Dog Scootering a journey

Discussion dedicated to promoting the well-being of your dog through diet, exercise and general health tips.

Moderators: emmabeth, BoardHost

Post Reply
gwd
Posts: 1958
Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2012 11:33 pm

Re: Dog Scootering a journey

Post by gwd »

MPbandmom wrote: I will post the few still shots that I took.
not that i'm not appreciative of pictures.........but i do notice that all of the pictures that you've posted seem to have a really washed out look.......they seem light and fuzzy as if they're taken in heavy fog. i'm wondering if one of the automatic settings is messed up. i'm no ansel adams so perhaps one of our good photographers might have a tip as to what is amiss.
Image
MPbandmom
Posts: 1637
Joined: Sun Jan 03, 2010 7:18 pm

Re: Dog Scootering a journey

Post by MPbandmom »

gwd wrote:
MPbandmom wrote: I will post the few still shots that I took.
not that i'm not appreciative of pictures.........but i do notice that all of the pictures that you've posted seem to have a really washed out look.......they seem light and fuzzy as if they're taken in heavy fog. i'm wondering if one of the automatic settings is messed up. i'm no ansel adams so perhaps one of our good photographers might have a tip as to what is amiss.
I know. This frustrates the heck out of me. I am beginning to suspect that for some reason my cell phone only wants to take pictures in dazzeling bright sunlight and then I can't see the screen to tell what I am taking a picture of. :twisted: :twisted: So, I end up taking pictures when it isn't as bright and I can see what I am taking a picture of. Or I am starting to just take a general aim and hope I am getting something.

As if that weren't frustrating enough, the other day I pressed the magic button on the side for camera and it opened the video recorder insdead. :shock: Next time I pressed it, it was camera again. :?: My phone is on a prepaid plan, so getting anybody willing to tell me anything about it doesn't seem possible. Even though it is through a major provider, the only help is by phone or online. People in the stores don't deal with prepaid phones. :evil: For as much as I use my phone as a phone, the monthly rates for non prepaid are just rediculious.

I have been thinking about buying a digital camera, but I am afraid that the digital camera that would be within my current budget constraints wouldn't provide the quality pictures that I am looking for and I don't know enough about cameras in general to try and figure out what would serve my needs.
Grammy to Sky and Sirius, who came to live with me, stole my heart, and changed my life forever as I took over their care and learned how to be a dog owner.
MPbandmom
Posts: 1637
Joined: Sun Jan 03, 2010 7:18 pm

Re: Dog Scootering a journey

Post by MPbandmom »

Okay, I have checked the settings. Most are set at auto with the exception of brightness which I think was at +1. I changed that setting to 0 which was the middle setting. These pictures were again taken in the evening although the sun was still pretty bright.
Swanny1790 wrote:
One just needs to keep up with some basic maintenance on the scooter, lines, vehicle and gas to transport everything, and the dogs. Although the vehicle aspect can get a bit pricey.
The vehicle aspect can indeed get a bit pricey.
I guess that would be where scootering with 2 dogs is a better bargin than sledding with 6 to 12. :lol:

My set up.
Image
Older model conversion van with fluffy driver. :lol:

Image
The scooter rides in the back. This works well as long as I am not also trying to camp. Someday, I hope to get a hitch put on and get one of those basket carrier type things that go onto a hitch.

Image
Homemade dog crates on the inside. The back seat can be moved into bed position and a twin size air mattress put on top and the dogs can still get in and out of their crates relatively easily. There is a walkway down the middle between the two crates.

I don't have any way to tether the dogs outside of the van, They have to be in the van or attached to me. :lol:

GWD, I guess changing that setting didn't help anything. :( I'm open to suggestions from anyone who has some idea why the pictures turn out like this.
Grammy to Sky and Sirius, who came to live with me, stole my heart, and changed my life forever as I took over their care and learned how to be a dog owner.
MPbandmom
Posts: 1637
Joined: Sun Jan 03, 2010 7:18 pm

Re: Dog Scootering a journey

Post by MPbandmom »

While this definately isn't scootering season, I am nonetheless contemplating the upcoming season. This year I should be scootering in the company of samoyeds :D at least once a month. I still have the dream to get a picture of Sirius and Sky both pulling me on the scooter. A prime opportunity to get this picture would be with the samoyeds as several people there are avid photographers. I would love to run her briefly. I am certain she would run and pull in the group. But, she still in no way has the drive, energy, and stamina that Sky has and it would be unfair/unhealthy to her to expect her to keep up with the group for any kind of distance.

