The Old Days: A Few Photos from the Past and A Bit of Rambling

I was busy organizing all of my million ba'jillion pictures on my computer when I came across some old pictures of when I first got into sled dogs and even a couple of life before the "Mush Bug" took over. 

I thought I would post them since I don't usually post very many pictures on here. 

Plus I have a few pictures from a just-for-fun photo shoot I did with the dogs yesterday. (my camera mysteriously started working again...)

Enjoy!




Might as well start with the very beginning, right? This is me in a kiddie race at the Mackinaw Mush when I was about 4 years old.
Whats funny is now when I look at these pictures, I think I recognize some of the people and dog trucks. lol

This is me in the same kiddie race when I was 3. I think I tried doing the kiddie race every year until I was too old. I don't remember what year I stopped...



This picture was taken about 8 years ago. The only dog we still have in this picture is Ruby, the one in the front. (She had a cast on her leg
From left to right there is Lakota, who was a mix breed female that my sister brought home from the shelter.

Jesse was a German Shepherd mix female that my mom got from some guy in the U.P. She was my dog after my first dog, Willow died. Jesse accompanied my family and I on our trip to Alaska in 2000.

Jenny was a mix breed female that my other sister got from the fair.

Here's the team on the trail in the fall of 2010. This was almost a year after Jacob and Salsa arrived at the kennel and a month or so before Jazz and Cougar came home from the shelter.

The above and below pictures are of Heidi, my old Beagle. We brought her home from a breeder in 2007, I think? Sadly, she was hit by a car a couple of years ago. :(

This was my "dog yard" when I first got into sled dogs. I made the houses out of old pallets, carpets, and tarps that we had lying around the yard. The dogs were inside dogs but I wanted to be able to say I had a dog yard so I made this mainly for decoration... and it changed at least once a week. It gave me something to do while I waited on my mom to finally say yes to getting huskies. lol

Here's Ruby and Ellie the fall before our first race. I was going to enter the Mackinaw Mush with these two in the 2-dog junior class until I got Jacob and Salsa. It was probably a good thing for Ruby's sake that I didn't run her; I don't know how long she would've lasted. She was kind of a "I'll run when I want to" dog.

Now for the recent pictures...mainly of just the dogs being goofy in the backyard. :)

Summer Ends, Fall Training Begins...

Whew!  What a summer! I can’t believe it’s almost over already. As I was walking through the store tonight while running errands, I noticed that all of the “back to school” stuff is out. I said to myself “Where in heck did summer go?!” It feels like just yesterday it was May and now it’s the end of August. Time goes by too fast for me sometimes…

I just got home from being on the go, non-stop, for almost 6 week’s straight visiting family, traveling; it’s nice to be able to sit down for more than 10 minutes. lol

I haven’t been on this blog in forever so I have a feeling this post is going to be quite long. So grab yourself a cup of coffee, sit back and relax for a few.

First off, my summer was a blast! I got to spend time with lots of family and friends that are very special to me. We had lots of fun together traveling, laying on the beach, cooking out, being crazy. There’s never a dull moment when my cousins and I get together.

                       Some of my cousins and I on the rocks on Bois Blanc Island, Mi.

For sad news, my local horse club has disbanded so there were no horse shows this summer. I mainly just rode a friend’s horse and worked with my own horse when I had time. I hope to have more time to ride now that I’m home.

Me on my friend's horse, Buddy.

Now, for the dogs…

Tonight marked the start of fall training. After I threw all of my bags in my room I immediately began getting all of my dog gear out and organized. Of course I couldn’t wait to hook up the crazy fur balls, so I did!

It was a bit warm so we just went for a short run. Everything went smoothly, no tangles, no crashes; I’m quite proud of that first run!

(Although, the first run did result in a broken screen. Ellie was not happy about being left behind so she took it upon herself to make a doggy door out of the window in the feed room…)

It was so nice to be back behind a team of dogs again. It’s like being hooked up to a happy drug—you just take a deep breath and completely relax once you step on the cart/sled. Well, at least I do anyway.

I’m happy to get a bit of an early start this year as we have lots of work ahead of us this fall. Sydney and Char need to be able to lead by the time racing season comes since Jacob retired and I need to get myself in shape for canicross (haha yeah, we’ll see how that goes…the getting-myself-into-shape-to-run-two-miles part anways).

Sydney has taken to being a sled dog like a duck takes to water. All she needs to do is get some experience under her belt…err harness and to learn the commands. I’m hoping she will be my next main leader.

