An Eventful Week

Phew. Deep breath. I think I’m sleeping in Monday. The past seven days have been a flurry of activity for me and I need to chill this week. Did the movies on Tuesday and watched The Golden Compass with some friends. I liked it, not Movie of the Year material yet still very entertaining and absorbing. It stayed quite close to the Philip Pullman books and I liked the theological aspects present in both formats. The bears were impressive and pulled no punches in the brutality of their hierarchy. Lyra was played by a girl who looked very much like the image I had in my mind of the main character when I was reading the books. Worth the movie ticket price. Cloverfield wasn’t. I left the cinema with a vague sense of being ripped off and a growing desire to write the film makers demanding my money back for what was obviously a fairly cheaply made movie with an underhanded marketing ploy. Last time I fall for that one. If you like hand held dodgy film work for an hour and a half combined with a few special effects of a monster, very little character development and no story apart from Monster destroys city then this is the flick for you. Just make sure you don’t suffer nausea with watching a screen constantly in motion with someone’s hand holding a mini-cam.

Wednesday and Thursday we (Tim, myself, Cypher and Spryte) took a trip to just outside of Dongara to stay on a rural property with family. 4 hours north of Perth, the property is huge and the beach side of the highway and is really in a great location. We had a relaxing yet energising stay taking the dogs on long walks, checking out the property, swimming in the pool, doing some dune 4 wheel driving to the beach and generally engaging in very pleasant chatter about what animals would be raised there, what improvements would be made and the benefits of a rural life. I have to admit I am very much taken with the idea of being able to step out the back door and just walk for ages without signs of neighbours, traffic, city noises, other dogs or people. Tranquil, serene and peaceful are all adjectives that apply.

There were a couple of other dogs there and Spryte learnt to deal with them whilst Cypher suffered in not so much silence but more with much vocalising of his displeasure with the arrangements. The boy really needs to realise that if I am within 10 feet of him he doesn’t have to do his manly macho posturing in order for me to feel safe and that everyone knows he’s full of the proverbial as when push comes to shove he’s the biggest piece of chicken faecal matter out there. So that was a very nice but short break from suburbia and one that we hope to repeat sometime soon! Photos posted below.

Some of the gardens round the house.

Cole - the most chilled out cat I've ever had the pleasure
of meeting. So does not give a stuff about dogs and can
intimidate them all with a single swipe of his paws.

This is Molly and no she is not fat...
that's 11 puppies in there born 4 days after we left!


Beans - 8 months old and probably a cross between
a bully something and a kangaroo. She has the most
gorgeous temperament and is probably quite ADD.

Spryte likes to use her pointy end in playing.

Got back in late Thursday night and then was up again early Friday morning to ensure that I was down in time for the start of the seminars by Greg and Laura Derrett. Greg and Laura came out from the UK and gave us three days of tuition. Despite the stinking hot weather we’ve had around here recently (38 degrees celcius in the shade) I do believe that everyone got something out of their workshops. I had to help out a friend that day with an event up in Whiteman Park (remote control cars – buggys they call them). The State Championships were being held and I helped out with the canteen whilst Tim took photos. A couple of good ones posted below but he has more at his www.yourdogphotos.com website.

Back in the afternoon to get ready for a trial. Spryte was entered in NFC (Not For Competition) but I scratched her as she had run pretty hard at the beach and given herself a blister which broke causing her to limp. I trimmed the skin off and she was fine after a while. Cypher was feeling pretty wiped out I think. He’d swum quite hard at the beach the day before as the current was quite strong and spent a long time running up and down. I think he must have been feeling it because he dropped bars in a couple of courses, went clear in two classes but was feeling quite slow to run. Raven was very good. I pulled her out in her first run – Open Jumping as she dropped a bar. Then in Masters Agility she tried so hard and I was a completely crap handler and cost her a qually. In Open Agility she dropped a couple of bars and then in Masters Jumping crap handler came out again and opened mouth unnecessarily and pulled her off a jump. *Sigh* Of course she kept all her bars up. Grrrrr ARGH!! I seriously do not know when I am going to get it through my head that our silent runs are always our best runs. That was proven beautifully on Saturday night. Masters Agility was our first run and I was a wuss and released her before I got to the point I wanted to be and she dropped a bar so we withdrew. Then I had Open Jumping with her and said maybe three verbals at the most and she ran clear there. Open Agility she ran beautifully in a very fast time and I apparently kicked an upright as I ran past it knocking the bar off! Clutz! I didn’t even realise I’d done it till after the Judge and timekeeper told me. Then last run of the night was Masters Jumping again, kept mouth closed through most of it and she ran clear and came 2nd. I think my 2008 mantra for running Raven will be ‘Shut Up’. Or perhaps I should just invest in some gaffer tape.

