Turning Heads Kennel

Alaska Dog Sledding Tours

fall training

A Short Break On Their Trip to Willow….

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The phone rings at 7:57 waking me. I answer my cellphone only to have it die. I guess the charger hadn’t been plugged in all the way. I jump out of bed because I know what will come next and before I have time to walk into the living room, the house phone starts ringing.

Great. I can’t find the handset and I know it’s Travis.

It rings half a dozen times before the answering system picks up:

Hi Honey! Uhhh….Anyways we got to willow…but we had an adventurous night. 

We’re about to drop the dogs and go water them and then we’re going to find a spot to go run. But we had a very  very adventurous night…long story short we are going to have to put the truck in the shop…we didn’t crash or anything but… THE BRAKES CAUGHT ON FIRE…I hope you are listening to this cause seriously…MY. BRAKES….CAUGHT ON FIRE…and for once Grayson failed, he wasn’t Mr. Fix-it like, he just sat there laughing. Anyways. We’re all fine. There’s a truck auction in an hour somewhere up here…Maybe I could go…cause my brakes. CAUGHT ON FIRE. Seriously. Yup.  Uhhh…And with that news,  have a good day.

Talk to you later!

By the end of the message, I’m laughing so hard I am on the floor. I know, I know, the transcript does not convey hilarity whatsoever but Travis’ tone of voice is right on the edge of laughter and its infectious. I finally find the phone and return his call.

“So I hear your brakes caught on fire,” I say when he picks up.

He laughs. “Yup. Grayson just stood there laughing. I told him you know, you could at least pee on them or something.”

I start laughing.

“Instead he threw the last of our coffee on them…That was the crappiest part about the whole thing. That was good french vanilla coffee! I mean it wasn’t a big flame or anything.”

I had envisioned a small fire, you know, the type that happens when you cook steak on the grill and all the fat drips off and the fire wooshes up suddenly but just as quickly disappears.

“Yeah. That’s good,” I say.

“It was only like four inches or something.”

“Oh. That’s pathetic! That doesn’t even count!”

He laughs.

“But how did your brakes catch on fire?” I ask when I can finally stop laughing.

“The truck was acting funny. I pulled over two times before. I checked the rims on the trailer and the truck but everything seemed fine. I thought I had a flat. Nope! Then the next time I pulled over they caught on fire. It’s like they just locked up or something. So then we just slept in the car for like 4 hours. It sucked. We were like right outside of Girdwood and had no cell service. So we  just like let everything cool for awhile woke up at about 5:30 and started driving again.”

“And then they were fine?” I asked, skeptical.

“Yeah.”

“Weird.”

“It was an adventure. You would have liked it.”

I laughed. I probably would have. I have weird sense of “fun.”

“Anyways, I thought you should write about it, you know, cause well, my brakes caught fire and we had this adventure and stuff,” Travis says. He is trying not to sound too delighted.

“Ok,” I laugh.

“Hey honey, guess what?”

“What?”

“I can’t wait to go run the team!” Then, a long pause, “Also,” his tone of voice changes, trying to sound really sorry. ” you have to go do fish.”

Great. I think. “I guess I’m going to have an adventurous day.”

Change is in the Air

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It’s cold in the mornings. Travis wakes before the sun is done coming up, when its rays start splintering through our windows scratching at our eyes. “Get up! Get up!” The sun is saying. Travis pokes me a couple of times, realizes I am quite content to stay in bed, and kisses me goodbye. I sleep another hour; he heads outside.

There is the quiet barking at first. One dog here and there. Not the whole lot of them barking, just a few. It’s always just the excitable dogs at first who want Travis’ attention, his love that bark first. Then it invariably gets louder. Maybe he is throwing them a fish or shows a harness, it varies. No two things twice in a row. We aren’t organized enough for that.

It’s been a long, tough, summer for us all. We are young and filled our plates with too much stuff. Our eyes were bigger than our stomachs. We had a blast doing tours but there were so many new components to it this year — employees, managing a glacier camp, and a huge learning curve…Now we reveal in the quietness of our days, the way you sit on the couch after Thanksgiving Day Dinner and watch football. That’s how we are passing the days now, digesting everything we’ve accomplished, waiting until we feel less full.

When I finally leave the comfort of my bed at 8:15, the team is already gone and the lot is already quiet again. Sometimes, they howl — the dogs who are left behind — and sometimes I feel like joining them. I hate staying home. Still, there is something that feels so intrusive about interrupting Travis’ early morning routine by tagging along, like watching a magician practice his tricks before the show. Instead, I try to figure out where to start my day.

We have lived in our home on Exit Glacier Road for almost two years. Yesterday, I hung our first picture up. It was strangely gratifying. I will work on the house for a few hours and try to do the things your supposed to do when you move in that we never did because we started a business instead. And then, as if one wasn’t enough, we said hey! lets take on another one! So now, finally, a quiet lull, and we are moving in; painting walls and tearing walls down, adding furniture and cabinets, fleshing out our skeleton home. We are putting our roots down. We’re here to stay. This is not just a house; it’s our home. And we need it to feel that way.

