It was a perfect day for me to be out with them, but the heavies ( aka the TM's) have a little bit of a hard time being in full winter coat on these mild days and running.
Today all 4 were hooked up, we have our team straightened out with who goes where now and I have decided to focus on them in that formation for a while but will start switching up my leads once and a while to make sure everyone is comfortable running in lead if need be.
Karma and Elmo are the current lead dogs and I must say, this blog may start getting a bit repetitive and possibly boring because they are doing so well up there. I have tricked Karma into putting a bit of effort into her pulling by shortening her line a bit. She doesn't have the same LOVE to work as Elmo does and will gladly run lead with him but lagging behind not really doing much other than being my gee and haw leader which is quite important don't get me wrong. Now that I have her temporarily tricked her into putting a bit more effort into being a team member as well. Working pretty good thus far I must say.
Elmo is just giving this whole team thing all he has, much like he does with everything he does, what ever this dog is breed wise, is amazing. He has such heart and determination. The others all have their strong points too but he literally gives anything I ask him to do every thing he has.
Marv and Tibby were running behind them as usual, both of them put a bit of effort into the first part of the run today but all 3 of the heavies over heated quick being so warm out.
Twice around the oval and we went back up to the house. As much as I wanted to keep going all day with them all there was no way I could make them do that. Elmo still had plenty of get up n go left in him so I called a friend and grabbed another dog.
A sled dog? No
A husky? No
I returned home an hour after phone calls and in tow was sweet Maybelle
Yes a Poodle. She's a 4 year old hyper active ball of energy, I figured she would enjoy a good run and could be a good little addition to the team.
After an introduction to the whole group here as she has never met anyone here before, I have barely met her before. So once we were all acquainted and to my surprise the entire pack took to her immediately.
I hooked her up with Elmo LOL
Well, Gazelle a poo's as I like to call her, and bullies make for one heck of an interesting combo on a gangline.
Maybelle spent a good couple minutes bounding all over the place, dragging Elmo with her every where she went, to the left to the right, backwards, jumping on him, over him and initiating play that I got a little worried I may have just thrown away all our hard work and training and that Elmo would think that it was ok to do what she was doing. But... my little rockstar just got down to business once he got his crazy wild little girlfriend under control they started working together wonderfully.
Little Maybelle figured out the sledding thing very quick and was just flying down the trail with Elmo with the sled gliding at record speeds (for us)
I was so impressed with Elmo and felt a whole lot of pride after seeing that our training has indeed worked and paid off. I may not be doing this whole training to dog sled thing the traditional way, but am so proud that we are getting as far as we are without breaking down and borrowing an experienced dog to show them the ropes :) Its been a bit hard at times to not make a call and ask for a dog but I'm happy we haven't. We're doing ok after all!
I'm thinking all our team needed was a little poodle influence to get us really going. I will be going to pick her up again tomorrow I am certain. Her quirkyness was just fantastic and she needs to get some energy burned out and what better way than spending the day running on a team or with a pack of dogs who get along so well.
I really wanted to get some video of her and Elmo pulling for her owner but my camera wont read the memory card anymore so it looks like there wont be any vids for a bit unfortunately.
Enjoy a few pics of most of the dogs playing with Maybelle after her sledding adventure.
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