Winter Arrives

After working with the dogs on pulling for a couple of months I could not wait for the first snow so that I could try out what they had learned. The snow finally came and I was ready to go Skijoring. For anyone that does not know what Skijoring is when you attach one or two dogs to your waist, put on cross county ski's and have a good old time. You have to understand that I have done downhill skiing many times but cross county is a different story. You can count on one hand the number of times that I have been on cross county ski's let alone attached too two dogs.
Storm always goes with me to help teach the other dogs but I alternate the second dog each time I go. The above pictures show Storm and Sadie on one of our later outing but the first time I went I decided to take Pepper since this was our first time on the snow and even though she is about half the size of storm she will pull more than her share and next to Storm knows the commands the best. Our first trip would be to the Ohio-Erie Canal Towpath which is less than a mile from my house. We arrived in the parking lot a few minutes later and the dogs were rearing to go. There is a new stretch of the path that heads north for about a mile and a half to a dead end. Once you reach the end you have to turn around and come back the same way. I figured that this would be a good location for our first trip in the snow because the lack of tracks in the snow indicated that there was no one else on the path and for our first outing the less distractions the better. As I stood at the entrance the dogs were anxiously pulling on the 15 foot rope that I had attached to their harnesses, the other end of which was attached to a belt around my waist. I put the dogs in a SIT/STAY put on my ski's and we were ready to go. The path is fairly flat and runs along a 5 foot wire fence that separates the towpath form the PPG lime lakes. On the other side of the fence is about 10 to 20 yards of brush and then the Tuscarawas River. The Tuscarawas is a river in name only you can take a canoe trip down the River for a short period in the Spring but most of the year it is too shallow. We started along the path with the dogs pulling about half the time and me doing about half of the work.

We had just gotten started and were about a quarter of a mile in when all of a sudden I felt a tug on my waist and off I went as fast as the dogs could run. I regained my balance and was being swept down the path with the dogs in a full run. You would never know that they were dragging a xxx pound man. I looked to the right and there between the fence and the River I saw a white tail popping up and down in the underbrush. What the dogs saw long before I did was the south end of a northbound deer doing all it could to separate its self from us. The deer was going the same direction that we were but at a much faster pace. The dogs didn't care that they had no chance of catching it, especially pulling the extra weight, they were just enjoying the chase. I immediately had a flash back to may first down hill skiing experience. My brother-in-law was showing me how to ski. He took me down the beginner hill one time and said that's it, lets take the trail thru the woods, like a fool I listened to him only to find myself exiting the other side of the woods in the woods into the middle of a Black Diamond hill. There was no where to go except straight down and down I went. I started to get scared that I was going to fall so I squatted down. Big mistake, this just made me go faster. By the time I reached the bottom I was going faster than I had ever gone without a car under me. Just as the bottom of the hill came in site so did about a hundred yards of moguls. I hit the moguls and it was all over, I went head over heals, broke the ski's and the poles went flying. To this day I think he did this to me on purpose in any case I stood up which surprised everyone including me and walked back to the lodge, oh to be young again. I was hoping that this would not turn out the same way. It took about a half mile for the deer to outdistance the dogs to the point that they could no longer see it. The way I train them to pull is to praise them when ever they pull without my help, well needless to say I am flying down the trail telling them what a good job they are doing, trying to watch the deer and trying not to think about what would happen if I fell.

What a rush. This went on for about a half of mile before the deer got out of sight and they lost interest. This experience gave me quit a glimpse of what these dogs are capable of and what I had to look forward to. I would recommend Skijoring to anyone that has a Shiloh and lives where it snows. It's inexpensive, good for the dogs and a heck of a lot of fun. The only word of caution I have is to make sure that the dogs know at least 2 of the commands, "WHOA" and "GO", before you try it on skies. The turning commands can come later, "HAW" and "GEE", but you must be able to get the dogs started and be able to stop them under any circumstances.

Next time turn it up a notch.