Amateur sled dog training tips. In response to my nieces call for help I must say there are no bridles for dogs unless you consider muzzles a bridle. Dogs being different than horses you want a dog to pull with their chests not their necks. These harnesses seem to put the pressure and the load where it needs to be, on the chest. Now if you want to train the dog to pull, they are not like a mule where you can drive them. Most trainers train a dog in a team and with a team-sort of like ponying a horse. If you lack a team, you become the team. Know this a decent size dog has amazing strength so don't just attach a brakeless sled behing them because in the panic they and sled will be off and out of sight and tangled and ---well the result is one helluva wreck. Secure the dog first-you will lead it and keep it on a lead separate from the harness rig. Next the load, if too light, put a slight well secured load on the sled. Then lead the dog to get them used to a load or person behind them.
11 comments:
See Cabelas Iditarod 2007 site and article on "training sled dogs". Echos my advice here.
It also helps when taining a team if you put a cow moose in front of a bunch of dogs that do not know better than to chase moose, they run very fast - don't they brother? They can also have a helluva wreck when doing so, don't they brother? Considering that you were just 6 - 7 years old when that famous episode occurred,you should have never been a passenger on that sled with your older bother mushing. Look at the impact that it has had on you, since that wreck, I don't think you have bene back on a sled and you have not owned a dog that was over one foot high! Perhaps a trip to Pet World and a little counceling will help. Although, I am sure I would loose a happy home, I would love to have four or five good sled dogs just to play with, I think it would be neat to run the river in the winter time, I would much rather do that than use a snow machine. Hey, with a team I could go visit Shane at his cabin, Terry could ride along as a passenger - hmm, not a bad idea way to justify my desire. As a back up plan, I could put wheels on the sled and run the Beach road in the summer with my grandchildren, now that has great selling points to Terry!
The delete is due to my error in double clutching!
Any ol' dog can pull, but getting them NOT to run through the trees and to stop is difficult. Barley is a prime example! Useful information here, as a have been hearing about someone attempting to do this.
Barley DID pull like h-e-double hockey sticks! The skijoring adventure with the neighbor - Boob - had him in the trees 75% of the trial. Patience is the biggest key effort...
Mac is proving to enjoy the entire thing. He brings me his harness and sits at the sled. He stops when I hollar "whaoa" or "Mac want a cookie." the directional thing is an issue but not because of him. I am the illiterate here. Soon though...we will be a good team...just a few more practices and the right equipment...
Now this sounds like a story we may all want to hear...Which brother? How many dogs?...and what Harrington mushed dogs??
"hike" = Go
"gee" = Right
"haw" = Left
"Whoa" = Stop
"Shit" = Just goofed up
"Damm You" = Don just goofed up
"Why" = Why did I staret this?
Correction to previous posting,
"Damm You" should defined as Dog Just Goofed Up, don had nothing to do with it.
Do you want the long version or short version of the dog mushing history in the Harrington family? Back in the day, Ranger Bill was just a little tyke, I don't even think he had started school yet. Dog Mushing was big in Homer and Anchor Point with weekly races and some big name racers would race, names like George Attla and Gareth Wright. There were several good local mushers, some of them using their teams to acess thier homesteads. Our first winter, Dad decided he wanted to start a team. A guy in town by the name of Rupert Hobbs raised huskies and dad acquired either five or seven pups, approaching on yearlings from him. He also got a sled and harnesses for them. In his years, dad had broke a lot of horses to harness so a dog should be no different. In a short time, he had identiefed the leader of the pack and started to train them. After a few runs, he turned them over to Don to train and run each day. The route for his trail was from our cabin in Homer, down to Beluga Lake and a another trail back to the house to form a circle route. One trip, he decided to take Bill on the sled as a passenger. The concept was good, big brother taking care of his little brother. Approaching the lake, they were in the alder bushes on the marsh of Beluga Lake. This is where they ran into a cow moose, who liked the easy going of the trail instead of breaking through the snow. She was not yielding the right away, the young team of dogs saw the moose, decided it would be fun to chase the moose and off they went - a wreck developed when the moose decided she did not want to play and would not run - Ranger Bill will have to finish the story, he saw it up close. Make sure you ask him what kind of noise a moose makes? He demonstrated it one time at the HITW! As a side bar note, living at home at the time was Don, myslef, Pat, Bill and the folks. With the dog team, that was a lot of mouths to feed. Dad would go to the feed store in Homer, "Beitmans Feed Store" and purchased a 50# sack of rolled oats. Each morning, my mother would make a big, big pan of "oatmeal", us kids had first choice on how much we wanted and what was left over was fed to the dogs. The only difference between rolled oats and "oatmeal" is that the husk of the oat is removed and the grain flattened for human consumption. The whole oat and husk, boiled to perfection provides a great daily alowance of fiber!
well i can not remember my right from my left let alone gee from haw...so I wrote it on my gloves....he is good...found a guy who's kid has out grown her sled...looking into buying it...he figured out very quickly how to "whoa" takes some talent to not just come to a stop and get creamed by the sled...he now keeps the line taunt and slows down accordingly unless I say it twice in a row...then he stops pronto and has faith in me to stop the sled...he loves to please me...I am greatly impressed with the fun him and I are having when I do not even like dogs...but I love mine.
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