Blind Sled Dog!!!

Just in case you need some feel good motivation today…..

I give you a blind sled dog. What can you take from this?

A- Dogs are awesome.

B- Happy stories motivate.

C- The reason that you tell yourself why your dog “can’t” do awesome things is most likely invalid.

Check it out:

AP/ January 25, 2013, 9:34 AM

Blind sled dog thrives with brother’s help

(Gonzo, a blind sled dog, and his brother and guide Poncho, run together at the Muddy Paw Sled Dog Kennel in Jefferson, N.H.)

JEFFERSON, N.H. When Gonzo started tripping over his food dish three years ago, no one could explain or stop the Alaskan husky’s quickly advancing blindness. But a veterinarian offered some simple advice: “Run this dog.”

Blind sled dog aided by brother

Gonzo, one of 120 dogs at Muddy Paw Sled Dog Kennel, was happy to comply. With help from his brother, Poncho, he soon resumed his place pulling a sled all over New Hampshire’s North Country to the delight of tourists and his caretakers, who quickly realized that if Gonzo didn’t treat his blindness like an obstacle, neither would they. Given the dog’s obvious eagerness, he was allowed to continue on as usual.

“Even though he’s blind, he still knows when hook-ups are happening. He’s still very aware,” said kennel manager Ben Morehouse. “When you have a dog such as Gonzo, with such a want and a drive and a desire … you try it, you hook up, you see what happens.”

A frenzy of excited barking engulfs the kennel whenever Morehouse and other staffers haul out a sled. The chosen team is outfitted with harnesses and booties; those left behind scramble onto their doghouse roofs and howl. Gonzo and Poncho are lined up side-by-side, usually toward the back of the eight-member team — “brains to brawn” is how Morehouse describes the order.

(Gonzo, a blind sled dog, throws his head to the wind as part of a team of dog taking riders through the snows of New Hampshire.)

“A lot of people say everything about dog sledding is efficiency. Gonzo and Poncho are not the most efficient sled dogs out there. They won’t set a speed record, they won’t pull the most you’ve ever seen,” Morehouse said. “To be honest, they’re probably some of the goofiest dogs you can put in harness. But they’re just fun.”

Some dogs at the kennel, including Gonzo and Poncho, were born there. But it’s also home to what kennel owner Neil Beaulieu calls “second-chance” dogs — former professional sled dogs a bit past their prime — as well as dogs rescued from bad situations.

READ MORE…..

Sled/Skijor Event In Westbrook ME.

Oh yeah! Down East Sled Dog Club and the City of Westbrook are hosting a sledding/skijoring event. Its part of their Winter West Festival downtown.

I think it’s too late to enter, but the races are scheduled to loop a golf course, so it should be super spectator friendly.

This is my second season sledding recreationaly, and I’ve only skijored twice, and I’ve never even seen one of these events, so…… I’m watching this one to get a feel for it. I plan on taking our dogs to the next one at the end of Jan!!!

I’ll keep you posted.

Winter Fun

Here’s a collection of photos and a short video of an outing we just did during the first big snowfall of the season.

Amanda ran with Milo (65lb APBT) and Mabel (45lb APBT) on the kicksled. And I used Bella (75lb Alapaha), and Jax (50lb APBT) on my new Ski/Sliding snowshoe things.

What a blast.

(Jay going down!)

First Real Snowfall Of Winter

Oh, man…. I’m excited to get the Sled, and Skis out!!!!!

I’ll try and post pics/vids of the first snow pull of the season.

New Toy For A Maine Winter!

Oh yeah! I got me some sliding snowshoes!!!!!

These bad boys are a cross between Backcountry skis, and Snowshoes.

In my zeal for bad ass dog activities under ANY circumstances, I’ve run into some snags with the tapering period before and after the snow season. My kicksled, is awesome for when it’s been snowing regular. But, if you hit patches of thin cover you’re carrying that rig. Not fun.

Oddly enough, the kicksled sucks in fresh deep snow too. The runners are are only about two inches wide, and so they just sink into fresh deep powder. Come to think of it, the kicksled is really only awesome on packed trails. Now, that said, on a packed trail, it’s about the coolest thing in the world!

But, I’ve run into problems on un-groomed trails. If it’s real deep, the sled sinks. Snowshoes don’t help, at least not for a pulling scenario!

The obvious answer is for big, backcountry skis!

Sure. But, here’s my issue with that. I wind up getting out of the skis, a ton during an excursion. To walk to the trailhead. To walk through a dry, or rocky patch. Or, even ditch, or ravine crossing.

The trail by my house is a perfect example. There’s two ways to access it. A 3/4 mile walk on the road, that even when the trail is beautiful, the road can be dry, and no good for sliding. Or, through a deep un-groomed field about 2 blocks long, and a ravine crossing.

Both options suck bad with a sled. And aren’t much better in ski boots.

Enter the “Sliding” snowshoes!

They are fat, and short like backcountry skis, so they’re great for breaking trail in deep snow. Plus, they’ll SLIDE like skis….. Which is good if there’s dogs pulling you! But the reason they’re way cooler than regular skis, is that they work with my regular boots! Which means, I can throw them on my back, and hike it, if there’s not enough snow! That means, there’s no risk in picking the wrong equipment. If there’s enough snow, we “skijor”. If there’s not, we are Canicrossing!

