Wednesday, December 1, 2010

The Adventures of Walking Sled Dogs

Every morning as is ritual the hubby and I gear ourselves up for an early morning walk/run.
We try to leave by 6 as there is generally no one else about other than the odd soul who on their own without reason (dogs) puts on runners and runs for fun (??)

Our gear this time of  year consists of extra pants, usually fleece or these special new fangled ones that are suppose to wick the sweat away from your skin (whatever) and a warm hoodie under our winter coats.
Neck toques, hats and mittens are taken, but I end up ripping these off 1/2 way...even in -40.

Last to be put on and most importantly is the walking/ skijouring belt. This incredible invention is just what it is called, a belt. It locks around your waist or hips, which is where I find it most comfortable, which has attached to the front a clip with a lead or rope that splits into two that attaches to the dogs collars or harnesses.

The dogs get incredibly excited when they see the belts around our waists and begin the greeting of "hurry, hurry, hurry, me first, me first, me first!!!"

The gate opens and out we go... at first being dragged down the driveway until I can find my own footing and tell them 'Easy' which is suppose to slow them down.

Smells abound on our walk, although I personally have never had the joy of experiencing the wonders of whatever my kids come across.  In the winter cold I must say dog poop doesn't really smell at all, (unless it is fresh and warm).
We stop at every corner to pee, smell, scratch the ground and sometimes roll in the deep snow.

There are a couple of sections that I run, however we used to run the entire length of our walk before the snow... but as I keep trying to explain to my pups it is rather hard to do for a human who has limited traction on their people paws... so they enjoy our sections of running to its full extent.. and I must say I'm having a blast too.
I have picked a couple areas with deep snow that we have trekked out to make a trail and give them the sled command "hike" or "hup" or just have to say "lets go" and go they do. The deep snow makes it easy for me to stay upright as I am pulled and follow behind. 
This is the time that hats are usually pulled off as the heat builds up quickly!

The pups and I have had many adventures on our walks from men clad in only underwear running from their car for whatever was most important that they didn't have time to dress first to coyotes in the local park to pet dogs running at us from their homes to cats and bunnies skipping out across our paths.

Today was a lady with 1 little bitty dog and 1 medium sized bull dog who decided that it should challenge my two walking mates.  This bull dog was either crazy strong or the lady had no strength to hold it back.  My guys pulled to get a closer look also although they didn't make any noise but an odd whine or two while this bull dog made it known to the entire town what was going on.
The best part was the reaction of this lady... the language that came spilling out of her mouth would make a trucker blush.   Her panic was almost comical.
I didn't laugh out loud of course because if the table was turned that could just have easily been me.

I doubt she will walk her dogs again at that time in the morning.

Some mornings are a struggle to get moving, but once I'm out there I love my walks as much as the dogs do.
It will almost be a little sad when we finally get ourselves organized to take them sledding instead of walking..... well maybe only a teeny tiny bit sad... sledding is way more fun!

No comments: