fall training

Playing Chicken

Sarah · October 24, 2014 ·

On Monday I didn’t want to run dogs but did anyways. That’s what you are supposed to do, isn’t it? The dogs needed to get out and were eager to go but I was in a funk. Iditarod, I told myself. So I rose reluctantly and headed out to the yard. The dogs eager heads popped out of their houses when they saw me. They quickly realized we were going to be heading out on a run.

I am slow and methodical when I hook up my dog team. I like them to be quiet but it takes time and patience for them to learn that. Today, they obliged sprawling out waiting as one by one their teammates joined them. When I hooked up my 8th dog, they finally started getting excited but I was able to calm them down.

“Good dogs,” I told them when they settled back down.

So I harnessed them up and they were patient with me, letting me take my time and reserving their excitement until the end when I had all 14 of them hooked up. They were excited. We took off and then —

Oh no!

An orange ball of enthusiasm rushed out of the woods and charged at my team. Before I knew it, I yelled: “MAX! GET OUT OF HERE!”

The ball of fur was Max, my pet dog. And when I yelled he turned remarkably fast, but not before my lead dogs brush him aside.

Ok, Disaster Averted. “Good boy Kermit!” I tell my lead dog. He didn’t let Max phase him and I sure wasn’t it going to let it phase me. I tried to calm myself and get that mediative composure that seems so engrained to dog mushing. Max has given me some great training the past few months and now he is slowly trotting behind the fourwheeler.

“Go home,” I growl. He looks at me and then slinks off as if to say “I was only trying to help.” And he has helped. He comes out of the woods at random intervals and uses his moose-sized body to charge the team. One of two things inevitably happens when he does this: my team is well behaved, ignores him, and continues down the trail… or all hell breaks loose. Max likes mayhem. But today there is no mayhem, today there are only dogs who listen and who know their job and who know that no matter what the big orange dog does, they just keep running.

Good.

So we continue on our run. And it’s starting to shape up nicely. They settle into a fast steady trot quickly. We are probably averaging about 9 or 10mph and I’ve finally partnered all the dogs in a way that I can stand. My team is a mess of gaits. Hardly anyone runs the same. I have the B-team, after all, but after several runs of moving dogs around, I’ve finally come up with some good pairs. Each dog matches their partner and they step in rhythm. I have the building blocks for a great team. Running with Travis for so many years though, I have caught on to some of his OCD about gaits, running, and rhythm and certain dogs, despite being great athletes, just don’t fit in. Finally though, I have matched them well:

Kermit* (m)– Bonnie (f)

Marlow (m) — Barkley*(m)

Sphinx (f) — Tamere*(f)

Dolly (f) — Varden (f)

Ayla (f) — Havoc (f)

Ginzu*(m)– Teddy (m)

Bud (m)– Big Guy*(m)

That’s the team I have been running and they look good together. But I am still missing a few dogs from my training pool: Pinky (f), Weiser* (m), Ray* (m), Monroe* (m), Mary*(f), and Madori*(f). I have 10 dogs who have run Iditarod*, 9 puppies, and 1 adult (Bud)who has never quite made it to race day.

We are starting to look really good and on this run, everyone is starting to finally gel. Yes. It’s happening. It’s hard not to get a little excited at how they work and move together.

So we keep running and we go by a neighbor’s house when all of a sudden — YIP YIP YIP — a small, pint size dog comes tearing across it’s yard and starts to chase me.

Oh no. One of my leaders, Bonnie, turns her head for a second to see what the commotion is. “Straight ahead!” I holler. The little dog keeps following me but isn’t gaining on me.

What do I do? I’m not sure if stopping is a good idea but I ams supposed to turn around in about 200 yards. I am terrified for the little dog. My dogs are well behaved. They are friendly. But this little dog wants to pick a fight with them. I have no idea what to expect from my own dogs — we routinely pass a Saint Bernard with gnashing teeth and a fat black labrador that likes to pretend its vicious, but these are big dogs and it’s become a game to my team. Those dogs have taught us how to speed up and run fast. They’ve taught the dogs discipline. So why would I expect my dogs to do anything but pass this little dog?

Because it weighed 15 lbs and it was wearing a sweater: my dogs had no idea what it was. Was it friend or foe?

We made the turn around and the little dog sat and watched us. My team picked up speed when they saw the small dog and the little dog began charging us head on.

