Wishing you all the gift of peace that is felt in the forest,at night, under a fresh blanket of new fallen snow!
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL FROM THE WHOLE GANG HERE AT MIORTUK!

The photos are of the second team running last Saturday. Willy & Angel are running lead.
All that beautiful snow is now gone & replaced with ice due to rain all day Thursday & then a deep freeze arriving Friday. 
However, the snow & the trails were excellent for running on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday. We ran all three days & the times of the teams were the same for all three days. These results are very encouraging, especially for preparing the team for the three day race at Laconia in February. The problem we are facing is due to the lack of snow and getting longer training runs on the dogs. We need snow & a good base so we can go to the sled with longer runs. 
This weather is very discouraging, especially with the way the dogs are performing. Patience is the order of the day as the snow will come & the the required training will occur. But, for now, the teams have been shut down waiting for safer conditions. We are forecasted to receive either snow or rain on Monday & snow returning on Wednesday next week. Lets hope we get only snow & no rain.
THINK SNOW!
Until next week....... 

Yes, finally we received some snow this week. Over Thursday & Friday, we received close to 5" of beautiful snow.
The week didn't start off too promising with rain on Sunday & Monday destroying the training trails again. However, Tuesday the trails were wet but usable. We received about 1" of snow Tuesday overnight making the trails usable again on Wednesday. But, the running was excellent on both Friday & Saturday with the fresh snow. 
Above series of photos shows Cobalt & Max leading a team of happy dogs. Hopefully, now we keep the snow with the forecast for below freezing temperatures for the next week. If we get some more snow & set up a good base, we can get to using the sled and get longer miles on the dogs & prepare them for the race in Saint Michel in early January.
The dogs are performing great and making it a real pleasure to run them.
Life can't get much better than this!
Until next week.......

The crazy weather continued this week making training very challenging. We were able to run on Monday, then rain on Tuesday & Wednesday followed by freezing temperatures on Thursday & then snow on Friday.
The freezing temperature on Thursday made the trails dangerous with ice patches, frozen sand & very hard. 
The training continued on Friday & Saturday with beautiful snow covered trails. This made for some very good runs. The above photos were extracted from video shot on Friday. There are also videos of Fridays runs on the Training Page.
Angel is fitting in here & producing some fantastic runs at lead with Willy.
The Sprint Dogs are now running the 4.5 mile run without any stops and are now running at very acceptable speeds.
The weather forecast for Sunday & Monday is rain & then snow for the balance of the week. Lets hope Mother Nature gives us a break & delivers snow & not rain.
Until next week.......

The weather here has been crazy this week with cold temperatures at the beginning of the week, causing the lake to freeze over, to warm rainy weather to close the week. Even with the uncooperative weather, we were able to get in 4 training days.
This has been another busy week here in the kennel with the departure of Amorook to her new owner Kole Owens and the addition of Angel ( for more info. see her on the Profile Page). Also, I have added Casper to the Adoption Page as I continue to convert the kennel to Sprint Dogs.
Training this week was more for working with & trying new potential leaders. The above photos shows some of the new dogs that got to run at lead this week. All look good & with more training will eventually become leaders here at Miortuk. I couldn't be more pleased with the group of potential leaders we have here to work with.
This week all the 4.5 mile runs were performed without a rest stop. The dogs look great through the run & show no fatigue at the end.
Let's hope this coming week brings us some more seasonable weather!
Until next week........

It was a week that started with sorrow and ended with great excitement of the future.
On Monday, we lost Nanook to an aggressive form of cancer. A tribute to Nanook is posted on the "Reflections" page. Her passing has left a huge hole in my heart!
However, life in the kennel continues and with it great excitement to announce the emergence of some potentially great young leaders. So far this season, we have seen the emergence of Cobalt, Willy, Katie, Annie & Indigo as future leaders of our team. Cobalt along with Max look like they will be the main race leaders this season. The others will continue to get lead time for their future development. There are still a couple of more dogs that will get their opportunity at lead on future runs.
This was a good week for training getting in four days of running this week. On Saturday, we ran on snow for the first time this season. There is a YouTube Video of the second team running on the "Training" page. This week on Thursday the teams ran the total 4.5 mile run without any rest stops. We also ran the distance dogs with Charlie starting to run the dogs.
Charlie continued her training with the pups teaching them to pull while walking with the leash. They are enthusiastic & progressing as expected.
Until next week.......

