That's better...

After the disasterous run on Saturday afternoon, I got the quad back out. Actually, my neighbor's quad. He broke his heel and can't do much of anything for several months. His quad is much more reliable than mine! I am loving that automatic tranmission and the parking gear! Really the parking gear is the only good thing about training on the quad!

With the quad, I can get off and take pictures like this and not have to worry about walking home! Actually, in this case, I'd gotten off to see if we could cross a ravine and Wolf Creek safely. We could have, but we didn't today. The dogs were well into their run and already a little tired so we headed for more familiar territory instead.

After their performance on Saturday, Paxil and Raven got their act together. They had a lovely run yesterday.

One encounter with a small loose dog. I've never understood what possesses a 20 pound mutt to jump into the middle of what must appear to be a wolf pack! You'd think any dog with functional brain cells would get as far away as possible, but they do it all the time. Fortunately, this one only got some salvia in it's fur and no other injuries. I had a tangled up team, but no injuries either.

It was pretty out today. Despite not being on a sled, it was still better than being at work!

Deuce has worked his furry butt off all weekend. He's been a pulling machine. He just can't stand to be left behind. So he's run 3 days in a row. He was a little tired today and even let his tug line go slack near the very end, but overall I'm impressed with this pound mutt! He's a dang nice dog!

A dog that works that hard deserves a little treat post run--moose bones are always a good choice!

That was a bad idea....

This afternoon, I had the bright idea to try hauling the sled out again. We had a skiff of snow this week. Must be enough by now to park the quad. Bad, bad, bad idea. In a moment of sanity, I did decide to only take a four dog team. That may be the only reason I am not out looking for a run away team right now! Four dogs at least gives the illusion that you have some control!

Things went wrong right from the start. The area where I start from is also where Deuce eats and sleeps so there is a doghouse in there. It's off to the side, out of the way, never had a problem getting passed it today. Ran right into the damn thing today. Made a flying leap and grabbed the sled, rode on the drag mat on my knees for a couple hundred yards. When things go this wrong and you aren't even out of the yard yet, you should turn around and call it a day. I did the opposite and assumed that it could only get better!

We get to the one road crossing we have to do on all our runs. Nice quiet road never any vehicle traffic on it. Once we cross the road there is a large hill. Usually again, nothing on the hill. Today there is a skier and not a good skier. She's having trouble getting up the hill. I did see her in time to stop and give her a few minutes to get out of the way. But we aren't very far down the trail and the dogs are fired up. Fortunately she decided just to get off the trail and let us by.

It's a law that no one is ever around when I'm having one of those runs that makes me consider running the Quest some day. Nope, when everything goes perfectly the trails are deserted! People are only around when it's a complete and utter gong show!We get passed the skier and Raven decides this would be a good time to show Paxil who the alpha bitch is. Paxil of course disagrees with Raven's opinion and the two of them end up tangled and trash talking each other. Antare did something to his harness so he's been on three paws all the way down the hill. Did I mention there isn't enough snow to set a hook? So I have two fighting dogs and one limping dog and no way to hold the team in place. Oh, the joy! I did manage to eventually tie off to a little tree and get things straightened out. And we were off again...

For awhile everything went right...don't they look like a nice little team? The scenery was lovely. Frost everywhere, clouds that look like they might have some snow in them.

Beautiful isn't it?

Then I made them turn onto the lake. Antare got his tug line caught on a tree stump--a tree I'm pretty sure I knocked down last winter because we kept hitting it(It was already dead!) It was not Antare's day! So I manage to get that straightened out without loosing the team and we head off across the lake. A crossing we have made hundreds of times over the last five years without incident.

Today Raven decided she wanted to play with Daisy who was running loose in front of the team. Every time Daisy turned, so did Raven, including trying to go up a very large hill off the lake that goes no where! Took four tries to talk them out of that. By the time I got everything and everyone facing in the right direction for the final time, Paxil had just given up hope of ever moving again and laid down! Which is about what I felt like doing.

The rest of the run went relatively smoothly. My throat hurts from ranting and raving like a lunatic! Antare is limping and I'm going to find the key for the stupid quad again!!

Paxil and Earle are back!

Paxil and Earle both returned to harness work today! Paxil led a small team on a pretty short run. Just 7km, but I didn't want to go too far in case she wasn't up for it. She was fine. Earle was a slacker, but at least he felt like coming along.

Earle ran in swing beside Ozzy. Ozzy was watching a squirrel and would not look at me when I wanted to take his pic! Little stinker! Earle did really well at the start, but his tug line was slack most of the way home. Considering that six weeks ago, I was pretty sure he was dying, I'll take a slack tug line! Besides I think he's only run about 20km so far this year. The vet wouldn't let me run him at all until he'd lost a few pounds. He needs to loose a few more before he can do any longer distances, but the thyroid meds seem to be working. Hopefully, it won't be too much longer before Earle is back in top form!

Paxil already is back in top form. Lead dogs don't come any more reliable than this little girl! The incisions from her tumor removal have all healed up. The puncture wound under her leg developed some totally bizarre symptoms. It wasn't quite an abcess, but the vet said some bacteria in the wound was making it's own oxygen and could have become an abcess. Paxil's leg and side squished like she had water under her skin. She's been on a couple antibiotics since Wednesday and is much improved. She doesn't sound like an alien anymore when I pet her!

She was pretty pleased with herself and I think a little ticked that we didn't go farther. WOOO HOOO, I have two solid leaders again!

I never thought this would happen. Usually, when there's enough snow to run the sled, I have to keep the dogs off the lake as the ice isn't safe yet. Today I ran the team with the ATV across the lake. Never thought there would be safe ice and not enough snow for the sled. I'm getting a little bitter, but more of the white stuff fell today! And Stuart is working on my dog box right now so if there isn't enough snow here soon, I can drive to where there is!