Skijoring with friends

Harris and Jack and I went skijoring with Heather and Lucky after work one day! I tell ya, having LIGHT out till 9pm now is freakin' amazing. I always wonder why we're all so damned shocked about the increase in light every year. It's the talk of the town when it starts getting light past 6pm. I guess the somewhat long, dark winter has something to do with that. Or it's like a rite of passage - to pass into the glorious spring and summer days full of LIGHT we have to appreciate it or Mother Nature will smite us and take it all away.

Anyways... it's nice to head out for an after-work skijor in the daylight. So the boys got to spend the day in the truck, wheeee!

Harris is basically sitting on top of my groceries. There was even chicken in there somewhere and he's so good he doesn't even touch it. Some of my other dogs (ahem, RIPPER) should emulate Harris' good behaviour!

Boys in the truck.

We just arrived at Heather's here and they know something is up. They're on high-alert.

Jack meets Lucky! Jack is extremely um, "frustrated" these days as PB! and Esther are taking turns being in heat. Some days he's just frazzled, other days he loses his appetite, sometimes he just paws at them on the other side of the fence, he'll howl INSIDE the cabin at night (and that's quite lovely to wake up to!). Poor guy. So he was excited to meet a new girl, but she's fixed so alas, she just really wanted to meet n' run.

But not without some obligatory butt-sniffing first.

He was making damned sure she's not in need of some lovin'.

And Harris got in on the fun too! Lucky is very patient.

A little bit of friskiness got Jack's hopes up.

Annnnnd then, we headed out.

Still looks a little lost here doesn't he? Haha.

Here comes Heather and Lucky, walking down the somewhat steep-ish, sidehilly trail out of their yard.

I missed Heather pulling up the first time and raising her arms in the victory sign, so I forced her to do it again. Here is the totally spontaneous result.

The trails were super fun! More hills than I thought and a couple times so steep I thought I'd run over Jack and Harris. Luckily that didn't happen. These are trails I trained on regularly many years ago (with someone else's dogs), so it was great to go back and see them again!

The boys, working hard on a beautiful day.

Here's a wee video of Heather and Lucky pulling up to us.

The noises I'm making in this may sound odd, but it's really just the result of the dogs trying to drag and jerk me down the trail. They were somewhat impatient at this point!

All in all, a very fun run with the dogs n' friends. In the LIGHT. After work. :)

This is why...

I can't get any work done around here!!!

What? You busy or somethin?

PET. US!!!!!!

Walking with Aklak, Keno, Jack and anti-social Harris!

Hey I forgot about this post so here it is!

So my dogs seem to be only able to hang out socially with their own pack lately. Or maybe it's just Harris. Apparently when they are free-running and "new" dogs come for a visit, Harris turns into an anti-social freakshow! We really need to get out more. Weirdos.(maybe they get it from me??)

Heather came out with Aklak and Keno for a walk a few weeks ago. The weather was nice then, and it just keeps getting better. The snow pack is melting rapidly and is too icy for skating or much else around here. So we're back to playing FETCH! and OMG a few months without fetch and I forgot how INSANE some dogs were(ahem, PB!) about it. More on that later.

Legless Keno leaps! Wheeeee... she is freakin' identical in colour and rotund-ness to Harris. Although I think his fat arse outweighs hers right now. Hey, before you judge... they've had an easy winter!

There is a dog under that mass of fur, really!

Heather is mauled by the triplets: Keno, Harris and Jack!

And which one of these doesn't belong??

Ummm... THAT one.

Aw, I love how Harris is looking up at Heather and loving the Heather-love.

They love them some Auntie Heather. Just keep your dogs at home please says Mr. Antisocial.

This weather is absolutely insane! So warm and it's been like spring for months! To endure a winter with temps not much lower than -20C was pretty sweet.

So back to the freak - Harris wouldn't run up ahead, he was acting all weird and just hanging out by us. I think it's time for some doggie therapy.

That's him, hanging out in the back. I like how the other 3 are toodlin' along together...

Maybe he needs some PBT!????

Jack does is own thing.

Breaking trail!

Keno and Harris are practically twins. I thought this was Harris, but it's Keno and Jack with the squinty eyes!

And Harris' fat butt. Gotta cut down on the ICY WATERS heads n' racks!? Nahhh... they can't do without the frozen fishy goodness. :)

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!!! :)

For Sale: useless sled dog (aka: Pooh Bear!)

I just looooove those frustrating runs and even though skijoring is WAY more mellow and relaxing than running a 10-dog team (or whatever the number!), skijoring isn't without it's faults. For example - a lack of a BRAKE is one of those faults. Those things come in handy on sleds. I suppose I could get a small snow hook, but knowing me, it'd end up embedded in my hand or something (she says as she managed to cut herself and bleed all over her drywall yesterday morning!).

It doesn't help when you have a little turd of a dog who seems to be along just for the ride! Work!?!? What!?? Meeeee? I'm too little and CUTE to work! How about I work for oh, a little bit at the beginning and then for about 1 minute after anytime we stop, then NOT AT ALL for the rest of our hour-long run? That work for you??

Check out Esther's butt under the trailer! She gets a wee bit excited and nervous.

And a stark contrast to PB! Ripper:

Ripper is getting older. I hate when that happens. He is having trouble keeping up with these guys, but hey I guess he is about 11 or 12 now, wow!

So this is her at hookup. Eager to go, right!? OH suuuuuurrrrre.....

We're off to a great start, everyone is working.

Aaaaand check PB! out at our halfway mark, doo-dee-doo.... hey! What's that over there?Huh? PULLL???? Why would I do that? It's just more work!

You can see I just about ran the little twerp over! I have to say though, Esther is AWESOME(thanks Darrell!) and pretty much was the only one pulling the whole run. It was me n' Esther for the most part! Ripper couldn't keep up with them on the way back but he tried. So, I guess he's officially in the "geriatric skijor" category from now on. :)

This is at the end of the run, PB! is delusional in thinking she had a great run, look how freakishly HAPPY she is.

Wow! That was great fun, and for some reason I'm not even tired!? I must be some kind of fitness superhero if I can come back from a run like that and be instantly ready for another one! I should be in the Guiness Book of World Records or something... hey! You should call them? I bet I can even be in there also for the record amount of times I can spin in circles repeatedly. Sure I run into you when you're carrying the food bucket and you go "Geez Pooh Bear! Watch where you're spinning!" - but how can I THINK when I'm spinning SO FAST!?!? My body goes faster than my brain sometimes.... hee hee!!!! Let's go for another run guys!

Ok, so I think I'll keep her - for the entertainment factor if nothing else!

Why I LOVE dogs!!

Ok, you have to watch this right to the end, that's the best stuff, haha! This crazy dog is almost as entertaining as Pooh Bear! I almost want to buy a trampoline just to see what she would do with it.

Trampoline Dog - watch more funny videos

And the winners are...

And there are THREE of you! Holy crap, next time I have to make it trickier! Instead of parting with my beloved PB! for the tiebreaker I am sending you all a prize!

Congrats to:

1) Clare

2) Megan

3) Fireweed Roots!

Yes, the answer was "E" - I DID treat myself to a outrageously expensive bra from Alpine Bra(thanks Fawn!), a new chain and a part for the snowmachine all in one fun-filled afternoon!

Send your addresses to chaoskennel13@yahoo.com if you would like to claim your prizes - and no, no drywall I swear! :)