SPONSORS

THANK YOU SUPREME DIESEL FOR SPONSORING RACHEL THIS YEAR! We were so fortunate to meet Ernie and Kim from Supreme Diesel last March after the Arctic Winter Games! Our truck was in need of major motor repairs and Supreme Diesel worked long hours and after closing to get us back on the road. This was no easy task as the sled dogs were on the truck and the mechanics had to work with the doors open so the dogs would not over heat. They even acomodated our feeding schedule for the dogs.

Supreme Diesel did a superb job, very professional, and friendly! Our truck has never run better. We would highly recommend Supreme Diesel to everyone. They are located in Sexsmith Alberta, just outside of Grande Prairie Alberta.

Thank you also to Masterfeeds for providing YUKON GOLD DOG FOOD to our dogs over the years! We have seen excellent results with this food with many Gold Medals!!

Thank you Hans Gatt and Suzie Rogan for Sponsoring Rachel and supporting her team! You are very knowledgeable and your financial support will help her get to the races!

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Kinvig for helping Rachel out financially so she can get to the start line!!

Hello everyone.

Hi. Training has been going great. Dogs are looking good ! Now that they are in their second year of life and training it isn't hard to see the difference in the dog. I think I took that for granted in my own racing years. They are just twice the dog in the second year of training. I told Rachel and Ben that last year and they were very careful with the dogs and how hard they pushed the dogs. Now this year they are jumping the mileage we add to the runs very fast. Last year it just seemed really hard to put miles on the dogs. It is true that when you add miles to young dogs it takes time to do. You really have to add slowly. The dogs could jump up to eight miles easy and look really good doing so.
Never have we had teams of dogs like we have this year. So nice to work with, such happy dogs, really really good temperament and fast like we never ever had. Rachel ran her team of eight males yesterday and slowing them down to under 18 mph was a challenge for Rachel. That is what we want in our dog teams.
We have more sponsors to mention in this blog Grandma and Grandpa Kinvig have helped Rachel again this year. Also Susie Rogan and Hans Gatt have helped Rachel again. So thanks to them and remember this is directly helping Rachel getting to races this season. After all this is what the whole point is. To get her to the races. Thanks so much.
Back out to train. today.

SNOW

Hi everyone. Okay so Now I will say what is expected. It can quit snowing now. LOL. Isn't always the same. We have had snow since the 20th. Has not really stopped. I will guess that it is most likely around 4-6 inches now. That is lots.
The day after Rachel's first run on snow She went out with a 8 dog team of all males. 8 dog team of all females. I am sure she struggled to keep them below 19 mph. The dogs were flying. with the trail in better shape she could run them fast and it didn't hurt anyone. She averaged 18.5-19 mph for a distance of 5 miles. The dogs. look great all smiling, teeth showing and tongues hanging out just loving the speed. So nice to have the snow but the ski-doo has been going none stop to keep the trail in and ready to run on. it doesn't take much snow and it has to be groomed again to keep it packed and runnable. the trail which is a mess in the summer time with all the ruts and dips is now flat. So it is nice and Rachel trains again tonight. It will be a awesome trail again. SHe has to slow down because she is going way to fast this time of year. although her speeds will reach well over twenty mph and average of 16 -18 is fast enough this time of year.
The dog box is just about done and on the truck again. There will be some bolting down and reconnecting wires and hot water lines to do. then it is all ready to roll. I think Rachel was happy to see the box go back on the truck. We are looking forward to another season on the road going to our races. I would have to say it is a very nice group of dogs that are all the same real hard drivers, with good attitudes. Just love hanging out with them, you can tell they just want to go run hard and please Rachel every time they go train. This is the right way to do it. you do not want young dogs that do not want to go run because you gave them a bad experience during their training runs. we are looking forward to the next training run after school today. Until next post. Later.

First run on the sled.

