The Journey Continues
October 27, 2007

Basil is doing fine. Cheryl Eldridge reminded me that she likely had a bruised trachea, so instead of putting her back on the chain Monday after the incident I treated her like a surgically debarked dog and left her in the pen without a collar for 10 days. By the 8th day she was bouncing off the walls of the pen and absolutely could not figure out why I wouldn’t let her run. The following Monday, 10 days after the incident, she was back in the team and has been running like nothing ever happened. So far I’ve had her in the back of the team where I could watch her closely, but next week I’ll put her in lead for a few days. We won’t know for sure until we do blood work for Iditarod in February, but she seems 100%.

Poor Dukat isn’t so lucky. His blood work came back normal. I have tried to run him 4 times because the poor dog is climbing the walls in the kennel. He runs around and around on his chain, climbing all over me looking for attention. All 4 times he has run out of gas after just a minute or two. I kept hoping it was something we could correct surgically, so we did chest x-rays. He has a slightly enlarged (athletic) heart (that is normal in athletic dogs and people), but nothing else. Suggestions have ranged from asthma to hypoglycemia to collapsed trachea. I haven’t pushed these because there is nothing I can do to change them. Bonnie has a much better medical background and the next time she comes with me we will try it again. Maybe she can spot something that I’m missing. But Dukat has missed enough training that he would have a tough time catching up. At 5 I hate to retire him, but we may not have a choice.

Frodo continues to bond with me as long as I don’t try to take him for a walk. The second and third times went just like the first. As soon as I walked into the kennel on an “unscheduled” visit he shied off, and when he saw the leash he was adamant about not going. Once we got started he walked right beside me, but watched everything closely – myself included. Peculiar because he almost knocks me down when I come to feed him. So far I’ve run him in wheel or right in front of wheel and he is doing well. Last week I moved him 4 up from wheel. He didn’t seem to mind, but wasn’t working. I moved him back in front of wheel and it was like I harnessed a different dog, head down and all 4 feet pulling. He is a funny guy.

Strider isn’t nearly so shy. He runs wherever I put him. Last weekend I went to Fairbanks for the symposium and my daughter was feeding the dogs for me. She had all the dishes stacked in her arm and was telling her finance about the dogs as she feed. Strider got frustrated with her, stood up on his back legs, lifted his dish off the top of the stack by the lip on the bowl with his teeth and set it down without spilling a single kibble. He then proceeded to eat with great gusto. I’ve had dogs knock me over and spill the whole stack before. I’ve even had dogs hit the bottom of the dish with their nose as I was putting it down and spill their dish, but never heard of such mastery. Since then he has tried it twice with me, but I explained the virtues of patience and he agreed to let me do it my way. ;-)

Lycos, my squirrel dog, finally won one last week. There is a great grouse crop this fall and several have played chicken with the team, waiting until the last possible minute to fly off the trail. There have also been a lot of hunters chasing these birds. Last week there was a freshly dead bird lying at the edge of the trail. Blaze and Lycos were in lead. I saw Blaze dip her head and come up with something in her mouth, and without breaking stride Lycos took it away from her. Now he is running full speed down the trail with this chicken sized bird in his mouth. It is
too big to swallow and he can’t chew on it and run without risking dropping it. If he stops someone will try to take it away. What a quandary! I stopped the team and walked to the front, but even then it took me almost a minute of sweet talking to get him to let me have the bird (yup, he was right, the big dog did take it). I tossed it into the brush, walked back to the 4-wheeler and off we went at high speed while Lycos and Blaze looked for another grouse.

My future in-law, Raldo Emmerson, wanted to help raise funds. He is a strong cribbage player, member of the local club, and had organized tournaments for the clubs in the past. Trish and Dale offered a room in the motel and fixed their usual incredible buffet and Raldo organized the tournament with some of the entry fee going to my kennel. We held it Sunday October 14th and it was a great success. I brought Blaze, Lycos, and Throttle and a laptop to show slides. The dog’s personalities really came out. Blaze was friendly, but a little reserved. She readily accepted and attention (or food treats), but always came back to me. Lycos is a big friendly galloot who told anyone that came close that he thought they were pretty neat, particularly the ones that fed him. Throttle was shamelessly searching out potential admirers, and didn’t hesitate to tell then anything they wanted to hear in exchange for a little attention. For food she would promise to love them forever. It is as interesting to watch the dogs as it is people – everyone is an individual. The tournament players were just as interesting, friendly people, but as serious about their game as my kids are about running down the trail.

The Fairbanks symposium was excellent. I learned a lot, visited with good friends, met new folks, bought some gear I needed, and picked up my new Hans Gatt sled. The sled bag wasn’t ready and Hans will ship it to me later. Now all I need is enough snow to safely set a snowhook (think anchor for a dog team) and we are off. I came back more than a little tired, but feeling great.


Somebody did something that upset the commander on Fort Richardson and they found we neglected to renew our use agreement to mush dogs on the post. The commander suspended all mushing activity until further notice. I am sure we will resolve this to everyone’s satisfaction, but it is probably going to take a couple of weeks. We have 20 miles of trail in Beach Lake Park without going onto the post, but only a bit of it is usable before the ground and swamps freeze. Going around our 5 mile trail 6 times to make a 30 mile run gets old fast. Everyone here is in the same boat. I shut the team down to stay out of other folk’s way – they don’t have my ability to go elsewhere. Now I’m looking for another place to train while the club and post resolve the problems. Think good thoughts and I’ll let you know what happens in the next journal.


Keep ‘em Northbound
Eric
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