dogs, dogs, dogs!
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Well! I have been up at Team Ollie for one week and am having a great time. I really enjoy the daily routine. I get up around 8:00 and then head straight out to the dog yard and am greeted by 49 wagging tails. I then spend approximately an hour and a half shoveling poop. It's awfully glamorous. Actually, it's quite fun because, you know, you get to stop and play with each dog with some exceptions.
There are a couple of dogs here that really don't like people: Turtle, Willow, Nick, and Loke. The first two, no matter what you do they aren't going to come near you. Turtle is called Turtle because she hates getting out of her dog house and when she does she only stick out her front end. The only time I've seen her outside of her box completely is to eat or when she is in harness. Willow never really goes in her dog-house but always gives herself 180 degrees of separation. Nik and Loke, however, are quite different. They don't really enjoy being pet, but if you come up to them with a leash, a harness, or food then they will be your best friend. Interesting enough, every dog but Willow runs in lead.
My favorite dogs so far are Ghost (or Mr. Ghost), Planck, Texas, Johnny, Walker, Ivan and Slew. Of course, I love the puppies but the only one who I can actually tell apart is Bear and that's mostly because she is just so friendly. She also has the disgusting habit of chewing on a poopsicle and then coming to lick your face, tongue still brown and all. Pretty nasty.
Most of the dogs will try and eat their poop if it freezes. I guess they like the hard crunchy texture or something. Today when I went to pet one of the dogs, I put the poop bucket down too close to another dog, a little white girlie named Ensign, and she started picking turds out of the bucket and hiding them in her house. They all do this. Some of them, like Texas, have also learned to poop after I have already come by once so that I will come by and pet them again. I feel like I am encouraging this by petting them, but they are just so happy and cute!
Texas is a huge (and I mean huge!) dog. When he gets up on two legs he is easily my height He lives next to Mr. Ghost who likes to bite the tails of other dogs if they get to close. He just latches on and then doesn't let go. Strangely enough, the other dogs don't really seem to mind.
This past Saturday, I went to my first race as a spectator / handler. I didn't have to do a whole lot but I really enjoyed the atmosphere. It was quite fun seeing and hearing all the dogs as they got ready to go. There were 8 teams there in the 8-dog class which is what Lev ran. His goal was to come in last because he was taking out all his puppies who had never raced before and wanted to go slow and just let them have fun. Although the dogs had a great time, he didn't meet his goal of coming in last. He came in 3rd and is still baffled though very impressed with his little pups. I am too. They're great dogs.
I also helped harness break five 9-month old dogs who are all named after songs/lyrics from the Clash's London Calling album: Cadalic, Jimmy Jazz, KokaKola, Ivan, Rudi. Everyone got it which was great. Kokakola, however, that it was a game and started flopping over, almost as if she were dead and let the rest of the team drag her about as her tail wagged furiously. It was interesting watching this process as even though sled dogs are born to run, the concept of being in harness frightens them at first and they have to gradually warm up to it. Most of those dogs had never even worn a collar before so that in itself was frightening.
Dogsledding itself has been a blast though I fell off a lot at first and managed to break my brake and my sled, I'm now quite adept at hanging on for dear life. Just kidding. I'm now used to they way the sled handles going around curves and down hills and how to best brace myself to take those. It's definitely not easy, especially when you are behind a 15 or 16 dog team.
Anyways, I guess that's it for now. I jsut wanted to catch up because I said I would write down everything here in this blog but I've just been so tired! We run the dogs at night and usually don't get back til 1 or 2 in the morning and then up at 8. The day of the sled dog race it was up at 4 and in bed around 10:30... Long days, long nights.
But I'm doing it! I am following my dreams!
There are a couple of dogs here that really don't like people: Turtle, Willow, Nick, and Loke. The first two, no matter what you do they aren't going to come near you. Turtle is called Turtle because she hates getting out of her dog house and when she does she only stick out her front end. The only time I've seen her outside of her box completely is to eat or when she is in harness. Willow never really goes in her dog-house but always gives herself 180 degrees of separation. Nik and Loke, however, are quite different. They don't really enjoy being pet, but if you come up to them with a leash, a harness, or food then they will be your best friend. Interesting enough, every dog but Willow runs in lead.
My favorite dogs so far are Ghost (or Mr. Ghost), Planck, Texas, Johnny, Walker, Ivan and Slew. Of course, I love the puppies but the only one who I can actually tell apart is Bear and that's mostly because she is just so friendly. She also has the disgusting habit of chewing on a poopsicle and then coming to lick your face, tongue still brown and all. Pretty nasty.
Most of the dogs will try and eat their poop if it freezes. I guess they like the hard crunchy texture or something. Today when I went to pet one of the dogs, I put the poop bucket down too close to another dog, a little white girlie named Ensign, and she started picking turds out of the bucket and hiding them in her house. They all do this. Some of them, like Texas, have also learned to poop after I have already come by once so that I will come by and pet them again. I feel like I am encouraging this by petting them, but they are just so happy and cute!
Texas is a huge (and I mean huge!) dog. When he gets up on two legs he is easily my height He lives next to Mr. Ghost who likes to bite the tails of other dogs if they get to close. He just latches on and then doesn't let go. Strangely enough, the other dogs don't really seem to mind.
This past Saturday, I went to my first race as a spectator / handler. I didn't have to do a whole lot but I really enjoyed the atmosphere. It was quite fun seeing and hearing all the dogs as they got ready to go. There were 8 teams there in the 8-dog class which is what Lev ran. His goal was to come in last because he was taking out all his puppies who had never raced before and wanted to go slow and just let them have fun. Although the dogs had a great time, he didn't meet his goal of coming in last. He came in 3rd and is still baffled though very impressed with his little pups. I am too. They're great dogs.
I also helped harness break five 9-month old dogs who are all named after songs/lyrics from the Clash's London Calling album: Cadalic, Jimmy Jazz, KokaKola, Ivan, Rudi. Everyone got it which was great. Kokakola, however, that it was a game and started flopping over, almost as if she were dead and let the rest of the team drag her about as her tail wagged furiously. It was interesting watching this process as even though sled dogs are born to run, the concept of being in harness frightens them at first and they have to gradually warm up to it. Most of those dogs had never even worn a collar before so that in itself was frightening.
Dogsledding itself has been a blast though I fell off a lot at first and managed to break my brake and my sled, I'm now quite adept at hanging on for dear life. Just kidding. I'm now used to they way the sled handles going around curves and down hills and how to best brace myself to take those. It's definitely not easy, especially when you are behind a 15 or 16 dog team.
Anyways, I guess that's it for now. I jsut wanted to catch up because I said I would write down everything here in this blog but I've just been so tired! We run the dogs at night and usually don't get back til 1 or 2 in the morning and then up at 8. The day of the sled dog race it was up at 4 and in bed around 10:30... Long days, long nights.
But I'm doing it! I am following my dreams!
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