Some members of the group have cargo trailers that can be pulled by the scooters. This once again raised to mind my old burley bicycle trailer frame languishing in the yard. Today, I was thinking about borrowing one of the cargo trailers and seeing if Sirius would ride in one of those. Then I thought about putting her travel crate into the cargo trailer to keep her securely inside of the trailer. Then I thought about mounting a plastic "airline" crate to my old burley trailer frame. I have thought in the past about building a plywood boxish thing into the frame but think that would be rather heavy. A plastic crate would be lighter weight and secure. I feel reasonably certain that I could attach it securely to the frame with web straps or rope.

The tricker part is attaching the trailer to the scooter. It has the older style rear triangle clamp. Scooters don't have a rear triangle, and the old clamp isn't in the best of shape. (It and the lawnmower had a bit of a fight.) If I can come up with a way to securely clamp the trailer to the scooter, that then raises a few additional quesions.

Sirius isn't a big fan of tight spaces. She gets into her crate reasonably well in the van because she then gets a treat. To get her into her travel crate, I usually have to toss a treat in and then close the door quickly. She will eat while in the crate, so she isn't too stressed out to eat. Will she be reasonably comfortable and content riding in a crate attached to a scooter?

This also will increase the load on Sky. I will likely either have to do a lot of peddeling to help Sky out with the extra weight, or borrow an extra samoyed from someone. I am not totally certain how Sky would do running with another dog that isn't Sirius.

I could switch from scootering to bikejoring, but I feel much more comfortable on the scooter and I feel like I could likely borrow an extra samoyed if someone was willing to run two while I run Sirius and then run one once I put Sirius into the trailer. While there is one group member who runs 3 samoyeds at a time with a scooter, I don't believe that I something I would want to try, even with only one of the 3 being a samoyed
Grammy to Sky and Sirius, who came to live with me, stole my heart, and changed my life forever as I took over their care and learned how to be a dog owner.
MPbandmom
Posts: 1637
Joined: Sun Jan 03, 2010 7:18 pm

Re: Dog Scootering a journey

Post by MPbandmom »

The thinking continues. It is now more along the lines of loaning Sky to someone with a new dog, as she is a pretty good lead and there will be several dogs in the club that will come of age to scooter this season. Then I could run Sirius by herself and moniter her better that way. Although with her dog anxieties, Sky is something of an unknown being paired with another dog. There is a male that she seems fairly comfortable with that will be starting scootering this fall, so that might be a possibility. Sirius will likely want to keep up with Sky which could then also pose a problem because Sirius doesn't have the energy and level of condition that Sky has.

We may just have to start out slowly and try different scenarios and see what works.
Grammy to Sky and Sirius, who came to live with me, stole my heart, and changed my life forever as I took over their care and learned how to be a dog owner.
Swanny1790
Posts: 571
Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2013 7:27 pm
Location: Two Rivers, Alaska
Contact:

Re: Dog Scootering a journey

Post by Swanny1790 »

:D Welcome to the world of dog mushing. We're either running dogs, getting ready to run dogs, taking care of dogs, or thinking about dogs. Oh, scooping poop falls into that list somewhere, too.

There is always a lot of interesting experimentation happening in the sport. The past couple of years some of the "big name" Iditarod racers have been setting up sleds with an airline crate to let a dog rest here an there. It's been especially noted on Jeff King's rig. On a level or slightly down-hill trail having a dog "in the basket" won't make a huge difference in the work load on the remaining dog. It is definitely something worth experimenting with.

Loaning sky to another scooterer could be advantageous, but you don't yet know if she will run lead for someone other than you. Some leaders will run for anyone willing to take them on the trail, and others just won't. They work for one person, and one only.

You wrote the whole plan, everybody's whole plan, in your last sentence. Start out slowing, try different scenararios and learn what works best for you and your team.

