good news, I saw a dog today

TILLIE



TAZZIE, TARA



HONEY



First of all, I'm ready to watch Elf! I'm a stickler about watching Christmas movies too soon or listening to Christmas music too soon, but tonight is the night! Beyond that, I wanted to add some pictures the little monsters I'm babysitting. They're so fun and sweet.

"and if they send a whirlwind"

I haven't run since Friday's fiasco. Taking a 3rd day off always kills me (I could explain the science of it, but I wont...yet), but I wasn't able to run Sunday like I wanted, so Monday was our third day off. Anyway, long story short, I ran tonight (Tuesday). Like I said, I wont be running at Ft Custer until after firearms season, so tonight was on the road. If I do the whole block,it's 3 miles. We're up to more than that, but I didn't want to do TWO full blocks because 6 miles is a little much. What we ended up doing was cutting a trail through the woods near the middle of the block to the other side. The driveway is the access on one side of the square, and we cut a trail straight back from the driveway, over the river and through the woods. It cuts off a little more than half a mile. So, tonight it ended up being 5.3 miles. It's a perfect in between. It's great to have options. I'll continue this route for a few weeks, throwing in short runs sporadically, and my next jump will be 6.2.
Alright, so on to the interesting stuff: the dogs. I had all the hounds and left Oakley at home. Keytone and Freddie lead first. Fox and Heini were behind and Brew and Tune were in back. I kept them pretty slow because we hadn't previously been over 4.5 yet this season. They kept steady at 15pmh. I'll up the speed slightly in the future. For the second lap (we have to pass through the yard to hit the trail through woods that connects to the road on the other side) I switched leaders. Thank you, Alaska Heli-Mush for ingraining that into me! Ha my switch was mechanical and fast. Funny how old habits die hard. Heini and Fox were now in lead and they took off just fine. I thought they would have a problem leaving the yard, but they were great. We took the shortcut and hit the road. They were tired and in retrospect, I should have stopped for way longer! I'll take a bigger break from now on. Despite that, they just kept driving. Heini was getting a little "flighty." She was bouncing around, running wide (which is bad news when we're on the road), and VERY curious about all the horse farms we were passing. Petunia to the rescue! Leave it to Petunia. She's not the fastest dog in the world, or even in my kennel, but the fat little girl DOES NOT QUIT. She was working her butt off to keep up as is, but gladly stepped up to help lead. Everyone was really tired at this point, except for crazy Heini, but they kept pushing. Tune never backed off once and ran her heart out up there. Fox is more comfortable at higher speeds, and I think that slow speed just messes with her gate. She was a little off by the time we finished- she's SUCH a fast dog. It was just a great run. Awesome mileage, awesome drive, awesome finish. I'm running that same length tomorrow and then either taking Friday off or, more likely, just doing a quick 2 or 3 miles. Kalkaska is less than 2 months away!!

the most magnificent show on earth

Angry, high-strung city folk should not wield guns.
A public park is just that; a PUBLIC park. Everyone should work to share it.
If I can put so much effort into timing my runs so that I'm hitting the middle of the day (NOT prime deer hunting hours), cutting by my number of runs per week and making them as fast as possible so as to allow deer hunters their piece and quiet, the least they could do is NOT shoot near my team! I'm pretty close to irate right now. Yes, it's deer season. I get it. My entire family hunts. But guess what? We hunt on our own land, not in a public park. If we did hunt in a public park, we would not assume ownership. Good lord. I was hooking up today, just ready to leave the chute and a gun fired. It was 10:30 am. All of my dogs were wearing a orange reflective collars, one of the leaders was wearing an orange cape/vest. I was wearing a legal, orange vest. I had yellow rain gear on. I have an orange caution sign wired to the front of my rig. Don't panic- no one shot a dog. But seriously? Shooting that close to the camp ground? My grandpa walked up to the people, who had fired FROM ON THE TRAIL. They were pissed that we were running (in not so many words). Dumbass #1 remarked, "I thought I saw a deer." My grandpa responded with a sharp, "You didn't see a deer, you saw a dog. Six of them. With a person." My entire run, from the time we drove in until the time we loaded and left, took 45 minutes. Can we not share for less than an hour? Once again, it's a blanker blanking PUBLIC park. And once again, YES, it's deer season, I get it. Do the hunters really think they OWN the place? There were at least 10 bikers at trail head and, the previous night, another dog team. The crazy gun idiots just don't care. What really makes me mad? When I run dogs, I always strive to be courteous to other trail users. Ideally, I'd let my house dogs loose to chase my team, but I don't do that at a PUBLIC park. There are horse people out there. I respect THEIR RIGHT TO A PEACEFUL TRAIL by leashing all dogs. With the bikers, I announce when I'm passing and try to allow them to move off the trail so I don't clip them. This is because I RESPECT THE FACT THAT WE ARE ALL SHARING THE SAME TRAIL SYSTEM AND HAVE TO LEARN TO DEAL WITH IT. Being stubborn and shooting your gun towards people, even if you think they shouldn't be there, is not a fucking smart idea. I would put "public" in capitol letters again, but what's the use? If the rest of us have to share the trail system EVERY DAY, then why do the hunters think they can OWN it the minute they buy a doe tag?
But, I'll use my own advice and refuse to be stubborn about it. It's not worth the risk running among those crazies who prefer to hunt along a PUBLIC trail system. My dogs are more important than defending a principle. I pity the fool who mistakes Keytone for a deer and must answer to me in response....
I'll do my running at home for a while, thank you.


