Activities at home

  While we have been back home we have been busy. Ben managed to fall while snowboarding and has a green stick fracture on his collar bone. This has put him out of the action for awhile. We sure miss his help around here.

 Rachel has been harness breaking puppies. Mom and Dad help out to make sure the pups behave properly and to help Rachel to learn how to harness break the pups. It isn't hard to do but there are some things that we have always done that I would like to see Ben and Rachel learn as well. I think Rachel and Ben know pretty much how to harness break the pups but what you do early in life with them seems to stick for the rest of their lives. Doing it right the first time is pretty important for future runs. This litter of pups just took off running. No problems with running forward and pulling hard. One of the pups is so excited it bites the one beside it. Rachel had to stop and correct the dog for biting it's running mate. This happens often but you don't want to let it continue until puppies are fighting one another.  They are the best litter of pups we have had for a long time. These pups should have as many runs as possible on them before the snow is gone. This way it makes it so much easier next racing season to run them. The pups will already know how to behave. This makes the next season so much easier with the pups.

   Last years yearlings really came into their own this year. We have super dogs out of that litter. It looks good for the next four years. Raising the cash to keep racing is the problem now. 

  Rachel Ben and Leanne have been keeping the race dog in good shape as well. The family and kennel had a super season.  We will do what ever we can to get ready for next year.

  talk to you all later.

Fairbanks Jr. North American Championship. Rachel Kinvig 1st Place 4-Dog

Junior Yukon mushers hit the podium in Fairbanks

Thursday March 12, 2009
By Tom Patrick
Submitted Photo/Yukon News

Eric Engman/Fairbanks News-Miner… Rachel Kinvig drives her team out of the starting chute during the four-dog class on day one of the 2009 Junior North American sled dog races on March 6 at the Jeff Studdert Racegrounds in Fairbanks.

Three weeks ago, Ben Kinvig took gold and his sister Rachel took fifth in their respective fields at the Junior World Championship Sled Dog Race in Anchorage, Alaska.
Last weekend they both made the podium.
Racing in the Junior North American Championships in Fairbanks, Alaska, Rachel, 12, finished first in the four-dog event while Ben, 15, took third in the six-dog competition.
“I had a much better race (than in the World Championships),” said Rachel.
Anchorage’s race last month took mushers through an urban setting that caused both Rachel and Ben complications, with dogs being distracted by spectators. Rachel also encountered setbacks with her dogs hesitating to cross bridges or enter tunnels.
“My dogs didn’t stop (this time),” said Rachel.
In the days leading up to the Championships, Fairbanks had about 20 centimetres of fresh snow dumped on the trails, causing difficulties for both Ben and Rachel.
“Going out of the start chute it looked like a Ski-Doo trail - there were Ski-Doo trails all around the field,” said Rachel. “I didn’t really know where I was going cause the trail didn’t look like a trail. But my dogs took me the right way.”
“It made the trail a lot deeper and punchier and it’s a lot tougher for them to run fast in it,” said Ben. “So the first day was pretty slow going.”
Deep snow continued to be an issue the second day when one of Ben’s dogs went off the trail and sunk deep into the white stuff.
“One of my dogs fell into the deep snow at the side of the trail and all my dogs ended up getting tangled up,” said Ben. “But I was able to untangle them pretty quickly and get going again.
“The last day I had a pretty clean run and everything went well.”
However, Mother Nature’s influence was not limited to weather. Ben was forced to use a different dog-team than he did in Anchorage, leaving three of his female dogs at home because they were in season.
“They’ll try to get bred while you’re racing them,” said Ben. “That wouldn’t be good.
“For the dog team I had, I thought it was pretty great.”
Winners in Fairbanks were determined by adding up mushers’ times from the three days of racing. Rachel raced 7.2-kilometres the first and second days and 9.5 on the third day. Ben covered 9.5-kilometres the first two days and 12.7 on the final day.
Currently they are undecided whether they will attend, but Ben and Rachel might be competing at another meet in Taylor, BC, called the Taylor Sled Dog Races at the end of the month.
“It’s against adults and they sometimes race that one,” said Darren Kinvig, president of the Junior Association of Mushers in the Yukon and father of Ben and Rachel. “It’s usually held in December, but it was postponed due to lack of snow.”
Then at the start of April they might travel to Tok, Alaska, for the Junior Tok Race of Champions.
Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com

Running Away

Now, now we haven' t really run away, but isn't that a catchy title?? sometimes, we might want to run away too. ..... But the dogs were doing the running yesterday. Ben and Rachel trained 6 miles, 8 dog teams each. It was a slow run, which is what Dad said to do. Ben put Gee Whiz in lead. She is a yearling and running well. Ben said she ran well with Willow. Willow is an awesome dog and her pups will be running the races next year. These "pups" (they are not quite 1, but are still called pups to us)..........anyways, they will be harness broke in the next few weeks with some runs on before the snow is gone.........awwwwwww just when we get going, it is over just like that. The kids are in good training routines and have enjoyed going to races in alaska and seeing all their Alaskan friends. Rachel ran Slick and Overtime in lead and did well too. Ben ran the second team of 8 while rachel prepared the food for the dogs. Right now Rachel is making some popcorn, and we are having a movie night. She also made milkshakes, too bad Dad isn't home to join us, but we think of him all the time. Tomorrow the kids want to down hill ski and train their dogs after skiing........stay tuned for the further adventures of Ben and Rachel.

