Oh, let me back up a minute...first, on Friday night, I went to pick up a new cart, a Black Ice Wheeled Training Cart. The advantage of this cart is that the passenger area is large enough that we can both ride along, with Sean doing the steering and braking and me just going along for the ride...or so I imagined.
So, Saturday morning we get down there (on time, by the way) and we were the first ones there. (Yes, Kelly, Sparkle time is almost officially dead, the AKC doesn't wait for anyone, even me when ring times are posted.) We unloaded a couple of crates to give everyone their own space and started unloading carts. There's the new Black Ice cart, very nice, with lines to hook up all seven dogs...yep, we took seven untrained dogs out on a new cart, on new trails. Genius, I tell you, simply genius. Then we unloaded the Trail Pup Plus for Maggie to try and the Dirt Dawg scooter for someone else to use. Got everyone harnessed up and proceeded to decide who was going to go where.
Ice and Ryder at wheel, that's an easy one. Mr. Let me RUN (Ice) and Mr. He's Not Going Anywhere without Me (Ryder) at wheel insures that we'll get moving. Humvee and Blaze went at team (in the middle) because, well, wheel and lead were taken and that's what's left. We didn't want Blaze working overly hard, since he's just a baby and really wanted to keep it easy and fun for him. Hummee, although he's only been out once, is just a year old and, again, I wanted him to have fun, but I knew he'd take most of the load off of Blaze. Up front we had "I know what you want, I just don't feel like paying attention right now, Leader Frosty" and "I know what you want me to do, I don't want to do it right now, Leader Max" and "They had to put me somewhere, Miss Satinka".
We got everyone lined out, Max does know line out so that helps. And then the plan was that Sean would start them off easy while I swung myself up on the cart to ride along. Ah, the best laid plans of mice and dog drivers. Sean got them slowed down and I was able to run up to catch them and hop on....then we realized that we were on a trail with a 90° turn to a bridge. Luckily "easy" and "whoa" seemed to work.
It was then that I realized Sean had planned for me to do more than ride along. Someone (read ME) had to go out to the front of the team, walk them around in a WIDE circle and get them facing back the direction we wanted them to go. Gee and Haw didn't seem to be on Frosty's or Max's agenda that day..and Satinka, well, she's never been trained to do anything but "stand, pretty" (which, by the way, she does very well). So, we got them and the cart turned around, Sean hollered "HIKE" and they took off a little slower this time. I was able to swing on and didn't fall ootherwise embarrasssss myself. A couple of runs back and forth in the grass (high rolling resistance = slower dogs) and we were ready for the trails. We took off behind everyone (because, of course 7 dogs are slower than 2? and we didn't know the trails) and followed along. At the first decent downhill we discovered that taking 7 untrained dogs down hill, on a new cart where you're unsure of the braking is, well, an adventure. I ended up walking the dogs down the hill with Sean riding the brake.
We made it, without incident, down the easier hill than everyone else took (stories of Bodie and Arrow dragging Maggie's scooter told us we didn't want to take the "big hill") and met up at the turn around/water spot. The dogs took their break, with most of them deciding to lay down on the cool grass while the people talked and chatted. Then it was time to turn them around again and head back to the car. We accomplished this with a minimum of mounting/dismounting on my part and all arrived back at the car, tired, happy and ready to rest.
Next weekend we're going again, but we're going to try it with a few less dogs...anything to shorten the distance from the back of the cart to the front of the line! I didn't realize being a passenger was going to be so much exercise!
Dear Lord, I hope someone has trained them by the time we have snow to sled in!!!
Things we learned:
- one gallon of water for the dogs is not enough
- 3 dogs in lead means much switching of necklines as they decide who's going to be next to whom
- being a passenger doesn't mean just riding along
- passengers should wear good running shoes
- running dogs in harness is exhilarating, addicting and tiring (I napped until 8pm when we got home).
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