7:30 am. 4 degrees.
Sara was off today, so I ended up as harness girl, potentially the most dangerous job in the kennel. Laying out the wrong harnesses causes delay in getting the dogs ready to hook up to the lines. A harness that’s too small can pinch a dog and a harness that’s too big can chaff a dog. I have size issues, thinking there isn’t much difference between a 40 lb dog and an 80 lb dog, hence my dilemma. I did an extremely good job for me, others might say fairly good job, with only about 3 or 4 harnesses wrong out of 48 dogs. Not too shabby.
I forgot what an issue Turbo is to hook up. He’s a puppy that might have better been called Roadrunner. On the line, he twists and spins and manages to get his harness over his head and legs through odd places and a general catastrophe. I untangled him once and re-harnessed him, as did Eitan in the about 10 minutes it takes to get a line of dogs ready. I then had to unhook the lead dogs from their posts for the first three teams. Everyone got out smoothly until I headed back to my team. I unhooked the quick release from the back of the 4 wheeler, turned to find Turbo once again tangled. I had to take him off the line, re-do his harness, hook him up, run to the front, unhook the team, run to the fourwheeler to find Turbo was still in a forward position, Thank God. We got out of the kennel smoothly and the rest of my ride when pretty well. Ranger, an Alaskan bred dog was at swing (a rookie mistake on my part) and was pulling the lead dogs into the soft snow to eat every chance he got. I moved him back in the line and then the team actually stayed in a straight line. The dogs listened well to commands. Penny ran for the first time with Dino. It was like bringing two best friends back together. Penny isn’t interested in running lead with females, but as soon as she’s next to Dino, she playfully bites at him, pushes against him, then satisfied he must have missed her, too get to the job of pulling the team.
As we head into the kennel, there’s a tree where hundreds of red-winged black birds like to sit. As we approach, they swoop up from the ground in a cloud of black and settle on every avialable branch. It’s a beautiful dance in the sky. After work we went to Double-Z for lunch, where we gorged on BBQ beef, pork, burgers and beer.
