I ran the boys the other day and because I am training some new leader gee haw I wanted to take my old man with me cache is the most amazing leader he has slowed down in his old years and become a bit of a trouble maker when he wants I have founds now he will question me in my calls and purposely turn the opposite way. but this I can not complain with her has lead the pack here for 8 years we got him from a race team when he was 4. I want him to feel like he is still important in our lives and to be able to take out a large team even though slow runwith absolutely no issues.
I have retired cahche this year and he will be helping with the mushing 101 courses he does so well with teaching new people how to sled but he is the best at showing them how to be a leaning pole so they can cuddle him.
it would be nice to have all of it, what do I mean I want the calm thinking nature of the older leaders mixed in with the speed endurance and stenght of a young dog. LOL ya I know I want everything LOL I will be missing on the race team my many dogs that I have learnt to trust onthe trail they run perfect I never have to question them and now turn and learn to trust our younger dogs the same.
but I was surprised at the boys when I took them out I put cahce and keeni up front in lead I want keeni to learn from cache and then I also hooked them up int he dark cahce has done many runs with me at midnight and enjoys runnign inthe dark and has no issues leading ...
now itwas keenis turn I wanted to see if he could stay focused enough to keep on the trail and not react to the darkness and what could be in the bush. we did well at first due to keeni following every movement of cache but then as the miles went on I could see keeni taking the control and that although a great sign was a bit unpredictable as he is just learning the commands and little things that make a great leader.
cache let him take control for quite a while and let kenni feel the control and feel the power of commanding 8 other dogs. but then after a bit took over again. it was a good start and I think he liked it I just have to work on focuswith him but that will come in time with a few years on him we hada few newbies on line and when I say newbies I mean dogs that have not run more than 2 times with our family or at all. so a few tangles from them until we got our groove. but I did find the girl team I ran before was much more focused they were faster and ran further.
they all did very well and it was much more obvious onthe boy team who was going to make the race team and who was going to stick to tours. I am having a hard time with the girls and I think it will come down to who can do the major miles. I plan on taking out my handler today with the quad and get her experienced in running a team with a ATV so I will hook up the girls and we can run a short 8 mile run and let her learn how to watch the dogs control the ATV and keep the gangline tight she will have to learn when to see when to break the dogs and when to push them on and that will take time for her to be able to know each dog and their individual signs But over all I am happy witht he first few runs I am sad though I cannot run my babies they went out and had a great run and did it with easy I just do not want to push them and sour them to sledding so I have to really keep myself from grabbing them a hanress and hooking them up. next year I am really going to enjoy getting them out on tours and maybe racing.
but for now each day I print off the list of teams and write down my comments beside each dog to help me determine who is race potential. this is hard cause I want to runthem all LOL
oh well that is it for me now I have to go and do chores feed water and get ready for the handler and the run
happy mushing
sibes
No comments:
Post a Comment