S
"Once infected with the mushing virus, there is no cure. There is only trail." - Sven Engholm
MPbandmom
Posts: 1637
Joined: Sun Jan 03, 2010 7:18 pm

Re: Dog Scootering a journey

Post by MPbandmom »

Swanny1790 wrote::D Welcome to the world of dog mushing. We're either running dogs, getting ready to run dogs, taking care of dogs, or thinking about dogs. Oh, scooping poop falls into that list somewhere, too.
Oh good! Glad to hear, I'm not crazy in this area. :D
Swanny1790 wrote:On a level or slightly down-hill trail having a dog "in the basket" won't make a huge difference in the work load on the remaining dog. It is definitely something worth experimenting with.
This is great news. I hadn't really thought about it in those terms. I was trying to add all the weight up based on the information that a dog can safely pull their own weight plus 100 lbs. Sky weights just under 50 lbs. I was figuring the scooter, trailer, and myself would reach this weight and the weight of the dog would throw it over. The canal towpath that we will likely run on is basically level. I can always help out at start up and up hill or just get off and walk. Sky doesn't really put a lot of effort into the pulling area anyway unless there is something up ahead that she wants to get to. She will likely be more excited with the other dogs around and more motivated to pull. If we run west for starters (uphill) and I run both dogs to the turn around spot, then that would make the return trip with one dog running essentially downhill. :D

I have contacted the burley corporation to see what can be done about the hitch issue. I looked at the new trailers in the bike store, and it looks like I could possibly switch out the entire tow arm assuming nuts and bolts and holes being compatable. I have been toying with various options for mounting the dog crate and today the thought occured to me to make a "floor" out of rope woven into something of a net/basket fashion. This should be relatively light weight, and provide some additional shock absorption in addition to the wheels. Other thoughts have been plywood (heavy) and suspending the crate by the lip, which may or may not actually match with the frame of the trailer. (I don't yet have an appropriate sized crate.)
Swanny1790 wrote:Loaning sky to another scooterer could be advantageous, but you don't yet know if she will run lead for someone other than you. Some leaders will run for anyone willing to take them on the trail, and others just won't. They work for one person, and one only.
I would rather keep her with me if I can get the trailer thing worked out with Siruis and I don't have issues with Sirius redirecting to Sky, or issues with passing/meeting with both dogs together. This will likely be determined by stress levels of both dogs. When we attended the malamute scootering workshop, stress levels were high in both dogs and when we encountered a dog coming towards us, both dogs went off and were almost impossible to hang onto. Sirius would be more comfortable running close to Sky.

I don't forsee a problem with Sky running for another person. She has demonstrated an on lead willingness to drag anyone who took hold of the other end of her leash and in group walks, she has always wanted to be in the lead. My greater concern is with her dog anxiety and having her decide she has had enough of somebody else's dog running beside her, and deciding to give them a good telling off.

Another option may be to take Sky only for the monthly group scootering outings and then take both dogs when I can arrange a small group outing.
Swanny1790 wrote:You wrote the whole plan, everybody's whole plan, in your last sentence. Start out slowing, try different scenararios and learn what works best for you and your team.
Good, I'm glad I am on the right track. :D

Thanks again for the tips Swanny.
Grammy to Sky and Sirius, who came to live with me, stole my heart, and changed my life forever as I took over their care and learned how to be a dog owner.
MPbandmom
Posts: 1637
Joined: Sun Jan 03, 2010 7:18 pm

Re: Dog Scootering a journey

Post by MPbandmom »

Recently a member of the Samoyed group posted pictures from a trip to Arcadia and the carriage roads there. One of the pictures in particular started a few scootering gears turning in my head. The caption on the picture stated that they had walked up what appeared to be a gradual incline and then glided back down on the scooters.

My husband has a recumbent bike. He hasn't ridden it in years because it was too hard for him to keep up and recover when riding with the family once the kids got older and faster at riding their bicycles. It is currently at my brother's house because he had wanted to try it. I don't think it was a very successful experiment for him. I bring this up, because that picture gave me the idea that Sky could easily pull my husband on the recumbent down such a hill. In fact, Sky just might be able to pull my husband on the recumbent on the level. He would probably have to help her get started and would have to help or walk up hills. It would solve the problem of two mismatched dogs. He could run Sky and I could run Sirius. It would get him out of the house and hopefully enjoying an activity along with me. That is assuming the doctors are able to fix his back so that sitting becomes more comfortable for him, so that he can get out and travel more than 5 or 10 minutes away from the house.

