Ta Dog! Racing Huskies: Training Trip

We recently went of a trip to visit Scott and Corina Alexander of Kiana Siberians in New Hampshire! Lee and I put the dog box on the night before with help from my Dad and I took the 8 sled dogs and borrowed Andrew and Barb Shenton's trailer for the ATV. We were quite the traveling circus on the road ( getting only 13mpg...). We went to Hill Thursday night and ran the dogs in the dark. I had never been there before, for a place called Hill it was mighty flat! The trail is really wide and used to be roads in the village of Hill, there were all these side trails though that were windy and tight that got the dogs really excited. Although it was dark the stars were out and it was a really nice run we did 12 miles there that just flew by. The next morning we ran out of the Alexander's driveway and did a 10-11 mile run, there were lots of hills and fun things to go past, the dogs did great and were really strong. After the big dogs ran Suzie and Henry got a chance to try it out and they ran 2 miles with the old dogs and Corina's 9 mo old pup. Henry was all business, head down and pulling hard while Suzie jumped all over him! She eventually caught on and got into the groove of things. We ran again in the afternoon 5 miles and the dogs were ready for dinner and a nap after that! Saturday morning we ran again, about 8 miles and then journeyed home to Vermont. It was great training for them to travel, be on picket lines, run with new dogs, sleep outside in the box. I got some really good pointers on how to help Munchkin with her motion sickness, Eli and Jersey with their stress running poos and about training for longer races. I now want to do a 45mile REALLY BAD! I have a lot to learn still about dog care to make sure my team is as healthy as possible mentally and physically. My stars for the week were Ellie - ran in Lead for the entire time, passing some loose dogs, people and others. Carmine - ran hard, stayed level headed, ate well and drank well. Puppies - ate, pooped and peed when I told them too!

Below are some photos that I pirated from Corina's Facebook page as I haven't been home enough to download my own! I borrowed two of her dogs ( most were much better behaving than my own...)