Training Update 10/07

We've been mushing the dogs for a week now and things are coming along nicely. The leaders are remembering their duties and young dogs are shaping up quickly. Runs have been limited to 3 miles this week, but the dogs look ready to stretch it out some. They're coming home with plenty of gas still in the tank. We'll probably stretch them out to 4 and 5 miles next week. The idea here is not to push them too hard, but allow them to determine the distance. If they are ready for 4 miles, that's what we do. When they're ready for eight miles, we'll do that. These athletic dogs take a little while to shake off the cob webs, but once they get going, their runs can get longer quicker. It always seems like they stay around 3 to 5 miles for a while, but before you know it they're doing 8, then 10, then 12 miles. The cooler temperatures have definately been helping out as well.

The goal is to work up to 20 or 30 mile runs before we hit the trails with a sled (depends on when the snow comes). If they can muster a 20 or 30 mile run pulling a 4-wheeler with one or two people on it, they can definately pull a sled with one person and a bag of gear on a 40 mile run. December will be a busy month taking the dogs on some very long runs. They'll need to come into December already in pretty good condition to work them into racing shape. There's a lot of work to do between now and January 18th when we start the Kusko 300, but we're off to a good start.

Arctic injured his hind foot this weekend. He's always had good feet and I can't find any specific injury. It's already healing. I've started the fall with 15 dogs in hope of begin the Kusko with 12. Just like any team sport, you've got to have subs. Having only 3 extra dogs may be cutting it a bit close, but we can start the race with 10 and still run a sound race. These aren't 40 pound wimps in our dog yard. These are honest 70 pound working dogs. We should be fine.

Nushagak Kennels is no longer a one-man-show. Johanna and the kids have always run dogs with me, but I've done all the training, feeding, etc. by myself. This year Eric and Ryan (the guy who shot the moose) have offered to help with the dogs. Ryan is a very athletic young guy with plenty of good questions and a nack for handling dogs. Eric has mushed before and has already been a big help. He's run many of my dogs in the past. Eric may write some posts for this blog as well in the future. If you notice that everything is spelled correctly and the punctuation is uncharacteristically correct, don't be alarmed. It's probably just Eric.

Mileage:
Hagar = 18 Lucky = 15 Luke = 30 Bing = 24 Bernard = 15
Charlie = 15 Felix = 24 Olaf = 12 Lucy = 15 Phoebe = 15
Ginger = 15 Arctic = 9 Blackie = 15 Pete = 15 Chester = 15