I have not mentioned this to my husband yet. There doesn't really seem to be a reason to at this point. However, some members of the samoyed group are working on plans for a trip to Arcadia next year and I have mentioned that to him. He seems reasonably interested.

I am going to see about getting the recumbent back from my brother and taking it to some of the scootering events to test it out as a possible dog mushing vehicle. As I recall, it is rather unstable when starting up, so I am uncertain as to whether it will be stable enough at the slower speeds of scootering. If it isn't, then we may have to work out some way of making it more stable. Something along the line of training wheels comes to mind. Like a scooter, one can easily put one's feet down and it has brakes. I consider that putting it into nearly the same safety catagory as a scooter vs a bicycle.

I kind of feel like I am being devious though. Since I already know how addicting dog mushing is, it seems kind of like scheming to draw my husband into the trap.
Grammy to Sky and Sirius, who came to live with me, stole my heart, and changed my life forever as I took over their care and learned how to be a dog owner.
Swanny1790
Posts: 571
Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2013 7:27 pm
Location: Two Rivers, Alaska
Contact:

Re: Dog Scootering a journey

Post by Swanny1790 »

Here's a Sammy photo that ought to get some gears turning. Don Duncan's Seaview Samoyeds at the start of the 2011 Serum Run '25 expedition from Nenana to Nome, Alaska.
Image
"Once infected with the mushing virus, there is no cure. There is only trail." - Sven Engholm
MPbandmom
Posts: 1637
Joined: Sun Jan 03, 2010 7:18 pm

Re: Dog Scootering a journey

Post by MPbandmom »

Always smiling sammies. :D

Yesterday I ran Sky in our first dryland mushing race. It was an interesting experience and one I am at this point undecided on trying again. There is another race at this same location in January. At least one team is planning on going, weather permitting. While the drive is 4 to 4 1/2 hours from here, there is a friend with a beach house within 2 hours of the race site. The entire drive then becomes longer, but can be broked down into more managable chunks. Staying in a dog friendly beach house with friends also beats staying in a motel with unknown neighbors.

Sky did fairly well. I did not. We started last and we ended last. We entered the "sportsman" class which was a shorter distance than the standard class. Standard was 3.8 miles and Sportsman was 1.8 miles. There were some disadvantages to running the sportsman class. The standard class was run totally on packed sand roads. The sportsman class had a cut though the woods on a dippy trail that was neither a particularly good surface to run on as far as packing was concerned and was generally just odd. Odd as in I found myself wondering what forces of nature or man resulted in the dipping. It was almost as if someone had dug a hole a yard or so wide, a foot or so deep every two or three yards, with tapered edges on the holes. Most of the first holes I walked through. Then Sky found a path to the side of the holes so I rode along the edge. The holes went away for a while and then re-appeared towards the end of the pathway, and I did ride through the last few and they weren't as bad as I had imagined they would be to ride through when I first spotted them at the beginning of the trail.

Not all of the packed sand was well packed. I had hit a loose spot near the beginning of the race which kind of unnerved me with the combination of sliding sideways and tire bogging down. So, I became paranoid of places where the sand looked looser and would slow Sky down or get off and walk if I didn't see a way to avoid it.

Sky is just one dog and has limits to how much actual pulling effort she willl put forth. So, for the two hills, she needed help getting up them. I tried kicking some. I tried getting off the scooter and running some. I quickly realized, I was not in condition, nor properly dressed for such activity. In the end, I generally walked up the hills, which really weren't steep and really weren't all that long. Even so, I ended up having to stop to catch my breath a bit on one of the hills. I ran out of steam and thus wasn't able to provide Sky with the assistance that I should have been providing to her.

