair with his brother Waldo. Dai is very strong, powerful, obedient and responsive husky, and has probably given me the least amount of trouble. Without Dai and Waldo the team would probably lose most of its power. They are hard grafters and hardly ever slack. They’ll pull through everything and are always ready for more. As a leader, he wanders a bit but respoins easily to commands. He is extremely friendly so watch your front teeth. It is quite safe to let him off and he’ll come when called. He is a fierce fighter but doesn’t usually start them. He can be a bit of a piss artist at times. Mostly I don’t bother about this as he works so well, but if I do get annoyed, some punches on his widger does the trick.
Waldo. Back pair with Dai. First class worker with fantastic enthusiasm. Very valuable on hills as he often seems to think that the team isn’t going quite so fast enough and lets out a series of barks and squeals and launches into his harness. The effect on the team is tremendous and they all charge on at a fantastic pace. Sometimes, Myff answers his calls and then things happen really fast. He is very powerful and when excited he and Dai can easily move a loaded sledge on their own. He is a first class piss artist. Like Dai, I tend to ignore this. I have tried to sort him out but it only works for a short while and hefty smashings have no lasting effect either, except that he works even harder.
He is the king dog, but being in the back pair he doesn’t have much opportunity to start much. He is quite safe to let off and will come when called. He is respected by others and they tend to keep out of his way. If he gets off during a fight he’ll keep clear of you for a while as he knows full well that he has earned a smashing. He has been known to return straight to camp, even when some distance off, on some such occasion.
He is a shit gobbler and will shoot off at right angles to get hold of a turd that maybe within striking distance. Yelling at him, with subsequent punishment if ignored, deters him from snatching at ones off the trail and it is worthwhile keeping this up.
Hamish. A superb steady worker and like Dai and Waldo will haul away all day. Rarely slacks. Like Dai, he can be a bit of piss artist at times. This is not often and hitting him in the appropriate place does the trick.
He works in the 3rd pair together with Wear, and is 4 years. He is sterile, so it is a convenient place for him to work when Wear is on heat. He is very affectionate with humans and give very little trouble indeed. I’ve hardly ever had to thrash him. In fact, the only thing he can do well is pull. He is not a fast runner, so when going at high speeds beware that he doesn’t get tangled up with Dai & Walso behind. Waldo may (not often) take this opportunity for a snap, and in any case Hamish may panic and take a snap at Waldo. Similarly, Hamish is very awkward at shitting on the run, so similar things may happen, especially when Waldo is getting hungry.
Hamish has a horrible bark (if you can call it that) but s generally quiet and only uses it when excited. I’ve never bothered about it. He growls a lot at other dogs, particularly at Dai and Waldo, and Sam and Kursty, but this is a defensive measure and he rarely, if ever, starts a fight. He is perfectly OK to let off and will come when called. In fact, he usually stays close to you. He has supposed to run off after bitches but I have never had any trouble.
Wear. 3 years. 3rd pair with Hamish. A timid little bitch and generally a good worker. She quite often revs up and barks to be off thus building up the enthusiasm of the team but on hills and deep soft conditions when the going gets particularly sticky, she may give up and stop, with the result that the whole team stops. No amount of punishment will prevent her from doing this, but bringing her back to the cow catcher gets more work out of her. On the whole, she pulls away steadily and is a good worker and it is only under these conditions that she plays up. Whether it is just laziness or tiredness after a spurt of energy I don’t know but it is a nuisance I feel her overall performance makes up for.
She panics when beaten and will snap, so keep your hands clear of her mouth. She will also slip harness and being timid will keep clear of you. She will stay with the team and it usually only takes a few minutes to catch her but it is best to clip her harness onto he collar before beating. If her collar is slack she’ll slip that too.
I don’t usually let her off when unharnessing as she may wander and be troublesome to get back, though she usually just lies down and has got to hauled to her night trace anyway.
At the end of the summer trip, she got a nasty 3” gash under her left armpit. This was stitched up with 4 stitches and it may take some time to heal so if using her in the autumn keep a close eye on it as it may give some trouble. She also suffered from some collar rub during the summer which was quickly healed up with terramycin ointment.
When on heat, she becomes absolutely red hot so watch out. Fortunately, both times she came on heat this year she was on base so could be put in the bitch pens.
Ari. 1 ½ years. 2nd pair. A newcomer to the team who replaced Jim in December. So far I’ve had little trouble with him. He can sort himself out of tangles very well and will always run on the left hand side. Kovik, who didn’t mind which side he took, quickly learne to keep himself to the right. Ari is keen and a revver. On very seep slopes he has tended to stop and look around to wonder what’s going on. After one or two beatings he is stopping to do this. At first, he would often look behind at me but he is not doing this so much now either, He is a very fast runner, might be the fastest and seems to be a quick learner. It might be worth replacing Kursty with him once Ari becomes more settled in as Kursty is slower and might be more use in a better pulling position.
He has had only one scrap so far (with Hamish), but he doesn’t appear to be aggressive at the moment and is still very puppish. He has been sterilized.
Sam. 2 Years. 1st Pair. A good fast dog with a knowledge of the turning commands though how fast he goes there depends on what he expect to gain by it. A very good puller and rarely slacks. If he does, a good reprimand does the trick. Very affectionate but prefers to wrap himself round your legs rather than jump up.
