Question for Annie Hammond...

So when did you get a group of Alaskans? And from where?

And, yes, I bet Baako would fit right in with your typical Alaskan team... lol. He'd probably make one heck of a wheel dog! (or any position, really... but he's so huge and strong compared to an Alaskan my guess is he'd help out most in wheel)

I just got them last week. I've run them 3 times now. We got 4 in total, but my dad took two and I kept the other two.....so I run my two boys with 4 of my sibes. (all 4 alaskans are mine, but they get more attention/training being split up like this) They came from a friend of mine. The female is 18mos, and the males are all 3yrs. The guy jumped in head first, lost his job, and was in a really bad situation. They have good lines and the kennel that I've been training with all season has two of the litter mates that have turned out to be decent or else I wouldn't have considered buying grown dogs. They ARE giving me fits though. They didn't get the best education in their mushing 101 class ....I personally blame the teacher. The guy meant well, but he had no idea what to do with dogs of this caliber. Like I said, even I'm having a hard time straightening them out and I've been training sledmutts for 10 years now! He knew he had fast dogs, but he gave them no direction/leadership.....they're a handful. The sibes don't appreciate the alaskans' style. They're INSANE to say the least and the sibes get really annoyed really fast. Does them good to run with my structured team though. I don't see them racing this season......too many things to fix before they'll be ready to handle that stress. Ideally, I'll have a sibe team and an alaskan team by next season.

Haha and no, there's no Iditarod in my future, but I AM looking very closely at the Jack Pine 30 and Tequamanon (around the same mileage) for next season. I was up to 11 mile runs before xmas......but we only went 2 miles tonight because the newbies were being IMPOSSIBLE. They were excellent the first two times in harness, but tonight was a bad, bad, baddddd run. When I say they need a lot of work, I mean they need to be treated like 6 month olds!!

Ah, yes, retraining working dogs (especially Alaskans- sheesh)! It's worse than starting out with multiple puppies- not only are they goofy in the head half the time, they also think they know what's what, AND they have the physical strength and stamina to try to do it their way.
Just keep reminding yourself of what you will have in the end ... and that you'll have the right to be called St. Annie when all is said and done.

Hahaha thanks Angela! I think that has a nice ring to it..."St. Annie"

Not living dangerously, huh? Give them something to chase, huh? Yeah... riiiiight. Lol. I now have a rig with an exploded (yes, exploded... hole straight through the tire and tube) tire, a scraped up/bruised hand and butt (lol), and need to get some replacement wheels later today. I think I beat you on bad run last night, Annie! Lol. We only made it about a mile before having to turn around!

Man, do I miss my dogsled... which I can maneuver so much better! And man, do I miss snow... which is so much more forgiving when fallen upon!

Justin is going all "mad scientist" with all sorts of ideas for "rig customization and advancement." He wants to throw on a bunch of his old BMX and mtn bike parts (most of which cost a few hundred each... just for the small stuff!) to make it "lighter, faster, more durable, give it shocks/suspension, disc brakes, more aggressive/durable wheels..." etc etc. All of the parts are outdated now for racing though... so they're just sitting around collecting dust while he uses the newer, more expensive stuff for his bikes. I tried to tell him I don't necessarily want lighter... but I don't think he gets why. Lol.

The Alaskans sound like fun... hehe. I bet Baako would definitely fit right in with them! Best of luck with getting them to figure out the "finer points" of mushing without going insane first.

Let me guess- it was probably Baako (possibly Jack Tar) and he ran you (at full speed) over exposed roots or a really big rock or maybe ran you into a light post (like Ice tried to do to Brent's buddy- no one to rescue YOU though). Of course there's always the poor unfortunate tree or two. Did you knock yourself out again?
So how many scars will it be this time?
I always knew I wasn't raising an evening gown-wearing southern belle-type daughter and that I always told you scars are nature's way of proving you've lived... but you seem determined to prove you've lived the fullest of anyone else! He who beats himself up the most wins, huh?