I have theories on why I ran out of steam. Poor conditioning, we just don't get out and scooter that much. This is why I had selected the shorter route. Poor personal fueling preparation. We had gotten started late driving to the beach house and thus didn't stop for lunch. I ate a granola bar and pack of fruit sauce enroute. We had a wonderful dinner of Thanksgiving dinner leftovers. For breakfast I had eaten another granola bar and pack of fruit sauce and drank a partial cup of hot tea. The race didn't occur until after lunch time, but I didn't want to eat right before running. I had taken 2 16+ oz bottles of water with me, but because it was chilly/cold. I hadn't wanted to drink cold water. There was also the matter of not wanting to have to use the porta potty in such chilly temperatures. By race time, I had essentially not consumed any liquids for more than 24 hours and was probably somewhat dehydrated. Clothing, we spent most of our time watching the race. It was rather chilly. I had started out with polypropelyne long johns as a base layer including sock liners. That was topped with a t-shirt, sweatshirt, and jersey knit lined windbreaker, flannel lined pants and I had added some snowboarding pants that had belonged to my oldest son to block out the wind. On my feet, I had wool socks over the liners and insulated hiking boots. Right before the race, I added toe warmers, because my toes had gotten quite chillt. I was also wearing a double layer knit scarf in a synthetic yarn and a polypropelene balaclava which fits under my helmet. For my hands I had a pair of synthetic knit gloves shoved inside of my winter full finger bicycling gloves. While this outfit served me pretty well while standing around waiting for our turn and watching the other classes come in, as soon as I became more active, I was way too warm. Being in the middle of a race didn't seem like the time to start shedding clothes. If I do the race in January, I will really need to be aware of not making these same mistakes again. I had stayed bundled up thinking the increased wind of movement would counteract the extra warmpth of movement. I was wrong.

We finished the course in just under 20 minutes. It was 19 minutes and some seconds and tenths of seconds. If nothing else, we have a base time to improve upon should I decide to do this again.

Do, I want to do this again? I am really not certain at this point in time. In some ways, now that I have a base time to improve upon and I have recognized areas where I miscalculated, there is a draw to try it again. Were I running solo, that would probably be sufficient rason to do it again. Dog mushing isn't a solo sport though, there is also a dog who's needs and desires have to be taken into consideration. This is where most of the questioning comes into play.

Sky spent a long ride in the van in a crate, after waiting in the crate for 2 hours while the various people going on the trip assembled for the caravan. The day after Thanksgiving is not the best day to make a trip like this. All of us had spent most of the time prior to departure preparing for Thanksgiving. Then we all had to get our stuff together quickly for the trip.

Once we arrived at the beach house and were unloaded, I put Sky into her crate in the room I was staying in and went upstairs to see what I could do to help the others. Sky couldn't be allowed to run around the house with the house dog because her behavior around other dogs is unpredicitable. When I returned to my room, Sky was halfway out of her crate, having chewed a hole in the door screen material. :shock: After that, we tried her with house dog, who is a 2 year old male that she has seemed to get along well with. House dog was a little overexcited and jumped all over Sky's head. Fortunately she only gave him a verbal warning, to buzz off rather than her usual slamming a dog to the ground and giving them a good head thrashing. He didn't seem to register the verbal warning though, so he was placed out into the yard with another dog that he has been playmates with since puppyhood. This gave Sky time to schmooze with the people and relax a bit. She still ended up spending probably most of the time in the room by herself except for when I was sleeping.
Grammy to Sky and Sirius, who came to live with me, stole my heart, and changed my life forever as I took over their care and learned how to be a dog owner.
MPbandmom
Posts: 1637
Joined: Sun Jan 03, 2010 7:18 pm

Re: Dog Scootering a journey

Post by MPbandmom »

Once we arrived at the race site, there was a lot of dog noise. I took Sky out for a potty break and then put her back in the van. I got the scooter and related equipment out and placed that at the back of the van. I helped hold onto samoyeds while another person unloaded her scooter and equipment. There was a kennel of sibes somewhat close to where we were parked and this seemed to be the most boistrous group of the kennels there. The other person spotted a tree nearby and decided this was a good place to hook her two sammys up to. :shock:

I took Sky out a second time as it got closer to race time hoping she would take care of business before the race. It was suggested that I move my scooter up towards the staging area, so I handed Sky's lead to the other person who was with us, to hold her while I ran the scooter up. When I came back, the person was holding a baggie for me. :oops: I harnessed Sky up and put her back into the van.

