AGH!!

There are times when I really wish I just stayed home instead of going out with the dogs. Last night, the plan was to skijor after work so I rushed home to get out PB! Esther and Ripper and WHAT A DISASTER!!! Esther is getting more and more weird while hooking up and today she took it to a whole new level. There are no photos to document the madness, thank goodness, but Esther managed to flip out of her harness (again!) about 2 minutes into our run. She then thought it would be great fun to run circles around me, PB and Ripper, which only increased PB's level of screeching and my level of annoyed-ness while I was stopped and trying to catch the little bugger.

What was really annoying was just how damned HAPPY Esther looked while she ran circles around me coming THISCLOSE then darting away as I reached to grab her. Time. After. Time. Apparently she was the only one really enjoying this game. I finally got a hold of her again and no sooner did I finally get up on my skis, when she was out of the harness again. Damn she's got that down.

Somehow the rest of us ended up backwards so we went back to the snowmachine, but man I was determined to get out on a run with these three! Looooong story short - I finally got Esther again, but trying to convince dogs to go BACK when they think the run is over and it's time to go home is no small feat. Ripper and PB! were facing home, lines wedged under the skidoo skis, while Esther was trying to hide under the skidoo, not unlike her wedging herself under the trailer at hookup. However I somehow managed to pull off the miracle to turn them around, clicked into my skis, then realized Esther was not where I left her. I looked back to see she had climbed ON TOP of the snowmachine and was flailing around in the seat - y'know, somewhat restricted by her tugline and all. She actually ended up wedged in between the steering column/wheel/whatever-the-heck-they're called thingy and the windshield. Now that's a first. 10 years of mushing and that is the first time one of my dogs got herself wedged in a snowmachine windshield. And me without my camera!

Anyways, I think I'll go back to skijoring with the easieset team in the world - Gracie, George and Lucy! Oh man I love these little monkeys! They haven't been officially harnessed up and pulling anything at all this year.

They've been getting off rather easy by enjoying a winter of free running. What can I say, they aren't HUGE fans of working/pulling/etc, rather they enjoy semi-freedom and are slightly L-A-Z-Y. But they proved that they've still got it! What "it" is, I'm not sure, but "it" pulled me 5km and sure I had to work almost the whole way, but it was a nice group effort.

I just love how freakin' relaxed they are - see!?? No crazy, screeching dogs at hook up... this is them at hook up!

I mean, HOOK UP!! C'mon, if this isn't the definition of stress-free and relaxed, I don't know what is. You'd think we all shared a big doobie before this or something.

But look at them run! They are like one dog with one brain...

I've often referred to them as "The Brain" as they can only ALL run when the brain is clicked on. When running, they're all totally tuned into the same thing, and if one gets a bit distracted the whole brain has a meltdown...

Every time we stopped, Lucy ended up snow bathing:

Ahhh! That felt goooood! :)

Um, hello...

And Gracie. Oh my little funny Gracie. Watch her easily get tangled. Watch her not care one bit about said tangle. Watch her do absolutely NOTHING about the tangle. Watch her look at me and pretty much expect me to take care of it.

Which I totally do. I'm such a slave to the power of the dog. So we did our little 5km run and the plan was to have Jack, Harris and Ivy pull me back...

What a blast that was! Holy crap they were flying and I really just had to stay upright. They're a good little trio, Ivy loves the boys. No craziness, they get a little excited when we stop but actually LISTEN to me when I ask them to wait. What a concept!!! :)