The "A" Team is like a machine giving the same excellent performance on every run. The team consists of Venus/Lilly at Lead, Pearle/Merry at Point and Blue/Levis at Wheel. Lilly and Levis are Blue's daughter & son. Blue is 9 years old.
The "B" Team is also showing consistency with each run. However, this is the team that we have been working with new Leaders. On this particular day, both teams ran the 4.5 miles in under 15 minutes. The difference in times between these teams was less the 10 seconds. On this day, Louis/Tira at Lead, Pippin/Lance at Point and Hok'ee/Lloyd at Wheel. Louis, Lance and Lloyd are Blue's sons.
The "C" Team is also running consistent runs only a little slower due to Bergen's age and she is a little slower now. Bergen has been my race Leader and a top Leader here in the kennel all her life. She is now 10 years old and although she still loves to run only now a little slower.
Tepeu & Saphir would like to run faster, probably as fast as the "A" & "B" Teams.
However, this is just the first season that Saphir has run Lead for the whole season. Tepeu/Saphir at Lead, Sam at Point and Bergen/Frodo at Wheel.
The weather here has changed with warm temperatures and some rainy days. The snow on the trails are now bare in places and ice on the balance.
The running here is finished for another season.
It has been a great one with a lot of wonderful times running these amazing athletes.
Valentin ( handler) left here last week for more adventures here in Canada.
​Valentin has been a great help here, thank you!
Until next week......

So far this season, we have introduced some young Leaders to the lead position.
Now is the time to match them with experienced leaders to find who they are most comfortable to run with.
This week, we ran Lance with Kira and were satisfied that they run well together. Lance has no problem up at lead although he is still not comfortable setting a desired pace on the whole run. This will probably come better with more experience next season as he matures.
On the other hand, Louis & Lloyd are a great match with both dogs driving hard and each being more competitive with each other.
Louis adds stability and giving Lloyd more confidence and less influenced by distractions.
Very happy with this pairing.
The weather here this week has been crazy with cold temperatures and good trail conditions on Monday & Tuesday.
Warm temperatures arrived here on Wednesday and Thursday with temperatures reaching the mid twenties.
Heavy winds and rain Thursday night along with temperatures falling below zero has created bare spots on the trail and all of the trails are ice.
Also some trees have fallen on the trail.
It looks like next week will be a quiet one with no running until we get a significant snow fall.
Spring time here in the Northern Forest!
​Until next week.......

Desire, Drive and Dependability is what I look for in making a great Dog Team!
Firstly, the dogs have to have the desire to run their best every run.
Secondly, they need to have the drive to perform at top speeds.
Thirdly, the team has to display the dependability to perform together on every run to allow them to have the confidence to run at high speeds.
Of coarse, the speed has to come from the Leaders to set the pace for the rest of the team to follow.
Without top performing Leaders, the team couldn't perform to its potential.
You know that your team is performing to its best, when you can see the same consistency on every run. I am not just talking about the speed as that will very on the conditions (weather, trail etc) and , as a musher, not asking them to give their top speed on every run.
Yesterday, both the "A" Team & the "B" Team and the 4.5 miles with only 2 seconds difference in time with an overall time of 15 minutes.
The "C" Team ran with Valintine (Handler) with a sled clocking speeds of 28 km/hour.
It is a great feeling to see all the dogs performing and giving there best.
Running dogs never gets boring!
​Every run is exhilarating!
Until next week......