On a lighter note, despite the happenings, the hounds were awesome. Freddie and Heini lead. They took every single turn, and it felt like they added a lot of speed. I will be leading them more often! Man, they were phenomenal. I ran the sibes and Brew at home. Each dog ran two laps. It was a nice break for Brew. Oakley lead a lap around the field and then pretty much quit working. May and Joppie were the best. They held the line out during hook up. Where in the world did they learn THAT?! Haha I was so unbelievably impressed! Props to me, I guess. Oh, and Star actually lead too. With Oak- before she quit. Star ran without a neckline and worked out great. These babies are something else. Well, okay...Brother might end up being my pet...but he'll be my pretty pet. Their daddy wasn't half bad today either. Kuz only ran one lap- he has always been a one time kinda guy. He lead fine, but was slooooow. I'm glad I let him go a little this season, because he really doesn't pull anymore..which is a huge sign that he's done. Kuzin ALWAYS pulls. But he doesn't anymore. The retired Kuzin doesn't need to, so I guess that all works out just fine.

I've been trying to find the perfect meat/dog food ratio. I'm getting closer, but it's still not perfect. I'm not running until Monday...and THAT run (and the rest of the week) will be at home...not at Ft. Custer. I don't need anymore "thought I saw a deer" heart attacks.

Thank you, Keytone, for that lovely detour

She's at it again. Well, okay, it's the first time, but arhghggrr! Lovely little Keytone makes a mockery of the "on-by" command. She literally laughed in my face. Laughed. In. My. Face. The good stuff? It was an excellent run! We were on a roll. The entire trail is 4.5. Today's temp was perfect for a good, fast, longer run. I've been keeping them at 3's because, in my opinion (and I'm a wuss about such things), it's been too hot to up them lately, even though we should have been at 4.5/5 miles by early this month. Ah well. Sooo it was great. I wanted to lead Freddie, but she has been having pain in her foot, so I decided to give her the whole week off. I need to lead Heini, but I didn't want to throw her up front for a long, fast run. Plus, it was wet, so I had no stopping control (and Keytone KNEW it!), so I didn't want Heini up there taking wrong turns that I couldn't prevent. I went with the reliable duo because they're umm DUH- reliable! Hmmmmm. Funny joke.
Oakley was in over her head from the get go. She simply has no chance at that speed, but I took her for the exercise. Brew still messes with my mind. He'll be fucking phenominal and then just putter off and get all nervous and tired. He doesn't seem to be handling the extra speed brought on by the cold very well. Like I was saying, Foxer and Keytone were taking EVERY thing I called. It was going to be the best run of the season....
Okay, okay, it wasn't even that bad. We came flying up on the trail head parking lot which is about a half mile from the campground where the truck was staged. I know better, wayyy better, than to do it, but at the beginning of the season, I ran out of trail head a few times. What happens in that case is the dogs ALWAYS try to turn into trailhead. It happened with all of my original teams. We'd train from trailhead until the snow fell and then we'd jump down to the campground. The result? The dogs would quit running a half mile before their new end point. It took me literally YEARS to train Kuzin out of it. After not using the trailhead for multiple seasons, he finally made his mind let it go. And if you know Kuz, he's a stubborn cuss, so that's an incredible feat. Alright, so far we have established that I'm an idiot- a floundering moron. I trained from trail head because we started running early, so there were still tons of campers in the campground (why the fuck? right?) and my desire was to avoid their dismemberment when they, inevitably, got in my way. I ran from trail head three times. Three times in September. I've put on 100 miles since then, all from the campground. It matters not. If the dogs are tired when that parking lot appears, I'm a gonner.
Today, the dogs were tired. They were stil driving great- I would guess that we had settled to around 16mph. Keytone lifted her head. It had been raining. My rig simply DOES NOT STOP when the ground is wet. The brakes lock and the tires slide smoothly over the moist leaves. Fox tried in vain to ignore Keytone. Afterall, they're best flipping friends. They've run for so many years with a neckline, they actually think they MUST follow their partner. I was running without a neckline (hate 'em), but Fox happily followed Keytone. We were about two team lengths from the parking lot. I did not want to end up in the parking lot and clip a shiney SUV. I was afraid we'd hit the parking lot and dent every car in sight. A biker flew by, oblivious to my tense predicament. I was beginning to suceed in slowing them to a crawl. As he passed, he said "awesome." I replied with a weak, "it's not gonna be..."
The dogs pulled on, gaining all of their speed back. They were confused when we were dumped out into the parking lot and the tuck was no where to be seen. Fox shrugged and headed for the far end, where the black top road would lead us a mile out of our way and, eventually, to the truck. I thanked her, but called "haw" instead.
By now, we had crossed the parking lot, about 200 yards, and I really wanted to go left. Keytone didn't. I'm sure she couldn't have known, but the only thing to the right is the lake- in 1.5 miles. Once we hit the blacktop, the tires stopped sliding and I was finally able to stop. They were calm as could be.
The big finally? We dove off into the trees, slithering through (and remember, my rig doesn't exactly "slither") a wooden railing, which just so happened to be blocking the very trail I wanted. No gate can stop us. I lined them out and waited. I lined Keytone out again. And again. And again. And THEN I jumped on the rig and we flew off to finish our last 1/4 mile.
The moral of the story? Keytone will take a break from leading for a run or two, not as punishment, but just to ensure she doesn't form any bad habits by always taking that turn. She will, once more, recieve line-out training. She really needs more line out training. The more important moral of the story? I will never train from trail head. It's a dispicable location- a whore of a parking lot that tempts even the best gee/haw leaders!

