It is  one thing teaching a new dog to run lead. Now it is time to do some fine tuning to get him to run with another leader to allow him to give his best performance.
This  week, we ran Lloyd with his brother Louis.
Both dogs showed good drive at the leader position, so now we paired them to see how they would run together.
Louis has shown great confidence at lead, that is why we run Lloyd with him to give Lloyd more confidence and competition at the lead position.
The experiment was a great success!!!
Both dogs are perfectly matched size wise, with the same enthusiasm and drive.
This is one of the fun parts of mushing to place two dogs together to get maximum performance.
It looks like these two will become a great pairing at lead.
Until next week..... 

Fresh snow, sunny skies, cold temperatures and a great run = a great day!
We finally got some fresh snow on the trails and a break in the frigid temperatures.
The dogs are running great and getting into  Mid-Season shape.
Now they are running the same as the conclusion of last season and now the start of some 7 mile runs.
The above team lead by Venus & Lilly, point: Pearl & Merry and at wheel Blue (10 years old) and his son Levi.
This team is consistent every run averaging 30kph.
The other teams are also doing great and the leader training continues with Lance & Lloyd.
Louis, who is in his second year at running lead, is maturing and showing that he loves the lead position displaying more confidence and drive!
The third team with Tepeu & Saphir at lead is also showing their ability to be supper leaders.
All in all, it is a fun time running the dogs.
​Until next week.....

"If you do the same things you always do, you will get the same results you always have!"
In other words, if you want to improve you need try different things.
That is why this season we have been working with training new leaders.
The above two videos are of training this week with two rooky leaders, Lloyd & Lance.
In the first video is Lloyd (white dog running left lead) running with Kira.
This is his second time running lead from the start of the run.
Normally, I start new leaders at the half way portion of the run as they know they are running home and will receive a treat at the end of the run (motivation).
Lloyd did a great job up front with only a few stops on the way home.
He needed these stops to build up his confidence at lead.
Of coarse, he received praise for his good work at these stops.
He was running with drive and enthusiasm!
The second video is Lance (right lead) running with his brother Louis (second season running lead).
This is Lances third time at lead.
This was Louis first time running as the #1  leader and this was Lances first time running with Louis.
Normally, I would run Lance with Tira (experienced Leader).
However, I wanted to see how Louis would handle being the #1 leader and also if the pairing with Lance would encourage Lance to drive harder.
The experiment was a great success for both dogs. 
Louis was motivated due to my confidence in him and Lance was motivated by being more competitive with his brother.
This is a first time in 6 years that I had two males running lead together.
This could be a great pairing that I would not have known if I didn't experiment.
As the title of the Blog says: "Expect The Unexpected".
​Until next week......

Even with Covid, the Winter Rhythm of life goes on here at Miortuk.
With the running of the dogs, life here is relatively normal.
Daily the dogs need care of feeding, cleaning the kennel and individual attention. 
We are still attempting to getting in four days a week running the dogs in 6/5 dog teams. The leader training is progressing with some inexperienced leaders getting more experience.
The dogs conditioning is improving and we are starting to see the speed increase.
The goal for this season was to work with new leaders and give last seasons rooky leaders more experience up front.
Very pleased with the progress we are seeing.
In the above video Tepeu is running lead with Saphir (on the right).
Saphir is Zoe Knight's dog, that had to stay here and not return to France with Zoe due to complications with Covid last Spring.
Last year she got some experience at lead and this year has run every run in that position.
Saphir is proving she was born for that position and running with confidence, enthusiasm and drive!
Zoe you should be very proud of her!
​We await your return to here in the Northern Forest!
It is fun to see the young leaders develop.
Until next week......