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-   -   Hard working leader (http://www.pets.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=60140)

Gail P January 22nd, 2009 10:35 AM

Hard working leader
 
On the weekend I had the Girl Guides over for a dogsled clinic/rides and there was a newspaper reporter here as well. There are supposed to be some pics coming out in next week's paper, but here's a shot he emailed me. Lightning is certainly getting into his role as leader, but Rain looks a bit distracted by the reporter, she's looking right at him and not pulling up as hard as she could.
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v625/silhouettestable/Newer%20dog%20pics/4-dogteambyMattJames.jpg[/IMG]
Photo by Matt James/Minden Times

growler~GateKeeper January 23rd, 2009 02:09 AM

Aw look at Lightning :lovestruck: certainly looks the part :D [SIZE="1"](or he was showing off for the camera ;):laughing:)[/SIZE] Great job Lightning :thumbs up

Will give you some nice press for upcoming races too & maybe bring a few more people out to see your runs and sign up for the clinics/rides :goodvibes: :D

TeriM January 23rd, 2009 02:48 AM

Cool pic :thumbs up. You will have to post the article when it comes out :).

hazelrunpack January 23rd, 2009 11:01 AM

For sure you have to post the article!!! How exciting!!! :goodvibes:

Dog Dancer January 23rd, 2009 02:06 PM

Great shot, yup, waiting for the article now...

pitgrrl January 23rd, 2009 02:16 PM

I'm dieing of jealousy over here, all of you look like you're having such a great time.

Chris21711 January 23rd, 2009 03:26 PM

Gail you are going to Cannington right :confused: My daughter was there last year, she said that there was only the one border collie team there, which means we have pics of some of your guys :D She will be going again this year, I might just tag along with her.

angeldogs January 23rd, 2009 05:34 PM

Great pic, man that looks like a whole lot of fun for all.
The girl guides most have had fun learning about dog sled clinic/rides.will be waiting to see the article.

Gail P January 24th, 2009 12:26 AM

[QUOTE=Chris21711;737021]Gail you are going to Cannington right :confused: My daughter was there last year, she said that there was only the one border collie team there, which means we have pics of some of your guys :D She will be going again this year, I might just tag along with her.[/QUOTE]

There was only one border collie team there last year but it wasn't mine, it was a friend of mine who I sometimes train with when we are able to get together. She's got a 4-dog purebred BC team. Last year Rain and Storm were still a bit young so I didn't have a full team ready to go. I was there but I only entered the novice 2-dog class with Lightning and Thunder and my daughter did the kid & mutt class. Lightning's BC/Lab and Thunder is a mixbreed (he's the dark dog that's partly hidden in this picture). This year I'm ready, I'm entering these 4 in the 4-dog, 4-mile sprint classes at Marmora, Kearney, Haliburton, Cannington and Apsley. My daughter is going to again do some kid & mutt classes, but Haliburton offers a 2-dog, 2-mile youth class that she's going to try, and hopefully the 2-dog novice at Cannington as well if there's no minimum age. Some races require the kids to be 12 or 14 to do more than the kid & mutt and she's only turning 10 in Feb. Actually the Saturday of the Cannington race is her birthday. She'll either have Lightning in the kid & mutt or Lightning and Flurry in the 2-dog.

Hopefully that article will be out in next week's paper and I can post a link to it. Last year there was a big double page spread done about my daughter and her racing, I wish I had bookmarked the address of the online article. Of course I have paper copies of it, but I should have bookmarked it too. I've searched for it but now I can't pull it up.

Today I took the team out on a local lake for a run and met up with a friend. Also introduced my physiotherapist to skijoring. She met me there with her dog and I loaned her my belt and a harness. Both her and her dog seemed to really enjoy it. I think I've converted another one :D

Spatx January 24th, 2009 01:06 AM

Are you going to be at the Kortright Centre races? I'm hoping to be there to watch and take lots of photographs :D It's the only race that seems fairly close to me.. I can't wait for it! I'd love to do sledding/skijoring one day, but I need a dog that can actually pull me. Cody is getting up there in age, and Nova only weighs 25 lbs. :rolleyes:

Gail P January 24th, 2009 01:34 AM

[QUOTE=Spatx;737256]Are you going to be at the Kortright Centre races? I'm hoping to be there to watch and take lots of photographs :D It's the only race that seems fairly close to me.. I can't wait for it! I'd love to do sledding/skijoring one day, but I need a dog that can actually pull me. Cody is getting up there in age, and Nova only weighs 25 lbs. :rolleyes:[/QUOTE]

I won't be at Kortright, it's a purebred race. I'll be at Marmora instead.

