Dear Blog reader, have a great Christmas and a happy New Year with happy trails.

7AM Christmas Morning and rearing to Go… No Santa though:)

Since the 3rd December, dogs on quad training where split down into two smaller teams each pulling a lighter training rig. This gave us the opportunity as mentioned in previous post to increase distance on the dogs, further evaluation and more fun...
Team ‘A’ consists of 3-4 dogs (my team) and team ‘B’, 6 dogs (Malc’s team).

Training/Race Simulation over the last four days:
Fri 8.1 miles, Sat 8.1m, Sun 8.1m, Mon 8.1m & Tomorrow 7 (+/-1)m
Total training miles on dogs: 289.3 

Yeah, some of those sibes are on and off there tug lines! Still, good spirit though :)

12/25/2006 3:40:22 PM UTC    Comments [0] 

I had been meaning to post this over a week ago, but things have been crazy for me over the last week. Also, still not all the following has sunk in as yet, to excited, so here goes…

Last week I had exciting pleasure of booking my flight to fly out to Jacques and Magali Philip’s kennel in Alaska on Feb 20th. To me, this is a dream come true carrying great opportunity in more ways then one, plus seeing many famous mushers, dogs, etc. And like Magali has already pointed out, when I return home (April 3rd), I will have UNFORGETRABLE MEMORIES AND IMAGES in my eyes! I think she’s going to have problems getting me back on the plane come April 3rd :)

Jacques and Magali's kennel is namely the Noatak Kennel situated in NENANA, Alaska and home to 100 so Alaskan Huskies.

Jacques and Magali race professional Sprint to Long Distance, but they mainly concentrate on stage races.
The kennels name ‘Noatak’, is a name of a river in north-west Alaska and for those that don’t know, the kennel is home and birth place of my three Alaskans/babies, Risk Sheenjek and Sting…

Once there, I’ll be helping out in the general running of the kennel, feeding, taking care of repairs etc. And there are 100+ dogs and 28 pups to harness brake and train!! ON SLED of course... ‘Yippee’
View those Crazy Puppies

Iditarod 2007
Last year Jacques returned to Iditarod and finished in a very respective 22nd position. They were very pleased with the position since the dogs had never run the Iditarod before and they are aiming to do better this winter :) To date, Jacques adult dogs have about 1300 miles of training and Magali’s 1000 miles.
Doug Swingley, four-time Iditarod champion and good friend of Jacques & Magali came in 2nd place last year, Jeff King took the checked flag.

Looking forward; Being a part of the Noatak team for me is being a part of something very special, especially when it’s going to be the time of there biggest race, the Iditarod. There’s no phone line at the kennel and cell phones don't work there… what more could I ask for!!! other then for the next ten weeks to pass quickly :)

12/16/2006 5:23:09 PM UTC    Comments [1] 

Our training trail has become very sticky and muddy over the past week due to heavy rainfall. But tonight’s temperature of 0.8c (33.4f) with a clear sky was most welcomed, compared to the previous night’s 9.0c (48.2f) with rain.
Sticky and muddy trail routes do have there good points besides plastering me, Malc and the dogs with mud, as the dogs have to work extra hard to pull the four wheeler through with one person on. It took us 54mins to complete 5.3 miles with two rest stops.


139miles on the dogs since the 1st Oct

11/21/2006 2:49:46 PM UTC    Comments [0] 

Today’s training run of 6.4miles puts us just short of 104 miles on the dogs since 1st October. We are aiming towards 170 miles by the end of the month; then dividing the team into two smaller teams, pulling lighter loads to leap frog to 12mile runs, later 20.
This is a temporary training idea for this winter to lesson the load on the harder working dogs, until my babies from Magali Philip & leader dog from Joee Redington Jr. come over, which will then create a bigger pool of good sled dogs to group together with similar abilities...

Rest stop (5c 90% Humidity).


