It was another fun week here at Miortuk!
We had a great week of training with the help of Mother Nature giving us a nice blanket of snow ever day making the trails pristine.
We have now switched from using the ATV to the Snow Machine for training the dogs.
The dogs are really enjoying the nice trails and now are upping their speed to 30 km/hr.
This week, we also introduced Libby and Sam to Lead. The two show
​ed real potential for the lead position.
The video below shows Sam being introduced to the lead position.
Also this week Lilly had two runs at Lead and did an excellent job. She looks like she will be a real dynamic Leader.
With the good snow conditions, we will soon up the number of miles during the runs.
​Until next week........

This was the week to start some new Leaders.
This week Lilly, Lance and Hok'ee were given opportunities to run up at lead.
Lilly did a great job up there with her first run, she started 1/3 way through the run. On her second run this week started at Lead and displayed a true talent for this position driving hard right from the start. She was very focused throughout.
Lilly is a natural leader and displayed this leader mentality as a puppy being the first to walk, eat solid food and always free running in front of her siblings.
Hok'ee had a couple of short experiences at Lead last season, running a couple of miles towards the end of the runs just to get exposure. On Friday, he started at lead was very focused and hard driving doing an excellent job.
Lance ran good up front but had distractions due to females in the team being in heat. He definitely shows potential and will get more opportunity to be upfront when there is less distractions and is more mature mentally.
Training new leaders is very important to give all the dogs a chance in the lead position.
There are several other dogs that will have the opportunity at lead over the next several weeks.
The Winter weather has now settled in here with snow and freezing temperatures making the trails here pristine and with hard packed base.
​Until next week......

Another week with poor running conditions due icy trails.
However, we were able to get two days of running on Thursday and Saturday.
Thursday, we had warmer weather enabling us to train two teams on soft trails with some water. In the video above, you can see the importance of having great Leaders!
All day Friday and into Saturday morning we received about 15 cm of wet snow and nice temperatures allowing us to train two teams.
The dogs are doing a remarkable job considering the challenging conditions.
I am always amazed at their desire and ability to perform!!!
Today was spent spending 4 hours on the road travelling to pick up 40x55lb blocs of meat (beef/chicken mix) for our canine athletes.
This routine will be repeated again in 5 weeks.
If you want the dogs to perform like champions, you need to feed them like champions.
This coming week the weather forecast is for below 0 temperatures and more snow.
It looks like Winter is finally here!
LET'S TAKE A MOMENT TO REMEMBER OUR VETERANS THAT SACRIFICED SO MUCH FOR OUR WAY OF LIFE!
Until next week........
​

This week the weather dictated the running schedule.
​The week started with a nice snow covering of the trail and making for the first nice snow run of the season.
Unfortunately, Monday night it rained and that night it rained and the temperatures fell below freezing causing the trails to turn to ice.
The icy trail conditions prevented us from running through until Friday Morning when we had a light coating of wet snow to enable us to get out for the second training run of the week.
With the new snow and coupled with the three day layoff, the dogs were going crazy to run.
The dogs are progressing nicely with their conditioning allowing us to get their speeds up to 28/29 km/hr.
Wednesday was spent going to Joliette for shopping for supplies for the dogs (32/18 kilo sacks of dry food for the dogs from Dalphond Pet Supplies) and some human supplies. This was an all day affair with 5 hours of travelling time.
The supplies should last us for most of the Winter with the exception of meat for the dogs.
It was nice to get back home to the peace and serenity of the forest.
​Until next week.......