YANA
(pronounced; Yon - eh)
DOB: May of 1999
Yana is a Cherokee word for bear. While Yana doesn't look
like, nor does she run like a bear, most Malamutes resemble a black bear when
they are doing a butt scoot-n run when they are real excited.
Thus the name "Cherokee Little Bear", which is the English translation of
her registered name.
I should have known better than to name her based on what most Mals do when
running. Yana runs like a Gazelle. I have run carts with her mixed
with Siberians only to have her run them into the ground. At 24 inches and
75 pounds she is a lean fast running dog. This girl also has several other
names and titles, House Clown, Alaskan Greyhound, and the dreaded Alaskan Python
(for her ability to curl up in my recliner and the slither out of it just like a
snake).
She has always been a Dynamo of energy. When she came to live
with us our male, Stormy, was about 9 years old. For the most part he was
an old man and acted like it. But, Yana had other ideas. In no time
at all she managed to convince him that he was a pup again and they would spend
hours playing.
They would wrestle, chase each other, and in general became best buddies.
Stormy's attitude improved and as of November of 2003 she can still get a play
bow out of him and a short period of play.
Needless
to say when caught getting to rambucious you can always bet you will get the
famous Malamute, "Who Us" look.
Yana has other jobs around the house. Just before we got Faith, Yana
went into a false pregnancy. She was gathering up all of the stuffed toys
around that house into a nest.
She was lactating, and with the exception of any visible signs or other symptoms
you would have thought she was pregnant. When Faith moved in all of that
ended. She wasn't interested in her stuffed animals anymore, her milk
dried up, and she decided that Faith was HER puppy. She took over all the
mother responsibilities for Faith and they normally get along. Yana just
wishes that Faith would run faster. Needless to say Faith runs like a bear
and not like the Alaskan Greyhound.
Another job for Yana is that of lead dog when we go carting. She may
not be the best lead dog in the world, we'll fault her trainer on this, but she
doesn't let the tug line go slack and she's always wanting to go flat out.
Lately Yana has been busy performing the role of AUNT for my Halloween Litter of
puppies. She's been busy teaching them the fine art of House Clowning,
catching squirrels, playing the important game of Malamute Tag, correct running
form, and aiding in training one of the pups as co-lead on the team. We're
working on her weight pulling, and I don't think I'm going to allow her help
train the pups in this sport. Yana likes to go places.
She
always wants to know what is over the next hill or behind the door. She's
been known to open closed doors, but that's a different story. But, her
idea of going places does not include the same 16 feet of a weight pull chute.
The first few times she pulls like a demon. You can't hardly get her to
stand still long enough to get across the finish line to start.
However after she
figures out that she isn't getting to go anywhere but to the end of the chute
where she's already been several times before she gets bored. So when you
bring her up for what she has decided is her last pull, she does a perfect sit /
stay. You can call her, jump up and down, or anything else you want to,
all she will do is sit there and look the other way. So you move over into
her field of vision, no problem for her she just turns and looks the other way.
Ok, it's really fun to be humbled by an Alaskan Malamute in public at a weight
pull your also judging in.
One of these days I'll figure out how to get through that hard headed Malamute attitude, maybe. But she's my Little Bear and still gets excited to see me when I get home, loves to go carting and sledding, and in the end she's Daddy's Girl....................