Fabulous day with two Friends and 20 Dogs

Today I met my friends Scott and Linda Isabelle at the Hill trails.  Linda said she would help me anyway I needed, and I took her up on the offer!  She was a huge help, doing half the work of prepping first one team and then the other.  It was great, I was able to get both teams out today without exhausting myself.  Further joy was having an adult to talk to for HOURS!  Scott ran his team with us while we ran my A team.  We did lots of nice passing work on the way out and then we turned around at about 4 miles to head back.  We saw him again for a head on pass as we headed out with the B team.
It was a truly spectacular day, thank you Linda!

Clever Dogs doing Clever Things

Did that just happen?  How did those three dogs get out of their kennel into the play area???

Go and put them back in....
Put the little carabeener into the latch just to be safe....
And wow!  Looking over I see Java Bean on his hind legs, carefully and slowly manipulating the kennel door latch with his front paws and nose!  And I have an extra witness, KTST saw this too.

I think Java bean usually waits till I am not looking, but he must have been extra worried I was going to leave his group behind when I loaded the dog truck!

Christmas Mush - Dogs at the truck

A nice photo taken by Kelly Berg.  I love how Rainy is Howling away!

Kennels v Tie Outs

Now that we are into some nice chilly weather I am finding multiple dogs per dog house cuddled up.  Cutest thing ever.  Each dog has his own house, but I am sure it is warmer with two.  Tie out dogs cannot do that!

Holidays, ice, sick baby....brain wave

After many things conspiring to keep the dogs miserable in the kennel (and poor Emma pretty miserable too) we finally get an overall break.  Today we met the usual local folk at Hill for the Christmas Mush.  Not sure what was so Christmas-y about it besides a few bad holiday decorations!!!  But it was great to get out with the dogs, get a break from Emma, know Emma was recovered from being sick and to have great cold weather to boot.  The dogs did wonderfully, perfect passing, hard pulling, good behavior.  I bumped little Blossom up for a trial on the A team and she worked very well.  She was a little overdone afterwards, tired and a little sick to her tummy. I chalk that up to her not being as fit since the B team is not getting out much at all.

Someone told me today that the ban on mushing at Profile Falls/Shaw Cove on weekends before noon has been listed.  Hurray!

Today we saw many old friends.  I find it interesting that nearly everyone has moved to large ATV's.  I love my little ATV and it is a perfect fit for my 10-dog A team.  A little heavy for my older dogs (also a 10 dog team).  Ironically I am contemplating swapping out my sweet little honda 250 for my husbands beast honda 450.  I think there is at least at 200 pound weight difference.  What I am thinking of doing is changing my mind set from two 10-dog teams to 4 five-dog units.  Swapping out units, running 3 units at a time (15-dog team) I think all the dogs would get on average 3 runs a week if I myself ran 4 times.  It wont be as fun, it will be a lot more stressful and limiting, but if the conditions hold like they are now I can get more miles on more dogs.

Holiday week frustration....

 UGH! My few hours of babysitting...and my road is iced over...not enough time to drive somewhere and cannot run the team here on iced hills.... SAD!

Tarps down....

The past few years I have taken the tarps down a few days too late, after a snow has fallen and stretched the tarps out with weight.  Not this year!  Right on time, and a snow the next day!!

6 miles at good old Hill Village

I went to Hill Village for the first time this year.  It's not a weekend, so I could go.  NH Musher's Association agreed to ban mushers on weekends before noon at Hill Village/Profile Falls and also Shaw Cove.  From what I understand it was explained that this was due to several incidents between sled dogs and hunting dogs.   Which I find strange....considering the hunting dogs are breaking one of the only rules that is posted right on the Army Core of Engineers website and if they were on leash as they ought to be probably no issues would occur.

Grumbling aside....
It was lovely and very quiet due to the weather (wet and cold).  We passed hunting dogs a few times, might have been the same dog each time.  Bells!  The dogs were psyched to go somewhere so easy, nearly flat, and they flew through the first 3 miles.  After that their wind was a little gone, and we took several rest stops to allow them to continue to work hard.  Their wind will come back, it's early days yet in their training.

There were a lot less puddles than I hoped, with the recent rain I was hoping for lots of big splashy puddles for them to cool off in.  At the second watering stop they were still pretty thirsty so next time I have to bring more than 2 gallons of water.   It takes about 1.5 gallons to water 10 dogs on each stop.

Twinkle ran lead with Bodhi.  They are a nice pair.  Twinkle never poops in harness, and Bodhi has a great signal he gives when he wants to stop to poop.  He jumps high into the air!!!  Of course the two have other great qualities up front, hard driving and mostly taking commands.  Twinkle ran for years next to Bodhi's mother (Rainy) and they were the perfect lead pair, always taking commands right away.  Twinkle has run with Tula the last few years but the dynamics between the two biggest bitches in the kennel don't work very well for taking commands, neither seems to want to push or pull the other...so they often just stand there looking numb.  I am hoping that Twinkle will get back to her clever self with her new partner.  And Bodhi is very smart, so he should pick up commands very easily.  He is a nice obedience partner and earned his Rally Novice degree this summer.