Really? I asked in disbelief. You have to hand it to small dogs they are both brave and stupid. I don’t think this little dog quite knew the bargain it was trying to make with my team, so I stopped, got off my ATV, walked to the front of the team, and tried to get the little dog to go away. It just wouldn’t leave.

I could try to pass the dog — I am sure my team would pass it — but what if they didn’t? What if they thought this little dog was not a dog? What if they decided it was something like a porcupine? Sled dogs are famous for attacking porcupine out on the trail despite the fact that they get needle-nosed faces and then must spend hours having quills removed. Or what if this little dog tried to attack them? If it tried to bite one of my dogs, which I wouldn’t put it past the dog, would my dogs retaliate?

So we sat. We waited. My dogs barked saying “What the hold up?” The little dog was still determined to get in the middle of my team.

“Go Home!” I told the dog.

I sit and stared at me. My leaders eyed it as if to ask “What is that?”

We played a game of back and forth that lasted 5 minutes.

With enough cajoling the dog finally got off the road and well back into the woods. I didn’t wait. I got on the ATV hit the gas and we roared past the little dog.

Phew! Glad that’s over!

I thought I was in for a quieter run after this but when we made our next turn I spied, with horror, a flock of loose chickens on the side of the road. We were almost upon them when I noticed.

Maybe the dogs won’t notice. I told myself. I really hoped they didn’t. We slid by the chickens without the dogs noticing. I was so relieved. I did not want to see the chaos of having a chicken run through the team nor did I want to have to admit to my neighbor that one of my dogs ate her chickens. You see, getting one dog to go by chickens is easy but the more dogs you add to the equation the more dogs you have that could potentially be disobedient. It only takes one to think its a good idea. If one thinks its a good idea, if you aren’t quick about it, they all will quickly think its a good idea.

At this point I was only about 3 miles into my run and left with a question: Do I continue my run or should I wait? In order to continue my run I would have to run past the small dog and past the chickens at least another 10 times in order to get the mileage I wanted. I knew, at the very least, I had to run by the little dog to get back home.

So I ran back by and fortunately at this point someone must have noticed the little dog was missing because he was no longer out to chase me. And then the second question: do I continue my run? Do I hope the chickens have been put away?

I decided I would give it a shot. I came around through the neighborhood the reverse of what I did before. When I initially passed the chicken we were on the same side of the road and they were about 3 feet from my team. This time, I came from the other direction and called my team over so we would have the whole road between us. I eagerly scanned ahead to see if I could see the birds. I knew if I did see them I would simply call the dogs up and make them run faster. I figured that at faster speeds they would have to be more focused and would have less time to notice the birds.

But the chickens were gone.

Thank goodness.

We continued to have a great run. We ran about 14 miles before I decided that we should go home. Once in the yard the dogs were still eager so I decided to take them out for another quick loop and put on an additional 2 miles. What a mistake that turned out to be!

Dusk was settling in now and a woman was out walking her two small dogs on leashes. We see her frequently and pass without much hesitation. Today was different though. Today we passed and I got a small tangle with a dog so I stopped ahead of the woman. My leaders turned down a driveway and I went up to correct them. That was when the woman walking her dogs dropped the leash.

This small 10lbs dog came barreling through my parked team. Before I knew it my lead dogs (they are in training) were turned around looking at the little dog. My whole team just sat there staring at this dog, who kept barking at them.

I tried to get the little dog out of the middle but it was dodging my hands. I was calm. My dogs were calm. But this little dog was barking, darting back and forth, and trying to elicit excitement from my team. Fortunately, they stayed calm and inquisitive though they proceeded to dance around the little dog.

Eventually, I got it out of my team but we got massively tangled.

My lead dogs were next to my wheel dogs. My swing dogs were my lead dogs. There were tug lines wrapped around legs and the gangline had gotten tangled around my team. And my team just stood there. This would have been the opportune moment for a dog, or the whole team, to panic. It was a recipe for someone to get injured, but I remained calm and talked to them. “It’s ok, we’ll get you guys untangled” I undid tuglines and necklines and had a few dogs completely turned loose. They went over to the little dog, who was still there with its owner, wagged their tails at each other and came when I called them to get back to their place in the team.

I blocked the road and directed a few cars by as night settled in. “It’s ok” I kept reassuring the dogs while working out the tangles. The woman, who was watching this all unfold, must have thought I was nuts as I never stopped talking to my dogs.

