Sledding
I have only recently taken up Sledding with my dogs and we are ALL having a ball. Check back regularly for new Sledding pics.
What a wonderful activity to do with your dogs. I had never had much interest in racing Alaskan Malamutes as I have always believed that mals are not racing dogs. They are built for endurance, not speed. However, there is nothing to stop you from going along and running your dog in harness at their own speed, just for fun. Sapphy was lacking in confidence so I was looking for something to do with her to help her improve that. The AMCV had an activities day so I took her along to try out a few working activities with her. Howie Shewring took Sapphy out for her first run and the rest as they say is history. I attended my first race on the 19th April 2008 and I have to say, I am hooked! Even better, the dogs absolutely love it. Sapphy has taken to it like a duck to water and Quake, well he's just Quake and needs a bit more training LOL. We certainly won't break any records out on the track and I really don't care. It's all about the dogs and they can do as much or as little of this as they want. It's all up to them... If they don't want to run, trust me they won't as I found out with Sapphy when she sat down about 500 metres from the finish line. She was tired after a marathon effort the day before when we got lost at One Eye State Forest. I just put her lead on and started walking her to the finish line and then she decided she would pull me the rest of the way LOL. For now, I am just having a fantastic time doing what the dogs were bred to do. If you haven't been to a sledding event, you really need to give it a go. You'll love it! I will add photos on a regular basis so I hope you enjoy them.
Sapphy above at the You Yangs 19th April 2008
in the Novice Class.
Quake above at Knowsley State Forest - Heathcote
3rd May 2008 in the 1 Dog Class.
Sapphy above at Knowsley in the Touring Class
Skye above at Knowsley trying to "weightpull" the scooter.
She'll get the hang of it eventually LOL
Sapphy above at One Eye State Forest - Heathcote
18th May 2008 in the 1 Dog Class, after she'd decided she
would complete the race after all. Note the lead in my left hand.....
Quake above on left with Cidaq owned by Mick
& Jane Hodgson at One Eye State Forest. This was
his first time in harness with another mal & he did
really well.
Quake on the left and Sapphy on right, about to go out together for
their very 1st time at Graytown 28th June 08.
Sapphy and Quake taking off a little enthusiastically LOL for their 1st run
at Graytown.
Quake and Sapphy finishing their 1st run at Graytown, 6klm approx.
They worked really well together after we got over a few tangles at
the start.....
They went out the next day and completed the 16klm AMCV excursion
event in pretty good time too.... I'm very proud of these two!
What are you doing out here? Sapphy at the You Yangs 12th July 2008
in the Touring Class. She had just spotted Cheryl Hamann with the camera.
Never mind. I'll just get on with it shall I?
Quake in the Touring class at One Eye State Forest at Heathcote
on Sunday 24th May 2009. The lucky driver is Mick Hodgson. Thanks
Mick.
Are you for real? You expect me to run with that black thing behind me? Skye
looking a little concerned about the black dog behind her LOL at One Eye.
As you can see, Skye got over it and has finally gotten the hang
of this sledding stuff. She no longer tries to weightpull the scooter.
Sapphy at the rear behind Mick Hodgson and Whiskey at One Eye
on 24th May 2009. She had her best time yet over 3.9klm in the
one dog class, averaging 13.29klm per hour. Last year in her first
year of racing, her average was about 9.3klm per hour. Great
improvement and I am so proud of her.
Thanks to Carolyn Evans for all the One Eye pics.
UNDERA SLED DOG DASH 2009
What a wonderful weekend we all had at Undera. It was my first time
there. It was held over the Queens Birthday long weekend in June.
There were so many photos I liked that I had to upload lots of them...
The first 3 pics are of Skye in Veterans. Notice how she went around
the puddle and not through it. God bless her LOL. I came back so clean
as did my dogs and I got teased quite a bit for it too. Everyone else was
coming back after their run covered in mud.
The balance of the pics are all of Quake. The muddier shots were taken on
the Sunday and the last few pics were taken on Monday. All of them were
taken by Jamie Myers at Huskywatch.com. The last pic is of my camping set up
which was affectionately called McMansion by some LOL.
The pics below are all of Skye in the veterans/touring class taken at
Knowsley State Forest 28th June 2009. Skye has really got the hang of
it now and had an absolute ball. She did very well for an 8 year old......
All pics taken by Shellie Shewring. The last 2 pics were right at the end
of the 2.2 klm course. James Ganson is also in the last pic with Cruiser
and Neena. Enjoy!
The following pics were taken at the You Yangs on the weekend of 11th
and 12th July 2009 at the prestigious AMCV State Cup race which consisted
of 3 torturous heats of 8klm approx each. Ian Luke kindly lent me his 8 year
old girl Moesha (Mo) so I could run Quake in the 2 dog class as a practice run
for the 16klm excursion event the following week. I am pleased to say they ran
together beautifully for their first time together and clocked up a total of 26klm
for the weekend.
The first 2 pics were taken by Carolyn Evans as Quake and Mo were coming home
strongly at the end of the first heat which ended up being 11.5 klm thanks to me
getting a bit confused out there. The rest of the pics were all taken by Shellie
Shewring at the start of the 3rd heat on Sunday morning.
|
