Managed to catch this group of dogs milling around in the sunshine this morning.

There’s 20 dogs in the photograph.  Care to try naming them all ?

Group sunbathing

The main driving factor behind the big move to Alaska was the opportunity to run our dogs on snow, and to have the options to enter any number of distance races.

Initially, I had considered entering a couple of local mid-distance races this winter. However, we were no sooner in Alaska in August, than somehow it turned into September and training hadn’t started. Once I picked up a quad, I then had a couple of weeks away where I made that epic drive from NH to AK with my new truck and collected several new dogs. By the time that was done, it was October.  Quite honestly, it got a little scary just how quickly the time was passing. anyway, I decided that there was no need to put unnecessary pressure on the dogs or myself, in trying get ready for races, when we had so much else going on this winter. There’s always next year, and the year after that etc, etc……………

With no deadlines I have managed to enjoy the training, and feel we have put a good solid base on the dogs. It’s also been a steep learning curve in terms of learning the trails. I’m used to the small forests we are allowed to train in, in Scotland, where it takes no time at all to figure out where the trails go – and with the limited options available, they’re easy to remember. Many of the trails I ran on during my winter in NH were well sign posted by the local snowmobile clubs, who also handily produce excellent trail maps.  That’s not the case here in Alaska.

I was very fortunate in the autumn that my friend Leo took me round a lot of the trails we could use for training until the swamps and rivers froze.  One of our neighbours also showed me a couple of other loops and options. With advent of the frosts and snow, the training areas become almost unlimited and with that choice comes the equally unlimited possibility of getting well and truly lost.

So, the training runs have also become exploring runs. There’s been a few out and back runs,  and a few excursions on the snowmachine to see where loops can be found. What I have found, is I still need to get my head around just how vast this area is. We live in the middle of a community of dog mushers who all run distance races, many of them run the Iditarod or the Yukon Quest.  Those folks think nothing of setting off for a 10 hour sled run – so my desire for loops closer to home whilst I train myself and my dogs is a little at odds with the aims of the guys who spend their own time and money to groom and create the trails we use.

Slowly, I’m becoming a little more comfortable out there and as the fitness of the dogs improve, we can go further and start to expand our boundaries.

Heading out onto the swamp

It’s a little late, but with the magic of the internet and technology, I can make it appear as if I actually posted this closer to the “Bells” than to the end of the month.

We Scots are famous for our Hogmanay Celebrations, so much so that we are the only country in the world that has a Public Holiday on the 2nd of January as well as the 1st. Fortunately, we’re very sensible people and don’t ever need that extra day to recover. So, it was a little odd to think of our friends and family welcoming in the New Year at home, while we were still playing with our dogs in the middle of our Alaskan afternoon. In the end, we avoided going out to any parties and just stayed at home and listened to the fireworks. It seems that everyone in Alaska loves fireworks – they were going off from about 8pm and they were still being heard when I let the house dogs out at 6.00 in the morning.

Anyway, I would like to say a very Happy New Year and best wishes for the year ahead to anyone who reads this blog – even if you didn’t mean to be on this page….

New Year's morning sunshine

indeed it ’tis………………………..  the Season of peace on earth, goodwill to all men and bitches to be in heat.

Bitches in heat also trumps the aforementioned peace on earth and goodwill to all men, because quite frankly, they definitely are not in the spirit of Christmas. I can never decide whether I prefer them to all come in together and get it over with – or if it’s easier to just have one girl to segregate. So, in the end, nature has compromised – we have 4 girls in season, which leaves another 5 to follow on at some point.

Ciobair, Avery, Lightfoot and Ciara are the guilty parties on the female side. However, to be fair to them, they aren’t actually being that difficult about it. Avery has decided that her food is much better strewn around her circle, she likes to carry her bowl from spot to spot and is never really sure if she wants to eat it or hide it. The others really don’t seem to have changed much (apart from the obvious) and they are all still racing around, wrestling and playing as always. Well, there is the rather comical sight of the lesbo daisychain but other than that……..   all the chaos is on the other side of the fence.

Quiz was the first to start the mournful singing, he does live closest to the girls’ pen and he would sit for hours gazing at them and moaning. He seems to have gotten over that part of it – mostly – but Milloy and Teague have taken up his mantle. Milloy is by far the most affected male, won’t eat, won’t drink, can’t think straight and just paces, whining and screaming along the fence line.

Hopefully, it will all be over soon and our nice quiet kennel can get back to normal. Probably just in time for Hop, Ruya, Mermaid, Ruby and Oak to start.  Please wait for the Spring to arrive, girls !

Perhaps the title is overstating the case a little………………………………

Today we celebrated Winter Solstice – not quite at the official moment it occurs – 8.47 a.m. Alaska time, but close enough. So, from now on, it’s only going to get lighter every day until we hit 23 hours of daylight in June. Admittedly, today’s gain is all of 10 seconds so I can’t say we actually noticed it, but as the saying goes, especially at this time of year, it’s the thought that counts.

Our Scottish dogs are notoriously late risers anyway, I think somehow we managed to have dogs that don’t really “do” mornings – so when it’s still dark until close to 10 o’clock, it only encourages their tendency to lie in. This has been countered to some degree by the arrival of the new dogs we brought in when we arrived. These guys are obviously much more used to being up and at ‘em in the morning.