the Talagator . . .
Born October 31, 1999
This was the dog that started it all. One Alaskan Malamute was all I ever wanted. Now I own three! The picture of Tala in the background is from right before she died.
It began with this one dog on Christmas Eve 1999. Yukonjak Alaskan Malamute kennel was an hour from my house so I drove up in December. The 'puppy of my dreams' was a black and white male. Upon meeting the 'nice, big, full-grown' males, I changed my mind and thought a female might be a better idea. I'd wanted an Alaskan Malamute -- I knew nothing about giant malamutes -- since I was a child. And it was going to be over a dead body that I would get one. Finally, I had my chance and I looked all over Ontario for a puppy. I found Yukonjak Alaskan Malamutes on the Internet, but their place is is less than an hour from me.
Many people would consider Tala 'a giant' Alaskan Malamute, a term I don't use much. Oversize is more accurate. I'd never hear of giant malamutes until a few years after I had her. But, Tala was a big one. There has always been a size range in MOST malamute lines. She was a bit of an extreme, but not unheard of for size. She was wicketed at 31" for agility and was 130 pounds, pretty much double the standard size of female Alaskan Malamutes. Giant Malamute is only a marketing term. If you remember nothing else, remember that. A malamute is a malamute whether it's 60 pounds or 150 pounds. And it should be more around the 75 - 100 pound range.
She was a challenge. She was dominant. She was disgracefully people-friendly, just didn't want to have a leader in her world. She broke most of my fingers, blacked out my eyes a few times and cracked the boyfriends nose, all through snout-punching. She tore the sleeves off about 20 shirts and coats. Snout-punching is a pretty dominant thing for a puppy to be doing to it's owners and I hope you never have one like that. She was doing this under six months of age, when she was 'only' 65 or 70 pounds. I quite clearly remember asking the vet when I weighed her at almost five months, if she was done growing. She weighed 65 pounds. He snickered and said no . . .
While she was a large, beautiful, imposing dog, she was also unusually dominant, with people or dogs. If you fawned over her, she was fine. Trying to control her during her puppy hood was more like trying to control the Borg. Under no condition, could Tala ever be competed against anything. While she was excellent at weight pulling, excellent at running, swimming, water retrieving, etc. never, under any condition could she be put into a situation where she felt she was competing. Not even with Ernie. If we had them on bikes, she had to stay in front. Absolutely nothing was allowed past her. It wasn't a training thing, it was who she was. She loved females of any breed. She hated pretty much every large, male, intact dog into which she came into contact. That too, is about reverse of the way it should have been. Malamutes generally hate same-sex dogs, a very consistent thing. And large, intact, male, Malamutes were worst on her list. You don't mess around with a dog this size, trying to train that kind of hatred away. You can work with it, get it to sit at a reasonable distance, things like that. She was in a formal obedience class, and a formal agility class for almost her entire life. Tala was a highly obedient dog, excellent response to commands. She could retrieve in the water like a Golden Retriever, following voice and hand signals.
Tala died of osteosarcoma (bone cancer) at four and a half years of age. She also had two forms of lupus most of her life, discoid and SLE. Tala was spayed very young -- almost five months of age -- and that is now said to lead to a much higher incidence of bone cancer. Tala was grossly over inoculated when she was young. That is now said to lead to auto-immune diseases such as lupus. I don't have too many digital pictures of the TalaGator, but here are a few. Ultimately, with extensive training, she was my best friend. She died of bone cancer (osteosarcoma) at four-and-a-half years of age. I miss her.