This dog-running season got off to a great start -- we ran the dogs in a variety of places, on the cart
and on the sled...
We were fortunate to start our training season this year at JR Johnson's place in Cambridge, MN where several area mushers
got together for a day of running dogs.
Melanie's parents have a farm in northern Minnesota, and when we visit we bring the dogs along
and take them for a run when we can. Gwen gets very excited about the "big dogs" -- I think she almost looks like one in her big
fluffy white winter coat. Closer to home, we actually had sufficient snow for dogsledding near Minneapolis this year, and I took the dogs out 2-3 times a week to local parks
and trails.
We ran in our first races this year. While we were never close to winning, the dogs ran their best and everyone seemed to
enjoy themselves. Gwen ran her first Kid & Mutt race in Frazee with Tess pulling her -- and they came in 1st place!
Overall this was our best sledding season ever -- we put lots of training runs in, Melanie & Gwen were introduced to dogsledding
(and let me say thanks again to my lovely new wife Melanie for helping handle the dogs and for taking all the
fantastic photos!), we had our first races, and we gained enough points for the dogs to earn their WS and WSX working titles from the Samoyed
Club of America.
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)