Was becoming very aggressive but a series of hard smashings has cured him (at least temporarily) of that. Is fairly intelligent. Is randy and has had 3 goes already. Perfectly OK to let off and will come when called.
Kursty 2 Years. 1st Pair, brother to Sam. A very affectionate creature once he knows you but is otherwise very timid of blokes. This can be a bit of a drawback when sledging round the island or anywhere else where there is a lot of people around since he is likely to shoot off away from the person dragging the team with him, but to a person he knows, he couldn’t be more boisterous.
He is a good worker but has shortish legs and thus sometimes, because of conditions under foot, has difficulty in keeping a taught trace. Because of this and his timidity of strangers, it might be better to bring him back. He certainly works much better further back. So once Ari becomes more settled and becomes aware of the commands he should be worth trying up front with Sam.
Kursty does like to slack now and again and need the occasional awakening but that s easily put right with a light thumping. I suspect he would find more interest behind even though it means taking him away from brother Sam. He growls a lot at others but is not one to start fights. He can usually be called off when in one. There is no trouble in letting him off. He will come when called by the owner and generally follows Sam around. He is a great character.
Slioch. Has not been run yet.
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Kovik. Has run with the Admirals for the last 1 ½ years. Is a very lurky dog indeed and when he gets off is nearly impossible to get back. Like Wear he is a steady worker on average going but when some hard grafting is required will stop and look round. For these reasons I decided to get rid of him.
Jim. Had to be put down because of arthritis. I was sorry to lose him as, when fit, he was an excellent worker, acted on the commands and didn’t shy away from crevasses, tide cracks, etc. His condition got slowly worse during the summer and he was flown out in Dec. Replaced by Ari. His sons are Sam and Kursty.
Spanning
Sam
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Kursty
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Kovik (Slioch)
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Waldo Dai
Sledge – Myff – Hamish – Wear – Ari
All the dogs are safe to let off now that Kovik has gone but think twice about Wear and wait till Kursty knows you. I usually let them off in pairs or threes to avoid punch ups. In the morning, or harnessing up, the only ones I let loose ar Myff, Sam and Kursty. There are no real chewers now. Dam hasn’t chewed anything in ages though he once dug up the dead man and gnawed that for a while. Kursty, in his excitement at feed times, often grabs the night span. He seems to be cured of this meantime but best to keep him there or he might damage the main trace.
Waldo, who is right next to the rear of the sledge, had a spell of chewing things on it. Rather than move him I wanted to cure him of it. It took a while but seems to have worked.
I’ve seen Ari snatch at the main trace during the day when revving but I’v had no damage done.
Dai lives on the cowcatcher, and in the mornings I take him to back pair and let Myff off. I then fetch Waldo to back pait. Hamish stays where he is and I bring back Ari and Wear on place. Then to Sam and Kursty, let them both off and take Kovik to his place. Finally call, Sam, Kurfsty and Myff to their places. Slioch, I hope, should be no problem.
On unharnessing, if Myff has had a good day, I let her off as soon as I have picketed the main trace. Then Dai and Waldo, Waldo usually goes straight to his place while Dai careers around. The Sam and Kursty and Myff, if she’s not off already. S & K charge straight to their span and I drag back Kovik. Then move Wear and Ari to their places. Hamish does not need to be moved but I let him off anyway even though ne never goes anywhere. I let Ari off.
I don’t let the two sets of brothers off at the same time as this can end in punch ups. Hamish tends to follow you around and if he wanders into someone else’s span area something might start.
Occasionally, fights may break out between Sam and Kursty or Dai and Waldo. These have usually been over savoury turds or a scrap of food. They have never mounted to much and usually shouted off.
Commands
I use the general commands as follows.
“OK. Are you ready? Up dogs, huit!”
If the dogs are revved up or the sledge is light “OK” is sufficient. Can be embarrassing at times as OK can be a reply to your mate and you suddenly find you’re off. Similar sounding noises like “echo” can have the same affect. Otherwise, on the “are you ready” the dogs should have sorted themselves out and be away on the “Huit!”
“Ah now”, and they should stop. If talking to your dogs on the run, again similar sounds may stop them.
“Irra”. Left.
“Auk”. Right. Since Myff is used to turning only fractionally if a bigger turn is wanted, I roll the R of “Irra” for some seconds and repeat it several times. Similarly repeating “Auk”. I encourage her moves by shouting “Yes, Myff, yes”, or if she goes in the wrong direction yell “No!” She understands this perfectly. Indeed, all the dogs do. If they are doing something you don’t want them to yelling “No, Waldo” or whoever the culprit is has the desired effect, except pissing, of course.
As already mentioned, when stopped on the trail, Myff sometimes comes back down the trace to chat up her boyfriends. Yelling “Get up” stops her and if she’s feeling responsive will move back. She need occasional reminding with the thumper for this. Sam and Ari also tend to wander back particularly if there is something to sniff at. They responds quite well to this command.
While running and for encouragement, I usually call “Haul away, yes, yes” and various falsetto cries with particularly loud ones when crossing holes.
Well, that’s it. They worked damned well for me and I hope you have as little trouble with them as I did and hope you get as much enjoyment out of them.