Prepping for the big race

Ok, "big" is relative. The Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous is putting on the dog races again this year in Shipyards Park. The skijoring and 4-dog race are a whopping 7km!!! The 6-dog is 11km, and takes place Sat. am at 11:00 with the skijoring race to follow. We're skijoring for cold hard cash. Or a piece of paper saying "yay, you raced!" or a medal (like last year) or... nothing.

So I went out training with the potential "race" team: Ripper and Loki in lead and Pooh Bear! Yes, that wasn't a typo, I was considering her in the race. Until we ran today. Note in this pic below she is ever so slightly looking off to the side??

Well that was pretty much symptomatic of her whole run. She is good when we are going as fast as her legs will take her, but once we slow down... oy! She starts getting distracted, jumping off the trail, slamming on the brakes(she was behind me a few times!), diving into the deep snow, etc. I think I made a huge mistake at the beginning though by leaving her loose while I hooked up the other two. I was going to tire them out a bit, plus my start is brutal and narrow for skiing. No room for snowplowing! So PB was a disaster and basically a little BRAT who wouldn't leave the Ripper and Loki alone. She was jumping ON TOP of Loki, growling and attacking Ripper (playfully though), if anything it was great training for them as they just kept trying to get around the little freakshow.

So I finally grabbed her and hooked her up. Yeah, notice also that the tugline in that photo is not the tightest ever....

Later I took out Harris and Esther and I was reminded how much more professional Esther is! She is a superstar, hard worker and focused. The only drawback with her is her shyness. It's either her for the race or PB who will probably try and visit EVERYBODY on the side of the trail because she can't get enough human attention. Either way I think I'll bring both for the ride and decide on the fly! It'll be good fun for all of them.

She was pulling pretty good in this video, but near the end you can see her slacking a bit - well, we did slow down! And there was a *slight* uphill!!!

Aw, at least she's cute.