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"ROSEMARY"
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"ROM"
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"JEWELS"
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"DUKAT"
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"BASIL"
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"DASH"
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"SISCO"
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"KEIKO"
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A
Rookies Journey
September 24, 2005
If you want expert opinions about dogs ask the people that live
and work with them. If you want the facts, ask the dogs. –
Author Unknown
"Java"
up close & friendly
Clickon photo to enlarge |
This has been a relatively quiet week.
No new close encounters and no near disasters. This is what mushing
is normally like, with interesting moments thrown in so we don’t
get too bored.
One of the fun things about having so many dogs is working with all
the different personalities. For example, at the 2004 start a dog
Jeff King had in lead caught my attention. She was a small grey female,
but with a great attitude and lots of drive. She stood out among Jeff’s
other dogs. I saw her again in front of wheel at the restart and after
the race asked Jeff if he had any more like that at home. It turns
out that dog was Tinkle and she was one of the stars of Jeff’s
team that year. After about a month of talking back and forth Jeff
said Tinkle had been accidentally bred the year before and was I interested
in a pup. To make a long story short, that is how I got Basil. For
those that are watching the pedigrees Java, Dijon, and Dash are also
Tinkle pups with a different father, and Mocha is the daughter of
Basil’s sister, Nutmeg. Obviously I was impressed.
The team after
a friendly "Poker Run" race |
One reason Jeff let me have Basil is
that she and Nutmeg (her sister) fought constantly. The first thing
Basil did in my kennel was snap at 7 of 9, and then she sliced Keiko’s
nose. Of course this is unacceptable behavior and I corrected her
strongly each time. That resulted in Basil not bonding as tightly
with me, because I was constantly correcting her for picking on other
dogs. Watching her closely I thought she was basically insecure and
was attacking as a preemptive defense. This summer when I got Dash
and Mocha I figured I had the bloodlines and had Basil spayed. This
reduced the hormone stress, and the nastiness enough to give me time
to work with Basil. The change has been remarkable. Basil is feeling
better about our relationship and has quit jumping the other females
without provocation. She even played a little with Dash today. Because
she isn’t on the prod so much, I’m running her in lead
more (before I worried she might snap at the dogs in any team we passed),
and in the last month she has grown from a “will lead”
to a strong and coming leader. She has run lead the last three days
with Balu and has been driving the pace and running right through
the deep puddles. I’m very proud of her.
Bass is another interesting personality. He is out of Susan Butcher’s
Granite lines. If you’ve ever read about Granite you know that
he was a terrible dog, but loved to win races! He gave Susan fits,
not eating well, refusing to run in training, the whole shebang. When
I purchased Bass I called Susan to get the skinny on Bass. Susan said
that this line tended to “test” you every fall, but if
you reminded them who was in charge they settled right down and worked
for you the rest of the year. I told Susan that that explained so
much about Bass’s behavior and she just laughed. Bass is very
tightly bonded with me and will do just about anything I ask of him,
as long as I make it clear he is my number one dog and I appreciate
his efforts. If Bass thinks that I’m not giving him enough attention
he starts to slack off – not holding the line out, coming back
to me when we stop, refusing turns – or turning the opposite
direction. At first I thought that he just wasn’t sure what
I wanted, but after talking to Susan now I know he is testing me to
see how serious I am. All I have to do is bring him I the house for
some one-on-one time and make him feel special and I have my old super
leader back. I love it!
Keiko, Dash, and Mocha are all out of heat, but count 6 months from
early September and they are due in for the Iditarod start. Life is
so interesting. Since Dash is out of heat I put her in lead with Lycos
and then Base. She ran lead as a puppy for Jeff and performed very
well – driving hard and paying attention to the job at hand.
Dash is very friendly, but doesn’t take new situations well.
For example I had her with me at Bear Paw and had to send her home
she was shaking so bad. Today we had a little poker run and whenever
someone came by she hid under the trailer and trembled. I’m
walking 4 times a week to get me in shape for the race and I think
I’ll take Dash on some of these walks and see if I can get her
to accept new things better.
