Dog'ged Juniors

How is your mushing season going so far?

With only two adult dogs and one pup in Fairbanks with us, I've been missing mushing a big team. Keane skijors with them, which they all really enjoy, even little Ella who has been chasing the three of them on runs since she was 3 months old.

She's 4.5 months old now, and just now able to fit into Stormy's harness. Storm is a slender two-year-old Alaskan husky who comes from a long line of racing dogs, whereas Ella is a little border collie/Inuit mutt pup. She sure is growing quickly, and will probably be bigger than Will, since she's pretty much caught up already.

I harnessed the puppy today and hooked her up to a little plastic sled for the first time. She's a bold little thing, and doesn't mind at all so long as it doesn't interfere with her ability to chase Stormy up and down the trail like two little race dogs, back and forth, careful not to get too far away, but running like wild things nonetheless. I don't think Ella will ever be quite as fast as Stormy, who has long legs and gracefully prances around like a little deer, but she'll make up for it in strength.

After Ella dragged the sled around for a while, I hooked Will up too, necklined them together, and hopped in. Ella did great! She thought it was all quite a lot of fun, and happily pulled alongside the red dog, until Stormy came over and started wrestling her to the ground. I'm going to have to get another harness so we can hook all three to a dog sled. It was quite a successful training session -- Ella was all smiles.

Awesome! One of these days I need to make another attempt with Queezle.

For the first time in my life I can say that I have too much snow. Over the past 2 weeks we have gotten about 2 1/2 feet of snow, and the wind keeps blowing it all over the place. I snowshoed out a trail and yeah, its gone now, lol.

Glad the pup is having fun! Hopefully next year you can have quite the little team. I found a bunch old old puppy pics the other day, and I really brought back memories of how fun training pups can be. Ahhh...to have a puppy again..wouldnt it be great?

Everything is going great so far!! Hey Megan ya wnna share some of that snow?? We don't have quit enough on some of the trails here like the race trail for example does not have enough snow on it for a snow hook so that race that we have here does not look like it will happen this year unless we get some snow soon.  Glad everything is going good for everyone!

I can't really do any mushing at the moment; I've got a sled but Smush is the only dog that can do it, and he's too small to pull it all by himself.  Chopper's an awesome athlete, but he's become such a momma's boy that he won't run for me anymore.  I really wanna try skijoring, but first I need to get some boots and practice skiing without a dog.  I've been meaning to try and find some used ones, but I haven't had a chance to get out and shop for them yet.  And I also need to practice driving in the snow, since my parents are too busy to chauffer me around every time I wanna go to the park (and I'm kinda tired of depending on them for it, too).  Luckily we've got some nice trails right here in my neighborhood and there's another big one under construction, so I won't have to drive far.

Also, once I get comfortable with winter driving, I might be able to borrow my cousin's 2 huskies and do some actual mushing.  But first I'll need to start taking them for regular walks, since they're SO fat and out of shape it's scary.  They love to run, but I don't want them to go into cardiac arrest out on the trail. They can be pretty unruly, but they really need the exercise and I want more dogs (but can't actually get any), so I might make them my little "project" sometime in the near future.  I might need to make or buy some kind of a snow hook first, though, because even though they look like furry blimps, they're really strong          

So I thought I would update.

Our season is going GREAT so far!! we have completed 3 races so far. We came in 9th, 4th and 1st. We are actually heading off to a race tomorrow too! I will post how that went if I have time tomorrow. 

This year we are running in the 4-dog sport class instead of 3-dog junior.

Our new kennel addition is coming home Sunday! I will hopefully post pics after we get back from the race.

My season has gone ok. So far 1 snow race I have gone to. Lets see, canceled races and another canceled race this weekend. Can I say this season is not working out for me? LOL! PLease, if oyu can SEND some snow this way..... Please!:D

Carlleen,

You should have raced in Michigan!! lol I thought about coming to Antigo but then it was cancelled. The race over here was cancelled too.

The results are in from our last race. We came in 1st place with a 6 minute lead on the other teams! There were 4 teams in the class. 

We have 1 race left for the season and so far we are on a winning streak in the 4-dog sport class. Lets hope we came make it 3 wins in a row!! 

Yeah maybe next year. Hopefully next you can come over and train with me or the other way around. I hope to make it to a dry-land race next year too!!