Then, when I was almost in the clear the smaller of the two dogs got loose again. This time, my lead dogs held the team out. They knew they had a job to do and that they hadn’t done it before so now they better. The little dog tried to stir up trouble but my dogs, frustrated at our lack of mobility, were patient and it grew bored and ran back to its owner. I was proud of my team.

Eventually, after about 15 minutes, we sorted everybody out and we continued down the trail with a little more trust in each other, a little more patience, and a little bit closer to the startling line.

On The Edge

Sarah · October 23, 2014 ·

In the quiet moments between living I’ve been rewatching Ken Burns’ The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. It reminds me in many ways why our life is so blessed. We live in such a beautiful place — where mountains and ocean and ice meet. Right on the edge of a place so wondrous that we as a nation decided no matter what secrets were hidden there, they were not worth revealing. The mountains are enough. The oceans are enough. The rivers of ice, slowly melting away, are enough. The natural world does not need altering to have value.

Our house sits on the edge of Kenai Fjords National Park but is also just a 5 minute drive from downtown.We live carefully balancing life in society and life out in the wild, balancing past and present. Often we go days without leaving home, lost in the quiet rhythms of our lifestyle that seem so antiquated compared to the fast paced of modern life.

We get wholly absorbed in work that fills our days and leaves our bodies aching. I don’t understand how you could or why you would want to live faster than this.

Training Sled Dogs in the Fall and Why It’s Important For Success

Sarah · October 7, 2014 ·

Although it is called “dog sledding,” much of the important training that happens to a competitive dog sled team actually happens in the fall on ATVS or carts long before there is any snow. While perhaps strange to those unfamiliar with the sport, fall training provides a crucial first look at the team a musher has to work with for the coming season and puts on the early fitness foundation required for later success.

Most mushers generally start fall training some time during the month of September. Our kennel generally starts towards the end of the month as many of our dogs run all summer long doing dog sled tours and a few weeks off between the last tour and the official start of the season are needed for both dog and musher alike. After a few weeks, however, it is back to training. A team, especially one training for Iditarod, needs to build a solid conditioning foundation and this often takes several months to accomplish.

Iditarod is a 1,000 mile long dogsled race but at its core, is really nothing more than a canine marathon. The race is an endurance event that requires high levels of physical fitness and mental preparation from both the dogs and the mushers that run it. Just as humans need months to prepare for a marathon, our dogs require several months of training before they set out on Iditarod.

Training Sled Dogs: The First Few Runs

Fall training starts out in incremental steps where we slowly build mileage up for our dogs. First runs generally are between 5-7 miles in length and are highly dictated by the weather: huskies cannot run in warm weather so most runs are done in the early morning or at night, when temperatures are coolest. Often, these runs require numerous stops that allow the dogs time to pant so that the dogs can get rid of excess heat. Mushers also cater their training runs to hit water sources such as rivers, streams, or even large puddles where the dogs can drink and cool off.

Training Sled dogs during the fall requires finding water sources. Here the team stops at a creek next to the road we train on.

Training Sled Dogs On ATVS

All-Terrain-Vehicles (ATVs) are equipped with numerous features that allow mushers to maintain maximum control of their team during fall training. The ATV is a good choice because we have both gas and brakes at our disposal as training tools. The ATV can also be put into various gears to determine how much the dogs will pull. When put into 1st gear, the dogs have to pull against the gears of the machine making for a tougher pull. Higher gears ease the pull and allow the dogs to travel faster by having to pull less. Generally, mushers vary gears throughout training.

We primarily run in 2nd and 3rd gear as well as neutral but will occasionally put the ATV in 1st gear and require the dogs to do some tough pulling. Other mushers, of course, do it differently.

Training early on in the season allows mushers to look at their dogs with fresh eyes from the previous season. With another year on their belt, dogs that previously ran in the team may now show qualities that warrant their training as a lead dog. In the fall, we run enough short runs that it is a great chance to try new dogs up front.

Positioning Sled Dogs in the Team

The fall is also a good time to bring younger dogs up onto the main team. During the fall, we spend run after run looking at how we match our dogs and where we place them in the team to maximize our efficiency.

