Gee/Haw Work

Yesterday was a busy day for puppies. Each was wormed, received a dose of Revolution, and each was given a brand new, first-ever collar. They all handled the process very nicely. I was impressed.

Kyle Belleque arrived from Dillingham last night. He’s here to do some work, visit some friends and then take Lucky and his 3 puppies home. I’m going to send the largest 3 with him. Those are Polaris, White Star and Midnight’s Son. Orion, Cassiopeia and Capella will all remain with me to grow up as Stardancer dogs.

Kyle brought down two puppies from his girls “Lucy”, who are traveling on to a new home in Eagle today. They are two weeks behind the Lucky/Torus litter, but they had a wonderful time playing with the bigger puppies and sleeping over with them. It appears that White Star has decided to sleep under the whelping house rather than in it, and she invited one of the little puppies to join her last night.

Today I decided my knee is holding up well enough to take the team on a training run. I headed to Lynn Orbison to run the trails at her place. First we wormed some new puppies she is fostering for Loving Companions Animal Rescue, and then harnessed up my 8-dog team. Here’s the training report:

19 Sept 08: Lynn’s to Paw Print to Schoen’s field straight past ball park to Birchwood to Wilbur up PV rd to new loopy lane to ball field to Lynn’s.

4.0 miles.

Four wheeler on dirt

Temperature high 40s

Max speed 15.6

Moving average 8.9

Overall average 8.6

Grace & Torus (Lead)

Rose & Nels (Swing)

Gump & Beau (team)

Sheenjek & Seamus (wheel)

The first mile the team pulled the machine in neutral. I also had them do the same for about a ½ mile later in the run.

I intentionally avoided running a route we’ve frequently done in the past, choosing to do things “backwards” from previous runs. Grace wanted to run by memory rather than listening to cues, but was better by the end of the run. They didn’t much care for it when I gave them a “gee” when they thought they were going straight back to Lynn’s yard, but the took the cue nonetheless. (GOOD dogs)

Nels crowded Rose quite a bit during this run, but both dogs pulled and ran very well.

Gump came off his tug from time to time, as he does. Beau was a strong pulling, driven sled dog.

Sheenjek and Seamus worked well together.