Second Chance League

Jenny has been on several runs now and is such a smooth mover! We still wrestle a little during harnessing, but she's all business when I lead her to the line. What an impressive little dog she is! On our first ten mile run, I stopped a few times to give the dogs little "breathers". I simply walk up the gangline, giving each dog a loving, then work my way back to the atv doing the same. As I came up behind Jenny (she was on the right of the line, I was on the left with a dog in between she and I), Jenny didn't cringe to the ground! In fact, she allowed me to pet her, which I did briefly, then moved on. I didn't want to push the limits and have her pancaking, so I kept it short and sweet...but this is just a great thing! I did notice that when I come up to her from the front, she gets scared...but when I come up from behind, she does much better (though far from comfortable). These are good signs and they are giving me more insight into Jenny's fears. I'm still hesitant to put her up front, as we do tend to run into many teams on the trails...though I'm thinking that it just might help her a little more with her confidence. Perhaps once the trails aren't as icy, I'll run Jen-Jen up front with Dutchess and see how they do together. I'm looking at Jen for my Gin Gin 120 team.

Munchkin just had her dew claws removed by Dr. Jayne last weekend. She is doing quite well, though on her first 10 miler, she necklined for the last 100 feet into the yard. The dogs are trained to pick up with the command "Let's go home", and I think Munchkin wasn't wanting to lope that last bit home. She finished yesterdays run looking strong, though Manny took it easy on her due to the dew claw procedure. She's a hard puller who lays it on the line the whole run. She's a good little dog. I need to put her up front to see how she'll do with the main team behind her.

We've been training for a month now, and the dogs are doing well. We've been running Jenny in the team to allow her to get comfortable running with our dogs and us. She's still painfully shy, but what an incredible sled dog!! Jenny has one of the smoothest gates I've ever seen and really lays into the line each and every time. Not once has she slackened off and she seems to do well just about anywhere that we put her. We're slowly moving her up to the front of the team and will be putting her in lead soon, to see how she'll do. I'm moving very slowly with her, as I don't want to do anything that might set her back. She still runs to the end of her chain, though she doesn't hide in her house much at all anymore. Additionally, though harnessing is a bit of a "dance" with her, it seems to be getting better. I did discover that she has an aversion to having her shoulders touched. I've been massaging her and just touching her all over each time I harness/unharness. Jenny still freezes at this point, but I noticed that she literally trembles when I touch her shoulders. I've checked her all over for any signs of pain, which turned up nothing. So, I'm just going to keep working with her, handling her and running her with the team. LOADS of patience are just what she needs. I'm thinking that she will always be a shyer dog, though I'm hoping to get her out of being as painfully shy as she is. And we are making break-throughs with her. Just the other day, I was putting her food in her bowl. While I did this, Jenny came up behind me and sniffed my leg. I was so excited to see her reach out to me, even in this small way, as it shows there is hope for her! So, we'll just keep working with her and see how things go. As for Munchkin, she is still doing great for us. Another hard working, steady dog. We've been working her up through the team, as well and will be putting her in lead in the weeks to come. She slimmed down slightly, but is still a bit on the "pudgy" side. I'm beginning to think that she's going to always be one of those "rounder" bodied dogs. She's having no trouble keeping pace and going the distance with the rest of our hounds, so I'm confident that she's going to be great.