Nova's only 25 pounds now, but how old is she now? She is still growing isn't she? It's surprising how hard the little ones will pull sometimes. Rain's my little girl in a pack of bigger boys. I haven't had her weighed in a while, but I'm guessing she's around 40-45 pounds. Lightning is around 61-62, Thunder is a couple of pounds less and Storm is around 50-55. Rain looks tiny beside Lightning but man does she dig in and pull. I tried running her back in wheel one time and she was pulling up overtaking Lightning in lead and getting tangled in his lines. She really wants to run beside him.

Spatx January 24th, 2009 10:49 PM

She's 10 months now, I haven't weighed her in a while, but I don't think she is anymore than 30 lbs - she was 24lbs last time we weighed her. She's a small little thing! :laughing: I'll have to get her weighed soon, but I don't think she will be getting much bigger size-wise. Maybe more fur and muscle at least. The people I train in flyball with are getting someone from Ottawa to do a dog sledding seminar on Feb. 8th... Pam Casselman is her name, don't know if you know her or not :)

I wish I could go to the seminar, but I don't really know how old dogs should be before even attempting to pull. One of the girls is bringing her smallish BC to the seminar, and she's not much bigger than Nova is - but her dog is at least 3 years I believe.

Smiley14 January 24th, 2009 11:51 PM

Oh, that is such a great pic! I would LOVE to see you in action someday!

Gail P January 25th, 2009 12:48 AM

[QUOTE=Spatx;737631]Pam Casselman is her name, don't know if you know her or not :)
[/QUOTE]
I'm familiar with the name, I'm not sure if I've met her or seen her or maybe just read the name in race results, or maybe even somewhere else (herding, disc etc.)

I've started my pups lightly anywhere from 8 months and up, depending on the time of year and the weather. Rain's my smallest at about 40-45 pounds, but she was around 8-9 months when I started her. I can't remember what she weighed at the time, but it was probably around 30-35 pounds. The harness she wore then is too tight on her now but it's a good fit on Dru who weighed in at the vets on Monday at 35 pounds. As for how much more Nova may grow it's hard to say, but at 10 months she'll definitely still have some filling out to do. I remember ordering Lightning's harness at 11 months of age, he weighed 52 pounds at the time. He's now around 61 pounds of lean hard muscle with no extra fat. He's been up to around 64 or so when he wasn't running as much, but I changed his diet and began bringing him back into condition in the fall and he's pretty much in perfect shape now. I switched from feeding a large breed adult food to a smaller amount of a high energy food. They're getting a higher fat content now but they're burning it off working and they've all trimmed off some extra summer flab and are looking good. I weighed Flurry this week at the vet's too and he is 58 pounds of nothing but bone and muscle. I've been actually feeding him extra to get him to gain a bit, he's only 14 months old and still filling out. He went through a very boney looking phase but he's gained back just enough to not look too thin now.

[QUOTE=Smiley14;737705]Oh, that is such a great pic! I would LOVE to see you in action someday![/QUOTE]
Maybe if you're ever up this way to watch some races. I don't think I'll be at any in the US, I don't travel more than a couple of hours away from home. It's too hard with the livestock and other dogs at home to look after, plus my dogs are "sled pets", they're spoiled housedogs that sleep on and around my bed, not outside in houses or a dogbox. I haven't so far come across any accommodations that A: would accept 4 or more dogs or B: is within my budget. Most of the other mushers just need to find a place for themselves to stay, their dogs are all nice and snug in their boxes since they're used to living outside.

Chris21711 January 26th, 2009 11:22 AM

OK Gail, so we have pics of your friends BC's on the comp. This year it will be yours :D

My daughter would like to get Iggy involved, but she just has the one dog, do you know if it is possible to hook-up with someone who is a dog short....yah I know a long shot. She emailed Superdogs Central about a course that they were starting a couple of times, but never heard from them. We are in the Newmarket area, if you could provide any info it would be appreciated :thumbs up

Spatx January 26th, 2009 06:41 PM

[QUOTE=Chris21711;738343]OK Gail, so we have pics of your friends BC's on the comp. This year it will be yours :D

My daughter would like to get Iggy involved, but she just has the one dog, do you know if it is possible to hook-up with someone who is a dog short....yah I know a long shot. She emailed Superdogs Central about a course that they were starting a couple of times, but never heard from them. We are in the Newmarket area, if you could provide any info it would be appreciated :thumbs up[/QUOTE]

I train at Superdog Central, I find with most places your best bet is to give them a phone call. I've had little luck when it comes to e-mail and training facilities. :rolleyes: I only have one dog that could do sledding as well - I'd be like your daughter and need to join up with others to start a team since theres no way my 30 lb Border Collie can pull anything alone :D

