IDITAROD WANNABES

When someone mentions Alaska to you what do you picture first ? I'm pretty sure SNOW is in your thoughts at some point and with snow I usually think Dog Sleds in Alaska.

I'm learning a lot about dog sledding because Dwayne's grand daughter volunteers at a sled dog training facility. She has run several races these past couple of winters and she usually finishes in the top 10. There is also a neighbor on the street who has worked the Iditarod for years and loves working with the "mushers". Between the two of them I'm picking up a few bits of knowledge about this sport.

For one thing it's not just huskies that are used. All sorts of breeds are used including some smaller dogs. It is very important to choose the right dogs for your sled. They have to be smart, sociable AND strong.  The "alpha" dog gets put in the front so the other dogs follow it's lead and the 2 strongest dogs are placed right in front of the sled because they do most of the pulling. If your dogs fight with each other you will never get anywhere.

 At last years Iditarod the guy who was way out ahead stopped his team for a rest and 2 of the dogs got into a fight. Instead of pulling them apart he YELLED at them and the dogs the dogs didn't like that so they just sat down and wouldn't pull any more so he lost the race.

All this being said, there is a collection of dogs living on this street that could probably put an Iditarod dog team to shame. They probably couldn't pull for shit but they have the barking part down pat. On this small street of maybe 8 houses there are at least 9 dogs. This house alone has FOUR (4) LARGE dogs. (And I do mean LARGE!) Three of them are some sort of Labrador and the fourth looks like a Weimaraner. She is a sweet old thing and can barely make it up the front steps these days but put someone on a bicycle riding down the road and she is right out there with the other 40 dogs barking and running and scaring the living daylights out of the unsuspecting slob who made the mistake of turning into this street. The "pack" consists of about 5 different Labs, Dakota the Weimaraner, an Akita that is enormous and one springer spaniel. None of them fight with each other but they are a formidable looking group when together.

Now the reason I bring all this up is that today D and I decided to take a short nap around 1:00 in the afternoon. Having had a terrible night's sleep last night I was out like a light in a matter of minutes. Apparently someone dared to walk, drive, ride down this street and the dogs went NUTS.  They were all out there barking their heads off which did NOT wake me because it is such a common occurrence I just block it out and roll over. What DID wake me was Mr. Man slamming the window of the RV open and yelling at the top of his lungs, "CUT IT OUT!"  Which  of course all the dogs totally ignored and just continued with their vocal attack.

So much for a quiet afternoon nap!