By Melinda Munson
It’s raining cold, large drops that pool on the treacherous ice, making it the kind of day that discourages dog walking. Regardless, Mo Mountain Mutts pulls up to Seven Pastures in their shiny white mini bus and nine dogs of varying sizes disembark. They shed their leashes and head to the Skagway River under the direction of Mo and Lee Thompson, forging their own path through the foliage. Once the pets reach the sand, they sprint, sniff, wrestle and socialize.
Mo offers advice for introductions with the canines whose names range from Whiskey to Tater.
“Don’t stick your hand out, be indirect.”
“Don’t put your face in their face.”
“While they’re sniffing you, do nothing.”
“You cannot win them over by trying to talk to them and touch them.”
Basically, everything the average person does to greet an unfamiliar dog is incorrect.
Mo says she grew up in the dog world. Her stepfather de ella was a musher and breeder involved with the American Kennel Club. As a 12-year-old, Mo showed and handled dogs. Running a full-time dog training and walking business in a small Alaskan town is her dream come true.
Last year, Mo was working two jobs: cutting hair and walking dogs, picking them up with a minivan. She was approaching burnout.
“I had to choose one or the other. I mean, it’s not too hard to choose between playing outside with a bunch of dogs and staying inside a building,” she says.
She quit cutting hair in August 2021 and committed to dogs full time.
Lee also took a gamble, turning down a city job with benefits to help drive and manage canines. He wants to be available when their child is born — Mo is about seven months into her first pregnancy.
When the Thompson’s van broke, the couple invested in a 14-passenger bus that captured the attention of the Internet. Now, it’s common to see clips of Mo and Lee on social media, welcoming their dogs onto the vehicle, issuing flight attendant-like directions: “please keep your tails out of the aisle” and distributing complimentary liver.
They have their own Instagram, YouTube and Facebook accounts. One of their TikTok videos has received over 6.5 million views. They’ve been featured on Go Fetch, Right This Minute and The Mirror. MTV has also been in touch with the duo. Companies have reached out for product placement and BarkBox gifted a load of toys.
The walkers exercise three to five dog groups a day. Each two-hour slot allows for a 45 minute walk. The packs generally contain around 12 dogs.
The clients get picked up from their homes and secured to a bus seat by their leashes. The bus travels all two miles of Skagway’s roads at about 25 miles per hour.
Dogs must have a certain level of training to participate in the walks. Mo Mutts wear e-collars. Mo emphasizes that her collars are high-end and produce more of a “vibration” than a shock. She says she uses them mostly when the animals are out of hearing range or are distracted.
For Mo, the hardest part of the job isn’t controlling the canines, it’s dealing with the 18 press releases.
“The introduction of this legislation provides another tool in our tool box in the event that it is needed. It also sends a message to the world that Alaska is ready and excited to welcome visitors to our state this upcoming season,” she said.
Skagway Mayor Andrew Cremata cautions Skagway residents to “not get sidetracked by numbers that aren’t right for our community.”
Cremata referenced numbers in media reports last year that suggested Skagway received around 110,000 cruise passengers. He said those numbers were based on the capacity of the ships which sailed up the Lynn Canal. In reality, the ships that docked in Skagway were filled to less than capacity. Most ships carried 60% or less of the actual capacity.
In addition to capacity numbers, the cruise lines had a few ships hampered by rough weather towards the end of the 2021 season. One or two ships changed plans midway through an itinerary due to a passenger emergency or unfavorable seas.
Cremata keeps in touch with the cruise lines and schedulers regularly.
“We’re probably going to see a slow start in May,” he said, citing the normal booking time for early season cruises ran into the latest COVID-19 Omicron surge.
“Now sales are skyrocketing. So we might start out with 40-50% capacity, but get up to 70%,” he said.
That could mean around “give or take” 750,000 passengers, not counting highway travel.
“It’s going to be a good season,” Cremata said.