Also on the team were:
Rainy and Pema at point
Java Bean and Turbo
Hakka and Tula
Bridget and Pearl at wheel (spelling the bigger dogs who usually run at wheel)

Pearl has always been on the A string but this year I bumped her back to B.  Smudgie has a sore foot though, so my sweet Pearl is back with the A string.  She is a great dog, always doing what she should and never doing anything naughty.  Only this year she is not pulling very hard!!!  She is only 8, no where near retiring age!  Though she is a great housedog, a true luxury companion.  Always clean, cuddly, fluffy, and super hugable.

Well that's all...I should be cleaning house!

Ice!

I woke to the sound of ice this morning.  I headed to the kennel and things were indeed covered by a thin sheen of ice, quite slippery on smooth surfaces like the patio blocks, but OK on the rocks in the play area.  And the gravel driveway seemed ok too.  I loaded up both teams and headed to my training spot.  I decided to run the B team first, in case things were more slippery than they seemed.  Well...they were.  The team struggled up Poole Hill rd, only to zip down it on our way back.  We were sliding around, ass end of the ATV trying to spin.  The ATV also acted funny.  I ran the engine for extra hold back, only I had to jump it to get the engine going and the gas would not work. I decided not to run the A team, and fed everyone at or in the truck.
Thankfully Terry happened to be at the townhouse working on the Bean Hole Beans new building.  He pull-started the ATV for me and I got it back on the trailer.

I sure hope we have better luck tomorrow.

The teams are in training!

We've been out for our first few runs, hurray!
We've been using our home trails and the dogs are already getting tougher for it.  Today, a warm and humid training day no less, we bumped up the miles a little.  The dogs did great.  Bodhi and Twinkle led the whole run. Recent rain left lots of mud puddles and the  dogs charged right through them, cooling off and getting seriously BROWN!

The old old old days!

A two dog team on the old baby-blue rig.  Anuk and Siepa in their youthful glory!  Siepa still works but Anuk has long since retired to the house.

This is a real oldie.  Sasha and Siepa at the truck.  A very old dog truck by the way...we still have that truck but not the boxes,

Nikka and Siepa in their GLORY

Nikka and Siepa are aging...Nikka a little more so than her brother Siepa.  Here are some photos from a race long ago in Meredith with my step daughter driving.  Nikka and Siepa look awesome!  Nikka has always been the most responsible and smart leader, one you would have no issue loaning to a newbie musher.  She has taken care of lots of people!

Barking Brook Sled Dog Adventures LLC is born

This winter Whatleigh will be giving sled dog tours!
After one season off for maternity leave it's time to get back on the sled runners.  And the atv and the rig and...  !
A website with tour descriptions will be coming soon, for now see the tab above, this blog now has an extra page that is home to descriptions of the tours I will be offering.
Check back soon to see what is cooking.

Bodhi's future handler??
wt

Bodhi reflecting on his big day at the North Conway show and rally trials.
He went into the breed ring for AmBred and took first*. Then rally was next. He was a pretty darn good boy. We had practised quiet a bit. He got a score of 90, took first place in his class and finished his rally novice title!
wt

Lakes Region Kennel Club Rally Trials 8/28/10

Darka and Tula rock!

On a miserably hot day I took the two girls to the Rally trial. We met the Alexanders there. We had Emma-Lizzie with us too, who also was a good girl. Our judge was super fun and the course was gentle. Tula was entered once and finished her title. Darka was entered twice and she also finished her title.

Yipeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

some have wall to wall carpeting....some have wall to wall retired sled dogs!
wt

Big Day at Yankee

Today I showed Darka at the Yankee Siberian Husky Specialty Show. It was my first post-baby show. Darka was in rally Novice A and then in the breed ring in both the American Bred Bitch class and the Sled Bitch class. Emma came along and was a really good girl.

Darka was groomed up wonderfully by Kim Berg. She is so clean right now I want to make her a permanent house dog. Gorgeous!

We were helped out HUGELY by my friend Corina during the packing and preparations.

We were helped out AT the show by Corina and her super sweet husband Scott and by Deb Deburgio.

So I have a lot of people to thank for making my really great day possible.

And.... drum roll please! Darka got her first Rally leg!!! And placed first in her Rally class.

Then she was in the breed ring. Darka came in second in the Am Bred class. Next we were in sled dog class against one really gorgeous bitch witch we took second too as well.

It was a super hot day despite the tame forecast of partly cloudy and 70. More like all sun and 80 something plus humidity! And yes, Darka is dark, so it was hot for her out in the ring.

Funny/cute comments from the breed judge were "she is so clean" and "look at the thighs on this woman" ( I sincerely hope she was talking about my Darka there....). The judge also said she really loved Darka's old fashioned head. Not enough to place her first, but hey, it was YANKEE and second is fine with me.

xo

Back to Christmas

Some house doggies waiting for Christmas.

Yeah, Boomer loved the tree this year!

A baby Blue Dog, named Angus

Hi I am Angus. I am an Aussie puppy. I am here to keep the Torsey family cozy.

It looks like I have a human puppy just my size to make friends with.

I really do not know why those huskies call me a wimp....

Don't all puppies get carriage rides?