Today Rachel burned up the trail with three runs. She ran two teams of six and then one team of five. The trail has enough snow to just cover the ground that is all. No snow hook used out there. Rachel split up the leaders and did really good with the new pairs. It was a fun day and the dogs absolutely loved the speed today. All dogs had tongues out and had big big smiles as they were running it was awesome to see. They were easily running 17-19 mph. A little fast but what the heck they have been slaving away hooked onto the 6x6 I thought it would be nice to let them have some fun running faster. It was the dogs first five mile. Conditions earlier would not allow to run the five mile loop but now we can. They all looked so much better than last year as yearlings. That one year to have them grow up more makes them work and run so much better. It looks like Rachel has a grown up team of two-three year olds.
It snowed during the day and we will be going out to do the trail tonight. It could snow all night then it will have too much snow to drag at once with the old ski doo. Better to do it more often then it is easier. the trail will look really good tomorrow. More teams to run tomorrow also then mid week as well. We are glad to see the SNOW YA HOO.

schedule conflict

Hi everyone. We have just found our first race conflict of the season. We are not going to be able to make it to Grand Prairie. This sucks as one of our major sponsors are there. Supreme Diesel. Actually they are in Sexsmith about 20 min. outside of Grand Prairie. The conflict is between Alaska and Grand Prairie. The race in Grand Prairie is being held on Jan. 1 and 2. We are already gone to Alaska for races right after Christmas. I think we will leave Christmas Day to get there. Then we have a race there on Jan. 1 and 2. So we cannot do both. This is unfortunate but we cannot control the schedule. I am glad that they are having a race in Grand Prairie and we hope it does good but we need to focus on the Junior races for Rachel and be careful we don't chase the adult races around too much. Grand Prairie is an adult race and Rachel could do very well there. Rachel's race in Alaska is a junior race so this is the area she will race the World Championships in. Best she gets the dogs used to those race trails also.
More news about our schedule as we get the info.

Sponsors.

Hi everyone. We are in the process of getting all our sponsors together for the season. Once we have everyone that will sign up then we can get the sign built here in Whitehorse. The print shop also sponsors Ben and Rachel in the past. They provide the sign and the material to build it.
We will also take the logos and download them onto this site. It is most likely and up load to this site but I am sure we can do it. We can get our pictures loaded?

For the dog lovers out there. I have a older published book but a very good book regardless. It is Called "NO BAD DOGS the woodhouse way" written Barbara Woodhouse. You can find the book at amazon.com. Great book for people just getting into owning and training dogs. Great if you are having trouble of some aspect of training. I think it runs around 12.00 or so. 126 pages.

Trail is in !!!

Well we used the ski doo today for the first time out at Annie lake. To say the trail is in is stretching it a bit.... BUt our first time around we were able to fill in allot of the 6x6 rut. This is very good because the dogs were starting to want to run in the rut side by side. They look terrible when they run this way. It really slows the dogs down as well. If you were to let them go wide open running so close together one of them is bound to get tangled in the web of his neighbors harness. We hope they spread out a bit when they are running.
I am not sure how we are going to train the dogs. I think we have to hook the dogs to the snow machine now. It would be good to have a second snow machine to go ahead so we can make sure there are no collisions with anyone else using the trails. I don't really know if the snowmobile will hold eight dogs or not. I think they should be able to drag this. Not fast but still move it ahead. The 6x6 held them good but there is starting to be too much snow to be using the 6x6. The surface is still very very low on snow. We call this the "Base" A snow hook will not hold a dog team on a trail with not enough snow on it. This makes it hard for Rachel to stop. We want Rachel to stop when ever she feels she should stop. Usually you need 3-5 inches of packed snow to hold 8 dogs safely. When you have a base like this it builds confidence in Rachel. She is going to be a little more nervous out on the trail if she cannot stop and control her dog team.
More snow is needed but I think we can start running them with a ski doo then to the dog sled. End of Dec. Is the start of Rachel's racing season. We need to get some longer runs on her young team to better prepare for the racing in Dec. They won't have much endurance yet this year because of all the short runs they do during the summer months. Playing and short runs keep the dogs in good physical shape and gives them some time to blow off steam but doesn't build endurance. We need to increase the miles and get more snow so we can get on the sled. For now we will do what is safer and gives more control and that is the snowmobile

:0 :)

