Brent's Blog

I cant believe it, Mother Nature is hinting at giving Fairbanks a great winter!!!  It has snowed another 2 inches at my place to bring the grand total to around 3.5-4 inches,  which I know doesn't sound like allot but it is the start we need and it is only Oct. 9.  As you can see I am pretty fired up about this and I am not the only one, trust me!  The dogs are crazy, with the trails totally covered in snow they seem to be really happy, and we all know a happy dog team is a fast dog team!  This snow has projects around the Kennel going to overdrive and things are getting done.  I finished the woodshed, which is key because know I can cut and split all the wood I have around the property and have a place to put it where is doesn't get covered up with snow.  This pretty much goes for everything at the kennel, it needs to be winterized.   Whether it is put in the cabin, one of the 3 sheds or covered with  a tarp to forget about until spring, everything needs to be dealt with before it is lost under the fluffy white stuff.  Lots of excitement in dog training this week as well.  I put a new trail in so know I have roughly 20 miles of trails i can use for dryland,  Hopefully we wont need them that long but it is nice to know we have options.  This week we started going 8 and 1o mile runs and the dogs responded great.  I stayed with the lower miles for longer in hopes to really strengthen them up and make a nice base to start the season and it is working out so far.  I went 2.5 miles for all of Aug and most of Sept, then jumped to 5 miles for the rest of Sept and the first few days of Oct. and now after going 8 miles for 5 runs I am mixing 8 miles runs with 10 mile runs.  The dogs are pulling even harder as the miles get longer and no one seems to be getting tired.  It is allot of fun to see them progress just in the last 2 months I cant wait to see them in another couple of months. This weeks dog of the week is Walter.  Walter 3 and is a son of Madonna (my main leader) and brother to The Dude and Maude.  His litter was my first litter of pups and they have turned out great.   I have been running Walter in lead allot with Silver and he is doing doing a great Job.  HE has learned to hold out the line when were hooking up and also when we come back and is driving really hard for the entire run.  Just in the last few runs he has started listening better to Gee and Haw and I have no doubt with a little more work he will be a great leader this year.  Walter ran in his first Quest last year and did great for the first 400 miles but then got a really bad shoulder injury in the Jumble Ice on the Yukon and I had to drop him in Eagle.  But he showed allot of potential as a two year old and as recovered fully from his injury.  I have to head out and run a couple teams now so I better get going thanks for checking in.  One more thing, this weekend is the Sled dog Symposium here in Fairbanks and I will be speaking at both the Rookie meeting and on a panel on Sunday.  Ill be sure to let you know how it goes.  Also one of my first sponsors ever Is coming to town for the symposium and then is going to come stay here for a few days and help train the dogs.  I am really looking forward too it and I know she is as well.  AJ (handler) is out there getting things set up so I better run