Anyone who has visited Dave and Shilon Bedford knows that a major portion of their lives
are spent in training, caring for, showing, and working their Black Ice Malamutes.
Today the Bedfords live near New Germany, Minnesota - west of Minneapolis. Their dogs have
become well-known for their excellent working ability as well as their success in the
conformation show ring.
Shilon has been "MAL'ed" since she was a child. She fell in love with the breed when her daily walk to school took her past a friendly Mal. She never forgot her furry childhood friend and vowed to have a Malamute someday. As is often the case, the 'one' turned into 'many', and today they share their lives with thirteen Black Ice Malamutes.
Their first serious show dogs came from the Oopik kennel of Garth and Lorna Muir. The Muirs not only provided Dave and Shilon with their foundation dogs; they also introduced them to working the dogs in harness. Dave has always enjoyed an active outdoor life, and he proved to be a "natural" in training and working the dogs. In fact Dave is so successful at sledding, that he and a team of Black Ice Mals were the "villans" in the movie "Iron Will". This year Dave and Shilon, along with their dogs, made another debut, this time on television. They were featured, along with several other prominent breeders, on the Alaskan Malamute segment of the show "Breed All About It", which appeared on cable television.
Dave and Shilon selected their kennel name of Black Ice because of their initial love for the black and white Malamutes. 'Black ice' is also a term used in the far north to describe the ice just before the spring breakup.
In addition to to showing and working their dogs, Dave and Shilon also have a growing
business of producing sledding equipment. What started a few years ago as a one-page
brochure has now expanded to a 60-page catalog, and has totally consumed the basement
of their home.
Before moving to New Germany, the Bedfords lived near Delano, Minnesota. There they had a greenhouse, and Shilon also raised champion Border Leicester sheep. As Shilon laughingly told me, she had champion sheep long before she ever had champion dogs.
The Bedfords have been instrumental in the revival of the Minnesota Malamute Club, and have devoted much of their time and energy to making it a viable and active club. Shilon has served in almost every office, and David has been pivotal in shaping the focus and direction of the club on the working aspects of the Alaskan Malamute.
Although Dave and Shilon both attended undergraduate school at Wheaton College, in Illinois, it was at the school's science station in the Black Hills of South Dakota that they first met. They each hold a masters degree (M.S.) in horticulture from Colorado State University. With her training in horticulture, Shilon worked at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum and also taught at Hennepin Technical Center. David has always been in the apple research program at the University of Minnesota. Their daughter, Cianna, was born five years ago, and true to her heritage, it already showing a strong interest in handling and working the Malamutes. Outside of the dogs, David and Shilon continue their interest in horticulture and are involved in the landscaping around their new home.
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Copyright © 1996 Linda Dowdy, last revision 000216