6:30 am. 20 degrees.
We started early this morning with the hopes of running six teams altogether and cycling through most of the kennel. Kris, the owner, has left us completely on our own. I have to say we are all resisting it and frustrations are surfacing. Suffice it to say we have not found our rhythm as a team yet. We all have different ways of doing things and sometimes in the rush to get teams going we don’t all see on the same page. Hopefully after trying to talk things out, the runs will go more smoothly tomorrow. The main issues are deciding which dogs are running on which teams.
Today we mixed in the yearlings with adult teams. It’s the first time the pups have run on a team that isn’t 95% yearlings. They all did well, although they seem to have forgotten which side of the line they need to stay on. After a few corrections, they got things pretty well sorted out.
I’ve been staying ahead on the four wheeler to guide the teams through gates and around corners. Bill is picking things up quickly. Two of the leaders, Belle and Courtney didn’t want to stay ahead at watering time as the girls behind them were more of a curiosity. No serious tangles came out of it which was good. Initially we had put Penny at lead, but she wasn’t having it. Last year she ran with Dino (a male) and apparantly wanted to remind us that if she wasn’t going to be in lead with Dino, she didn’t want to be in lead at all. She ran great at point.
Alma Rose, my dog, got mixed in as well. At first she though she would have to pull logs like we tried in training so was unenthusiastic about the run, but once she got going, she was prancing along. Still not that interested in pulling and not liking her mom giving attention to other dogs. We are working on that!
The day warmed up to 30 degrees after the first three teams got back and there was some dissent as to whether we should run another group and risk the day heating up. After a call to Kris we turned the four wheeler around, hooked up another 36 dogs and headed out again. Fortunately the weather held and although it felt warm, was only 40 degrees when we got back. Lots of water for the dogs, a good meal and it was time to go home.
Sage, a little blue eyed black dog hasn’t been feeling well the last few days. Normally any attention and she’s jumping all over me, or squirming onto her back for a belly rub. Today she barely opened her eyes although they did open any time I got ready to leave. She’s been drinking lots of water, so whatever is in her system will hopefully flush through.
Tomorrow we’re running the rest of the dogs plus Tyson (20 years old) and Wesson (16 years old). Tyson is very spry for his age, although he has the most serious kankles I’ve ever seen. But he has spirit. Wess generally prefers butt scratches and belly rubs over a lot of running, so we’ll see how he does tomorrow.
