7:30 am. 30 degrees.

Got to the kennel and Kris was already on the trail with the race team. They are running about 3 1/2 hours a day now, building strength and endurance.

One dog had gotten loose during the night and two others had a quarrel. Nothing too bad, but both were limping. When Kris got back he showed us how to administer penicillin. I got the pleasure of injecting Smoky with 1.5 ccs of penicillin in his hind quarters. Fortunately he’s an older dog and didn’t bat an eye. I have to confess I hate giving shots, cause I know I don’t like them, but as long as the dogs are taken care of, that’s all that matters.

With Kris gone, we were tested on our skills of laying out harnesses. If the harnesses are too loose, it can rub against the dogs skin and be uncomfortable. If they are too small, it’s harder for the dogs to run. We also had to choose leaders and set up teams.

All went well until the blue fourwheeler started going before we were ready. Turns out the breaks don’t work, so the lead dogs were still hooked up to the starting post and the rest of the team was heading up the trail around them. After getting them untangled and on their way, the rest of the teams followed fairly smoothly.

Today was Bill’s first day running dogs. I chose Buddy and Yampa as leaders. Buddy is a red dog who responds really well to commands. He and Yampa did an amazing job paying attention to where I wanted them to go.

With the sun shining down, we were only able to run one group of dogs. The rest will get out tomorrow morning and we’re moving up our schedule an hour while the weather stays warm so all the dogs can get out every day.

I forgot to calculate the extra weight of having Bill on the four wheeler with me, so should have put in a couple of the bigger dogs like Tampa and Hahns. As it was, I had to help them up most of the hills with a little gas. But we made it! We’ll see what tomorrow brings.