Good Day

We have more snow!!!!! I don't know if it is enough to set a trail on our training ground. If it is I will find out today when I try with the ski-do. I have explained before, that I use two wood pallets that are fastened together by 2x4's fourteen feet long. I hook it to our ski-do(snow tractor) We pull it very slowly over the snow. IT fills in any low spots in the trail. We pull it after snow falls until the entire trial is level. As level as can be. Sharp dips in the trail are rounded or flat. This also makes the trail set up hard. Once someone wrecks the trail by driving on it I also have a steel drag with a cutting blade this will fill in any gouges out of the trail or tire ruts.
This is one of the biggest difference between sprint and long distance racing and training. Could you imagine only running on a trail like this if you are running a 1000 mile race. No way. Your dogs would not know what to do on a messed up trail like the Quest trail. U should train on trails you will race on. Our kennel will only race on trails that are hard packed and flat! Why? because the people that put on the race make their race trails this way so The kids can race at high speeds. Which is the whole purpose of sprint mushing. IF you trained your sprint dogs on really rough and tough trails they would hurt themselves. The constant training on this type of trail would also slow down their pace. if you asked them to run fast on a perfect hard packed trail after getting use to the rough and slow trail they would also get injured. Their Top speed would be way slower as well, just because they were trained slower on a tougher slower trail. So to race fast you have to train fast. To race long distance you have to train long distance runs.
The beauty of trail making is I can do it because I can only go slow in order to do a good job. This speed make it comfortable enough that it doesn't bother my back. It gets me out and in the bush and really makes a person feel good being out there. We are currently fixing seats. I always am experimenting with seating options so I can be as comfortable as possible.

Lots of snow is not necessary a good thing either. Then you are never finished grooming the trail. Last year we used over 100 gallons of fuel. Not just for grooming purposes but someone also goes ahead of the team when we train the team to make sure there is no trail obstacles for Rachels dog team when she is flying down the trial. We also use a GPS at this time in training. This way I know how fast she has run. Her average speed. Her Top speed. Also I can see where the team slowed down and where it ran the fastest and alter training to suit. It is a very good tool and I enjoy using it to help Rachel with her training.

Here's to getting the tral set and get the sleds out. Ya hooo !!!!!

still no snow

Yesterday (Sun.) trained two teams of eight. Our new 6x6 is a fantastic tool for me. I was not able to ride the four wheeler any more. With this unit you sit side by side while you drive. It has seat belts and a steering wheel to hang onto. I have the ability to ride for short rides in this with out too much punishment to my body.
It makes it easy to talk to Rachel while the dogs are pulling the Ranger (6x6) . I might have gone over this before but I will say it again. This is control. There are two things we do when we are out running dogs. We are conditioning and Training . The training is to teach dogs the proper behavior when they are working. It is pretty simple to teach them but you must have control to stop and go talk to the dog. The simple action of stopping makes it almost embarrassing for the dog that needs a talking to. I have seen in some cases that other dogs will actually get snappy towards the dog that is causing us to stop all the time because of the bad behavior.
When we get out on the sleds later there is always very little snow to start with. It makes it hard for Rachel to stop. She is scared of losing the team which is the worst thing you can do but it does happen. If you are worried about stopping then if a dog is slacking and biting at the dog beside it how can you stop and go up the line and fix a tangle or let a dog know you are not happy. This doesn't mean beating a dog it just means making an example of that dog. Then when you take off again you just say that dogs name as you leave. Like Gee-whiz get up. When the Ranger starts to move forward and that dog naturally starts to pull hard because it has had a good rest then you reward the proper behavior by saying good dog or you can stop and go up the line of dogs and pat the dog and make a big deal out of how good she has done. they learn quick this way. If you have a good relationship with your dogs. look after them well, with bedding, food and love, then these dogs want to please you. It is hard for them to please you if they don't understand what you want so by stopping and either showing your disappointment or pleasure with the dog makes it easy for them to know the difference. With control you soon have a team of dogs that work hard and have consistent behavior in the team.]
The opposite can happen when you cannot stop. If a dog is not pulling hard and decides that it would be fun to bother the dog beside it and you cannot stop this behavior with your voice command then this will continue until U can stop and move up the line and tell the dog no. You are probably untangling the dogs as well. In a sprint race this is absolutely unacceptable. You cannot have one dog fool around this way. If you continue to run the dogs like this with them fooling around they soon think this is what you want them to do? So it is important to stop and let them know you are not happy with them climbing all over the dog beside it and biting at it. Playful or not this cannot be allowed to happen in a team of sprint dogs.
Our runs have proven there are some dogs that enjoy this type of behavior and have learnt that this is a fun thing to do and they do not have to work while in the team. Slowly we have corrected them and now they are working well again in the team.
We have two young dog teams but most of the main training has been done so for the most part they know what to do. We discovered a really good Leader yesterday. He showed signs of it last year. This year he really wants to be in front of the dog team. If you place him in the team right behind the leaders He will grab the line pull the leaders backward and let them go forward and hit the the end of the line. This is a sign of a leader to me. So we put him in lead and he ran awesome, like he was suppose to be there. His name is Rafiki. Now he is a really good leader and that is what we are looking for. We are going to need good leaders that can be in lead to train others beside them. The leaders that are going to train others need to be very strong physically and mentally. We sold allot of our leaders to other young mushers so they could have a good start to building a successful team. This has left us shorter than we calculated. Oh well we will train some new leaders to get by this season.
I hope that this has not been a repeat post in terms of content I felt that it would be worth explaining how some of it works to people that do not know. Since this type of training is relevant to our daily life it also becomes relevant to our blog.

