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It
Happens To Everybody
Despite all my best intentions for this season, my first training run occurred
recently on October 3, i.e. more than a month late! It was a fairly typical
first run, which means full of adventure and mishap, so I thought I would relay
it here for all those just getting started to reassure you that whatever you are
going through with your own dogs: "It Happens to Everybody!"
I met up with Deputy Sage and her yearling pup Titan (some of you might remember
the big-eared pup from last years Mushing Clinic) and off to Hobart Mills we
went with the simple goal of getting around "the loop" with all dogs pulling and
all dogs attached. We were hooking up nine dogs, five of them seasoned, four of
them yearling pups. Sage's Alaskan "Titan" had never been hooked up before; my
Angel and Pandora had a couple hook-ups from last season and Daisy (a two-year
old pointer cross) has had a few hook ups with Jason's dogs, but never did very
well due to being terribly insecure and was therefore a bit of a crap shoot.
With these dynamics I knew we were going to have a good time and was grateful to
have a training partner to assist!
By the time we were pulling into the dirt parking area I noticed we had a truck
following us. He stopped when we did and came over to ask if he could bring his
family out to watch us train the dogs. Of course I tell him that would be fine,
but inside I'm thinking: "Wonderful, our first training run and we have an
audience!!" He disappears and Sage and I get down to the business of setting up.
This takes me MUCH longer than I anticipated considering I thought I had set up
my lines and gear ahead of time. What I didn't realize is that I "set it up"
while in the middle of being terribly sick. So as we pulled dogs from the truck,
I wasn't so surprised to hear my eager disciple ask: "Kathy, so, why do some
dogs have two collars on?" Huh? It seems that as I went around and put collars
on all the dogs the day before, I put them on whether they had one on already or
not. In the case of Loup, I decided to keep him double-collared and actually
attached two necklines to him as well (one of them chain). He is my line-biter
and I figured a little extra protection couldn't hurt!
The dogs were ballistic. They knew exactly what we were going to do and all of
them were bouncing and screaming and raring to go-even the pups! We start
getting the cart hooked up and the lines and harnesses sorted. Of course we also
had to answer questions from the family of four (including their family dog) who
had returned and were watching us, adding to the confusion a tad. Sage was
managing the family and watching the dogs and I was trying to count out enough
line for a 9-dog team. All of a sudden I look up and see a white streak go by
and knew immediately that Angel (a.k.a. Einstein) was free. Sage is distraught
and I ask her very sternly: "how did that happen?" I was thinking it had
something to do with the family who I had said could pet the puppies and was
ready to deliver a lecture. Sage meekly admitted it was her stating the twp pups
were tangled and she got the snaps mixed up. (Something we have ALL done
before!) I call Angel a couple times but she doesn't come, instead she takes a
straight line for the trail and zooms down it and out of sight. Mind you, Angel
has never been on this trail before. I run silently through my options: 1) my
truck - nope, can't do that as dogs are tied to it; 2) my cart - nope because no
dogs are hooked to it and nobody is harnessed yet, and 3) stranger's truck -
yup, that's the ticket. I ask him if we can borrow his truck for a minute, he
says yes and as I'm getting ready to hop in and take off down the trail when one
of the kids shouts: "here she comes!" And there's my Angel darling coming back
down the trail at us as if to say: "Hey, you don't expect me to do this by
myself, do ya???" Sage happily snaps her to the truck again, secure in the
knowledge that she wasn't responsible for losing my prized pup on her first
training run with me. Did Angel do the whole loop? We'll never know, but when
she finally got hooked up, she seemed to know exactly where she was going!
I went back to my lines and it was around this time I noticed something VERY
strange. It was quiet. I peek at the truck and all the dogs are not only being
quiet, they are actually sitting down. This is a momentous event so I took a
moment to enjoy, and ponder, it. Getting my dogs to hook up quietly is something
I've dreamed of for quite some time. I guess all I had to do was take 45 minutes
to hook them up! It had taken so long they had simply given up in disgust. I
couldn't help smiling.
Even though I brought at least twice the number of harnesses I needed, I still
couldn't locate a couple critical smaller ones, but eventually we got everybody
in one that would work and started bringing them to the line. I'm a big believer
in making everybody help so I put the family to work holding dogs, keeping them
in their place and reassuring pups. They were thrilled.
I put two seasoned dogs in lead (of course!), one in the middle and two in wheel
and off we went down the road. We only had two dogs with minor issues- Daisy,
the young pointer-cross was nervous and kept looking backwards and therefore not
able to keep the pace until we slowed it way down, and poor Titan was getting
snarked on by his neighbor- half his size Pandora - who wanted to go MUCH faster
than we were and simply couldn't contain her frustration. Titan is a very soft
dog and was running as far out as he could so as to avoid getting beat up by a
girl. One attempt to move dogs around was all it took for me to realize I
couldn't keep the 250lb cart stopped to do anything before they could drag it,
and me, with the brakes locked. So Sage ran along on foot making adjustments and
reassuring her Titan and Daisy and then hopping back on when done. We kept it
fairly slow until all were moving forward and had tight tug lines. We also took
the opportunity to snap a few pictures.
We circled the loop and I let them go faster on the backside where there is a
small downhill grade. They all picked it up and started running and we ran the
team all the way back to the truck. It was beautiful to see those pups pulling,
to see Daisy going along happily after being so afraid and so see Panda, Angel
and Titan moving right along with big happy grins. Panda and Titan were actually
in danger of over-running the leaders, which was a sign of good things to come
with them.
When we got back to the truck, I had the family (who had waited for our return)
help water the team and we un-harnessed and put up the dogs. At this point, the
father lets it drop that he works for the Tahoe Quarterly and he'd like to do a
story on the dogs. This just goes to show you that you should always treat those
coming to watch you with respect, not only is it simply the right thing to do,
but you never know who they may be affiliated with! I hope to see him and his
family again at our Mushing Clinic.
While getting into the truck to leave, Sage remarked: "Kathy, I think dogs are a
lot more work than horses." We tested this theory when we returned to her place,
rested for a bit, and then saddled two horses and went for a two and a half hour
trail ride. Let's see, we spent 45 minutes getting ready to run the dogs two
miles, and for MAYBE 20 minutes, and spent MAYBE 20 minutes getting two horses
saddled for a two hour ride. You do the math.
But it's great fun, isn't it??
Happy Trails,
Kathy.
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