The highlight for me on Saturday night was running young Spryte. I entered her in Novice Jumping in NFC and walked the course to see if I would actually run her. It was a very nice first course so I decided to go ahead. The SCT on it was 34 seconds I think. I was very pleased with her by the end of that run as not only had she run it clear she had also run it with the quickest time of the class in 19 seconds. That was a really nice way to start our trialling career. The judge wanted to know why I had her in NFC as she would have won but I explained the reasoning. To me this was like a show n go or a fun match just to see where she was at. Although she ran well I know she can run faster so I’m hoping with a few more NFC runs under our belt her confidence and speed will increase. A friend videoed it so it was good to watch it back. She took a couple of seconds to orient herself after the chute tunnel so I perhaps should have spoken to her there.

Tim was there taking photos with the new Nikon D300. I really like the speed of this camera, it can take up to 8 frames per second. Below is a four shot sequence of a seesaw by one of the fastest dogs in the country. Domino obviously executes a two on two off seesaw (and is one of the only dogs either brave enough or kamikaze enough to have his front paws hanging off like this) and is trained and handled by Gina O’Keefe. He’s owned by Gina and Liz Alcock. I daresay his seesaw is around 0.5 to 0.7 from paw on to stop.

During the day on Saturday I audited Greg and Laura. The Advanced session with Greg in the morning and the Puppy session with Laura in the afternoon. Both workshops were good in that they gave me exercises, drills, little games to work on with all my dogs. We watched some footage of the nose touch seesaw application and some of the jump grid work they do plus flatwork and how they use tugging. Greg spoke about teaching a running a frame and the issues associated with it. His Detox and Susan Garrett’s Encore are currently the only two dogs who have been taught it. He’s still not sure if he will teach his next dog a running a frame till Detox is 4 and showing evidence of it’s benefit over the nose touch. Lots of interesting discussions took place and I will write up some of my notes soon.

Sunday I had booked private lessons with Laura and we had one first up in the morning. Sue and I had our young dogs there and Cathy had Snazzy. She set up the double box grid and tested our dogs initially just to see if they were up to doing some drills on there. To be honest I wasn’t sure that Spryte would be, unlike Raven and Cypher she is not a dog you can train over and over and she’s still giving everything she’s got. I take the less is more, quality over quantity approach with her. So I brought Cy with me just in case. However she was great, she had several runs on several different sequences and she coped very well, Even when I brought the Frisbee out after using food she was keen to get to it. Not Cypher level keenness (let’s face it….that level is more a manic kind of keenness) but keener than I thought she would be. An absolute bonus was that we broached the cutting behind tendencies that show up from time to time not just with Spryte but with the other youngsters. I wasn’t sure how to combat that however Laura broke it down and explained very specifically what to do in this situation. We need to avoid at all costs the cutting behind to the extent that if we see them doing it we whip around and grab them to make sure they don’t complete the cross behind. It’s an issue that can become a huge bane in your training and trialling and it’s something we need to work on everyday. I also covered Cy’s seesaw behaviour (different in trials compared to training), the cue we use combined with deceleration to indicate a turn, rear cross timing, front cross timing. So much stuff to do I’m glad I took notes. I really need to write up a training program for me as I can easily see that everyone misses out training something. I think the best way to avoid that is to write up a training program. Yes because I have so much time to write these sorts of things! Hmmm….perhaps I shall write up a book, a week by week break down of what to train, the duration of particular training and when to train it; it should give, in the long term, complete coverage over everything! Sounds very technical and methodical to me (and so not my modus operandi) but surely it has to be better than the haphazard approach I have now which is “Oh crap that went wrong, I now know what I’m training next session”.