Thanks for visiting talk to you soon.

Nov full speed ahead

What the heck is happening to Nov. Jeez too fast. Way too fast. Our training feels behind but I imagine it has to do with the weather. Dog sled racing takes time to keep the ducks in a row sort of speak. It starts yesterday. It means many many things have to be kept in order to get the results you want down the road or should I say down the trail. This is why when a Month of the year is speeding by you feel like you are behind.
I was away from the kennel for a week or so. I was out for medical reasons. Things were in good order when I returned as Rachel and Leanne are forever busy keeping up with the daily chores. Still not enough snow to be on the sled yet. I think this is the reason we feel behind. the dogs have not run pulling the sled yet. This is really late in the year for not being on sleds. I have heard dog teams racing their first race for the first time pulling the sled. The first races are in December. This has never been the case for us out where we live. We are usually the first team on snow and the last on snow in the area. This was another consideration before we even bought the property was snow and trails.
The dogs are looking really good. They are excited to get in the routing of training and they need more running. The boys are growling and fighting with each other because their energy level is too high. Way to high. They are just too exuberant this early in the season. The behavior can set up some pretty bad habits so we watch it doesn't happen too much.
Rachel just happens to have one team of 8 males and one team of 8 females to train this. Lots of dogs for her but we hope to be able to get other junior musher to participate using some of our dogs. You can almost double the amount of dogs you have to keep to get one super dog team out of it. Racing an 8 dog team keep 16 dogs. 6 dog team keep 12 dogs. you could probably keep smaller amounts of dogs than what I am quoting but this seems to be what is working for us right now.
We are still looking for some more sponsorships and we are sending out letters to prospects. the more we get the more races we can attend. I will be putting the dog box onto the dog truck this week-end. It is time to get ready to haul the dogs from one race to the other or even to take them to a different training trail just for something different.
It was a good training day today with lots of stops so Rachel could discipline/teach young dogs on what is expected of them while they have their work cloths on.(Harness). it is all business and they need to know that. It does not take much time for them to learn it. The harder you pull the faster you get to go !. That is a pretty good reward for a sled dog that love to run. We have some dogs that are grabbing snow and that is a no-n0 in a sprint team. This time of year the speed is slower these dogs love to go fast so when it is slower and they get bored they may start to bite at the snow on the ground. This just breaks up the rhythm of the team so you want to let them know that they need to quit doing that.
Both dog teams did very well today and they pulled hard and went quit fast. Having the 6x6 polaris ranger to have them pull is very nice and very comfortable. The ranger has no problem holding back 8 dogs with the brake applied. It is too heavy for the to take off with. This means if there is a problem there is no problem stopping and holding the dog team. Early in the yr. it can be difficult because there is not enough snow for the snow hooks to hold. SO one advantage to the lack of snow is good leader training and ability to control the team better.
I am glad to be back here and around the family, dogs included.