lookie, lookie

Here's Heini!


Heini and Freddie

Keytone, Fox, Heini, Freddie, Petunia, Brew

"These lines of lightening mean we're never alone"

Well, on top of Heini there's also Tillie, Tara, Tazzie, and Honey. They're tons of fun. Honey is a BARKER. Tara's coat is a gorgeous red. Tillie is the crown favorite. She loves to snuggle...inside...on the couch. Like I said, they're all "on loan" from the Smithsonian (ha, only kidding about the second part) so I'm just supposed to make them happy, social puppies and then send 'em back. I plan to start working with them on "come," free dropping and the like. Probably by the time the snow flies, I'll be able to let them all loose to free run and chase the 4wheeler. They're just so houndy and cute! Seriously, it kills me. I'm dying.

I ran everyone this morning. First I took Keytone, Fox, Fed, Heini, Tune, and Brew on the road for 3 miles. Brew started to limp, so I put him in the truck and finished with 5 of them. They were great. I was able to get out early enough, while it was still cool, so I could run them a little harder. They can easily do 4.5 miles now, but the easiest route on the road is 3, so I do that when we're at home and 4.5 when we load and run at Ft. Custer. I'd also like to be on the 4wheeler more often, but it's hard because I can't use it at Ft. Custer....ah well, we're doing excellent either way.

The next chunk of teams were all sibes. I ran them in the woods- each dog ran two laps or 3 miles. (each lap is 1.5 miles). Kuzin was a good man and lead very well. He, of course, remembered the loop around the field. I only made him run once because he's a stubborn son of a gun and typically refuses to run again. For the last run, I had all 4 "puppies" and they were perfect! May and Jockey will be leaders no doubt. They are so impressive and confident. Little Brother is pretty much a fluffy pet and Star is a hard worker, but has ideas of her own if she's in front. That being said, I don't lead them often, it was just something I wanted to mess with. Love those babies.

The kennel looks amazing right now. We had tons of extra pannles and gates (I'm an obsessive collector)so we put five new kennels in the row and now all the dogs are kenneled and no one is chained. Typically, no one is chained, but the sudden inflext of muttlies happened before we could put up kennels. But, now we're all set for the winter....and well, forever. (unless, of course......)

For now, I just love the system I have. All of the dogs are used to having free time, so I can open the gates and let them all loose while I water and clean kennels. Usually I let about 10 dogs, give or take a few, out at once. If Brew and Sosa were fixed, I'd be more willing to let them out with everyone....but I get too nervous because EVERYONE else is a female and all of my girls are intact.

Because of deer season, I'm not running on Sunday. I would have taken it off anyway because today was three days in a row. I plan to run Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and next Sunday. Hopefully I'll be able to head to Ft. Custer to do some 4.5 milers for all of those runs but the Friday one.

But other than that, Elsie and I are going to a disc seminar on Sunday! I can't wait and I'm pretty sure she's excited too.

