Friday, February 22, 2008
Gosh. It has been a long time since I posted anything!
The winter has been pretty odd. First, not much snow and we did nothing but a lot of skijoring at the North Star Golf course that had just enough snow to cover the cart paths to make for some excellent skijoring early in the season. When we finally got enough snow it then turned colder for 2 weeks and I got sick and ended up missing 2 weeks of work.
As of today we have had 4 days of above freezing temperatures and since my dogs just fold in the heat we haven't been running them. BUT...we will get them out tomorrow as it is supposed to cool down so another skijor day will be added to the dogs lives.
The shelter has been very depressing lately with many dogs coming in. And a lot of the outside dogs really aren't even sled dogs!! We have been running them regularly and have found several adoptive homes and pulled several dogs into SCL in the last month.
All of our dogs are doing great. Getting older and that is hard to watch. Several more dogs retired this year but the SCL dogs that we have are still running great as they are mostly younger. Chance continues to be Don's mainstay leader on his 3 dog skijor team with Daikon as the other leader and Casper (shelter dog adopted 7 years ago) in the wheel position.
Misty and Blackberry are in my 3 dog team with Jazz an 11 year old rounding out this group. Blackberry is a nice little leader and is very fast. Misty has a thick white coat and she gets overheated if it is too warm but as long as it is nice and cold she does great and runs fast.
Chiclet (SCL) never has taken to being a sled dog. She and Kiche (SCL) are always loose in a freedom pen now (with 2-3 other dogs). Kiche has run a few times in a team but prefers not to. She has very short legs and what I think is some pretty bad eyesight. She is a funny little dog. Barks a lot but when loose will follow us around the yard. She is more accepting of pets and comes to us when we need to chain her back up at feeding time. She likes being a part of the pack and loves playing with Shaman (shelter dog) and Ivy (shelter dog).
Raja (shelter dog) is still quite thin but that dogs loves to go. She is always in a team with Don's dog Izzi and my dog Loon. She is all business when working and would never think of bothering another dog but at home when she is loose she doesn't like other dogs to approach her. She is never chained up and loves living in the heated dog barn all the time.
Pippi (my first shelter dog) is retired. She has some back issues and I figure she is around 9 or 10 years old. But she is one of the best dogs to take on long loose walks as she never runs off.
Robin and Loon continue to be the main leaders for all the shelter teams. Robin will be 12 this spring and still loves to go and is a great command leader. Loon is 8 and she is a great little leader too and they are both such nice dogs that it is fun to have them change out their lead when we are running shelter dogs. They are never aggressive and take everything in stride even though they meet and run with many different dogs each week. What a pair.
Happy trails.
The winter has been pretty odd. First, not much snow and we did nothing but a lot of skijoring at the North Star Golf course that had just enough snow to cover the cart paths to make for some excellent skijoring early in the season. When we finally got enough snow it then turned colder for 2 weeks and I got sick and ended up missing 2 weeks of work.
As of today we have had 4 days of above freezing temperatures and since my dogs just fold in the heat we haven't been running them. BUT...we will get them out tomorrow as it is supposed to cool down so another skijor day will be added to the dogs lives.
The shelter has been very depressing lately with many dogs coming in. And a lot of the outside dogs really aren't even sled dogs!! We have been running them regularly and have found several adoptive homes and pulled several dogs into SCL in the last month.
All of our dogs are doing great. Getting older and that is hard to watch. Several more dogs retired this year but the SCL dogs that we have are still running great as they are mostly younger. Chance continues to be Don's mainstay leader on his 3 dog skijor team with Daikon as the other leader and Casper (shelter dog adopted 7 years ago) in the wheel position.
Misty and Blackberry are in my 3 dog team with Jazz an 11 year old rounding out this group. Blackberry is a nice little leader and is very fast. Misty has a thick white coat and she gets overheated if it is too warm but as long as it is nice and cold she does great and runs fast.
Chiclet (SCL) never has taken to being a sled dog. She and Kiche (SCL) are always loose in a freedom pen now (with 2-3 other dogs). Kiche has run a few times in a team but prefers not to. She has very short legs and what I think is some pretty bad eyesight. She is a funny little dog. Barks a lot but when loose will follow us around the yard. She is more accepting of pets and comes to us when we need to chain her back up at feeding time. She likes being a part of the pack and loves playing with Shaman (shelter dog) and Ivy (shelter dog).
Raja (shelter dog) is still quite thin but that dogs loves to go. She is always in a team with Don's dog Izzi and my dog Loon. She is all business when working and would never think of bothering another dog but at home when she is loose she doesn't like other dogs to approach her. She is never chained up and loves living in the heated dog barn all the time.
Pippi (my first shelter dog) is retired. She has some back issues and I figure she is around 9 or 10 years old. But she is one of the best dogs to take on long loose walks as she never runs off.
Robin and Loon continue to be the main leaders for all the shelter teams. Robin will be 12 this spring and still loves to go and is a great command leader. Loon is 8 and she is a great little leader too and they are both such nice dogs that it is fun to have them change out their lead when we are running shelter dogs. They are never aggressive and take everything in stride even though they meet and run with many different dogs each week. What a pair.
Happy trails.
