During summer 2007, Arctic sea ice plummeted to the lowest levels since satellite measurements began in 1979. The average sea ice area for September was 4.28 million square kilometers (1.65 million square miles), the lowest September on record. At the end of the 2007 melt season, sea ice area was 39 percent less than the long-term average from 1979 to 2000. Some estimates based on ship and aircraft records acquired prior to the satellite era suggest that sea ice may have retreated by as much as 50 percent since the 1950s.

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10/8/2007 7:59:27 AM UTC    Comments [0] 

Spot the dog walker!

Err... Someone's in season / heat...

10/7/2007 4:26:46 PM UTC    Comments [0] 

Tonight we started quad training with 14 dogs on 4 mile loop. I put one of my recently flown over babies in swing (leader Chrome), and the other; powerhouse Fuego in wheel… as always, it’s extremely pleasing to watch sled dogs in action, that just want to pull hard for the love of it :o)

Sorry! My camera doesn’t take good pictures at dusk…

I will keep Chrome in swing for now… it will give her a chance to get use to our complicated training trails and a chance for her heat/season to pass.

Getting ready for training the night before…

Nice and clean… I don’t think it will look like this anymore after a few days of training with rain…. Oh-well… never mind :o)

Training life at the other side of the world (Alaska); Magali captures a great photo illustrating dogs working hard at there kennel just for the love of it!

9/28/2007 8:02:04 PM UTC    Comments [0] 

Today with much delight, I picked up my babies Chrome and Fuego from the London Gatwick airport…

There journey started on the early morning of the 25th (AK local time) at the Noatak Kennel near Nenana, Alaska, where Jacques and Magali drove them to Continental’s cargo facility in Anchorage, via the state vets USDA office for endorsement of paperwork.

It was just a few days ago, both Magali and I where stressing out with regards to raising the correct paperwork for the state vet to endorse, as Chrome and Fuego where going to travel to the UK under the Pets Passport Scheme… but I had good feeling that all would come good in the end :o)

Magali, I owe you a few roast dinners now!!! All the best to both of you, have a great season…

Chrome (Leader)

Fuego

9/27/2007 8:37:48 AM UTC    Comments [0] 

Over the last couple of months I’ve been designing and re-fitting out the dog van.
Today K9 Cages fitted out the van with cages capable of housing 16 dogs in total (two dogs per a cage), and as a bonus; welded my dropping dog anchor points to the van…
Looking over the completed work, I was most pleased. K9 cages had done a superb job here!!!

Eight way split (rear view)

Eight way split (side door view)

Locking mechanisms, non rattle

One of the anchor points for dropping dogs

I will post more details laters, which will include ventilation and insulation techniques used to help battle against heat build up while dogs are travelling within the van, especially under our UK winter daytime temperatures.

9/17/2007 6:47:07 PM UTC    Comments [0] 

This weekend I spent making and preparing new lines for fall training. These are designed in retrospect with the new 1 and ½ foot necklines.

I use bright colours so we can easily see the lines, as a lot of our training is done under the moonlight so to speak within a dark forest.

9/16/2007 6:43:15 PM UTC    Comments [0] 

Weekend before last, our new environment... (outside run)

A week laters....

8/22/2007 7:58:48 AM UTC    Comments [0] 

As I got rained off today with re-fitting out van, which I will post about laters, I made a start on lines ready for fall training…

The necklines I’m making are 1 ½ foot long, woven together with the technique that Magali taught me over in Alaska.
In AK, Jacquie and Magali use 2 foot necklines, which gives much more freedom for the dog in moment, and you can clearly see this as the necklines are not tight like we see when running on 1 foot necklines over here in the UK.
When I first came back from my visit in AK, I introduced the longer necklines to my friend Malc, and like I first thought over in AK, instantly thought this would increase the likelihood of tangles, not so!!! Why is this; purely because the necklines run angled into the dog from the mainline by about 10-15 degrees. We have far less tangles now then we used to get with the 1 foot necklines, with a great improvement on dogs freedom of moment.
Why are you using 1 ½ foot necklines and not 2 foot? Purely because our training trails are quite narrow with built up woodland on each side. So I wanted to restrict the distance on how wide the dogs could run; so for us, the 1 ½ foot necklines work well in that sense but still give the dogs more freedom of moment over that of the 1 foot necklines...

8/19/2007 7:37:16 AM UTC    Comments [0] 

Over the last week, Storm and Kia have really started to find there legs… Playing, keeping mum on her toes and looking super cute :o)

7/13/2007 2:40:47 PM UTC    Comments [0] 

So cute, Storm today started to open her eyes at 12 days old….

6/28/2007 10:34:18 AM UTC    Comments [0] 

The first one to have there eyes open is Kia, at 10 days old. Storm is preferring to keep hers shut for the time being :o)

6/26/2007 7:48:47 AM UTC    Comments [0] 

Both of Sheenjek's puppies are thriving and growing extremely quickly. A couple of days ago, the female was given a sci-fi name, Storm. Joint decision :o)

Arrr, so so cute...

6/20/2007 8:22:11 AM UTC    Comments [0]