Slash working on his bike passes this morning.

September 21, 2023

dryland season? more like mudland season

[image description: a selfie of estlin outside. estlin is a light-skinned person with short brown hair, brown eyes, and round wire frame glasses. they're wearing a red pull over quarter zip hoodie with a light grey v-neck shirt underneath. their face, glasses, hoodie, and v neck shirt are covered in mud splatters. /end image description]

Third time scootering was, uh, not great…

Well the beans harness training has been going well she’s graduated from a water bottle to a small tire last session. Except during training today she realized it’s a lot easier to just carry said tire instead of dragging it so she just ran around with it in her mouth. Not exactly what i had in mind but she was enjoying herself.

It's now abuse to work a dog in a sport it wasn't explicitly bred for. Got a breed that loves to do something that's not part of the historical use? Tough shit you can only do the thing the breed was originally developed for, nothing else. Clearly you didn't do your research and should have gotten a different breed, even though the breed you have fits your lifestyle and the breed the opinionated thinks you should have does not.

This is probably not the first time someone has had that hot garbage take, but it's hilarious to watch them double down on their stupidity.

Mushing is an incredibly inclusive sport, arctic type dogs are not the only ones that should participate. Many breeds that have nothing to do with mushing have gone into the development of sleddog lines specifically because the arctic breeds did not have what those mushers wanted.

The mushing Border Collies are fine. They love it, they excell at it. I've personally handled the dogs and seen them race, there is no abuse whatsoever in allowing those dogs to run (and beat professional sprint teams, they're that good)

The four dog team that was only half my own dogs to four of my own dogs with a rather different pace, hitting 30+kmph when at top speeds, so much less time to be goofing with such things as hands in the air. Intro team was Chase and Noir in lead (my own pups), Mya and Gem (borrowed, RIP Gem) in wheel. Current four dog team, Kenai and Trapper in lead, Skadi and Zuko in wheel. I can switch their running positions around, no one is locked into a certain place, although my little black and white siberian, Trapper, is a little speed demon so if I were to try her in wheel more often I end up with tangles galore, therefore she is a pace setting lead dog, and a wonderful one at that. <3

Chase and Noir are only out on the trails socially now as they are both over 11yrs of age <3

Someone tagged that video of Eevee chasing Hermes to say that Hermes was playing chase while Eevee was herding and like THAT IS A VERY VALID CONCLUSION TO COME TO WITH THE EVIDENCE PRESENTED, I can see why you would think that, very sound logic... but it is only half correct. Hermes has very little interest in chase as a game played between dogs anymore -- which is something I've noticed a lot of pointers seem to lose interest in as they mature? -- and is much more interested in running for the sake of running or to hunt now.

You can tell the difference really obviously with him if you ever get the chance to see him do both because when he's playing chase he pays more attention to the dog chasing him than to where he's going which makes him do head empty shit like run full speed into trees (which is why I don't really like him playing chase because he has hurt himself doing that before). When he's running just to enjoy running -- like in that video -- he has his head high, actually looks forward and doesn't run into shit, and runs around in random loops and circles. He also runs at a slightly more relaxed looking pace in a weird bouncy hoppy sort of way that's a few notches below his top speed when he's running for fun like in that video, whereas when he plays chase he runs all out TOO FAST (and scares me).

Hermes would be running around exactly like that regardless of whether or not Eevee was in pursuit of him or even in the yard. When he stopped running at the end of the video where I stopped recording he completely ignored her instead of initiating wrestling or a short game of bitey face to finish off the chase which is another sign that he's not actually playing chase with her, though she may be attempting to play with or possibly herd him. The boy just really, really loves to run. If he's off leash outside he's running. It might not be in quite the same way as mushing dogs, but pointers are still dogs bred to run and to do so for hours across large distances. I would say that running is probably Hermes' favorite thing in the world after hunting and catching prey.

