# Snowboardjoring



## harrise (Jan 9, 2008)

Tis' the season!!! Finally it's under 30° here. There is just the right amount of hard pack snow on the neighborhood roads. Around here they only plow four lane roads and the major highways. That makes for an extended few days I can ride around on the snowboard. Here's hoping for more snow before this base melts! It was already too warm today, the wax on my board is too sticky at this surface temp. That slows them down a bit. Usually we go at night in the field when the snow is stiffer, but I can't get video doing that. 

Sled dogs are starting to get better at staying in pull instead of stopping at every vertical object. They are also braiding the tug lines a lot less. Today we covered about a 1.5 miles and they only crossed lines five times. Usually I have a one foot solid braid with dozens of twists. We still have more work ahead of us, but we're having fun...

































I can't wait until they get more reliable (and get used to being tethered), then I will have loads of pictures and videos. 


















Oh, the holiday pic...


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## JustTess (Mar 19, 2008)

Great wintery activity! ummmm.... I guess the neighbors are already used to you 

I'm just curious where the brakes are.


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## RubesMom (May 1, 2007)

The holiday pic is nice, and though the scarves are a nice touch, it would be better if they were all wearing homemade outfits of harrise's design.


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## Inga (Jun 16, 2007)

Alright that looks like fun. Hm, I wonder how it would look with Rottie butts as scenery instead of sled dogs? LOL Your dogs certainly seem to enjoy themselves. doing what they were bred to do. sort of.


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## BoxMeIn21 (Apr 10, 2007)

That's awesome.


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## Mdawn (Mar 3, 2007)

lol...nice pictures!

I love the holiday one. They all look great in their scarfs.


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## JessRU09 (Aug 25, 2008)

That holiday picture is so adorable. They look like they just all met up to play cards or something... totally natural.


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## rosemaryninja (Sep 28, 2007)

I love the holiday picture. They look great all dressed up, and I can't get over how Tambi has her own little stool so she doesn't disappear into the snow.


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## chul3l3ies1126 (Aug 13, 2007)

Fun Fun Fun and the Holiday picture is just great!
Nessa


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## Jen D (Apr 23, 2007)

Awesome pictures I am so jealous! Do they move over good for you when cars come?


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## harrise (Jan 9, 2008)

JustTess said:


> Great wintery activity! ummmm.... I guess the neighbors are already used to you
> 
> I'm just curious where the brakes are.


Yeah, around here folks are used to seeing the guy with 1-5 dogs doing something weird. The brakes are just a word now. "Whoa... NOW!" Works great too. "Whoa" slows them down gradually and gets them ready for the next command which is usually either stop (now) or go slower (whoa, ehp).



RubesMom said:


> The holiday pic is nice, and though the scarves are a nice touch, it would be better if they were all wearing homemade outfits of harrise's design.


That's what I *wanted* to do, but then it came down to buying that fabric or the harness hardware. I should have thought about it a few weeks earlier. Oh well. 



Inga said:


> Alright that looks like fun. Hm, I wonder how it would look with Rottie butts as scenery instead of sled dogs? LOL Your dogs certainly seem to enjoy themselves. doing what they were bred to do. sort of.


Heh, it would probably look like a Roman conquest. Just get yourself a chariot and some body armor... 



Jen D said:


> Awesome pictures I am so jealous! Do they move over good for you when cars come?


Yup! Mushing commands were VERY easy to teach these guys. It's obviously hardwired into their little sled heads. Usually cars give us right of way. I would just love to live somewhere near some trails to practice on. The main bike trail through town gets plowed by 4-wheelers. It might be time to join the sledding club in Fort Collins... Except I don't have the coinage for a sled... Hmmm...


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## HuskyLuv (May 16, 2008)

Love love love the holiday pic with scarfs and all!


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## Azu (Nov 22, 2008)

i loved your ENTIRE post!!! i have several questions regarding the amt and type of training it took for your crew to start sledding...if you dont mind answering them lol

we have a husky meet up group around the neighborhood [1 female (2 yrs), 3 males (1 older, my year and a half, and another 10 mth puppy], and are planning on a little snow trip soon...
1. how did you start?
2. do you arrange them in a specific order?
3. do they naturally pull on instinct? 
4. what do you do when they cross each other?

im so eager to try this out, your video was super inspiring!! the holiday picture is awesome!


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## K8IE (Apr 28, 2008)

That is too cool!! I love the holiday photo!!!


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## DJsMom (Jun 6, 2008)

That is soooo cool! And what a fun way to excercise them! That video's awesome!


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## WhySoSerious? (Oct 9, 2008)

Awesome, I bet they love that.


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## 4dogs3cats (Dec 21, 2007)

10 dollars says the next thread you post sill involve the sleds pulling you on the front page of the newspaper

Looks like so much fun and I KNOW what you mean about braided leads!

I love the scarf picture. That was my plan for Chance in the holiday pic. I heard it snowed in flagstaff this week so it might be time for a trip this weekend. SNOWW!


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## WileyBlaze (Dec 18, 2008)

Beautiful dogs !!! Wow!!!!


