WOW Rachel wanted to train on Christmas day. SO I said sure. We went down to the track in Anchorage and Rachel ran two teams. There was 4-6 inches of fresh powder down there so we ran a couple of short runs. Leanne and Rachel rode together so Leanne could have a look at the dogs. The dogs looked great and it was well worth our effort to go down there and do that. We do not want to leave the dogs too long without training while travelling. Have to keep the training up. These different trails and runs are good for the dogs also. It gets them on the road and doing something different than what they get at home and this is good.
Unfortunately this season will only see Leanne able to race Rachel's team here. With the different schedule it puts Junior mushing out but we are here to give the dogs needed racing experience. That means someone should race them. This leaves Leanne to do this. Leann is Game to do it so that is what we will do. There is a Junior race that is held on the 2nd of Jan. But we need to be back on the third. Rachel does not want to run this cause it would put her late for school.
I do not want Rachel missing school on the way home on this trip. We have another planned and that is to go down to Grande PRairie to race. This is our goal and that race is Jan. 7-8th. I would rather have Rachel leave school a bit early on Friday the 6th to make this trip to the starting line the morning of the 7th. This will be a great trip for her and I and she will be able to race a great race trail down there in Grande PRairie. We shall see how that goes
Hope all had a good christmas.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Twas the night before Christmas
we made it to Anchorage where they have more snow than I ever imagined. The biggest problem is too much snow. The trails are not groomed yet and some trails are closed for this reason. we will be racing and training here. Not as much as we wanted too as the race we usually do on the 26th is no more. we do have a chance to race and that is the 31st and Jan. 1st but then we must hit the road to get Rachel home back to school. This was easy when she was younger but now she cannot miss any class. It makes it difficult for her and I. it means more night travel and less sleep on the way.
I still am planning a trip to Grande Prairie and will leave after school on the sixth of Jan. That will be a good trip. we are back here in Anchorage for the Junior worlds in Feb. Rachel is the defending champion in that race.
The trip has meant good training for dogs as far as riding in the truck goes it makes it good to be here no matter the amount of actual racing we do.
We will train the dogs a couple days after Christmas and then we will take the kids skiing and get ready for the racing at the end of Dec.
Talk soon to update
MErry christmas and Happy new year ot all.
I still am planning a trip to Grande Prairie and will leave after school on the sixth of Jan. That will be a good trip. we are back here in Anchorage for the Junior worlds in Feb. Rachel is the defending champion in that race.
The trip has meant good training for dogs as far as riding in the truck goes it makes it good to be here no matter the amount of actual racing we do.
We will train the dogs a couple days after Christmas and then we will take the kids skiing and get ready for the racing at the end of Dec.
Talk soon to update
MErry christmas and Happy new year ot all.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
NORTH TO ALASKA
Some new sponsors are now on board. Minconsult is now on-line and we are very happy to have him as a sponsor. Thanks Tim.
Here we are in Alaska. Got here on Tuesday. We are staying in Tok with some good friends. Today we trained dogs on a new training trail. Rachel ran two eight dog teams today and the trail was tough. Wide and boring for the dogs. Surface was sort of soft. Both of Rachel's teams ran good and train again tomorrow. Another pair of six miles. Dogs are ready to race, but no racing here at the moment. We are trying to organize and pick some races but the weather has been really mild West of here toward Anchorage. This is a weather pending trip.
We looked at a race in Grande Prairie Alberta as well. We would get home for Rachel to go to school the third to the 6th, leave after school and get her to the starting line by 9 a.m. on the morning of the 7th. Ya I know what you are thinking but we have done it before and it was not problem to do it. Just need the right drivers to come along to keep us moving south east. There is a great race there that we could not make last year. This year will be much better if we can make it.
So far for Alaska we have races on the 31st of Dec. and the 1st of Jan. So after the races we have to leave and drive home so Rachel could be at school on the 3rd of Jan. Some miles to be covered. This is the problem with races being so far spread out. More miles on the truck than on the dog teams.
Leanne and Rachel also have been very busy making polymer clay Jewelry (neck laces, ear rings luggage tags, nurses name tags and zipper pulls) and selling them to help raise her own money to help pay for some of the expenses. Problem is I hear that it isn't much fun anymore because they have so many orders to fill. LOL. very nice stuff and it sure helps out to get us to the races. If anyone is interested they are welcome to drop Leanne a line.
Leelalily@hotmail.com Give her your requests for orders or to see pictures. Talk to everyone again soon. Tomorrow we train dogs and then start heading for Anchorage. We will stay Christmas there with some good friends. Hit some races and then head home then south.
Here we are in Alaska. Got here on Tuesday. We are staying in Tok with some good friends. Today we trained dogs on a new training trail. Rachel ran two eight dog teams today and the trail was tough. Wide and boring for the dogs. Surface was sort of soft. Both of Rachel's teams ran good and train again tomorrow. Another pair of six miles. Dogs are ready to race, but no racing here at the moment. We are trying to organize and pick some races but the weather has been really mild West of here toward Anchorage. This is a weather pending trip.
We looked at a race in Grande Prairie Alberta as well. We would get home for Rachel to go to school the third to the 6th, leave after school and get her to the starting line by 9 a.m. on the morning of the 7th. Ya I know what you are thinking but we have done it before and it was not problem to do it. Just need the right drivers to come along to keep us moving south east. There is a great race there that we could not make last year. This year will be much better if we can make it.
So far for Alaska we have races on the 31st of Dec. and the 1st of Jan. So after the races we have to leave and drive home so Rachel could be at school on the 3rd of Jan. Some miles to be covered. This is the problem with races being so far spread out. More miles on the truck than on the dog teams.