Mocha drives hard and I’m sure I have a great little leader
in there so I put her up front with Platinum this week. When I hook
up the dogs, I put the leaders out, stake out a line to the gangline
behind the leaders to help hold the team out (I’m still training
leaders to hold the line tight at hookup), then I hookup the rest
of the team from back to front. Mocha started out just fine, but as
she had to stand there while I hooked up the rest of the team she
started to worry more and more. Finally I put her back in the team
and she settled right down. Remember Mocha is very young (August 18th)
so we will try again later. If you read my September 8th journal you
know that my next step will be to put Mocha in lead on the way home
to eliminate the stress and not give her so much time to worry about
things.
Typical feeding/watering supplies |
Finally I’m trying to teach Dijon
and Java to eat after a run. This is a necessary skill for a distance
dog and it’s far too easy for a dog to say that he’s just
too tired to eat, lose weight and have to be dropped from the race.
The solution is simple, but can be emotionally difficult. Basically
you offer the meal after the run and if the dog doesn’t eat
it you remove it. Since I only feed once a day the poor dog doesn’t
eat that day. Then you run the next day and offer dinner again after
the run. Same story – if the dog eats you tell them how wonderful
they are for eating (seems silly doesn’t it). If not you pick
up dinner and the poor dog goes another day without eating. Remember
this is the dog’s choice – when they look hungry later
you just say you are sorry but they declined to eat when it was offered.
Jamie Nelson told the story of a dog she had that refused to eat after
a 50 mile run. So she put the meal up and ran the dog 50 miles the
next day – he still refused to eat. This happened for 4 days
in a row. On the 5th day when she put the dish down the dog almost
ate the dish. Problem solved.
To train a dog you need an attraction that is stronger than any distraction.
Like the quote I opened with, the only way to tell is to ask the dog.
I say “dog would you like to eat”. If the dog says yes
I say “good dog”, if the dog says I’m too tired
or too busy, or I have to check out that bug I say “Ok –
that is your choice” and put the meal away. I don’t make
the dog eat if they don’t want to. My attraction just wasn’t
strong enough. So how do I make it stronger? I don’t have to.
The dog does that for me. By not feeding him later, I let the dog
suffer the natural consequences of not eating, he gets hungry. Sooner
or later he will be hungry enough he’d rather eat and I can
praise him for his good decision. As long as you don’t give
in and make up the meal when the dog wants the problem solves itself.
My mother used to do the same thing to me “You eat when it’s
put in front of you, or you go hungry. I’m not running a restaurant”.
Of course if the dog is sick that’s a different problem and
I will run a restaurant or what ever it takes to help him get healthy.
Puddles...oh
the puddles!
You can click to enlarge this one |
This week we made the change from loading
the night before a run, getting up between 5 and 6 am to be at the
trail between 6 and 7 am, to loading after 7 am (noise ordinance)
and getting to the track by 8:30. The driving point for the decision
is the temperature. I will run up to 57ºF if the humidity is
low, but prefer to run under 50ºF. It’s been a little warmer
than that, but the alternate side where we do the longer runs has
some great puddles and if the dogs are soaked that helps keep them
cool. I think the dogs prefer this because they can sleep in their
own houses instead of in their boxes.
Keep ‘em Northbound
Eric
© 2005 All rights reserved
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Have
you ever wanted to be part of the Iditarod adventure
but didn't
know how? Help support Eric Rogers Iditarod team
by joining the
2006-2007 season Rogers Rangers. Just $30 buys you
a bootie worn by the
team, a 2005-2006 Rookie season musher card, and
a signed certificate of
membership. All funds go to support Eric's 2007
Iditarod. For your
convenience we now take credit cards through PayPal.
All donations
gratefully accepted.
Thank
you for your support.
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OUR
2008 DOG
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"THROTTLE"
Sponsored by
Bob & Connie
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"THYME"
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Penny, Dennis,
& Adam Sputh
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"PLATINUM"
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Pat Ford
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"MOCHA"
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Pat Schue
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"LYCOS"
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"BALU"
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"BASS"
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"WORF"
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"PICARD"
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