Well, we got our first snow. Dang, I wasn't really ready. There is much to be done around here and now everything is either frozen or slushy and soggy. But, oh well, that's life and the weather.
James left Regime here for a few days so I could "practice" with my race team. (I'm racing Scooby and Regime in the dryland event on Saturday at Chena Lakes.) But, um, it was so sloppy with the fresh snow, that I didn't have it in me to train. James came out today to pick up his dog, and he was working on constructing insulated dog houses and helping out with other chores around here, and I decided that sloppy or not, I should train the dogs one last time before race day.
So I put on my purple rainsuit (It was a gift from Kathy Frost...she got it in Europe, it was designed for motorcycle riding I guess) and got the cart set up. James had trouble dressing Regime. The cart harnesses are very different from my normal x-back harnesses. I had trouble keeping Scooby Doo quiet enough to dress him, but I got him drop-chained to the fence and then, eventually, he sorta settled down a little bit and I was able to get him dressed. Then I helped James get Regime suited up too (MUCH easier with a second person who allows the dog to kiss them while the other gets busy dressing!)
Scooby was yanking the neckline and starting to go nuts. It's gonna be a problem on race day, but I'm hoping James will be able to keep him safe and sane until my start. We took off hard and fast. My goal for the run was to let them stretch out and move fast, but also to turn them around on a road at least twice as practice for the race turn-around. The first turn-around they did GREAT! And they picked right up and started running pretty fast afterwards too. The second turnaround was on a narrower stretch of road, and we didn't turn hard enough and I got "stuck." James had to get off the 4-wheeler (he was following along behind for just this reason!) and help the dogs get all the way turned around. Our speed after that second turn-around was quite a bit slower...although James said it was still around 13 mph, so I guess that's pretty good!
The race will be four miles I think, and we certainly didn't go anywhere near that far today. But, well, I didn't want to make them sore and grumpy. I just wanted to practice turning around! I don't plan to win the race, but this pair of dogs should do a pretty nice job of moving along nicely the whole way. And with my practice runs, I'm also pretty confident that we'll be able to manage the turn-around too. Maybe I'll add to this thread with race results!
James is trying to buy another sacco cart...we'll see. We could do chariot races down the road side by side!
Oh, and when I got back I could barely see as my glasses were speckled with mud. When I took my glasses off, I looked like a raccoon, because my whole body and face was also speckled with mud! I knew I had fun because I could taste the grit between my teeth.
I cleaned up a bit, and then James helped me hook Chinook up to the Sacco cart. We reconfigured for a single dog as Chinook doesn't play well with others. The last time we'd tried him was at least a year ago, and he'd failed rather completely. But, well, he's been "asking" (Don't ask me to explain how I know this, because I don't really know...) if he could "be in the team" and when I started moving the cart around to set it up for Scooby and Regime, Chinook went NUTS! So I figured I give him a chance and see what he thought.
He took off happy as a clam! We were trotting gently and there was no risk of mud in my face at all. Once we got out onto the smoother road, he picked up the pace even more. (But still a trot. We turned down Joyce Jean Drive and he got interested/distracted by a pair of beagles. They were tied by a building site, seems I've got a new neighbor building a house! I decided to turn around and head home, and I got Chinook half way turned around and he was facing the guy and his house site and Chinook decided that was good enoug. So James had to get off the machine and come escort me all the way around. Chinook thought about turning up the new driveway to "visit" (aka EAT) the beagles...but I convinced him to go on-by. I signaled for James to pass me, and Chinook actually broke into a lope chasing the machine toward home. He lost enthusiasm when we got back onto the feeder trail. Snow and roots slowed us down and it was just plain hard work.
He'd been excited, fresh and happy going out, but now he was tired, wet and quite a bit less enthusiastic. James ended up walking back out and helping him some, but the big hairy furball finally got us all home. He was pretty dang proud of himself! I brushed him a bit after his workout, and right about then, a military guy and his family showed up to "shop" for a dog. He says he wants Minnie. (I'm not so sure Minnie wants him, but I'm hoping she'll warm up to them all once she becomes a house dog.) He's planning on coming back to adopt her closer to the first of the month. We'll see.
The thing I like most about the sacco cart is that I can go really fast with sprint dogs, and then turn around and put a St. Bernard mix on it and toodle gently. It's a GREAT training tool, and a lot of fun besides.
-lynnO
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