Today and yesterday has brought warmer weather. I do not remember being this warm in Nov. IT feels different to be this far into the winter and not have that really bone chilling weather. The dogs don't mind and we think it is okay too. Except the snow part of the weather we enjoy it being warmer than other years. We need some snow. I saw the neighbor out with his snow mobile today but I think there still isn't enough snow.
Still isn't enough to control the teams. What I mean by that is you cannot hold them when stopped. It is also harder to slow the team down by using the brakes. This is all control when you are attached to 6-14 dogs that act like your house dog on a leash when they want to chase after a cat. It is important that Rachel feels secure when running the dogs. There is a way to hold the dog team and that is by putting a snow hook around a tree. The snow hook has two hook shapes turning off like a sheep's horns. Three inch diameter or larger tree would be good size to hook to. When you put the snow hook around a tree one curl of the snow hook itself sits on the ground at the base of the tree or as low as possible. The other curl of the snow hook goes around the tree itself..one side of the hood sits around the tree and the other on the top of the ground this way it holds itself up right. IF you put both curls from the hook around the tree it would just roll off if the line did not stay tight. The line is attached directly to the team of dogs. So it is your snow hook attached to how ever many dogs you are hooked up to. Sometime when the teams are really large we use double snow hooks to hold the team of dogs. When the snow is deep enough and packed well you can stick the hook right into the snow. That is what they are meant for. if you do not have the snow yet but are still tempted to train with the sled you have to find a tree when you need to stop. This can be a problem. When you commit to a tree you have the snow hook in one hand ready to set on a tree. You also have the brake on the sled which does not work well on low snow conditions either. When you make the move to set the hook around the tree you have 4-14 dogs tied to the snow hook you are holding in your hand. That is like taking 4-14 dogs for a walk. the only difference is these dogs want to and are trained to run like hell and not to stop . stopping the team then becomes a bit of a chore for Rachel. This makes it bad if Rachel has to stop the team for a tangle or whatever reason. For now we will stick to having the dogs pull us in the six wheel ranger. Then we will still have some control.

The dogs themselves look really good and are conditioning easy. Rachel spent allot of time with them letting them loose to run during the summer this has kept them in very good shape. It is nice to see the dogs in such good shape early on in the season. The plan is to run two team s of eight dogs tomorrow. Talk to you later.

still no snow

Well we are still waiting for snow. It looked good for a while but then the warm weather came again and we are losing what we had. I think this is the latest we ever waited for snow. Usually we are on sleds on snow by the end of October. This season has started out totally different. Makes one wonder about the rest of the season? Most people are in the same situation as us.
We are still dealing with some local sponsors and getting our letters out to the appropriate people. Once we know who is on board we can make a race plan for the year. So far we plan to be in Alaska for the kids Christmas holidays. We usually stay home for Christmas day and leave on boxing day for Alaska. This gives us a chance to race the dogs in the junior events there. Also Leanne will race the dogs where ever possible in any adult events while we are there. This way we can get as much experience for the dog teams as possible. When we return home to the Yukon there will be some racing south of us. We would like to race Grande Prairie. Then back to Alaska for spring break and more racing. We would like to go to the Junior North American Championships in Fairbanks. then off to the Junior World Championships in Anchorage. We will come back home again to the Yukon and then back to Alaska for the Tok race of Championships. If we can get to 6-8 races or more this season it should be enough to make the season worth while and have the dogs more prepared for the 2012 Arctic Winter Games here in Whitehorse.
It is a busy season of driving and staying with friends and in hotels. We should not take it for granted though because a time will come when this lifestyle of ours comes to a close. It has been good for the kids and I think they have benefited from this sport in many ways. Who knows maybe they may start up again them selves later in life. Some grand children racing someday?????