Bring on the snow! Or not, doesn’t matter.

BTW, if all that sounds like too much hassle for you, but you’d still like your dogs out on the trail…..

Give us a call. We’ll pull em for you.

Snow, or not.

CaniCross &….. Whitewater Safety?

Um…. Ok.

What the hell do those two things have to do with each other?

Turns out, the what to do when all hell breaks loose is pretty much the same for both.

When I went rafting a long time ago, one of the safety tips they gave was, “if you fall out of the boat; try to go down river face up, and feet first!”

Yesterday I was running a team of two bullies, who (between the two of them) weighed about 150 lbs, and can pull around 3,000-4,000 lbs! I had them at Poland Springs Preservation Park. Which is an awesome place for reactive dogs. The trails are super cool! And to top it off….. there’s almost no one ever there! It’s so dead, that I’m not even gonna hotlink it to a map like I usually would, cause I don’t want to run into you with the goobers I take there!

But, I digress…..

On the trail, these two monsters were helping me pick up speed going DOWN a hill, and I hit a patch of mud hidden just under a layer of wet leaves. After sliding like 10 feet and flapping my arms like a bird didn’t work……. I remembered my whitewater safety course. So yeah, Nestea Plunge I went.

And just like in whitewater safety it took like 50 yards before I came to a stop! Yeah….. They pulled my down the hill with me making a high speed mud angel.

Now, to their credit they probably would’ve stopped sooner, but it took me like 40 yards to stop laughing uncontrollably at the absurdity of the whole thing.

So, remember….. In whitewater safety AND in Canicross, feet first & face up!

New Toy!!!!

Yes!!!!

3 Bad Bullies just got our hands on a brand new Kickbike Cross Max!

These things scream to be pulled by dogs. They are stable, and have shocks like a mountain bike. So, they can totally handle off road rough housing. But, they’re super easy to step off of if things get squirrely….. Which, with dogs pulling you off road, can sometimes happen. That’s the main difference for the dog sports. Bikes are hard to get off of at speed. But these are a little less sketchy feeling.

Anyway, We just added one to our arsenal of Canine Exercise Therapy equipment.

If you want to get your dog in on the action….. Give us a call. We’ll run ’em for you!

 

Roberts Farm CaniCross: Nov 18th!

Roberts Farm Trail Preserve is putting on another CaniCross. It’s on Sun, Nov 18th. It’s at 9am. Registration is over at 8:30am.

Noocksak Racing usually has a booth at these races so it’s a great time to meet them and get some gear!

I just found out about it, so I’m trying to adjust my schedule to get it in!

But if you’re remotely into this idea, you should try and get down there and support it. Participate, or just watch! The more people that are there, the more likely they are to have more of these events!

 

3 Bad Bikjoring Bullies

We officially adopted Jackson (the little brindle/blue bull with cropped ears you see in a lot of our photos). And, because I plan on doing a lot of sledding/skijoring this winter, I need to get him up to speed!

Off to the trails we go!

Oh yeah!

There’s about 3/4 of a mile of a deep sand shoulder on our road, that intersects with a snowmobile trail right next to our house! How’s that for convenient?

Bella was out with Mandy and a clients Hyper pup. But with the addition of Jackson….. I still had a 3 dog crew!

This clip was at about 1.5 miles of the pull. As you can see, Jax is not running on his neckline, which is letting him squirt around a bit. As new as he is to this, the neck line pulling him forward can set off his opposition reflex, and make him put on the brakes. So I let him get comfortable.

Once he got going good (about a 2/3rds of the way today), I stop and attach his neck line to get him acclimated. As you can see the front dogs don’t have a neckline on. But, that’s because they’re pretty experienced, and don’t stray much. I only run them on a neck line when we’re going to be in a distracting environment, and I need the “group” movement to encourage each individual to stay with the flow. They’re fine with the neckline, so it wasn’t important to add it, like with Jax. As you can see in this clip, he’s on the neckline and doing just fine!

Of course, they’re noticeably slower in the second clip. That’s because A- they’re tired, it is about 3 miles in. And, B- That is the sandy beach of a shoulder. And they’re pulling about 250 lbs between me and the mountain bike! So you’d be slowing down too!

Welcome home little buddy. You’re the fourth bad bully!

I’ll keep posting his progress. I’m REALLY looking forward to running a kicksled with a 4 dog bully crew, on a packed snowmobile trail!!!!

That….. Will be an adventure.

 

Winter Dog Sports

I was born and raised in Louisiana. So, I find very few redeeming qualities about snow, and winter. My kicksled is my attempt at the whole lemons/lemonade thing. Running a sled with dogs is damn near the only thing that gets me through winter! Here’s some inspiration I was looking at to get me through this grey, grey Maine morning.

Now, when snow hits, and your dog is amped beyond belief, and needs an outlet, and you can’t seem to get yourself out in that snow….

Call us, we’ll come take them sledding!!!!!