Took the team out yesterday and ran our new loops, nothing too fancy. The trails were broken in places but most of the time we had to rebreak our new trails.Ran into new trapping activity again on a trail Ive run for years without incident. Of course the trail was not marked as a trapline and this time Juno got it but she was more than willing to ask for help. I was surprisingly calm, probably due to all our past experiences, and got it off her hind leg easily enough. I cant imagine any dog, or wild animal, getting out of something like that. The traps are incredibly tight and I had to brace it against my knee to get her out.
Fortunately she didn't come away with any damage but I can see how serious it can be if a dog is left there without help. The fact that she let me help her was a bonus in that the incident was over just as quick as it began.
Ive always coddled my pups when they were hurt and trained them to come to me if they are injured. They know that mom can fix it and if the pain just needs to pass that I will be there with a hug and love to get them through it. This has helped establish a deeper level of trust and keeps everyone safe. I cant imagine any dog I cant trust loose and if their natural instinct was to run from the danger things could get worse quickly in a very bad way.
I think this applies to tangles in the team as well. When one of my dogs is tangled, or the whole team bunches up, they know I'm right there to help them and that our training is about staying calm (no lunging on their tug lines) so that everyone can be set right and no one has to get hurt.Its all about trust...
The rest of the run was a lot better and I was able to be a lot more calm on our own trails that are only a sled width wide. The signs were clear that trappers haven't have moved into our new areas and I could enjoy that part of our trip.
On the way back we saw many moose, snowshoe hare and ptarmigan. Such is the case when we head back at sundown... the wildlife is really active at that time.
All the moose crossed our path and got everyone really excited. One set of three passed in front of us like Russian dolls, the momma followed by older calf, followed by a younger calf... it was such a neat display.
Laya and Olive came with us again but Olive couldn't do the full run. I had to bag her for about five miles back to the truck and it was kind of a hassle. She will settle in the bag okay but given the chance she wants to be out running even though shes too tired to keep up.
It was tough juggling her excitement in seeing the wildlife that was matched by my teams exuberant speed! Many years and training on the sled is a wonderful thing to have... at times I had to focus completely on keeping Olive in the sled while the rest of the guys chased at break neck speed after the elusive moose!
Total miles: 20
Posts
