Today we ran 12 miles on the Lost Valley road. The trail runs past a man-made lake which in past years contained a lot of fish, until it was drained last year. Seemed like a big waste to me, but now it's full of water again. This time of year the lake is frozen and the roads and campgrounds around it are usually unplowed during winter, so it makes for a good sleddog trail. This year, however, the road has been plowed past the the lake aways, so today's run was just through the pine forest. It's a pretty run, with snow-covered trees, white winter skies, and happy dogs. Bessie was single leading today and was wonderful as always. About half the run was in the dark, and during that winter night I rewrote the classic Christmas carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas" with a mushing theme:
♫On the 1st day of Christmas my truelove sent to me: a puppy in a parka
On the 2nd day of Christmas my truelove sent to me: two mukluks and a puppy in a parka
On the 3rd day of Christmas my truelove sent to me: three basket sleds..........and a puppy in a parka
On the 4th day of Christmas my truelove sent to me: four booties................and a puppy in a parka
On the 5th day of Christmas my truelove sent to me: five gold snowhooks..........and a puppy in a parka
On the 6th day of Christmas my truelove sent to me: six huskies howling..........and a puppy in a parka
On the 7th day of Christmas my truelove sent to me: 7 handlers handling.........and a puppy in a parka
On the 8th day of Christmas my truelove sent to me: 8 mushers mushing..........and a puppy in a parka
On the 9th day of Christmas my truelove sent to me: 9 team dogs trotting........and a puppy in a parka
On the 10th day of Christmas my truelove sent to me: 10 wheel dogs pulling.....and a puppy in a parka
On the 11th day of Christmas my truelove sent to me: 11 swing dogs loping......and a puppy in a parka
On the 12th day of Christmas my truelove sent to me: 12 lead dogs leading.......and a puppy in a parka.♫
Woof!
~Garrett
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Saturday, November 19, 2011
First Snowy Run
It snowed all this morning and well into the afternoon, so conditions for running the sleddoggies on snow, with sled, were definitely improving. As it usually does, the snow was having a very uplifting affect on my mood. The sight of everything covered in a white blanket, as more of the white stuff continued to fall, brought a smile to my face and before long, enough snow (3-4 inches) had fallen that I felt confident we could attempt a run. However, I decided that since I wasn't sure how well the fresh snow was going to pack down, I'd take just four dogs rather than the usual 7-8. I also used out tobboggan training sled since this, although heavy, operates better on fresh snow than my big long race sled.
The change in weather had my sleddoggies feeling pretty good too. It was a given fact that Bessie would be coming along, as she is my best leader and the only one I trust 100% to take good care of be and the rest of the team. Although Breena has been co-leading a great deal the last few weeks and doing ok, I chose to let Hadrian co-lead today. He's a super enthusiastic guy and doesn't get distracted as easily as Mango does. Zorra and Breena were the wheel dogs. Soon we were streaking off, not nearly as fast I prefer to run, but understandable considering the ungroomed trail and number of dogs on the team.
Running alongside the hwy is always interesting, because in addition to being able to watch the mutts run, you also get to enjoy all the attention from passing motorists. As usual, lots of people were gawking as they drove by, one girl was taking pictures with her cell phone (and wildly waving), another guy gave me a thumbs up, and the rest just stared. The dogs and I are obviously a novelty to most people. Musher-public relations are always important (we want the general public to sympathize with us and *not* listen to the lies of the animal rights community) so I waved back enthusiastically to every viewer. Kind of weird though because I saw three or four different veicles which contained three or more elderly men, just struck me as odd. Maybe there was an old persons club meeting going on today in town?
We ran about five miles, all I wanted to go under the circumstances. In retrospect, i should have taken all the team, save Sprout who is still in Alaska, but still, it was fun enough. It always is. Afterwards, my brother Trevor took out his five dogs and one of mine (Boogie) and did the same run, and when he was hooking his dogs up, my four teammates were yapping to go again. They weren't tired at all.