Gail P January 26th, 2009 09:59 PM

[QUOTE=Chris21711;738343]OK Gail, so we have pics of your friends BC's on the comp. This year it will be yours :D

My daughter would like to get Iggy involved, but she just has the one dog, do you know if it is possible to hook-up with someone who is a dog short....yah I know a long shot. She emailed Superdogs Central about a course that they were starting a couple of times, but never heard from them. We are in the Newmarket area, if you could provide any info it would be appreciated :thumbs up[/QUOTE]

The pics you have would have 3 black & white BC's and a blonde right? The blonde in lead would be Ginger and the dog running beside her is Nikki. The two wheel dogs are Jessie and Gypsy. They should be there again this year, assuming she doesn't have any trouble getting the weekends off work to race. She's a student with a fairly new part-time job so she hasn't had as much free time these days but I know she is planning to race.

Do you mean hook up Iggy with another dog to race, or just for training? People do often lend/borrow dogs to make up teams, but they are already trained to pull so Iggy would need to learn what it's all about and to work in a team. I've hooked other dogs with mine several times for training runs, Lightning is a good lead dog and will run well beside another dog so he could show Iggy the ropes, it would just be a bit of a drive from Newmarket. But, I do have a nice groomed trail :D. Hey, if your daughter gets busy training and Iggy takes to it well she could run in the Novice class at Cannington, on their website this year it's not called a 2-dog class, it's a 1-3 dog class so she could go it alone with just one dog.

If you want to try to find more mushers closer to you, a great resource is [URL="http://www.sleddogcentral.com"]http://www.sleddogcentral.com[/URL] There's tons of information on there and a forum where you could post asking if there's anyone in your area. On the main page I seem to recall there's also a link to a list of mentors.

Chris21711 January 27th, 2009 11:06 AM

1 Attachment(s)
[QUOTE=Spatx;738579]I train at Superdog Central, I find with most places your best bet is to give them a phone call. I've had little luck when it comes to e-mail and training facilities. :rolleyes: I only have one dog that could do sledding as well - I'd be like your daughter and need to join up with others to start a team since theres no way my 30 lb Border Collie can pull anything alone :D[/QUOTE]

[COLOR="Red"]I'll tell her to call them instead....would look cute one Husky X and a border collie :D

:offtopic: So do you know Natasha and Trevor with his "Bubba" from Superdogs?[/COLOR]

[QUOTE=Gail P;738703]The pics you have would have 3 black & white BC's and a blonde right? The blonde in lead would be Ginger and the dog running beside her is Nikki.

[COLOR="Red"]Here is a pic of the team Gail:[ATTACH]47521[/ATTACH][/COLOR]

Do you mean hook up Iggy with another dog to race, or just for training? People do often lend/borrow dogs to make up teams, but they are already trained to pull so Iggy would need to learn what it's all about and to work in a team. I've hooked other dogs with mine several times for training runs, Lightning is a good lead dog and will run well beside another dog so he could show Iggy the ropes, it would just be a bit of a drive from Newmarket. But, I do have a nice groomed trail :D. Hey, if your daughter gets busy training and Iggy takes to it well she could run in the Novice class at Cannington, on their website this year it's not called a 2-dog class, it's a 1-3 dog class so she could go it alone with just one dog.

[COLOR="Red"]Well she needs to get him trained first, last year she had him pulling her along on a kids sled, but he keeps looking back at her, so the b/f would run in front to coax him.[/COLOR]

If you want to try to find more mushers closer to you, a great resource is [URL="http://www.sleddogcentral.com"]http://www.sleddogcentral.com[/URL] There's tons of information on there and a forum where you could post asking if there's anyone in your area. On the main page I seem to recall there's also a link to a list of mentors.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the info Gail, maybe she is not that far from you :shrug: She 'unofficially' moved out and is living in Pefferlaw.

She said that maybe she will take Iggy to Cannington with her and try to [COLOR="Red"]"pimp" [COLOR="Black"]him out :laughing:[/COLOR][/COLOR]I have an album under my profile with Iggy pics if you would like to look. He is tall and lean and lanky like OC Spirits new boy [COLOR="Red"]Skel [COLOR="Black"]exact same build.[/COLOR][/COLOR]

Ford Girl January 27th, 2009 03:04 PM

wow, thats looks like alot of fun!!!

what good puppers you have!!

