First Rough Terrain

I held off on this post because I wanted to add some pictures to it but the weather has not cooperated and we have not had any more snow so I figured I had better post it while it was at least close to winter. Besides, I want to write about Sadie's first show so I had better get busy and post it now.

This was my first trip that went beyond a fairly straight predefined path. Up to this point the only commands I needed were "GO" and "WHOA" the path was defined and relatively flat. However it is difficult to teach the dogs "HAW" (left turn) and "GEE" (right turn) in that situation. A friend of mine has a plot of land not far from me that has woods, corn fields, streams, hills valleys etc. An ideal place for this type of training. He uses the land to hunt and run 4 wheelers so there are some roughly defined trails. The perfect place for what I want to accomplish.

The trip started out like normal. I know that this blog is supposed to be about training Sadie but since most of her trips were rather uneventful I thought I would convey this one. It was Lizzy's turn to go with Storm so I hooked up the harnesses, put on the ski's, grabbed my poles and we were off. The route I choose started off up the side of a hill. The hill was in a corn filed and was steep enough that the dogs could not pull me up but not so steep that a tractor would tip over when cultivating the corn. After much effort on both our parts we reached the top. As I soon found out going up was the easy part. Coming down the other side was another story. Now I have no problem with downhill skiing but doing it with cross county ski's in a corn field with the stubble of last seasons corn stocks sticking up in rows like columns of little toy solders is another matter all together. To complicate matters I could now see that there was a line of trees at the bottom of the hill and by the time that I realized this I was over the crest of the hill and on my way down the other side. I could not turn because I was skiing parallel to the corn stubble and if I turned hitting the stubble I would surly fall so I decided to ride it out and hopefully be able to stop at the bottom. About halfway down the hill I realized that I was catching up with the dogs. I yelled "GEE OVER" which I had only used a couple of times with with the dogs but to my amazement Storm moved to the right pushing Lizzy over as well. I went flying past them and now I was leading them. Granted I could have stopped at any time but were is the fun in that. I reached the bottom of the hill, exited the corn field and stopped just before the woods. The dogs caught up just as I stopped so we had a group hug and savored the moment. Little did I know that this was just the beginning of a very memorable trip. I gave the command to "GO" and off we went into the woods.

As we left the corn filed and entered the woods I could see a heard of about 5 deer off in the distance but fortunately they spotted us before the dogs saw them and ran off in the other direction. We continued thru the woods on a rut fill path that had been carved out by 4 wheelers. It was a little tough for me to keep my footing but the dogs had no problem at all. We soon reached a creek that was about 30 foot wide with a crud bridge. It was mostly snow covered and the dogs had no trouble going across and did not even hesitate. The planks on the bridge were spaced about the same distance apart as my ski's which could have been a real problem but as it turned out I was able to traverse it and avoid the gaps. We continued around the edge of the property with the dogs running in the path pulling with me off to the left trying to avoid the ruts. We are now about a half hour out which is the point that I like to start heading back in the general direction of the car. The dogs are new at this and I do not want them to get too tired or over do it to the point that they stop enjoying it. Having been a Land Surveyor years ago I learned to love the outdoors and acquired a very good sense of direction. So we headed off in what I determined would be a rather obstacle free course back.

We were following a tree line when I saw a path off to the right just wide enough for me and the dogs. About 10 yards before reaching the path I yelled "GEE". Now I am not convinced that my dogs know these commands well enough at this point to be what I would consider dependable. In my mind it is more likely that they saw the path and would rather go off into the woods than to just continue along the edge. Whatever the case they turned to the right and took this narrow trail. Right after they made the turn they went over a little mound. This mound looked like it was about 5 foot wide and about 2 feet high. Since it was right in the middle of the trail the only thing I could think of was that someone had dumped a pile of dirt here to make a little jump for a trail bike since the path was not wide enough for a 4 wheeler. In any case by the time I saw the mound it was too late to stop the dogs since they were already over it and I was too close to stop before hitting it so this was going to be my first ski jump. This would not have been too bad but just as I hit the top of the mound I spotted the dogs on the other side jumping a small stream that was obscured from my view. Just as they hit the other bank of the stream I hit the top of the mound the line when taught jerking my belt with the combined weight of 2 dogs totaling over 160 pounds. Needless to say I flew thru the air and landed on my but in the middle of the creek. The dogs stopped turned around and looked at me and I could swear they were laughing at me sitting there in the water. I landed on one of my ski poles breaking it in half but other than the fact that I was soaking wet, a mile away from the car, and it was about 20 degrees I was fine. Needless to say it was a cold trip back to the car but fortunately the dogs seemed as anxious to get back as I was and they pulled the remainder of the way with me trying to balance myself behind them with one ski pole. I would like to think that they pulled harder than they had all day because they knew I was uncomfortable for me but it was more likely that it was because they were tired and just anxious to go home.

Next time Sadie's first Show