Training Update 10/27/07

Things are starting to get interesting. The mileage has increased and the dogs are getting into the groove. We're up to 17 dogs with the addition 2 more of Harold's yearlings. It's 17 dogs, but ranging in age from 18 months to 9 years. Dogs with hardly any experience to dogs who have been mushing longer then I have. It's definately getting fun now!

We're basically doing laps on Waskey Road as the mileage increases. Any time spent with dogs is time well spent, but I'll be happy to get on a sled. The scenery hasn't changed for almost a month now.

Luke is still doing most of the leading. He's a great finished leader at the age of 3. His brother Bing has been running with him almost exclusively for the past week. I need another young finished leader and Bing is the best prospect. He's got all the drive and natural ability in the world. Bing just needs some polishing, he should be nice and shiny by February. In a pleasant turn of events, it looks like Chester (see post in September Archive) wants to be a lead dog. He struck me as "leaderish" from the beginning. I've had yearlings eager to charge ahead before, but it appears that Chester already knows his commands for the most part. Could he be a "Natural Leader"? The Holy Grail of dog mushing is what we call a Natural Leader. They are dogs that seem to know just how to lead a team from the very beginning with little or no instruction. I've never had one of these so I don't exactly know if Chester is one, but let's hope he is. Regardless, he's been running in swing where he can pick up more leading commands without the stress of leading.

Running on gravel toughens up a dogs feet, but only to a point. The dogs have been running without booties to this point, we haven't needed them. I knew that at some point we would cross the threshold of helping the feet and beging hurting them. That threshold was crossed at about 100 miles. I wonder if that's normal? I usually don't run much in the fall, just enough to get the rust off before we take off on the sled. A number of dogs today had the beginnings of raw tender feet. We're going to start running them with booties tomorrow. They need to get used to running with booties anyway, may as well start now.

The dogs are getting used the routine. The old dogs walk calmly to the line and patiently wait to be hitched up. Even the young dogs have mellowed out. I'm sure their spunk will come back when I pull out the sled. Need some cold weather before that happens. Since I began mushing 6 years ago, I always begin with a sled in mid-November. There isn't always snow, but the tundra is hard enough. Let's hope this year is the same.

Mileage:
Hagar = 104 Lucky = 109 Luke = 130 Bing = 120 Bernard = 99
Charlie = 109 Felix = 46 Olaf = 106 Lucy = 19 Phoebe = 109
Ginger = 109 Arctic = 53 Louie = 93 Pete = 109 Chester = 109
Gus = 18 Junior = 46