I also want to give Jazz a chance to try leading a few times to see if she likes it. It would be awesome if my whole racing team could lead so that way everyone could run in different spots on the team more often (I like to rotate what position each dog runs so they don’t get board of running in the same place all the time).

I also neglected some changes that need to be made to the dog yard before winter comes so I have those to keep me busy this fall also.

It never seems to be a dull moment around here either, I guess. Lol

Well I have lots of unpacking and cleaning to do so I better run.

I hope everyone had a good summer! 

     (Side Note: Unfortunately my camera broke or else I would have lots of pictures to go along with this post. I'm going to have to borrow one from somebody until I can buy my own because a photographer without a camera is pretty much a natural disaster... )

It's Summertime! A Blurb About Heat Stroke and Clicker Training

Tis' the season of hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill, ice cream cones, and fun in the sun!

I know, I know; how can a musher enjoy summer? Shouldn't I wish for it to be cold all the time?

NOPE! Sled dogs can have fun in the sun too! We like to go to the beach, hiking/backpacking, camping. Anything a pet dog can do, my sled dogs do too.


As summer hits and the temps rise to almost unbearable numbers in some areas, one of my main concerns with my own dogs, and those around me, is heat stroke. A couple of years ago, I got first hand experience with heat stroke when my German Shepherd, Ellie, started showing sings of it on a hot summer day in July. She acted lethargic, she stumbled around as if she had spent too long at the local bar, and her eyes were glassy. I quickly got her into the shade and had my dad turn on the hose so I could put cold water on her feet and belly. With in about 15 minutes, she was back to normal, no worse for wear.

I was lucky with Ellie but others are not so lucky. Heat stroke, if not caught in the early stages, can cause permanent damage and even death to a dog.

The quote "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" is especially true in this case. Make sure your dog always has access to cool water and shade as the temps rise. It would be a good idea to read up on the symptoms of heat stroke and what you can do if your dog shows signs of it. Here is a link to get you started: Heat Stroke

Another thing that goes with summer is travel whether it be on vacation, to the beach, or to the dog park.

Remember:

Just like you wouldn't leave a child in a car in the summer, don't do it with your dog either. 

On to other subjects; I am starting clicker training this summer! I bought a clicker the other night and I am in the process of learning everything about it. I also signed up with the Canis Clicker Training Academy! I will provide the link and info about it on the right side of my blog when I get a chance. 

I'm especially looking forward to doing clicker training with the sled dogs and the two leaders I will be training this summer, Char and Sydney. 

Well that's all the time I care to spend on a computer on a beautiful day. My posts will probably start to become less and less frequent as the summer goes on and I start getting more and more busy. I will try to come back as often as possible though!

Enjoy summer!

Just A Sunny Day At The Beach...

The past couple of days have been sunny and warm which prompted a couple of trips to the beach. Ellie, my German Shepherd, came along with me and my friend brought along her Australian Shepherd named Fritz. 

Ellie and Fritz had a blast! Ellie is practicing her ninja skills in the first pic! lol

"HIYA!"

 Ellie: "Imma slap your face!"

"OMG" 

I practiced taking some action shots with Ellie. My friend is throwing a stick out into the water for her.

It's super dog! 

Then I did some posed shots with Ellie practicing her "Stay". 

In this pic I told Ellie to sit and she ended up in this wonky position. Then she got distracted by something in the sand. lol 

Upcoming Events

Spring is fully upon us now and with it comes fun-filled activities to keep us busy!

Along with our annual sled dog club meetings, we will likely be attending the ISDRA conference in St. Ignace, Michigan on June 16th and 17th. I am looking forward to meeting some of my internet friends and "talking dog" the whole weekend! The public is welcome also. If you would like more info, please click on the link; ISDRA.

The annual Bark In The Park will also be going on in St. Ignace on June 16th. Here's more info for that; BITP.

So, on the 3rd weekend in June, St. Ignace is going to be completely be taken over by dogs!

I also might attend the Horse and Dog Extravaganza in Alpena sometime in May. They always have cool things going on whether it be horse demonstrations like dressage, reining, a parade of horse breeds, or dog demonstrations like agility, mushing, and also a parade of dog breeds.

I hope to take advantage of more doggy events as the summer unfolds. The horse club I'm in is not going to be active this year so I'll have to fill in the blanks with dogs!

