Friday 17 October 2014

Day Off – Humans and dogs rest



Sunday 12th October Day 

I found my thermometer!!
Training has been continuing for the past few days as normal.
At this time of the season we go out with 3 teams. A team of 12 which runs in front of a quad bike and the rest of the teams, are trained with the carts. On the carts one can have a maximum of 8 dogs. Any more and it is impossible to stop them (well at least in my case anyway)

The new track is dirt road with a top layer of stones. The rest of the path goes though a quaint wooded area, where I am sure I could spot Hansel and Gretel’s ginger bread trail. There is a small creek crossing with is a great place to stop for the dogs to get a drink. The turning point mid way into the training is an open field. This sometimes can be difficult because the following teams (they are the teams which follow the quad bike team) like to cut corners and start turning when they see the leading team turn.
An extra person ie someone not driving – becomes a must have. They are free to help out when turning or when other issues arise.

Just like people – the dogs have different levels of fitness. So it is important to group the dogs together that are about the same. There are many reasons for this variation. Older dogs, dogs returning from injury, also bigger dogs generally have to work harder as they carry more weight. There are other factors when putting a team together – but I will save this for another time.

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