Thanks for the Butt Dog

Her name is Heini and she is my Heini....at least for a few months. I'll start from the beginning.
We had a great weekend at Ken and Lori's. It was pretty warm on Saturday, so I only took my teams 2 miles each. I ran the main string first and then added Solow and Dessie to Tune, Oak and Sosa for the second team. Solow and Dessie added a lot of speed. Sosa has been quitting, so Tune and Oak were happy to lead a team that actually helped them out. The rest of the afternoon was just spent hanging out. We had lunched, shared techniques and just had a good time. When we packed up to go home, we loaded nine more dogs than we unloaded that morning. In those nine were 8 puppies and one loaner female. All nine dogs go back to Lori in the spring....our job is socialization. The two year old female, the loaner, is from a "Butt" litter. She was on the track for their main team, but has had some confidence problems stemming from an accident. Her name? I know, I know...I laughed for a long time. I've started spelling it "Heini" as in "Heineken" because that sounds halfway legit. She'll be a big help this season, so I'm happy for the chance to use her.

I'm not running again until Tuesday. Last week, we ran hard Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and then the next Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday(yesterday). We did 4.5 miles last Thursday, took Friday off, only did 2 miles on Saturday (yesterday) and wont run again until Tuesday because I want them to have a break. Temp permitting, I'll do 4.5 this Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Friday's run will probably only be 3 miles if we're able to run fours before and after. After having Friday off, only running 2 miles yesterday and not running again until Tuesday will allow them a nice breather.

The new pups will make life exciting for the next few days until they get used to the routine. And of course I'll update on the Butt dog!

I like the way you move

BY THE WAY, THIS IS STAR. YOU'LL SEE WHY...


What has 75 and a half training miles and chases squirrels? My professor! His goal is the Boston Marathon. Funny joke, eh? Well, it's half true, but of course I'm talking about my main team. I am loving these hounds and appreciating them more by the minute. We ran at Lost Lake Halloween weekend aka the Midwestern Tsunami Weekend and everyone kicked butt. Fox, Ketyone, Freddie and Brewer pulled me through the sand and puddles at 17mph for 4.4 miles. I used Petunia, Oak and Sosa boy in the structured run to add some excitement and head on passing. I added Jockey and May to that team for power. By the end of the weekend, I had tired dogs in the truck and a giant smile on my face. Bring on the snow!

This weekend I'm taking the kennel up to train with Ken and Lori Chezik. They are great friends of ours and I'll be taking four of their pups for the winter. Their trail system connects to state land, so I can't wait to use it again. Fox is actually their "retired" main North American leader, so it'll be a little reunion.

I've begun to make the switch to quad training. I had been running the rig almost exclusively this season, but it's time to switch to the motor so that we can add more speed.

Oh, on an excellent side note, the puppies have a new trick. It's called "chew through the fence and run around the kennel eating food from other bowls before that dog notices." Makes for a good time, really. Let me mention that my Brother Dog would never think to partake in suck barbaric practices, but the girls are pretty sure they are alive for the sole purpose of racking up points. The pulling? Simply a fringe benefit.

Last week, the one and only Star Face pulled a small corner of fence away from the post. She pranced around and woke up the entire kennel, just being Star. A few loops of wire were tied and she was fooled. It’s been a week. Tonight I got home late. It was already dark. Everyone was hungry and pretty pissed off. I let Kuz and June out for a few minutes while I filled their bowls. I fed Brew, Sosa, Rebbie and Klonnie on the way back to putting Kuz and June away. I saw two dogs in their kennel. I began to shut the door. Kuz came up behind me. I was confused. I wondered if someone had spiked the Kool-Aid. I felt the presence of more fluffy tails than the number currently living in that particular kennel. Then Star barked at me…from inside Kuzin’s kennel. She was ready to run amok (amok, amok, amok!). Kuz and June looked on in disbelief as May, Jockey and Star began to eat THEIR food. June was all set to chew on a baby for dinner instead of arguing over kibble. I called to the girls and they came bounding out, happy as could be. Star was daring me to chase her. Brother Dog looked on and howled from inside the puppy kennel. He had no idea how his sisters magically transported themselves THROUGH the fence- it simply wasn’t fair. He kept howling.
I had a little talk with the girlies, explaining to them A)they couldn’t leave their cute brother all alone and B) they were not allowed out unless INVITED out. Thank you, Star. Anyway, I temporarily blocked off the hole with a wooden bench and fed them dinner. I had one last thing to do in the kennel—clean Freddie’s pen. Freddie is their favorite. It’s probably because she’s a sweet, crazy idiot who likes to pounce on them, but the babies love Freddie. Her kennel door was hardly open when, Star leading the way, 1,2,3 little Seppalas came slithering under the gate. Freddie was delighted, naturally. She began pouncing. Brother was stunned once more. He laid down by the gate and hoped it would suck him under also.

After Fred was put away, Star led the amigos back into their own kennel, where one little boy was relieved to have company once more. Like I said, it’s a great party trick. NOT. We re-wired the bottom, but Star watched us do it…so she’s probably figuring out a way through right now. The force is strong in that one. Brother on the other hand…..