Spring has sprung...and it's not even spring yet....

It is true! Spring is here...and yes, I am happy with that! I'm glad that the roller coaster of a winter we had is over. We're hoping for a better season next year!

Now that spring is (unofficially) here and the temps are a steady 60 to 70 degrees ( I wonder how long they'll stay that way...), it's time to get back in the saddle. My borrowed horse, Dixie, and I had our first ride on Friday and it went very well! The first horseback ride in the spring is always interesting...some horses have a tendency to act like un-broke fools the first ride and then they remember all of their training the second and go back to being themselves.

This, however, was not the case for Dixie! It was like we never stopped riding last fall--she just picked up right where we left off. I'll take that over getting flung around in the saddle any day!

My horse, Buckshot, will be next. I have a feeling he won't be so compliant since he's technically not trained yet. I'll have to take it slow with him...especially after my fall off of him last October. I DO NOT want to come that close to breaking my hip ever again!

*Sigh* I'll say the one good thing about having barely any snow during the winter is how little snow there is to melt come spring. I can actually enjoy spring this year since we're not drowning in mud like usual!
I know, I know...I may be putting the cart before the horse here...there are still a few months of spring left. April showers bring May flowers they say so we have spring rain to get through yet!

Well, get out there and enjoy this early spring everybody! Soak up the sunshine, plant those flowers, rake that yard (ugh), you know the drill...behold spring cleaning! ;D

When life gives you snow...

Well after a very long weekend the results are in!

The Small 'N' Mighty Racing Team came in 3rd place out of 15 teams!

The trophy we got for 3rd place.

Now...for this part, I suggest you brew yourself a hot cuppa' joe, sit back, and enjoy the ride. As they say "It's a loooong story".

So, if you live in Michigan, you're probably well aware that we just got hit with the snowstorm of the year. Two feet+ of wet and heavy snow fell during the night on Friday and into Saturday morning. Some places were considered to be in a state of emergency due to the heavy snow and power outages.

We arrived in Kalkaska on Friday, just as the snow started to fall, and checked into our motel. I unpacked, dropped the dogs, and went to the driver's meeting. Everything was going well and I just figured "Oh, this is kind of nice...we're going to get all of the snow we've been needing and this race will be great!"

haha Right...

Early Saturday morning I awoke from a fitfull sleep (I had a cold which prevented me from breathing all night...) to find that the motel room was very cold...or in other words, the power was out.

"No biggie", I thought. "They'll get the power on eventually."

I got everything ready and we headed to the race site.

The view from the motel parking lot. I know you can't really tell from this picture but there is 2ft of snow there plus whatever Kalkaska had before the storm.

Or tried to anyway. The motel driveway hadn't been plowed yet so, because my mom's van doesn't have 4-wheel drive (that's something I will never understand), we had to shovel a path through 2ft of snow so we could get out.

My mom eventually flagged down a random guy with a plow on his truck and he helped us get out the rest of the way.

So finally we got on the road and arrived at the race site...only to find out that the race had been cancelled for the day due to too many fallen trees on the trail.

Darn. We didn't do much but sit around all day while they got the fallen trees taken care of. We went back to our motel a few times to check on the status of the electricity but it never came back on. We had to move out and look for a new room.

Needless to say, we didn't find one. At every motel either they were way too expensive, they didn't have power, or they were full.

So, we ended up staying with my cousins for the night. It was so nice to see them! and so nice to be able to take a shower! haha

This morning we, again, headed back to the race site.

To put it plainly, the weather was perfect, the sky was blue, and we had a great, one day race! I can't even begin to tell you how gorgeous the trail was. Imagine the most beautiful winter scene you have ever witnessed, then imagine yourself on the back of a dog sled in that scene and you pretty much have imagined the trail today.

In short, it was breath taking. All worth the powerless motel room, shoveling, spinning tires (pretty much every time we parked, we got stuck), blowing snow, and cold fingers in my opinion.

Life is funny that way. It loves to throw you curve balls and if you're not ready for them; you get whacked in the head. You just have to get skilled at catching them and throwing them back. ;)

See? I wasn't kidding when I said the 2012 racing season would go out with a bang!

Over all, it was a good weekend...definitely one that I'll never forget.

Even though this racing season has just ended, I already can't wait for the next one! I think we're gonna have a pretty rockin' team for next year!

So look out 2013, the Small 'N' Mighty Racing Team is gonna take you by storm!