Atvs, cold, no snow. Oh my!!

Jenny in the dogyard.

Well, the cold temps seem here to stay for a while. This is really bad news for training dogs, not to mention water pipes! There doesn't appear to be any snow in the forcast, at least not for the next week. I think Juneau got it all (3 1/2 feet of snow!). We've decided to scrap the Gin Gin 120, as I just don't want to push the dogs. Without snow, training on the atv is really rough...and while the dogs will be ready for the distance, I don't want to try it. At this point, it looks like the Tune up that was rescheduled for next Saturday is going to be a no-go, unless we get some snow by then...and the Solstice isn't looking very promising either. If that is cancelled, we're talking of heading down for the Knik 200 (thanks for the idea, Heather!). It will be a pretty easy race for the dogs...not a bad way to break in the season. Though, we'd MUCH prefer to get snow before then! We are debating on trying the Copper Basin this year. May not be such a good idea to try it with so little snow. We'll see. We're tossing around ideas, trying to be flexible and see what happens.

The dogs ran great on Saturday. Manny took them out on the Firebreak trail and he said they pulled real well on all of those hills. We sure won't have to worry about hill training anymore, now that we're running on the north side of CHSR! Lots of hills. The dogs are really powering up and getting scary strong! I took the B team out for a run on Sunday, meaning to do just a 5 mile run, since they aren't running too far (sprinters, young dogs, old dogs). Well, the cold seemed to have zapped the brakes on the atv, so when I tried to stop them to get them to take a loop turn, they pulled right through, so I didn't have much choice but to do the 7.5 mile loop. They came in looking good! I was a bit worried, but they were obviously ready for the increase and handled it like old pros. Jenny was in this team and since she hadn't been out running with us much (we just got her back about a week or so ago), I was a bit worried about her. She showed me that there was no need. Each time I tried to stop and rest the dogs, they all slammed harness, barking and raring to go. I was so impressed with them.

The cold is just not good. We went to feeding kibble in the morning and evening, with their ration of meat/fish in the afternoon. Most of the dogs are fairing the cold quite well, but we do have a few of our harder keepers looking thin. That's normal for those dogs and is why we went to the 3 feedings a day to split up the calories, allowing us to get more in them with less waste. I'm thinking of putting flaps on their houses though, as a friend said he did that with his and it has really helped.

Stay tuned and follow the further adventures of Running Swift Kennel!!