The team is coming together nicely. We've been doing 10 mile runs, getting the dogs well muscled and conditioned. We have a SCL foster, Jenny, who has been running in the team. She's a smooth, fluid mover who works hard, but her severe shyness could cause problems on races. She waits to eat/drink until we are out of the dogyard, which just won't work on a race. I hope I can work her out of this trait, because she really is a hard working dog. I haven't put her in lead yet, but have been running her in swing, which is turning out nicely.
We've been worrying about Clostridium in the dogyard, so we had Dr. Jayne do some lab work. Good news is that they didn't find large numbers of the bacteria and that they did find good bacteria and no worms. This means the dogs are healthy, though we're going to have Dr. Jayne run more tests and possibly do the vaccine anyway. Better to be safe than sorry, right?
The dogs are running well, looking strong. We're running Reilly up in lead, and have been putting China up with him as well. They make a nice team, though China is sometimes unsure, so looks back to make sure she's doing alright. With all of the ice, we ended up with 2 wrist injuries, so had to take a smaller team out for the last run. We're running the atv in low gear (it's an automatic) to keep the dogs slower to try and avoid injuries. Once we switch to sleds, we'll run smaller teams to maintain more control to achieve the same thing. Our first race will be the Tune up, which is looking like it will be postponed until December 3rd if we don't get some snow real quick. After that, I'll be heading down for the Gin Gin 120 on December 10th. We were very disappointed to find the Denali 120 changed to an all women's race, as we really liked the 7 dog format and the trail that was used. Also, we had intended to run 2 teams, with both Manny and I racing. Oh well. At least I'll be able to get a team out there and the trail is mostly the same. It should still be a good format. After that, Manny will be running the Solstice 100.
So, loads to do to get ready. Check back periodically for training updates. I'll be getting them up here at least once a week, as time/training/kids/dogs permit. ;o)
Stay tuned! And thanks for joining us in our sled dog adventures.
Tammi