For example, earlier this week I ran a dog named Cricket towards that back of the team. No matter what speed we traveled at, Cricket always trotted. As a young, energetic but smaller dog, if she is going to make our race team it will probably be as a lead dog. Knowing this later in the week I ran Cricket behind our swing dogs. I wanted to give her more experience up near the front of the team where, some day, she will hopefully end up. Up that far, Cricket trotted but whenever we started moving at a faster pace she loped. Our travelling speeds were no different than the run I had taken her out on earlier in the week. The team was also identical. The only thing that changed was Cricket’s position and that, it seemed, affected her gait. In general, we want our dogs to maintain a nice steady trot. Does this mean I will run Cricket in the back of the team? No, it means I need to work with her so that she can have her smooth trot further up in the team.

Chemistry: Finding The Right Match for Sled Dogs

In dog sledding, finding the right match for your dogs is also important. A good pairing of dogs can bring the best out in each dog while a bad pairing can bring out the worst. Often, we find that dogs can be paired with one or two other dogs. We aren’t talking about getting along: all of our dogs get along well. When we talk about pairing, we talk about having two dogs that work and move in sync and that also motivate each other to work hard.

Ideally, we want a team that moves as a single unit, rather than as 16 disjointed pieces. A well-trained dog team should move in sync, the legs of the dogs moving synchronously so that as one dog swings his front legs forward, they all do. Having good pairs is important because it is the pairings that comprise the team. Mushers often talk, admire, and want beautifully gaited dogs because the dog is the first building block of smooth team.

Moving Sled Dogs Around

In training sled dogs, especially in the summer during tours and in the fall when we are more focused on short runs, we can try many new pairings. Many mushers like to move dogs around during runs but we generally do not do that in our kennel. We want our dogs to know that if they are hooked up in a certain position or next to a certain dog they will finish the run in that position next to their partner.

There are some exceptions to this, of course, but most of those involve working with young dogs. With young dogs, our goal is to focus on making their time out on the trail positive and to inspire confidence. This is no different than we do with young kids: we don’t start off pitching curve balls to first graders, they hit a ball off of stand. We make things as easy as possible for our young dogs and build their confidence thus setting them up for success later on in their careers.

How Do We Pick Sled Dog Pairings?

So if pairings are so important, how do we pick them? Really talented mushers usually just know after a few runs. These are the dog-savy people who just innately have a gift of understanding and communicating with dogs. For the rest of us, it’s trial and error. Often, there are many clues that dogs will run well together. Typically littermates or dogs from similar genetic backgrounds will run well together as, genetically speaking, they should have similar builds. Similarly sized dogs also generally do well together. Other than that, it requires assessing a dog’s gait. Believe it or no, most top mushers do not have perfectly gaited dogs — what they have is well-paired dogs.

Training Sled Dogs: Finding A Lead Dog

The fall also lends itself as a great time to train new lead dogs as the control of the ATV makes it easy if problems arise or commands are perfectly followed. We say “finding” new leads dogs as, with any leader, the dog must have certain traits that cannot be trained into it. Lead dogs are generally some of the most eager to run dogs on a team as well as the most athletic. While most people believe that intelligence is important, it is actually the least important trait that our leaders have.

In our kennel, we look for three traits: athleticism, attitude, and aptitude. In some dogs, these traits stand out in a dog even as a young pup – at that time it’s clear this dog is a leader and should begin some form of leader training. Other dogs, however, mature into having the all-star can-do-it attitude that mushers look for and rely on in their lead dogs.

In any event, when we find lead dogs training them in their initial runs in lead on an ATV can be very beneficial as the ATV maximizes our ability to reward our dogs. Our dogs naturally want to run and pull – they wouldn’t be sled dogs if they didn’t – so training a lead dog is all about channeling that pull in the right direction. The commands we use in mushing are “gee” for right and “haw” for left.

Using the ATV, we can reward the dogs when they get a command correct by giving the ATV a little gas. If the dogs do not get the command right, we simply stop the team. Because these dogs want to run and because they hear us talking to them, they will try to do something different – like try a different direction – to see if that produces their desired result which is, of course, to resume running. That is it. That is the great secret to training commands to our lead dogs. While it takes lots of patience, we aren’t doing anything extraordinary. We are simply using our dogs love of running as positive reinforcement.

Why Is Training Sled Dogs In Th Fall So Important?

Fall training is important because it is a time of trying new things and getting back in the groove of training. Properly conditioning the dogs for long distance events such as Iditarod is important and requires that mushers start months in advance so that when it is time to race, the dogs are at their peak physical condition and have a solid foundation. It is also the start of that season’s adventures and we are always excited with possibility about what our team will be able to accomplish in the months to come.