I have been mucking around with photoshop and some images. There are some really nice backgrounds out there on stock image websites and learning how to manipulate them, render and lift off foregrounds has been interesting. Not that I'll ever use this name or prefix to breed but it's fun to play around with it.

The next big event on the calendar for us is Friday night. I finally get to see The Police live in concert for the first (and no doubt the last) time ever. All I've heard about them so far has been excellent and I cannot wait! Agility people will realise how much this means to me when they know I'm actually giving up a trial for this concert. It takes a lot for me to miss a night of agility! However there was no hesitation on my part. That said, Rave and Cy are still entered, I figured Robyn can have some fun with them and she can remember all over again the joys of running Masters courses. *Evil grin*

Experience...the Conclusion

Lapland was the absolute highlight of the trip and I shall never ever forget what a wonderful time I had over there with Tim. The next morning we got up early and were driven out to the kennels where we met the dogs and Pasi’s girlfriend Anita. They have 34 dogs together and they were all shapes and sizes and ages. After we met the dogs Pasi explained the basics of sledding and Tim promptly informed him that I would be doing the driving whilst he sat in the sled!! Thanks Tim! Actually as it turned out I had such a good time I never really wanted to sit in the sled ever, I’d rather be driving it! So we got this old wooden sled and Tim sat in it with 8 dogs attached. Pasi took a sled as well with 8 dogs on it. My first lesson that day was a snowy one….first of all sleds don’t brake too well when going through forest, down hill over very bumpy terrain, second; dogs don’t care if you yell in a panic – if they can keep running they will do so regardless of whether you are still on the sled or not. We got them to stop though without using the brakes or the snow anchor, heheheh they can’t pull a sled anymore if it is on its side with the passenger hanging out nearly wrapped around a tree stump! Of course that doesn’t really work for long term because we don’t go anywhere. It is a skill I tell you, to be able dislodge a sled from around a tree stump and in that split second it is free to apply brakes and anchor so fast that the dogs don’t run off without you (which they did on at least three occasions that first day….I did raise the benefits of training the dogs to stop on command to Pasi later but I don’t think I convinced him that the effort required to teach this to these dogs would be worth it in the end…these dogs have one mode made up of two singular goals RUN PULL RUN PULL RUN PULL, and when stopped, go beserk yelling at the humans to get their asses into gear regardless, even if you have just run 15kms pulling a heavy load). These dogs astounded me…..when their speed had dropped after a while I thought they’d appreciate a break and not be so maniacal about taking off, afterall their tongues were hanging out, they were working hard, not going so fast, had just done what seemed like 3kms uphill. Yet you stop them up the top of the hill and within a couple of minutes they’re jumping, straining at their lines, barking to go again and indeed they take off again like they haven’t even been anywhere that day. These guys would surely push Lance Armstrong in the fitness stakes in the peak of a Tour De France!

Lapland the night of our arrival - everything was blanketed
in snow! This you have to understand is a very novel and rare
experience for one such as myself who has spent pretty much 30 odd
years of her life living in a region where the closest to snow we get
is a little bit of frosty grass in the mornings!

This looks like a postcard shot but it isn't!
That's Tim's foot and I'm driving the sled!

Learning how to secure the sled fast and strong is essential
for all dog sledders - that and don't break the sled is also a good
tip to remember.

