Button

Button is an Alaskan Husky from Plettner Kennels. Her birth mom is Carla and her birth dad is Lookout.

Ani and I met Button in August of 2003 when we went to Alaska for the first time and trained for a week with Lynda Plettner.

Button was a very shy dog, but might have run the Iditarod in 2004 on a leased team. Unfortunately, there was no call for a lease team, so Button wasn't going to run in the 2004 Iditarod. Shortly after returning from Alaska, I got the e-mail message from Lynda confirming that Button wasn't going to run the Iditarod, so after some internet research, I decided it was mroe cost effective (and more fun) to do a quick turnaround trip to go get Button. So a month after my first trip to Alaska, I was headed back for less than a day!

I left Long Beach Airport around 7am on Friday, changed planes in Seattle, got picked up by a friend in Anchorage & another friend was to pick me up at Iditarod Trail Committee Headquarters (ITC) to drop me off at Plettner Kennels, then Lynda would drive me & Button to the Anchorage Airport for the midnight direct flight to LAX (with a scheduled landing around 7am).

While I was waiting at the ITC for my "connecting ride," Lynda Plettner called the ITC (she knew I'd be there waiting for my ride) and asked to speak to me (she was at the Vet getting Button's travel health certificate & needed my address for the certificate). You can imagine the impression I made on the woman who answered the phone to have Iditarod musher Lynda Plettner calling for me a person she thought was just another tourist! I can still see her surprised/perplexed/awestruck expression! :-D

Button quickly transitioned to the warm California climate - she was constantly out basking in warmth of the late September sun (we were even having a long, hot summer that year)! She also easily transitioned into running as a lead dog (in fan hitch) with Jiko and Ani on the California

sidewalks.

Button has come a long way in overcoming her shyness. While she can still be a tad tentative in public when she doesn't have one of her pack mates with her, she no longer grovels on the ground & rolls over in submission.

She co-rules the pack with Ani. While she won't hold the "line out" during hook-up, Button is "the enforcer" when it comes to others following her rule about behaving on the gang line - no excessive barking and no jumping when she's on the line!