I first heard about Yukon (previously Tucker) from the WAMAL home visitor, who helped me find the right dog. Yukon was of course a bit wild at the kennel, but his description sounded like he had a good side hidden in there somewhere so I was excited to meet him. This turned out to be the case as soon as he got out of the kennel and went for a walk. He turned into a whole new dog, and with his ‘you can’t say no to me’ face, I had to give him a home.

He has quickly taken to hiking and trail running, and these have become his favorite things to do. He just gets so excited when we pull into the trailhead parking lots. His daily routine is a morning walk, play in the yard while dad is at work, then an afternoon run or hike.

He sits and waits for permission to eat his food, has learned paw, other paw, roll over, and many other tricks. He is currently working on beg and fetch. Fetch is going to be the hardest because he just refuses to chase anything that doesn’t move by itself. He loves to cuddle on the couch in the evening and often decides to take a nap on dad’s lap.

He loves the dog park and makes lots of new friends. Everyone always comments about how cute he is and tries to pet him, but he is always more interested in playing with the other dogs and often gives a cold shoulder (except to dad). He just started training with his new backpack and will be going on some fun multi-day snowshoeing trips this winter. He really looks forward to becoming a true mountain dog, as long as he isn’t too busy begging for belly scratches.

WAMAL is a great organization with great volunteers. I definitely recommend WAMAL if anyone is interested in adopting a malamute. Maybe someday Yukon will need to train a new mountain dog and WAMAL will be called again.