Leanne and Rachel also have been very busy making polymer clay Jewelry (neck laces, ear rings luggage tags, nurses name tags and zipper pulls) and selling them to help raise her own money to help pay for some of the expenses. Problem is I hear that it isn't much fun anymore because they have so many orders to fill. LOL. very nice stuff and it sure helps out to get us to the races. If anyone is interested they are welcome to drop Leanne a line.
Leelalily@hotmail.com Give her your requests for orders or to see pictures. Talk to everyone again soon. Tomorrow we train dogs and then start heading for Anchorage. We will stay Christmas there with some good friends. Hit some races and then head home then south.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Back to the training. Welcome to winter of 2011/2012
Well Rachel was hard at it all summer long. Rachel and the dogs ran together all summer. Did not hook up dogs in harness. Rather Rachel ran the dogs in our kennel loose. The dogs all follow her on the four wheeler. This means that Rachel can take them for a six mile run if she wants too. That is what she did. Ran them up to six miles. Rachel ran them lots. Too bad we never kept a journal on the miles that the dogs accumulated during their summer runs.
In all my time around dogs and dog training I never have scene dogs in such great shape. We free ran before. I have scene dogs in as good shape at the beginning of the season but never like this. We fed meat all year as well. Rachel also ran them lots of 4 and 6 mile runs. These dogs look better now than they did at the end of last season.
My philosophy with free running is exercise the same muscle you would use for sprint/speed mushing. There is only one way to do this Okay maybe two ways. One is to swim them in water. the other way is to let them run. But only free as you cannot be hooking up the dogs to a four wheeler and have them pull hard in the heat of summer. Sure way to teach dogs to slow down. That is all it does is make them work hard enough to get hot.
When you look at the dogs they look right. the form is right, the muscle development looks right. They run nice at the end of summer and after they get put back into harness. Rachel did her second run on her sled. When she went on that run I told her to let the dogs run just easy. Then find out how fast she is going. This is to find the basic pace of the team. You need to know this to be able to help train the team. The basic pace was right around 19 mph. That is what her teams basic pace was. Normally this speed would be 16.5-18 mph. I could not believe it. This is great news but we need to keep this speed up in the team. I am very happy to have learned this.
We are now getting ready to leave again to go to Alaska. We will race as many races as we can and Leanne will also race Rachel's dog team to keep it sharp while there is opportunity to do so.
I am not home at the moment so I keep in touch via email or text. Rachel trained today but was not sure about the trail. It was snowing and blowing. She went out and ran two teams in this kind of condition and did well. Thanks for your help Matt.
We need to also thank all the sponsors that came on board again.
Thanks to Ernie and Kim Doble. They are the owners of Supreme Diesel in Sexsmith alberta. They are really great people and enjoy visiting when I can.
Also thanks to Nigel stubbins at Paint en place. Nigel has to be the longest participating sponsor we have ever had. He has been with us for years to help us get to races Thanks again to Nigel for another year of sponsoring.
We hope to get Arctic backhoe. and a few more businesses in town.
We are excited to be back on the road . The dog truck is just about on the truck. IT won' t be long and it will be ready to go again for another year. So exciting to get the dogs on the road again. Rachel will be training primarily for the Arctic Winter games.
I will try and keep up to what is going on this season. Last year I had website and blog problems. Until next time
DK
In all my time around dogs and dog training I never have scene dogs in such great shape. We free ran before. I have scene dogs in as good shape at the beginning of the season but never like this. We fed meat all year as well. Rachel also ran them lots of 4 and 6 mile runs. These dogs look better now than they did at the end of last season.
My philosophy with free running is exercise the same muscle you would use for sprint/speed mushing. There is only one way to do this Okay maybe two ways. One is to swim them in water. the other way is to let them run. But only free as you cannot be hooking up the dogs to a four wheeler and have them pull hard in the heat of summer. Sure way to teach dogs to slow down. That is all it does is make them work hard enough to get hot.
When you look at the dogs they look right. the form is right, the muscle development looks right. They run nice at the end of summer and after they get put back into harness. Rachel did her second run on her sled. When she went on that run I told her to let the dogs run just easy. Then find out how fast she is going. This is to find the basic pace of the team. You need to know this to be able to help train the team. The basic pace was right around 19 mph. That is what her teams basic pace was. Normally this speed would be 16.5-18 mph. I could not believe it. This is great news but we need to keep this speed up in the team. I am very happy to have learned this.
We are now getting ready to leave again to go to Alaska. We will race as many races as we can and Leanne will also race Rachel's dog team to keep it sharp while there is opportunity to do so.
I am not home at the moment so I keep in touch via email or text. Rachel trained today but was not sure about the trail. It was snowing and blowing. She went out and ran two teams in this kind of condition and did well. Thanks for your help Matt.
We need to also thank all the sponsors that came on board again.
Thanks to Ernie and Kim Doble. They are the owners of Supreme Diesel in Sexsmith alberta. They are really great people and enjoy visiting when I can.
Also thanks to Nigel stubbins at Paint en place. Nigel has to be the longest participating sponsor we have ever had. He has been with us for years to help us get to races Thanks again to Nigel for another year of sponsoring.
We hope to get Arctic backhoe. and a few more businesses in town.
We are excited to be back on the road . The dog truck is just about on the truck. IT won' t be long and it will be ready to go again for another year. So exciting to get the dogs on the road again. Rachel will be training primarily for the Arctic Winter games.
I will try and keep up to what is going on this season. Last year I had website and blog problems. Until next time
DK
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