Romana trying to play Peek-a-Boo with Sting… Hey!!!…

11/12/2006 4:13:39 PM UTC    Comments [0] 

Risk; one of our two new Alaskans from Magali Philip who are currently sitting out there 6 month rule with Magali in Alaska, a UK requirement for the Pets Passport scheme…
Lots of energy and eager to go out for a training run…


Risk still showing that he wants to go! he loves to jump, what’s the hold-up Magali :)
In lead left is Memphis (Sting’s Mum), she is Magali’s favourite dog and a bit of a dare devil. She races in Sprint race Limited Class, Fur Rondy (3 days in lead), ONAC, Stage races and last year finished the Iditarod with Jacques (Magali’s husband). Iditarod isn’t her cup of tea but she finished very well.


Sheenjek, our Alaskan female also currently sitting out her 6 month rule; having a whale of a time, excited and ready to pull!!! :) Her mom is Sting’s sister, Janet - a great stage race leader...

Like Sting, Risk and Sheenjek are very important to us and I’m very proud to have them!

11/8/2006 10:59:52 AM UTC    Comments [0] 

Yah, a great slightly frosty morning for training, with temperatures down to 1.8c (35f) with a wind chill of 0c (32f), although humidity is still relatively high at 85%.

Today’s 5.5 mile run puts 80 miles on the dogs since training started on the 1st October. Besides dropping one of the lesser dogs at the beginning of the week, spirits are remaining high! So my fingers are crossed that the 4-5 Sibes here that raced last season, will maintain there spirit as we go further into the training program.
Except from my Alaskan in Swing right; like Malc & I, these Sibes have never done this kind of training before, just short 3 mile sprints… so far so good :)

Inspired by Magali Philip (Noatak Kennel) and Joe Redington Jr. (Iditarod Kennel).

11/5/2006 3:58:43 PM UTC    Comments [0] 

Today was bright and dry; so it was a good opportunity to get building some new dog boxes ready for Risk, Sheenjek and Suen. Each box measures 41” x 24” x 25” and stand of the deck by 3”, and is adequate to sleep one to two husky dogs.


Second coat of Sadlin being applied a week later...

10/29/2006 1:53:12 PM UTC    Comments [0] 

With a very special thanks to Magali Philip, who has been on a quest now for some time to find me a leader, has managed to come up trumps with good friend Joee Redington Jr. The leader is a five year old male by the name of Suen and should be with us around May 07 with much appreciation to Joee, who’s about to go through the riggers of the Pets Passport Scheme.

10/10/2006 8:44:05 PM UTC    Comments [0] 

With great enthusiasm, Teigan joins the training team after a four week recovering from spayed operation due to Pyometra, bless her :)

10/8/2006 8:25:45 PM UTC    Comments [0] 

Now the temperature has fallen to around 10c (evening & mornings). This week saw the start of our interval training program geared mainly towards next season’s overseas mid-distance racing.
This type of training is new to us, and the only member of the team here that’s done this kind of training before is my Alaskan from Magali Philip, who has taught me earlier on in the year how hard a purpose bred race dog can pull while maintaining a very high spirit! :)
Mixture of dogs consist of mine and Malcolm Goodwins and main evaluations include; a) determining the ability of each dog for toughness b) endurance soundness c) and ability to cover distance. Many thanks Magali :)

Sunday morning, 11 dogs running as a unit/team, errr, only six working!!! ok, two dogs here are house pets :)

10/5/2006 9:13:24 AM UTC    Comments [0] 

Teigan had to be rushed of to the vets Thursday Sept 7th as she was losing blood from her vulva. The vet called in the evening to confirm that she has Pyometra (four weeks post mating). She spent the night at the vet's and was spayed Friday morning.
She’s doing very well, acting like nothing has happened and should be ready to go back home to Malcolm this coming weekend. Bless her!!!

It just goes to show, despite all our precautions like bloodtest, heart checks prior to heat, swab taken on the first day of heat for culture test, and ultra clean kennel that she still contracted pyometra??? :(
But at least she seems too had pulled through it all ok :)

10/1/2006 1:46:19 PM UTC    Comments [0]