I had a dream Leon and I went dog sledding again and we raced and I was winning 🤣

What breed is your dog? literally the cutest most isle of dogs dog Ive seen

coho is an idaho shag which is a purpose bred mix used over in that state, as well as eastern washington for working cattle. theyre generally a mix of bearded collie, airedale terrier to make them tougher, and various herding breeds. my guy in particular has a lot of catahoula in him as well. very intense, intelligent, biddable, and high energy, meant to chase ranging cattle all day long over a rugged landscape. so instead i take him out for 20 mile dryland mushing runs on my days off, with 4 mile runs before i work every day. he can jump 8 feet in the air

Australian cattle dog! :)

Blue or red, you can totally decide

Red girl named Bingo! Yes, I watched too much Bluey.

I'd try dryland mushing with this absolute unit of a beast. Fast and strong AF. We'd get some real speed.

What about a pitbull for the ask game?

Okay my hypothetical pitbull is named Thunder. He is the silliest dog in the world. I walk him in a super comfy custom-fit muzzle because of the BSL where I live. He's a Boxer mix if anyone asks. He is very lazy, but enjoys a good run. Afterwards he is passed out across the whole couch for hours. He snores very loudly.

He loves people and enjoys being pat on the head and butt scratches. We have to manage his dog reactivity. He's never shown aggressive tendencies, but he does bark at other dogs, and we have to be careful because of his breed. He is crated when we're out, and always supervised with our other dogs, just in case.

I get really into weight pull, and then eventually we try other pulling sports like dryland mushing. He doesn't really like agility or rally.

6.5 km with these good doggies this morning!

Season's End

We’re easing into the off-season here at the Spitfire homestead. Temperatures have been steadily creeping above the “safe to run” mark, and with all the forecasted rain, we’re staying off the muddy trails.

We also had a few setbacks after “The Crappening” (see last post), which kept us from attending the last dryland event I had been considering.

Denali had another very brief bout of loose poops, which set me into panic mode, but no one else got sick and it went away almost immediately. Not long after that, Laika and Sagan got into a nasty brawl. They’re both OK, but Laika ended up with a sore leg. Her limp came and went multiple times and our vet diagnosed it as soft tissue damage that just needed extended rest to heal. As a final bit of stress, Hopper started vomiting his kibble last week. My vet gave us some anti-barf pills, which worked right away. She also ran bloodwork, which came back showing elevated liver values (ALT, specifically). After the GI upset and antibiotics, this doesn’t really surprise me, but we’re keeping a close eye on it. He’s behaving normally now, but we’ll redo his bloodwork at the pack’s annual exams later this month and go from there.

But anyway, the point of this post is to talk about what went well this season. Aside from all the medical stuff, we also had to cope with an underwhelming amount of winter this season. However! Given the challenges, I’m still really happy with what we were able to accomplish.

We raced in Canada! I’ve wanted to run the team outside of the country for years and obviously Canada is the easiest way to accomplish this. Since the US was devoid of snow and almost every race was canceled down here, to Canada we went! We ran at the Kearney Sled Dog Races and had a blast.

Not only did we race in Canada, we also got to participate in the Seguin Mail Run and mushed over a frozen lake. I’m choosing to highlight that memory, in particular, because it was definitely something I’ll never forget and can’t wait to do again.

I didn’t harness break any new pups this season, but Sheridan joined the team, which is just as exciting! He got to experience his first mushing event with Seguin, and was a magnificent handler for me and the dogs. I cannot wait until next season—he’ll be living here and a lot more ingrained in our adventures.

We’ve got a lot of big plans for this off-season. As mentioned, Sheridan is moving in, so we’ll be renovating the barn workshop into a cozy, livable space to (temporarily) house his two kitties. I’ve already had a window installed, so they’ll get some natural light and, eventually, access to a catio space. Our long-term goal is to build a guest cabin where they’ll live in the future, but for now, having an extra spot for cats/workout equipment/an art studio will do.

Along with the usual work of the veggie garden, I’m hoping to incubate some eggs and raise chicks this spring. This will ultimately result in needing a bigger chicken coop, which I’m hoping to have built this summer. The driveway is also a pot-hole disaster, so regrading that is on the To Do list.

Aside from the projects, I expect to go on many hikes and swims in the reservoir and enjoy the “reset” between our mushing seasons.

Aspen: 1

Scooter: 0

Time for my mandatory "I hate summer because it's too hot to dryland mush" posts

Skijoring belt ordered 🤫