First day with the sled

How exciting it is to finally have a sled.

Still only have 2 harnesses and one of them is just too big for most of the dogs so some creative improvisation was used yet again.

Have been out through out the day with Elmo and Karma working on the oval and I must say, Steady Eddy Karma is definitely my gee and haw lead dog, unless Marv completely surprises me. She did not miss one command today while we were out. I think Elmo will be the pace setter but its too soon to tell just yet as my attempt at trying 2 dogs today was done unfairly for Karma sort of. Elmo was just running on his collar and up ahead of her but I have noticed that they work FAR better in groups.

First out today was Elmo, silly me for some reason figured since it is the end of January I should bundle up for our adventure. Was not necessary at all! I don't recall ever sweating like that once at the gym I tells ya. Before we even hit the big oval I was sledding in a hoodie and pj bottoms and my snow pants and coat were riding on the sled. Part of this reason was I spent the entire run up to that point pushing the sled and running behind Elmo as he was a bit freaked out by the whole thing at first.
After going around once like this something seemed to click in his head and he seemed to go "Oh... I just RUN" and off he went like Forrest Gump.
Ok maybe he wasn't quite like Forrest Gump but he was jogging... slowly. Speed doesn't matter to me right now, I am just hoping to get them good and familiar with the entire process and will focus on speed once all 4 are hooked up together.
After our second loop we went back out the trail and came back up to the house. I don't want to over do it for them and I wanted to end that little session on a good note. And that it was.

A while later I went and got Karma out, she did so well with the skis last week that I figured she would do just as well with the sled. I was right.
After a bit of confusion at the very beginning going by the horses she buckled down and got to work, with her I just sorta walked behind the sled for the two trips as she isn't overly motivated to run at all just yet, especially by herself. Around we went twice and back up to the house.

Now even though I probably should have just called it a day for them both and myself, I just couldn't. I have been waiting SO long to have a team going and a sled for them to pull I just had to head out for one more trip around :)

This time I took both Karma and Elmo, since Karma is the brains of the operation and Elmo is the pacesetting kinda guy for now I wanted to see how it would be with them together. However, only having one harness for these guys I attached Karma and Elmo on the coupler and head out.
WOW! That's the best way I can explain it.
I don't think we will be the briskly walking team after all. We may just have a bit of spunk to bring to the trails.
It felt so nice to be standing on the back of a dog sled again, sort of nostalgic really. Nothing quite like feeling happy as a kid again over something so simple.
Here's a little vid of the two dogs together to show you the surprise in speed



Now to bring the other 2 members of the team out and see how they do before the big date night here for Guys birthday. He's getting pretty old, he's creeping ever closer to the big 4-0 LOL.