You can learn more about fall training from an earlier post we did: Fall Training For Sled Dogs.

Seppala Kennel‘s also has an excellent post about the progression of training from fall to winter.

Tying Up Loose Ends & Starting Fall Dog Sled Runs

Sarah · September 30, 2014 ·

September has come and gone, almost. We’ve spent most of the month tying up loose ends around the kennel, trying to finish all the projects we started but hadn’t quite finished yet. I’m excited that our new website is finally done. So many hours were poured into it– I hope it shows.

Travis and I have felt overwhelmed recently. Our dog sled runs haven’t quite hit a solid rhythm yet of wake, run, rest, run, sleep but we are slowly moving towards that goal. The little things that have left us feeling disorganized are starting to fall in place: the piles of stuff in our basement left over from last mushing season have finally been sorted through and are sitting on new shelves that we installed. Our summer glacier gear for our glacier dogsledding camp has finally found a home and been mostly put away. And, it seems, we are finally remembering the little things: cooking real dinners like Chicken Parm and spaghetti and meatballs, rather than simply getting by on ramen noodles and pizza which is what we ate for most of the summer. I wish I was lying but when you are busy it seems the first thing to go is a nice home cooked meal!

Travis has been excited because our second ATV we use on dog sled runs had a few upgrades made to it. Although the machine doesn’t actually run, it’s perfect for running dogs with. He recently found some new fenders for it on a trip to the dump – what a score. He then pulled the fuel tank out and made a thermos holder. Also new — the padded backrest. May not look it, but it’s a pretty sweet ride!

We are back to the quiet life of fall — no more tours or help around — and it feels good to finally sit down and settle in, the warmth of the wood stove radiating throughout the house after a dog sled run. Our Friday nights have consisted of netflix and puppies romping around through our living room.

During our quiet moments at home we’ve allowed the young dogs to run wild through the yard, their squirming endless energy exciting the kennel and keeping everyone’s tails wagging. They are so much fun right now. It’s a great age.

The dog sled runs we have gone on have shown lots of promise. We’ve been working with new lead dogs and some of our younger sled dogs who were born last summer. Today, we ran Marlowe who just turned a year old in lead. To say he was amazing would be an understatement. He is a confident young dog who simply loves to go. From the first moment we put him up front he was an absolute natural. I’m so excited to be working with him and a couple of our other young sled dogs this year. I had so much fun free running them and bringing them inside last year while Travis was training. Watching them develop athletically into talented sled dogs has been exciting.

It’s still warm out but we’ve started doing 10 mile runs with the team. Hopefully, we’ll be able to head north to longer trails soon. The loops we run at home aren’t long but they at least provide some training and there is plenty of water in creeks along the side of the road.

Well, Travis has finished his coffee so we are going to head out on the trail again. We’ve been having fun running together.

Fall Training Update from Willow

Sarah · October 2, 2013 ·

The calls are few and far between from Travis, so I know things are going well and he is having fun. The dogs, he said, are enjoying the trails which are mostly soft clay. “Good for their feet,” he told me. “I can run them further.” He’s been putting on longer mileage, slowly taking the dogs further and further. It sounds like he’s camped quite a bit and has run in to many other mushers out on the trails. That’s the nice thing about Willow known as “the dog mushing capital of the world” there are mushers everywhere. It’s fun running down the trails and passing other teams rather than just passing cars. They’ve mostly been running at night, using the lights of the four wheeler and a head lamp to light the way. The weather is still pretty warm and with the longer runs he’s been doing it doesn’t do the dogs any good to run them during the heat of the day. These pictures look like they were taken early evening on a somewhat rainy day. I’ve had a few calls around 10:00pm just before he heads out to run though. I hope the weather there is as nice as it has been in Seward! Mostly, It sounds like it’s going well. When he isn’t running dogs he’s been visiting with friends in the area, no doubt talking dogs and the upcoming race season. And that’s how things go. One run and then another and then another. Back at home I’ve been staying busy catching up on projects. I finished painting our living room which I started during Iditarod and also somehow found time to paint my office. It’s amazing what a little bit of color can do to a room. The puppies have enjoyed plenty of play time too. It’s been fun letting all the dogs here run loose for an hour or so each day. Anyways, back to work for me!