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## harrise (Jan 9, 2008)

Azu said:


> We have a husky meet up group around the neighborhood [1 female (2 yrs), 3 males (1 older, my year and a half, and another 10 mth puppy], and are planning on a little snow trip soon...
> 1. how did you start?


My dogs spent a solid year as a pack conditioning for high altitude moderate distance hikes. They were all at least 2 y.o. when we started carrying weight and running hard. I didn't set out to do any sort of pulling with them, it just sort of happened after a few glasses of wine one day. [Link to story] One word of advice: do not throw them on a line and go. Proper harnesses and at least 20 feet of line are a must. I hooked up each dog individually to a ≈15 pound chunk of wood to see who had the pull and who needed encouragement. For the dogs that didn't pull, I helped get them started by dragging the weight and gradually releasing the line until they were pulling on their own (with a helper a few yards ahead coaxing dog). 

Personally, I wouldn't work them on weight until they can cover an eight mile run without a break (weather dependent of course). 

You can start now with directional commands while walking. It's not the way most people train their sled dogs, but mine are pets not from working lines. Basically I narrate the walk as we go along. When we turned right I called out "gee" and sang their nickname jingle when they conformed. Left was "haw", slow down was(is) the number of "whoa's", stop is "now", go is "hep"... You can make it whatever you want. Just spend a couple of weeks labeling every single turn and every slow or go. I also have a "ready" command that gets them bounding and howling on line. 

I cannot understate the importance of the jingle as reward. My process is nearly identical to "charging the clicker" for clicker trainers. With just the sled dogs present, I sing their song while dancing around with a pint of ice cream in hand. I continue singing and flashing ice cream until the moment they want to kill me, then they get some. All the while singing their song. It's weird I know, but it works for me. It's obviously working when I see their ears turn backwards and their gallop gets a little more spring to it. Make sure to only reward the proper and instant responses to commands. 



Azu said:


> 2. do you arrange them in a specific order?


My order was simple because I only have one Husky (14 mph trot versus 8 mph trot with Malamutes). He also happened to be the one dog pulling with full force from the very beginning. So, my order is the Malamutes in "wheel" and the Husky in "lead". He only has about a body length of line over the Malamutes. After *much* experimenting in line setup and distances I discovered the Malamutes pull harder when their heads are at the Husky's rear legs. One other factor was Ridik's control out front. I noticed on regular walks that he has a tendency to snap at any dog trying to get ahead of him. He keeps them in line behind him. So I promoted him. We're still working on the fixed position for the wheel dogs. They shut down and don't move when I tether them in position, so I let them move around until we find a steady setup. 



Azu said:


> 3. do they naturally pull on instinct?


As mentioned above, Ridik was the only dog who settled into his harness and pulled instantly. He was also the only dog I had a proper harness for. Up to this little project we've been working on, I had pretty much crushed any pulling on leash from any of them. As a team it took a couple of weeks to get them comfortable pulling. When I started the sleds on a pulling program, I forgot one thing that I will gladly pass on: *When starting training for pulling, don't forget to add a 'heel' session later that day.* My sled dogs have almost forgotten how to group heel. Completely my fault. 



Azu said:


> 4. what do you do when they cross each other?


I have just devised my own system for this. You can see Sioux do it a few seconds into the video (18-20 seconds). The command is "fix it". When I train them for this, I take them out on the gangline but on foot. When one of the Malamutes crosses over (Ridik never moves from center front lead, the others move around him), I call out "fix it" and guide them with very slight pressure to the open side of the Husky. I might be over thinking a lot of things, as this is now taking up 1-3 hours a day for training. I just want them to really "get it". 











4dogs3cats said:


> 10 dollars says the next thread you post sill involve the sleds pulling you on the front page of the newspaper
> 
> Looks like so much fun and I KNOW what you mean about braided leads!
> 
> I love the scarf picture. That was my plan for Chance in the holiday pic. I heard it snowed in flagstaff this week so it might be time for a trip this weekend. SNOWW!


I'm not sure, I think everyone in town has seen me enough already. It's more "oh, that guy" now. I wanted to get the holiday pic in the mountains, but the thought of getting them all riled up with a car ride for one picture wasn't alluring. So the backyard it was.


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## 4dogs3cats (Dec 21, 2007)

harrise said:


> I'm not sure, I think everyone in town has seen me enough already. It's more "oh, that guy" now. I wanted to get the holiday pic in the mountains, but the thought of getting them all riled up with a car ride for one picture wasn't alluring. So the backyard it was.


Theyve seen you guys, but have they seen you doing THIS? i would suspect a lot of people would be interested in seeing you on the paper. It would also make a SA-WEET Christmas card


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## Azu (Nov 22, 2008)

harrise thank you SOOO much for your post! I have printed out several copies of it and plan to pass them out at our next husky meet up. My hope is that all the owners will slowly start teaching their huskies the verbal commands at first and perhaps by the time we head out ot the snow (we live in L.A. so unfortunately snow isnt readily available to us  ), they might be able to start pulling a little bit of weight! 

My bf and I cannot stop talking about your team, we have always wanted to go crazy, get 4 more huskies and start our own sled team but had no idea where to begin. I dont think we'll be living out our dream anytime soon, haha we would probably go crazy, but your post has helped all of us start! Thanks again!


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