Eventually, I get sick of working — wrapping up business paperwork and organizing our kitchen. We have 17 cans of kidney beans in our closet, in case you wanted to know. (Don’t worry, we have even more cans of diced tomatoes and chicken broth.) Travis comes back somewhere in the middle of all this and begins hooking up another team to head out on another. I put by boots on and go out.

“Get on,” he says. The team is already all hooked up.

“Ok.” I clamber up the four wheeler.

“You ready?” He asks.

“Always,” I say.

He grins and calls the dogs up. And just like that, we’re off on another adventure…

Delivering Santa &Training Update

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This Entry Appeared in the December 12, 2012 Edition of the Seward Journal

Mother Nature is such a tease. For the past two months we have had bitterly cold weather without the slightest hint of snow. We are not alone in our search for it. Mushers all over are collectively asking, “Where is the snow?” To make matters worse, until the snow arrives, our trails in town are exceedingly limited. The long runs needed at this time simply cannot be done in Seward. We’ve been forced to do a lot of travelling.

Travis has now spent more time in Knik this November than he has here in town. He’s stayed with mushing friends and has enjoyed the long uninterrupted runs he’s been able to put on the dogs.

Photo Courtesy of Barb Redington
The dogs to impress us. We often compare our team to a freight train; they start their runs slow and gradually they gain momentum. At times they seem invincible, roaring up steep hills with a casual elegance that makes us wonder if they are really even working. We suppose they must be, but they simply make it look easy. They often end runs stronger and more excited than when they began. These are things we love to see. Just last week the dogs covered about three hundred miles.

On Thursday, we came home and participated in the Tree Lighting Ceremony at the Sea Life Center by delivering Santa with the dog team. We used our four-wheeler because there wasn’t enough snow. The dogs didn’t mind though, we’ve been training on the four-wheeler for almost three months now.  We have to admit that we were a bit nervous though: our dogs have never run in crowds or in parking lots so we were putting them to the test. 

We truly were impressed with our lead dogs, Tamere and Boston, who drove the team through the crowd as if they had been doing their entire lives.  It was magical giving back to a community who has been so supportive and to see our dogs take right to it. Travis steered them around the parking lot as if that is where they had been running their entire lives. It was awesome. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

If anyone has pictures or videos from Thursday night we would love to see them. You can either post them to our facebookpage: www.facebook.com/turningheadskennel or email them to us at info@turningheadskennel.com

Sled Dogs & Fall Training

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We’ve received a lot of questions recently regarding fall training: what is it, how do we do it, and why. Well, Fall Training is an integral part of what we do  here at Turning Heads Kennel. During fall training, the dogs transition from doing light running during our summer tours to building up muscles and conditioning themselves in preparation for the longer runs required for racing 200 & 300 mile events as well as the Iditarod. So without further adieu, here is our Fall Training 101 Q&A.

sled dogs training in the fallHow do you train dogs in the fall?

In the fall, we train dogs on an ATV. Generally, we hook up between 10-16 sled dogs. We enjoy training on the ATV: we have loads of control and besides being just a vehicle to train the dogs with, the ATV can actually act as a training mechanism. We can put the ATV into gear. When we put the ATV into first gear, the dogs have to work against the engine of the machine making for a tougher pull. It also slows the dogs down. Generally, we don’t run the dogs in first gear a whole lot. It’s bad for the machines and we believe that they don’t need to be working quite that hard. More often than not we’re in 3rd or 4th gear or in neutral, but it’s a fine balance. We like our dogs to run at a steady trot. Generallly, in 3rd or 4th gear to keep the dogs from going to fast light braking may need to be applied.

The benefit of running the ATV in gear is you can use the gas of the machine as positive reinforcement if you are working with new leaders. For example, you come to a 3 way intersection and you say “Gee” (the command to go right) if the dog begins to go right, you can give the machine a little gas and the dog a “good dog!” reaffirming that the dog made a good decision. If the dog however went to the left, you apply the brake of the machine. As soon as the lead dog begins to look toward the right/gives an inclination that he thinks going to the right is a good idea, you give a little gas. In that way, all we are doing is taking the dogs own desire to run and go forward, and channeling it. Running becomes the positive reinforcement, stopping the negative.

What are the benefits of fall training?

The greatest benefit of fall training is the control using an ATV gives you for training sled dogs. You can set the pace of the team. We like to use fall training as the time to teach our dogs to travel. We want them to learn that trotting is the most efficient way for them to move down the trail and that we want them trotting from the beginning of a run.

What are your trails like during the fall?

Unfortunately, here in Seward we are severely limited by the number of trails we have. The recent flood destroyed most of our trails and we are currently running a small section of dirt road by our house and the trails we use for our summer dog sled ride.

You run sled dogs on dirt roads?

Yes. Dirt roads are great to run on. We’d obviously prefer trails. Dirt or silt is ideal — it doesn’t hurt the dogs feet and they can run for quite awhile on it without wearing their pads down, but we are limited by what is available to us.

Do you have to watch out for cars or people?