Gail P January 27th, 2009 03:17 PM

[QUOTE=Chris21711;738905]
Thanks for the info Gail, maybe she is not that far from you :shrug: She 'unofficially' moved out and is living in Pefferlaw. [/quote]

Less than 1 1/2 hours away. Before my mom moved up here she used to cottage in the area and she had a friend she would stop and visit along the way in Sutton. She always said it took her about 1 1/2 hours from my place to Sutton. If your daughter has any weekday hours free she could bring Iggy up to hook up with Lightning. He'll keep him moving forward. I don't have any weekends available to help now, starting this weekend I"ll be racing every weekend.

[quote]She said that maybe she will take Iggy to Cannington with her and try to "pimp" him out :laughing:I have an album under my profile with Iggy pics if you would like to look. He is tall and lean and lanky like OC Spirits new boy Skel exact same build.[/QUOTE]
He's a nice looking dog, definitely has a good build for it. Unless he gets some work in before the race though it's doubtful anyone would want to try him at the race. My first couple of dogs I started pulling I started out pulling my daughter on her GT snowracer. I'd go ahead of them at first and encourage them to pull to me and I'd walk/jog along beside them. As they got the idea to lean into the harness and pull and would speed up a bit I'd begin to drop back a bit until I was behind the sled. It didn't take them long to get the idea to stay in front and keep pulling. Some learn quicker than others but with a husky there should be some instincts there to help as well.

Chris21711 January 27th, 2009 04:00 PM

[QUOTE=Gail P;739092]Less than 1 1/2 hours away. Before my mom moved up here she used to cottage in the area and she had a friend she would stop and visit along the way in Sutton. She always said it took her about 1 1/2 hours from my place to Sutton. If your daughter has any weekday hours free she could bring Iggy up to hook up with Lightning. He'll keep him moving forward. I don't have any weekends available to help now, starting this weekend I"ll be racing every weekend.

[COLOR="Red"]Bummer she works 9 - 5 at least. Although she is taking a week off in the middle of Feb. so maybe she could meet with you and you could give her some pointers. Hopefully something can be worked out. Thanks for the offer :thumbs up[/COLOR]

He's a nice looking dog, definitely has a good build for it. Unless he gets some work in before the race though it's doubtful anyone would want to try him at the race. My first couple of dogs I started pulling I started out pulling my daughter on her GT snowracer. I'd go ahead of them at first and encourage them to pull to me and I'd walk/jog along beside them. As they got the idea to lean into the harness and pull and would speed up a bit I'd begin to drop back a bit until I was behind the sled. It didn't take them long to get the idea to stay in front and keep pulling. Some learn quicker than others but with a husky there should be some instincts there to help as well.[/QUOTE]

When she said to "pimp" him out, she was just joking, she knows that he can't do anything as far as entering him in any events. She tries to take him everywhere with her, they are completely devoted to each other. I think that he would not have a problem learning he is quite smart....I know everyone says that about their pets :D

Spatx January 27th, 2009 11:42 PM

Chris - to continue the off-topic temporarily, I do know Natasha. She is at flyball training every Tuesday. Saw her tonight with her BC Epic :D

I'm really considering trying out the sledding seminar they have at Superdog Central... It looks like so much fun. Some of the others have their BC X JRT dogs pulling sleds, and Nova is taller than them. Maybe I'll give it a shot for fun!

I'll let you all know what happens :D

Chris21711 January 28th, 2009 10:14 AM

[QUOTE=Spatx;739376]Chris - to continue the off-topic temporarily, I do know Natasha. She is at flyball training every Tuesday. Saw her tonight with her BC Epic :D

[COLOR="Red"]Trevor lives just down the road from us and Natasha used to work at the shelter with my daughter, small world :)[/COLOR]

I'm really considering trying out the sledding seminar they have at Superdog Central... It looks like so much fun. Some of the others have their BC X JRT dogs pulling sleds, and Nova is taller than them. Maybe I'll give it a shot for fun!

[COLOR="Red"]That is the course she wanted to attend.[/COLOR]

I'll let you all know what happens :D[/QUOTE]

[COLOR="Purple"]That would be great if you could, appreciate it :thumbs up[/COLOR]

:sorry: Gail to Hi-jack your thread :o

Gail P January 28th, 2009 10:37 AM

[QUOTE=Chris21711;739506][COLOR="Purple"]That would be great if you could, appreciate it :thumbs up[/COLOR]

:sorry: Gail to Hi-jack your thread :o[/QUOTE]

Hey no problem!

The article came out in the paper today, here's the link:
[URL="http://www.mindentimes.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1407290"]http://www.mindentimes.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1407290[/URL]

Chris21711 January 28th, 2009 11:02 AM

Cute article :thumbs up Shame that all the pics in the gallery had "PREVIEW' printed across them though.


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