I got to know the dogs quite well and I’m sure both Pasi and Anita were probably very tired of answering all my questions regarding the dogs, their backgrounds and all about competitive dog sledding. Out of the 34 dogs there were only 2 were pure bred Siberians, one named Jane was a mother to three 3 week old pups and she apparently was an excellent sled dog who worked really hard, yet she looked nothing like any of the Siberians I have met. She was a reddy, brown sort of colour all over with a slightly dark face mask but nothing too distinct, she had these long legs and wiry frame on her. You could tell she could run for miles with no problems. The other was around 8 or 9 months old and she looked exactly what you might see here however both Pasi and Anita informed me that they would be finding a nice home for her since she had no interest at all in being a sled dog and would not pull when you put her on the line! The rest of the dogs were mostly mixes with the majority of them being Alaskan Husky by main percentage, some had Greenland dog in them and some had a mix of Sibe and Alaskan, one even had some greyhound in it, others were mixes of Alaskan, Sibe, English Pointer and German Shorthaired Pointer. Alaskan Huskies are the true sledding dog according to most die hard purist sledders. They are much rangier and longer in the leg than Sibes, their coats are not as thick, they come in a much wider multitude of colours and head shapes. The dogs used in competitive sprint sledding of 8 up to 15km races are very different from the dogs that are used to pull loads over long distances. Those dogs are not used for tourists at all and almost all look out of place sitting on the snow as their coats are often as short as GSPs and apart from a few blue eyes you wouldn’t necessarily notice the husky in them. They have it in them somewhere though because not only do they need to be a lighter build yet with more muscle strength they also must have that overriding and extremely intense desire to pull. I did worry for them initially about how they cope with the cold but saw quickly that their dens/kennels were very nicely insulated and most of them would be curled up in their dens when not running or greeting visitors. Competitive sledders are trying all sorts of blending of lines to breed the ultimate sprint sled dog, there was talk of GSD being used in the long distance race dogs, and I swear two of the 6 month pups I saw had some BC in them! I was surprised to hear though that there is separate classes for the Alaskans and their crosses as they are not allowed to compete against solely purebred Siberian Husky teams. The Sibes have a class all of their own and according to our hosts this was mostly because the Sibes couldn’t touch the the Alaskans and the crosses for speed and stamina, the Sibes would never be in the placings apparently LOL!

The two teams side by side, Pasi making sure the sled wasn't
going anywhere. The four leads dogs from right to left - Panda,
Cindi, Targa and Stargate, all girls of course, brains are needed
up front!

You'd think they'd need a lie down after a quick 10 kms or so!

Out in the middle of a serene nowhere...now check our sled
out closely, see that strappy thing wrapped over the handle?
That was attempting to hold the handle together after we
crashed into a tree stump and cracked one side. Needless to say
it did not hold and we had to return home minus the handle.
A unique perspective of the possible problems facing a long distance
sledder. We steered using the sides of the sled.

This is Lela - a sister to the striking Lacoyta. She lived in the
house, loved pats and cuddles and to play with sticks of any
description.

I forget who this young one is, she was memorable for
constantly sticking her head through the feeding hole checking us out.

Tatoo - the 8 month old Aussie Shepherd from Germany,
all working lines she has a big future working in the Alps with
the cows, when she's not trying to get the sled dogs to move her way.

This is Balu, 4 yrs old, mostly Alaskan Husky some Sibe
all work. He is one of three brothers who live here.

Lacoyta, a very friendly, outgoing boy, who works hard on the
line and has the most gorgeous blue eyes I've ever seen!

This is Grizzly, it was a bit eerie watching him move around the
yard, he is so wolf like you'd swear he had some in him! Grizzly
didn't go sledding as he had a bit of an upset tummy.

The Veteran - Bore, I had a soft spot for him
from the beginning. So friendly and outgoing,
put him on the line and he would stand stoically
gazing over the distant trail ignoring the younger
riff raff around him going off their heads. As soon
as you let the brake off he was off, pulling as hard as
the youngsters and showing more stamina than most.
At 9 years old he's the fittest veteran dog I've seen.

Lacoyta on the stake out chain. There is a bit of English pointer mixed
in with this Alaskan Husky.

Gizmo, very Sibe looking, a mix of Sibe and Alaskan. This is
the screamer looking all sweet and innocent.

Coffee - Balu's brother. This boy was also a favourite of mine,
he bore no cheek from youngsters on the line who tried to
muscle in on his position, and he pulled like a tractor the
whole time. One of the hardest working dogs I've seen, and
friendly to boot.

This is Mowgli, a young dog bred to become a sprint racing
dog. As you can see he bears no resemblance to the huskies
and looks rather cold! He is mostly GSP.

This young girl pup just loved to stand in her bowl with half her
body outside her run making sure we noticed her.