Unfortunately there are many hazards associated with running our dogs on dirt roads, traffic being one of them. Fortunately, we don’t have to worry about our dogs. They have learned that they are supposed to run on the right side of the road, even when taking corners — something hard for them to do as they generally like to cut the corners. We don’t worry about our dogs passing vehicles or that sort of thing,they are very accustomed to it. What we do worry about is inattentive drivers or impaired drivers, but that’s something everyone worries about. We run a lot at night, when it’s cooler. It also makes it easier to see cars coming.

We actually pass lots of bikers, walkers, and other dogs. They are never an issue. The biggest problem we have is rabbits. We have a few lead dogs who enjoy chasing them and for whatever reason our neighborhood is plagued by an overabundance of them.

How far do you run your sled dogs in the fall?

You have to strike a fine balance in the fall between running enough and not running too much. The main concern about running this time of year is the dogs’ feet. Running on the dirt roads tears them up. We want to be conditioning the dogs but we don’t want to hurt their feet either. Generally, we find a balance that works. Once the snow comes, we don’t worry. Even 2  inches would protect the dogs feet sufficiently; we would still train on the ATV as that’s not enough to safely stop a dog team on a sled. That’s sort of where we are at right now, waiting for the snow so we can run a little further.

Is there any way to protect the sled dogs’ feet?

Yes. We use dog booties. Sort of like little socks for their feet. Unfortunately, they wear through very quickly in the fall time and it isn’t the most cost-effective means for training. Generally, we put a fleece bootie on to cushion the dogs pad and then put another “normal” bootie over top.

 

If you have any more questions about fall training please email us at Info@TurningHeadsKennel.com Next week we will do a Q&A with Travis about his Iditarod Training. Please email any questions you’d like answered then!

Changing Weather

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It’s been cold out. When you walk outside in the morning the cold air hits you like a slap in the face. It’s a great way to wake up. We’ve been slowly building the mileage up on the dogs. They’re back to doing 20 mile runs again. You can tell they’re happy to be running further but our lack of trails means we are simply doing more and more loops of the same. We tried venturing out onto some of our old training trails early this week only to discover how badly they’d been hit. The soft, small gravel that once graced these paths was swept away and replaced by large rocks that are not good for dog feet or dog wrists.

So, with that, we decided to pack the dogs up and head twenty minutes down the road to another set trails. Unfortunately, when we got there, we discovered the same thing: wash out. It was a little demoralizing to say the least. On the drive home, the clutch on our truck went out. It seems like its just been one misadventure after another or as they say: when it rains, it pours. While we’ve seen our fair share of rain, I’m happy to report that we’ve had beautiful, glorious sun shine for almost two weeks now. The cold is good for that.

Turning Heads Kennel travels down Old Exit Glacier Road as a part of Fall Training

The winds have been picking up slowly too. We wake to snow covered peaks then watch, slowly, as the snow gets blown from the mountain tops. The dogs are happy in their houses, safe out of the wind, their own howls muffled by mother natures’. When we’ve run the dogs, we’ve been tremendously impressed by the cadence and rhythm of the team. They move with grace, style, and ease. We’re happy at their progress, not only in terms of miles covered but also in how they’ve become their own unit. They are a team.

Watching their gate, the subtle movements of their legs and hips and shoulders all in unison, it’s easy to get lost in the moment. On a dog team is a very peaceful place. As we pass the trees with their shriveled leaves, it’s hard not to think of all that’s happened this last year. Fall has always seemed to be a natural time for reflection for me. The stark change between summer and winter begins settling in, and it’s impossible not to reflect on all that’s happened, as you see the myriad changes unfold before your eyes.

Last October was such a pivotal month. Humbling, really. It’s hard to forget the things that bring you to your knees. The dogs who made you, who changed you, and who inevitably had to  leave you. It’s impossible to forget the dogs who got you to where you are today, so we’ve been thinking a lot lately about both Hatchet and Chena who passed away almost a year ago. Even though we are in a completely new home and have a completely new dog lot, it’s still strange not seeing them here. They would have loved calling this place home. I don’t think the pain of losing someone whether it be a person or pet, ever truly goes away,  but I do think that time can wash over it, dulling it a little. We’ve found new things to pour our hearts into: new dogs to love on and who loves us,  but there are always little reminders —  like the pictures we print and display or the paw print you so desperately cling to. I like to think that each dog changes us, whether you have one dog or forty of them, and when you lose that dog a part of you changes

We’ve come so far since last year. It’s hard not to be proud of our dogs or ourselves. We moved.  I started my qualifiers for Iditarod and Travis finished his. We bought a house. We started a business. We reclaimed our back yard. We built a dog yard. Travis signed up for Iditarod. We built a gift shop. We built a garden. We did many, many dog tours over the summer. We built a bunch of brand new dog houses and then painted them whacky, fun colors. We had 3 (thankfully small!) litters of wonderful puppies. We flooded. With help, we built a new dog yard. We made new friends. We are rebuilding our basement. We are rebuilding our giftshop. We signed up for several dog races. We went to a tourism conference. We are conquering the obstacles that are in front of us. We are working hard. We are going places.