Training Days

Ah.... training days! These are the mornings I get up a little earlier (unless it's cold enough to sleep in till 7) make my coffee, stretch a bit and get ready to harness up the fur devils. As soon as they see Jaye and I walking out towards the ATV with harnesses in hand they erupt. 

First thing I have to do is go in and put them all on tie outs if they aren't already on them. This is so we can manage them one at a time which, believe me, is the only way to do this. As I enter the kennel I am usually bombarded by paws and tongues. I try to close the gate while being crushed against the fence by all the dogs wanting to be first on tie out. The bark and growl at each other because they know what a tie out means this early in the morning. After all are tied to their posts, harnesses go on. 

I have just recently learned what color most wear because of the different sizes. I get the harnesses and most of them dive head first into it before I can open it for them. They lift paws to step in as I go from dog to dog. Some are harder than others because while I am trying to harness them up they are launching towards the gang-line.While I'm doing this Jaye is moving the ATV into launch position and running out the gang line.

The dogs usually reach some form of calm at this point with their harnesses on and waiting to be put on the line. After fetching the first dog, however, bedlam erupts once again as they all bark, howl, screech, and whine to put on the gang-line. We have a couple girls in heat currently so that takes a little extra care leading them to the front of the line away from the boys. All the girls are in front which helps motivate the boys to run. The girls get placed and we begin to put dogs along the gang-line according to the order the Jaye set the night before, rotating as needed so that most dogs get trained at different spots each time.

After all the dogs are on and the gate is opened before them, I am usually standing by the neck line chewers, we have 2 of them. Jaye puts on her jacket and hops on the ATV and starts it up. That is my signal to get in gear and hop on behind her. As I get on I can see that the line anchoring it to a tree is flexing and the ATV itself is bouncing in place from the power of the team snapping in harness as they lurch forward in anticipation of the run.

No sooner am I sitting down that she pulls the stick holding the anchor line, hands me the stick to stow as she stuffs the line in the basket in front of her, gives a yell and we are off like a long, furry, bat out of hell. Coming out of the gate is a SHARP left turn down the driveway, then a SHARP right turn out of the driveway. The first few times I was holding on the the ATV with my hands and my butt cheeks. These dogs LOVE to run.

As we settle into the run the dogs are now quiet, doing what they love and have been waiting to do. This is the part that makes all the noise, all the mess, all the hard work worth it. I enjoy fall weather, color, smells. But there is something about experiencing it behind a team of Huskies.