It Takes A Team

    At last the hot weather seems to have gone away and training has begun in earnest! This year is the first time I've ever had two teams to train and also the first time I've had more than enough dogs for the race team.
    In Alaska I learned you really don't need a lot of extra dogs - train them right and you should be able to get them through. I was very comfortable with my little 9-dog team. All that is changing!
    First, I have yearlings - which means I've got to be careful to make sure they can succeed and build a strong foundation for the future. I want them to trust me and know that I'll take care of them out there.
    Second, with more than 12 dogs I'm not always running the dogs together. This means someone often gets left...and it's interesting to see how this affects my core (the adults).
  
    Last year I remember leaving both Jersey and Summer at different times in the season because of sore wrists...and I recall how interesting it was that without their calm (or crazy!) influence, the boys just weren't themselves. But add them back in and now we were motoring up the hills rather than messing around.
   
    This fall I was reminded, again, that it takes the whole team to have a good run. Due to a yearling induced team tangle at our turn around, my leader Legolas was sore and I left him for a few runs to fully heal. Some of the dogs did step up to take his place, but it's like leaving an extension of you at home...things just aren't as comfortable if he's not in the team.

    Maybe it's just Legolas or maybe it's my imagination (it's many long hours staring at a team of dogs, after all!), but I think sleddogs have a lot to teach us about team work.
    Think about it:
    The right seasoned veteran next to the wild youngster; patiently pushing him where he needs to go to avoid running into the tree or the calm, cool and collected Mambo next to the shy female, not getting perturbed when she gets tangled.
    Due to a springtime squabble, Nibbs and Razz detest each other in the yard. But put them together on the line and they agree to disagree about who's more macho and become some great wheel dogs.
    Kuchen wasn't pulling up the hills, but would be screaming to go whenever we stopped. Move him back to wheel, stop a few extra times (while he was pulling) and now he's happy, comfortable...keeping a tight line!
    I also remember running and pedaling up Huckleberry pass. The dogs could've done it themselves, but we're a team and working together (even though I'm sure I wasn't that much help) got the job done...better than if the dogs or I had been alone.
     Putting everything to the side in order to focus on the job at hand. Working hard together...it's what sleddogs are good at!