Where did September go?

Wow! Time seems to be flying by. We have been running right along, working hard every day, and suddenly I realized we are already well into October.
Alice has been here nearly two months already and she has played a critical roll in getting our fall training season off to a great start. We are training three, approximately 18 dogs teams, plus working with the 20 pups. The race dogs are well ahead in training from any other season and all are progressing superbly in their training and conditioning.

We are working on developing new leaders, especially among the 2 and 2.5 year olds. They are all showing a lot of potential! It has been really fun seeing their different reactions to running in lead for the first time. The Trouble/Teddy litter (born 2006) have a natural tendency to turn around and look at us when the team in stopped rather than lining out properly. We'll be working on that! The Fiona/Trekkie litter (2006) get right to work and hardly miss a beat. They may lift their tail up a bit at first or get taken off guard when they try to dip for water out of a puddle, but overall, they are amazingly professional young dogs.

We have had a fair amount of moose activity in the area lately! Last week, the two year old team was about 7 miles from home when I knew instantly they were in pursuit of something. I called them up and let them run, just as I saw something large, dark, and hairy round the bend ahead of us. I knew it had to be either a moose or Sasquatch! We were off at speeds the team hadn’t yet run this fall, and as we topped a hill and rounded another bend, I realized I better back them off a bit because we were right on the on the heels of a big cow. I held them back and the moose picked up her pace, but we were setting some nice speeds for another mile (about 14mph) and kept it up through a clean head-on pass with Blake team. What a thrill!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Fall!

Happy Trails,
Jen