Dogs fed, gear put away, npw I'm back inside making spaghetti. Musher's got to eat too you know! :)
Woof!
~Garrett
The change in weather had my sleddoggies feeling pretty good too. It was a given fact that Bessie would be coming along, as she is my best leader and the only one I trust 100% to take good care of be and the rest of the team. Although Breena has been co-leading a great deal the last few weeks and doing ok, I chose to let Hadrian co-lead today. He's a super enthusiastic guy and doesn't get distracted as easily as Mango does. Zorra and Breena were the wheel dogs. Soon we were streaking off, not nearly as fast I prefer to run, but understandable considering the ungroomed trail and number of dogs on the team.
Running alongside the hwy is always interesting, because in addition to being able to watch the mutts run, you also get to enjoy all the attention from passing motorists. As usual, lots of people were gawking as they drove by, one girl was taking pictures with her cell phone (and wildly waving), another guy gave me a thumbs up, and the rest just stared. The dogs and I are obviously a novelty to most people. Musher-public relations are always important (we want the general public to sympathize with us and *not* listen to the lies of the animal rights community) so I waved back enthusiastically to every viewer. Kind of weird though because I saw three or four different veicles which contained three or more elderly men, just struck me as odd. Maybe there was an old persons club meeting going on today in town?
We ran about five miles, all I wanted to go under the circumstances. In retrospect, i should have taken all the team, save Sprout who is still in Alaska, but still, it was fun enough. It always is. Afterwards, my brother Trevor took out his five dogs and one of mine (Boogie) and did the same run, and when he was hooking his dogs up, my four teammates were yapping to go again. They weren't tired at all.
Dogs fed, gear put away, npw I'm back inside making spaghetti. Musher's got to eat too you know! :)
Woof!
~Garrett
Thursday, November 17, 2011
The difference between an Alpha and an Omega
Now, this post has nothing to do with the silly children's movie that came out last year. Rather, it's on the subject of relationships, whether between two dogs or between two people. If you've been around a group of dogs (and I'm assuming most of my readers will have) you'll know that they'll have a pecking order worked out. There's the alphas; the strong, smart dogs, sometimes aggressive, sometimes not, who boss around their fellows and are the kings and queens of the pack. Then there's the omegas, who are lowest in the the pecking order; the weak and cowardly, less intelligent, always submissive. Mango is the omega in my kennel - he's very sweet, but not very smart and very submissive. The rest of the dogs will fit somewhere into the middle, submissive to alphas, dominant to omegas. In my kennel, Hadrian has always been the alpha male. When he came here, there were no male dogs on the place, and Hade staked out his claim then and has held onto it ever since. He's a cocky, macho dude, but isn't aggressive. If any of the male dogs are involved in a fight, it's almost always the lower ranking males, because Hadrian is the established alpha, and the others respect him. He doesn't need to reestablish his status, it's concrete. When a new dog comes in, there's usually some minor squabbling; depending on how cocky or submissive the new kid is. Just like how students will test a substitute teacher to see what they can get away with, the current pack will test the new dog to see whether he'll give in or stand up for himself. When my newest dog, Sprout, arrives from Alaska next month, this is what he'll have to go through.
I've found that the way a dog pack operates is quite similar to how a family or group of humans get along with each other. In the traditional family, the father was the alpha and the wife and children were expected to be submissive and give in to whatever the father wanted. Growing up as I have, I've had to deal with a number of older males - my dad, my (maternal) grandfather, friends of the family, etc. who always saw me as a "lower ranking dog" to boss around. My dad wasn't around for much of the year and other guys would see me "lacking" a father figure and think they needed to step in and fill in the blank. I've never much cared for those kind of men, the macho guys who think women and younger guys should be subservient. It's just gotten worse over the years; now my parents are divorcing and moving on, which solves some of the problems. But not all.