So for three days straight I got a complete dog fix, got to feed, water and snack them (with raw frozen salmon mind you!), drove a sled both on my own and with Tim sitting in it, found out that in winter 34 dogs go through around 1000 kilograms of meat every 5 or 6 weeks with not an ounce of fat to be seen and that these dogs are all kept entire both males and females and they will still work when in season and the males who might be distracted as youngsters quickly realise that the urge to run and pull is far stronger! I found out that when holding onto the sled and Pasi our guide yells back to Tim to ask if he’s OK? The dogs will take off (just like our agility dogs do!)….I learnt how to harness and unharness them, how to hook them up on the lines, which dogs would come when called and which ones had to be humoured into coming (usually the ones with a bit of Sibe in them I noticed!) I got to know most of their names quite well and I had some favourites, there were three brothers they’re 4 yrs old, Alaskan huskies or mostly Alaskan, known as the Mafia Brothers because of their strength and Trojan like work ethic – Coffee, Balu and Sarek, these guys along with their veteran mate, 75% very old Siberian lines, 9 year old Bore (pronounced Burr- reh) certainly earned my respect and admiration (not that they cared for either so long as they got their snacks and got to run) for their pure joy in just running and pulling.
Lacoyta was such a friendly striking dog as well and he worked as hard as any of them. Gizmo, their Sibe cross was known very quickly due to his habit of screaming (literally one long rahhhhhhhhhhhhh) when on the line and not actually going anywhere. He definitely preferred being on the right side of the line though, it was interesting how some of the dogs didn’t care which side they were on and others had a distinct preference.

Yes I am driving a sled with a team of 7 dogs, it was awesome!
Targa and Stargate are in the lead, followed by Balu by himself,
then Bore and Yako with Coffee and Schneeman in the rear.

Balu contemplating how many circles he should make before
he curls up in the snow.

Schneeman taking care of ice on the paw
hairs problems.

Yako looking pissed the humans have decided to stop.

Targa of the very short coat knows how to make the most of it.

Bore watching Pasi in case of any possible snacks.

Stargate, pure one hundred percent Alaskan Husky
straight from Alaska. A timid girl she eventually came
to believe I meant no harm especially when I slipped her
a couple of the human snacks.

Balu having made his decision on the number of circles,
keeps an eye open in case the humans change their mind
about stopping.

It is hard to describe just how quiet and solitary it was out here.
We truly felt as if we were in another world.

Our attempts at ice fishing saw one small bite and then nothing.
We think the word got out below when we put him back.

Our final day in Lapland we spent the day snowmobiling,
not quite as much fun as driving a dog sled but certainly
convenient for stopping when *you* wanted to.

Tim is trying for 'Landscape photo of the Year' here. The
scenery was quite simply breath taking.

We snowmobiled up a mountain where the rain had not reached.
The snow was over a meter thick in places. I managed to bog my
snowmobile, but I take solace that I managed to not fall off once!

Lapland was a truly amazing experience and I can see why there is the pull there for people to leave their high stress jobs in Stockholm and just simply take root in this beautiful wilderness. Dog Sledding is very addictive and if I lived anywhere like this I would surely be completely involved with this sport. If anyone is considering trying out Europe for sledding holiday I cannot recommend Pasi in Swedish Lapland highly enough, he can be found through Patrick of "Magic Lapland" and is soon to to have his own business (Echoes of the North) offering dog sled tours. He looks after his dogs and his clients very well and treats them with the utmost respect, he is always ready to answer any questions no matter how mundane and he is extremely flexible in catering for whatever you the tourist choose to do. Dog sledding is not easy and is not always like the images or ads that you see of a guy just standing there doing nothing except holding on while the dogs do everything, you do have to steer a sled and you will hurt at the end of the day, shoulder and arm muscles ache and you will fall off. As far as I see it that was all part of the excitement of the whole experience of learning how to handle a sled. You may only want to do a one hour trip or you may be gung-ho and wish to do a whole day trip or an overnight stay in the wilderness, Pasi caters for all types and is prepared for any suggestion.

So there you go my Lapland experience, any questions/comments? Just drop it in the comment box.
Cheers
Simone