Wolf Bait

Ben was busy today trying to get the snowmachine going. The one normally used wouldn't go, so he used the smaller Bravo. It did the trick, but Ben says he almost got stuck out there. The groomer was full of snow, so Ben went to lift it and the heavy groomer with snow, landed on his legs. He said it was really difficult to crawl out, but he managed. "I thought I'd be wolf bait if I didn't get out", Ben said with a chuckle.

We had a significant dump of snow last night and while mom went to town for groceries and errands, Rachel and Ben stayed home to look after the dogs and groom the trail. They are hard working kids and did a good job of looking after the place while mom and dad were gone. Their hard work shows at the races. Most kids have their parents to train their teams and do all the trail grooming and looking after the dogs. Ben and Rachel manage to do this themselves. Way to go team!

Back home

We are all back home and the kids are on spring break. This will give them time to do some cleaning and organizing around the dog yard. The dog yard and feed shack need attention. There are some options for the next few weeks. Taylor, Tok. Back home then to Tok again. The Taylor race did not happen during our time in Ft. Nelson. It has been changed to 20/21 of March. The kids will be racing adults for money. I don't think that Leanne is able to go. We might have to miss that race. Then there is the Tok race of champions. Adult races. Leanne has spoke of interest in going to this race. She will race the kids dogs. Then the kids would go to the Junior Tok race of champions in April. The kids would be able to race the same dogs as Leanne on the same course. The dogs may have a big advantage over other dogs by doing this, they will all be familiar with the race track. That would be the end of the racing season.

I want to go to them all of course. After these races it is back to feeding dogs to go no where to race. It is sad how fast the season goes by. Money, health and time are all factors to getting to the races. We will do our best to do as many as possible.

There is many pups to train. We have a litter of seven that need to be harness broke and ran as much as possible before it gets to hot. I think Rachel and Ben are looking forward to this. We are going to remain as active as we can with the dogs this summer. The free running will be very good for the dogs. The only problem is that the kids cannot ride the four wheeler fast enough to keep up to those dogs! We are all looking forward to training all season.

We are in the process of looking for a new food. The food that we started with has gone through the roof. It always does. We have changed so many dog foods for this reason. A new product will come along. People selling the product will be excited to have you use it, prove it then they sell lots of the product. As soon as it becomes popular the price goes up and it becomes too expensive. We have been treated really well with our dog food producer. We will wait until we purchase our next pallet to see what it costs. He has been sponsoring the kids by providing so many bags free a year. We would like a full sponsorship someday. That would make a huge difference to our budget. It would make it possible to race more often. That is the whole point is to get to the races.

Rachel got her report card back and her marks have gotten better! That is good after missing all that school. She can do it on the road. The best thing to do would be to home school so we can stay on the road without coming home so often. That would be great! We shall see what the future brings.

It is winding down and we have pups that are a week old that will need our attention as well. Ben and Rachel look forward to seeing these pups run. If they run like Natty, the mother, then there will be no stopping Rachel and Ben in the future races.

I am away from the kennel until next week so I hope that it will be a little more organized when I get home. For now I will enjoy my trip to Sask.

on the way home

  Hi we are on route home. We stayed the night at Arleigh and Donna Reynolds house last night. We had a good visit and learned more about dogs. Rachel had borrowed Neo, a leader that Arleigh lent her for the race. He also lent me a work mate work bench to make it easier on the back for waxing. They are really nice people. 

  We have stopped in Tok Alaska for a bite to eat and then we will drop the dogs and take off for home. We are still six hours from home. Yesterday we had stopped at the ice sculptures in Fairbanks. Ben, Rachel, Leanne, Deb, Rachel, Morgan, and Baily walked around to look at the ice sculptures. I made a nice bed in the back of the truck and rested until they were done looking. 

   Ben and Rachel sold a dog named Slapshot to the owners that we had bought her from. She was a tiny little dog but a good leader. The Callis family were short on leaders so she bought her back from the Ben and Rachel. Slapshot would not have made it for the limited class teams that Ben and Rachel are running. She has a good home that is for sure. SO we are home soon. Talk to you all later.

The banquet

  The banquet was quick. There was no eight dog teams this year.  All the other classes are dwindling down to hardly any kids. The smaller classes are filling up. The one and two dog classes have more kids than usual but the older and bigger the class the less kids. It was sad to see the starting area with hardly any trucks parked there anymore. It would be sad to lose it all. That is what has happened in Whitehorse Yukon.  I don't know what to do. The sport is very important to us. We don't want it to die off. What to do ? I just don't know. Maybe I can blame it on the down turn of the economy. The price of fuel and dog food has gone up allot in the past few years these may be reasons but not cures for the problems  facing the sport of dog mushing. It is a sport that takes the whole family to participate in racing. I guess not many families want to be together in the way that it takes to run a kennel. What ever the reason the key is to find a way to boost it up again. 

  The meal at the banquet was spagetti. And a cake at the end. Lots of fun and we hope we are able to come back again to race soon. Talk to everyone later.