When it got to be race time, the canicross people had been hanging out in the starting area with their dogs for some time even though they weren't due to start until after our race. So, I had to dodge around other dogs. The other club member who was running 2 sammies had her male get huffy with one of the canicross dogs standing around, which had put Sky on high alert. I had a very hard time finding a "safe" spot to stand with Sky waiting to hook her up to the scooter. She was trembling all over while the other groups got hooked up. I had her sit, since the alternative seemed to be her trying to back out of her harness and take off. I did have that possibility covered with the belly band on her harness and I had added Swanny's trick of the neckline hooked to the collar and wrapped around the harness. I hooked it to the martingale collar that I have started putting on her since the lure coursing collar escape incident. I just kept talking to her and petting her while she trembled and looked totally freaked out. :(

There were 2 4 or 6 dog rigs, a 4 dog scooter team of samoyeds, the other club member was running 2 samoyeds. Her male has been huffy to Sky before too, so I couldn't stand near her and our scooters were lying close to each other. I couldn't hook Sky up until she had hooked her two up and moved to the starting line. She had trouble with that, but finally we were both waiting at the starting line behind the team of 4 sammies pulling a scooter. Once on the move, she seemed fine again.

We ran our race and then loaded her back into the van along with the gear, waited for the time results and then headed back down the road. I opted to come home the day of the race while the other two headed back to the beach house for another night. Traffic was snarled at one point, so our drive home ended up taking about 6 hours. I did stop and get Sky out for a little walk around at a rest area a couple of times.

All in all, it just seemed like she spent a lot of time beign shut up one place or another, only to be totally freaked out by being surrounded by strange barkey dogs. Just to have a chance to run for 20 minutes, which would have been shorter had I not run out of steam.

How to make the experience better for Sky is where the undecidedness comes in. I think the ideal scenario would be to find a dog that she could run with, and hang out with, and be reassured by. Clearly Sirius is not a prime candidate for that position. Okay, she isn't even in the running. The club member who ran the two sammies brought 3 with her. The third sammy was for no show person number 4 to run. Person number 4 had expressed some concern as to whether this dog would run without "mama"her owner. This is the same samoyed that Sky was seemingly so excited to see at Mt. Vernon that she was trembling. I wish I could get a good handle on the trembling to be able to tell when it was a positive response and when it was a negative response. :? The other club member ran father and daughter. Third dog is mother to daughter, but all dogs are very attached to their owner and when run at the same time hooked to two different scooters, they have a tendancy to run in 3 dog team formation.

It would probably be easier to find a suitable running partner for Sky if I weren't so paranoid about her taking offense to something and slamming the other dog to the ground and giving it a head thrashing. I have seen this occur enough times, with a miniscule amount of advanced warning, to be really wary of putting her in close proximity to other dogs. My nervousness probably now adds to the problem.

For now, I will just continue to scooter with Sky in a group setting to help her become more accostimed to such things and to observe how she does. It will also build our conditioning for a possible second run in January. I am open to suggestions, thoughts and opinions on this delima.
Grammy to Sky and Sirius, who came to live with me, stole my heart, and changed my life forever as I took over their care and learned how to be a dog owner.
MPbandmom
Posts: 1637
Joined: Sun Jan 03, 2010 7:18 pm

Re: Dog Scootering a journey

Post by MPbandmom »

Another thought/observation. The 2 dogs run by the other club member are show dogs. They are used to being in the noisy environment of the show ring. They are normally very vocal in their dislike of waiting. These dogs too, were overwhelmed with the race setting. Other than a grumble at the one dog, they did not utter a sound. Their owner commented on this and was aware that the dogs were stressed. Her dogs ran well. They started 5th and ended 3rd, passing the team of 4 samoyeds pulling a scooter as well as one of the rigs. Her dogs performed well for the most part. Her male did stop by to say hi to the females in the 4 samoyed team. :lol: She had a blast and is eagerly looking forward to the next race where she intends to enter the standard class.

I kind of feel like I am once again blowing things out of proportion and worrying unnecessairly. Sky did run well. Maybe if we structured the whole trip a little differently, we could reduce the amount of time she just spent waiting around by herself. There originally was going to be a group walk on the beach, but the late start and cold temperatures resulted in that not happening. The homeowner is willing to work around Sky's potential dog issues and arrange things so that every dog has a chance to have fun. The 2 males have a history of not getting along, so they were also kept separated.

