It was a real good week here getting in four scheduled days of training and giving the dogs a proper rest cycle. 
As important as the training/conditioning is for the dogs, so is rest. The proper rest schedule is important to give the muscles time to recover after work outs.
The dogs performance is continuing to improve with them getting more in sync as a team. We have continued to work on pairings to find the best combinations. We have also been trying new dogs at the leader position looking for future leaders. We ran Merry, Sam, Yoda and Tepeu up at lead this week. All showed promise with Tepeu excelling. Both Merry, Sam and Yoda show good potential. However, they need more experience at the Point position to become more comfortable in the front of the team.
Cecile continued her bikejoring with Cosmos and introduced Sophie to it this week.
Taisa worked on Canacross Training with Nicky,Halona and Tanya. Tanya showed the best potential running out front during the whole run.
This training will help us pick the best candidates for Skijoring this Winter as well as future leaders.
Thanks to the hard work of Cecile and Taisa, the clean up around the chalet and the kennel is almost complete and ready for Winter.
Last Sunday, we awoke to our first snow of the season that actually stayed on the ground over night. 
A sign of things to come.
There is a new video on the Training Page showing Tepeu at lead of a 12 dog team.
Until next week.........

It was a very busy week here preparing for Winter and the upcoming Racing Season.
Due to a rainy/warm week, it was the perfect time to do some house keeping here before the onset of Winter.
Cecile found a good used freezer on the internet and we went to pick it up on Tuesday. At the same time, while we were in Joliette, we picked up another eleven weeks supply of dry dog food. On the return trip we stopped and visited our good friends Valerie And Laurent Gonsolin in St. Zenon.
Thursday, we went to Montreal to pick up Taisa Kushner who will be staying here for the balance of the season to follow her interest and passion of Mushing. After which we also completed our monthly shopping of human food for a month and 35, 40lb blocks of frozen turkey and chicken skins for the dogs. 
Friday, we leveled the ground in the kennel and filled in all the dogs work of escalation during the off-season.
Both Taisa and Cecile had an opportunity to spend some quality time in the kennel with the dogs.
As mentioned earlier, due to warm/humid conditions the dogs have not be run this week. However, conditions look good for tomorrow and the following week to return to training.
Welcome aboard Taisa to the Miortuk Team, Cecile and I look foreword to your participation here.
Until next week.......

It was a busy, action packed week here at Miortuk!
First, this was a great week for training getting in four conditioning/training runs on all three teams. We also realigned the teams to have one 12 dog Open Team, one 8 dog team for Cecile's 6 Dog Racing Team and one 8 dog team to run the balance of the dogs and the two yearlings.
The performance of all three teams is very encouraging and the dogs are showing great ability for this early in the season.
On Friday, friends from Switzerland arrived here for a visit for the long weekend. It was great having Franziska back here after her stay here for the 2007/8 season. We had a great weekend catching up on the last few years and meeting her partner Christian. Franziska, Christian, Cecile and I enjoyed several great meals ( Maple Syrup Grazed Ham on Friday evening prepared by Cecile, Swiss Style Cheese Fondue Saturday, a special Swiss Meal on Sunday , both meals prepared by Franziska and Christian, finally wrapping up with a big breakfast/brunch on Monday) all, except Monday morning, served with some great wine and conversation.
Both Franziska and Christian assisted/accompanied  Cecile and I with the training runs on Saturday and Sunday.
It was a super ending to a very busy week with great food, company and training.
Until next week........

Yes, it was a great week here with the arrival of Cecile back from France on Tuesday.
We were busy this week with training the dogs on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  Weather conditions were good enough to train three teams on Wednesday, two teams on Thursday ( temperature too warm for the third team) and finished the week running the third team and the yearlings on Friday. 
The dogs are running great for this early in the season showing supper enthusiasm and conditioning. All three teams of eight dogs are well balanced with the dogs working already as synchronized units. 
We are set up with Cecile and I training together with each team with me driving them out to the half way and Cecile driving them back. After the runs, we can then discuss our observations made during each teams run.
This week, we also started giving some potential leaders an opportunity to run at the lead position. Both Hurit and Kira showed real potential.
If all goes well next week, after another run with eight dog teams, we will most likely make two teams of fourteen. 
We also accomplished some housekeeping around the kennel and chalet before the Winter weather arrives.
As  mentioned above, the weather was good for training here this week with rain only on Saturday which was a scheduled day off.
The dogs also enjoyed the return of Cecile especially Cosmos who got try bikejouring (for the first time) on Friday.
Welcome back Cecile!
Until next week.......