Friday Afternoon Fun

Whew! Finally got the crew out once again. Now we're hit with a warm snap... what's with that?!?! It warmed to -15C and that's pretty much perfect temps for both dogs and musher (for us anyways...). I decided to hit some of the trails on my side of the highway. We hadn't done those for awhile, so it's nice to mix it up. Then the dogs never know what the heck is coming at them.

Started out switching everything from the 4-wheeler, back to the sled... (a bit of a pain!), you want to make sure you don't forget something important... oh, like, a very necessary carabiner or two attaching the gangline (main line running between the dogs) to the 4-wheeler! With that all switched around, snacks and water ready to go for after the run, I was ready for hookup. The dogs were screeching, so they were ready too.

I decided to give Lucy her chance to shine in lead. She shines once in a while. But, also needs a fairly decent leader beside her to do really well. If put with a goofball-ish dog, Lucy's inner goofball will come out and we'll be chasing stray dogs down strange driveways, or horses in pastures... etc, etc. I decided Jack is up for that job of the *serious* dog as he often is so reliable. I took out only 5 dogs at a time, since we're running down some side roads and often see cars, people, dogs, horses, etc. and a small team seems so fast and easy to get hooked up and stuff. Rounding out this team was Gracie, then Gabe and Rupert in wheel. Not many people have been on these trails, so the fresh snow that fell a week+ ago, was still pretty fresh! It was a good workout for the dogs. They took off great, made the commands, went through a few spots of deep powdery snow (where no one goes apparently, 'cept us) without a problem. I always want to be sure my dogs are having *fun* and hoping that a run is never a bad experience for them. I was sure they were having fun when I saw Lucy lean over to Jack and give him a big, wet, sloppy lick on his face halfway throught the run!! It's always so cool to see that. I swear I could see a smile on her face!

They were keeping a nice speed, until we approached a corner, something in the air caught their noses, and we picked up speed in no time! They just flew around the corner (since this speed is around corners, or on steep downhills, I often wonder if they're consciously trying to *take me out*... or am I just paranoid?). On the way back, Jack started to peter out a bit, and slowed right down into his low gear. Lucy, however, was pumped right up, bouncing along beside him, trying to speed up his scrawny ass. But he knew who was boss, and wouldn't go for it. So we went the rest of the way a bit slower than I wanted. Maybe that burst of speed wiped 'em out. In fact, I threw Rupert up there at the end just to see what would happen, and we kept that same, slower speed. Oh well. On the way back, there was a phone company truck we had to dart around coming out of the ditch, and luckily I managed to not hit it with my sled. Kuna was running loose beside us and had to go say "hi! Who the hell are you!?" to the phone guy. Once the guy met his approval, he came back to join us for the run home.

And for once! We got out of the yard without Gracie chewing lines!! Woo Hoo!

Team 2 - I tried Kate and Octane in lead. They were super the whole way through, but again, lost a bit of speed in that last mile. So I think they just need more consistent training right now. We were only doing a 7-mile loop, but training has been fairly inconsistent. We'll have to work on that. George was good in wheel with Ripper - they actually really like each other and she gets a bit flirty and playful with him when they are loose together. He's not really sure what to do usually and most often the scenario goes like this: George is bouncing about doing the "playbow" wanting to play and chase, and Ripper doesn't really know what to do. And soon enough, his testosterone gets going(damn males!), and guess what he wants to do? Well, George is fixed, or... is too much of a lady? And she's not into those *games.* Poor Ripper is lucky to make it out alive...poor guy, he must get so confused with her schizophrenic nature!

Back to the run - George kept up her speedy little trot as everyone else was loping at the beginning, then they all settled into a trot, keeping up speed though. Harris was steady and Ripper gave it his all. Octane almost seemed to want to not go as fast as Kate in lead. I was trying to slow them down, because she seemed to want to go full out. We're not used to doing that, so the dogs would have been wiped pretty early on.

The dogs got some nice snacks that I made and got the idea from on www.sleddogcentral.com. They consist of ground beef, rice, wheat germ, honey, eggs, molasses, gelatin, and a few more things I can't remember. Made into nice little-more-than-bite-sized-patties, and everybody but Gracie loves them. She sniffs it and turns her nose up at them! It's odd, because she would much rather have a chunk of frozen fish guts!! Mmmmmm!!! Now that's good eatin'.....