Maybe some of the way to make the event more fun for Sky is to just take her to more of the events, so that she becomes more comfortable in that type of situation. Next weekend, we are joining the Samoyed club in a Christmas parade. This is another first for us. I am going to enter in the scooter group but keep my leash handy in case I need to switch Sky to lead. It is a very animal oriented parade as it occurs in hunt country. There will be a parade of the hounds and hunters on horseback in the morning, and the Christmas parade in the afternoon. The town makes a day of celebration. I will try to get some pictures of the horses and hounds for Nettle.
Grammy to Sky and Sirius, who came to live with me, stole my heart, and changed my life forever as I took over their care and learned how to be a dog owner.
Ari_RR
Posts: 2037
Joined: Fri Sep 30, 2011 10:07 am
Location: USA
Contact:

Re: Dog Scootering a journey

Post by Ari_RR »

While I would never attempted such thing (4+ hr drive alone for a fairly short affair alone would turn me off), I absolutely admire you for giving it a shot! Bravo! Whether you try again and improve time, or try again and get worse time, or don't even try again - GREAT JOB! This is an accomplishment to be proud of, in my books. There are so many reasons and excuses not to try doing what you really want to do.... But you wanted it, and you did it! It's just awesome. Congratulations!
gwd
Posts: 1958
Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2012 11:33 pm

Re: Dog Scootering a journey

Post by gwd »

Ari_RR wrote:While I would never attempted such thing (4+ hr drive alone for a fairly short affair alone would turn me off),
it's interesting that people on the east coast look at a 4 hour drive as a long way..........in the west it's not uncommon at all to attend shows that are 6-8 hours drives. .......heck I've done the san diego to santa Barbara and back on the same day probably 20 times. that's anywhere between a 4-6 hour drive depending on la traffic. it's taken me as long as 8 hours on really bad days.

east coast being more densely populated folks usually don't have to travel as far.

and of course there is the old saying: "The difference between America and England is that Americans think 100 years is a long time, while the English think 100 miles is a long way." --Earle Hitchner
Image
MPbandmom
Posts: 1637
Joined: Sun Jan 03, 2010 7:18 pm

Re: Dog Scootering a journey

Post by MPbandmom »

The next race......

There is another race coming in January to the same location as the one I just went to. It is sponsored by a different club. It is a 2 day race. Where the last race had a sportsman's class distance of 1.7 miles,the next race has the sportsman's class at the 3.8 miles. I would love to find another dog to team with Sky, but she can be snarky as unfamilier dogs. I would consider it unreasonable to suggest that someone risk their dog getting snarked at to hitch their dog up in a fan hitch or two dog lead with neckline formation with Sky. Sirius is out of the question as Sky would then have to pull Sirius as well as me. :lol: Not to mention Sirius would likely not express appreciation to all the helpful people and handlers. I can't afford to add another dog to my family/kennel and I don't know how I would go about finding a dog that I would dare pair with Sky anyway.

If this race works as I believe it will, the second day run order is determined by the first day finish order. I believe the longest times go out first and the fastest times go last on the second day. I guess, I will have to deal with being passed in this race. :lol:

In order to run in the last race, I had to pay to join the club that was holding the race as well as pay to run. The same will hold for the next race. That is not necessairly a bad thing where this club is concerned, because this is the big regional club that is the area's mushing headquarters. This club is a member of the overseeing group for humane and safe treatment of the dogs and events that Swanny is a member of. This is the club that is recommended to anyone interested in dog powered sports in the Mid-atlantic area.

I'm thinking racing may be as addicting as just mushing in general. Once I have completed a full sprint race of 2 days for the full distance, I will have that time to work towards bettering. (I realize it is a "sprint" race, but we will likely finish it at whatever speed Sky feels comfortable with assuming there aren't too many hills for me to walk up, in which case it may be goverened more by the speed I feel comfortable with. :lol: )

The race form asks for a Kennel name. I left that line blank on the last form that I filled out. Does my little group count as a kennel? Should I be thinking of a catchy name to call my kennel?
Grammy to Sky and Sirius, who came to live with me, stole my heart, and changed my life forever as I took over their care and learned how to be a dog owner.
Post Reply