Finally, we got in a week with four days of training. Although it wasn't easy working around the rainy & warm days. We did have snow flurries on Saturday which made the training more interesting. However, there was little accumulation and most had disappeared by days end.
The above series of photos taken from my Flip Video Camera, demonstrates the development of Vicky, the red dog at wheel. She started off the season slowly and after 100 miles of running this season, has developed into a very enthusiastic performer. She has improved so much that she ran lead yesterday for the last half of the run with Willy. She is an excellent example of a young dog that starts the season slowly and gets better as the season progresses.
As with Vicky, We continue to work on developing young leaders. We now have seven dogs that can run lead so far and still a couple of more prospects that will get an opportunity over the next couple of weeks. 
Both Sprint teams are now running, without a stop, to the half way & then receive a 2 minute rest. Returning the last half also without a rest and there is still plenty of speed left to sprint home the last 1/4 mile when called up. I am very pleased with the dogs performance!
Until next week.........

Yes, this has been a week of changes here at Miortuk kennel. 
Firstly, Charlie arrived here on the 1st of November from England & has started her adventure with Sled Dogs. 
David has decided to leave here and seek another kennel that was more suitable to his desires. David,while here, did a great job in the kennel with the ground work, fixing the houses and keeping the kennel clean. He learned very quickly how to harness the dogs and also had a great rapport with them. I wish David all the good fortune on his continuing adventures.
The dogs also saw several changes here. We divided the Distance Dogs from the Sprint Dogs for training purposes. We are now running three teams: two Sprint Teams of nine dogs & one Distance Team of seven dogs.
With the physical conditioning portion of the season competed, it is now the time to work on the cardio & endurance portion of the training/conditioning program. To accomplish this the Sprint Dogs now have work as a unit. With the two team concept, we can also train more Sprint Leaders. This is a great way & time to try new dogs in the lead position. Above you see Willy & Indigo at the finish of their first experience at running lead. Willy had one short (three minute) leg previously. Both these dogs were hooked up to lead for the last half of the 4.5 mile run. They performed amazingly! Due to the fact that Indigo is so young, she will not get more leader experience until the end of the season. Willy, on the other hand, will start to get some regular running time at lead. On the second team, Katie was introduced to lead running with Cosmos ( this is Cosmos second year at lead). Katie was showing signs all this Fall of wanting to get running up closer to the front of the team. She was great at lead right from the start leading the team from the kennel on her first run. So far this season, we have introduced four new dogs to the lead position. Three of those dogs are two years old & in their second season of running. I believe there are at least three other two year old's that will run lead.
The weather this week has limited our training runs again, allowing us only three runs. However, all these runs were quality runs with some good learning experiences.
Until next week.......

The above series of photos will give you a mushers view of the run. Only the leaders have a change of scene! 
It was another difficult week here for training with more rainy days making for very wet trails. However, we were able to get in runs on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. Although the weather has been challenging, the dogs performance is excellent and they are getting into shape very quickly. The sprint team are hitting a consistent fast pace even with two people on the ATV, the motor running, the transmission in 5th gear and not using the accelerator. I am very impressed with their speed, strength and endurance. 
Cobalt has really taken over as the head leader & any dog the runs next to her catches her enthusiasm to perform. She is going to be a great leader. 
We experimented one run having Willy at lead for a short distance. He performed great and was not distracted. He will deserve more lead time in the future. Katie has also been showing a great deal of enthusiasm to get up front. She is now running in the first team position and will get a chance at lead in the near future. This is a great time of the year to try dogs at different positions.
Both Hurit & Halona were placed in the adult yard on Monday. They adjusted quickly and are now interacting with their new neighbors.
David has done a great job in leveling off the kennel and repairing the dog houses getting ready for Winter.

Charlie arrives here on Tuesday to begin her Sled Dog adventure. She will be also completing some University Studies, one on Animal Behavior. I wonder if she will be studying the dogs or the Mushers? HA! Ha!

Until next week........

Yes, it was a difficult week for running dogs due to poor weather conditions. With  the inclement weather, we were able to run on Monday & Tuesday, three days off & then again on Saturday and today. We had a heavy all day rain on Thursday which left the trails flooded. 
The dogs are doing great considering the difficulties. It is important to watch the long range weather forecast to enable training when the weather permits.
So far, we have been able to get in 14 days of running.
The dogs are even getting a little disgusted, along with the musher, with theses wet/humid conditions. However, weather is out of our control & we just have to be patient waiting for better conditions. This has been the wettest Fall that I have experienced here.
The puppies got their booster & rabies vaccine on Thursday. The two males are adjusting well to their new surroundings and we plan on placing the two females in the adult yard this week.
Until next week......