Sending you a PM, dear daughter.

Actually, it wasn't either dogs' fault. Jack wasn't even running, it was Aro and Baako... but they were both behaving and didn't do anything wrong. I decided to ask Justin to go with us on a run after dark, so we would have less chance of "running over" people out running or walking their dogs, or whatever. I asked Justin to go just so he could run up beside the dogs if we did happen to need to pass anyone in a tight area with a dog (Aro likes to say hi, and some of the dogs around here... especially some of the small ones... aren't as friendly and some of their owners are kinda dumb about it). So, that way he could help steer them by any not-so-nice dogs so we could keep going, rather than have to come to a complete stop, let them pass, and then continue on again... like I would have to do for safety's sake were I by myself.

Well, anyway... Justin decided to run out ahead of the dogs through an about 45 degree downhill that runs directly into a near 90 degree turn. I rode BOTH brakes the whole way down... no effect on the speed on two crazy GSDs who want to catch Justin just two feet ahead (and barely maintaining that... they nearly ran him over a couple times earlier in the run). Well, going into the turn I'm yelling SLOW DOWN SLOW DOWN and then the rear right tire blows out from being locked up for so long and grinding against the pavement. It just wore completely through the tire and tube. So the rig rolls to the right, both because of the sharp turn and the sudden loss of support from the tire. I didn't have too bad a fall, really... went down with the rig at first and skidded for a couple seconds, then stumbled back up as fast as I could to lunge forward and grab the rig so there wasn't chance of it sliding any further forward.

The rig has new tires and tubes for both rear wheels now, though... and they are a lot higher quality then the ones originally on there. We also now know it's a bad idea to have Justin run out front... so if he goes along in the future, he'll just run behind the rig or beside it, and only go up front if we need to pass a dog that isn't behaving itself. So, we shouldn't run into the issue again.

Another good idea gone bad... ah, well. So do you think they understood what happened, or did they just look at you with a "so what are you doing down there" on their faces?
And do you think they will now be willing to approach steep downhill grades much slower? Much easier to navigate through (and much less wear on the rig's systems) when you start much slower.
On the bright side- you learned something and, in all probability, you'll end up with some kind of technical marvel by the time you're through a couple of races. In your case most improvements will be for the sake of safety- but, hey, all in the name of the scientific and handling theory advancements of dog sports!

So he runs in front of you the WHOLE time (or just during passes)? Now THAT'S love!! haha You couldn't pay me to be GSD "bait!" hahahahaha

Lol. The initial idea was to have him run BESIDE (or slightly ahead of) them ONLY during passes, to prevent having to stop or really slow them if we had to pass anyone with a... uhh... not so well behaved or nice dog. We have a few in the area, so having Justin go up there was mostly just a safety thing (they certainly don't need the speed encouragement) since my boys think every dog they come across must be nice and want to say hi to them.

But, through either lack of communication or Justin just wanting to see if he could get them to go faster... he ran ahead of them for a good part of the run. Soooo... yeah. The result? Insanely fast crazy GSDs who are running wild to catch him, even if it means playing "crack the whip" with the rig and musher. Lol. If Justin hadn't been ahead of them, I know by experience that they would have slowed... they were just too focused on catching him at the time and tuned the rest of the world out. Lol.

Anyway, they knew I fell off and came to a gradual stop (that's the good thing about the GSDs vs some sled teams, I suppose... they won't just keep on going down the trail, possibly dragging a tipped and driver less sled/rig or not, to be chased after and found who knows where how long later). So at least they care enough to wait for mom to get up, dust herself off... but still hope and expect me to hop right back on so we can keep going. On the way back, Justin rode the rig with all his weight on the "good" left side tire, and I ran.

Hahaha never a dull moment.....

You know with a quick release tire setup you could carry a spare and have it swopped out before the pain of the fall even sets in :-P

just rember to tuck and roll kel. thats the best way to survive a crash i dont care what your rideing on.

Lol... gee thanks guys.