Yesterday I made stew for dinner and was in the kitchen, waiting for everyone to come to the table, and talking to an older guy, Pete, who's a friend of my mother's. Well, in the middle of that, my grandfather came in, and as he often does, barged in and started telling me "Just say yes sir" despite the fact that Pete and I weren't arguing about anything, just talking. Now, this isn't the first time he's jumped into a conversation and given me his unwanted opinion on whatever it is we're talking about. Before I've always ignored it and gone on with things, but yesterday, I was tired of always putting up with this grouchy old fellow who always has treated me like I had about as much sense as a grasshopper, so I told him very calmly "This isn't any of your business, thank you very much." At which point he got mad and left the house (never did eat any dinner). My mother wasn't pleased about it but Pete sided with me so she got over it and we ignored my grandfather for the remainder of the evening. It might not seem like much, just a small petty disagreement, but I felt very good for the rest of the evening because I'd taken a step in a different direction. Instead of just doing as I'd done in the past, begrudgingly rolling over and showing the white flag, just like Mango does, instead of acting like a submissive little omega, I stood up to one of the people who'd been bullying me and felt **** good about it. When a new dog comes into the kennel and the current residents size them up, there's two possibilities as to what might happen. If the new dog is unconfident and scared, it will roll over and give in, accept it's lower rank. But if it stands up for itself, stands up to Hadrian and his pals, then they'll respect it and the dog won't be pushed around like Mango is. It's the same way with human relationships - if you always back down and differ to those who boss you, then they'll keep on treating you the same way. But if you stand up for yourself, then you might well earn the respect of the person.
Woof!
~Garrett
I've found that the way a dog pack operates is quite similar to how a family or group of humans get along with each other. In the traditional family, the father was the alpha and the wife and children were expected to be submissive and give in to whatever the father wanted. Growing up as I have, I've had to deal with a number of older males - my dad, my (maternal) grandfather, friends of the family, etc. who always saw me as a "lower ranking dog" to boss around. My dad wasn't around for much of the year and other guys would see me "lacking" a father figure and think they needed to step in and fill in the blank. I've never much cared for those kind of men, the macho guys who think women and younger guys should be subservient. It's just gotten worse over the years; now my parents are divorcing and moving on, which solves some of the problems. But not all.
Yesterday I made stew for dinner and was in the kitchen, waiting for everyone to come to the table, and talking to an older guy, Pete, who's a friend of my mother's. Well, in the middle of that, my grandfather came in, and as he often does, barged in and started telling me "Just say yes sir" despite the fact that Pete and I weren't arguing about anything, just talking. Now, this isn't the first time he's jumped into a conversation and given me his unwanted opinion on whatever it is we're talking about. Before I've always ignored it and gone on with things, but yesterday, I was tired of always putting up with this grouchy old fellow who always has treated me like I had about as much sense as a grasshopper, so I told him very calmly "This isn't any of your business, thank you very much." At which point he got mad and left the house (never did eat any dinner). My mother wasn't pleased about it but Pete sided with me so she got over it and we ignored my grandfather for the remainder of the evening. It might not seem like much, just a small petty disagreement, but I felt very good for the rest of the evening because I'd taken a step in a different direction. Instead of just doing as I'd done in the past, begrudgingly rolling over and showing the white flag, just like Mango does, instead of acting like a submissive little omega, I stood up to one of the people who'd been bullying me and felt **** good about it. When a new dog comes into the kennel and the current residents size them up, there's two possibilities as to what might happen. If the new dog is unconfident and scared, it will roll over and give in, accept it's lower rank. But if it stands up for itself, stands up to Hadrian and his pals, then they'll respect it and the dog won't be pushed around like Mango is. It's the same way with human relationships - if you always back down and differ to those who boss you, then they'll keep on treating you the same way. But if you stand up for yourself, then you might well earn the respect of the person.
Woof!
~Garrett
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