Another adventurous week here at Miortuk with Faire, the female being boarded here to have her puppies' delivered them a week premature. Of the six puppies born only three survived. However, the three (two males and one female)that survived look healthy and have already doubled in size. Due to the fact that it was a premature birth Flaire didn't have enough milk to nourish all of them and had only 4 teats that developed with milk.
Unfortunately the loss of the three puppies is Nature's way of ensuring the survival of the fittest. 
It is always hard to suffer the loss although we did everything possible to assist in their survival.
Flaire and her puppies are doing good and eating well. Mother and puppies are inside the chalet to monitor their development and keep them warm.
This week, we also got in three training runs with both teams (2 at 7.5 miles and one at 4.5 miles).
We have discovered that Venus runs much better at lead with Lilly.
Although Lilly is just a beginner at Lead, she is showing that she is a Natural Leader and enjoys the opportunity to be up front.
Libby had a short run at Lead with her sister Lilly and showed good portntial for becoming a Leader.
Part of mushing is learning to pair dogs that helps bring out their best. It is like fine tuning a race car!
The weather here has turned very cold last night with the night time low of -30 Celcius.
These low temperatures are to stay until next Wednesday.
​Until next week........

This week was an exciting week with working with a new Leader, increased mileage with training and awaiting a delivery of some new puppies.
Last weekend a decision was made to assist another musher with the birthing of a litter of puppies from Flair in exchange for obtaining a 3 year old race Leader Olive.
This week, we had Olive run on 4 training runs with our second team. First run in the team to get used to her new team mates and then up at Lead. 
She did very well and showed more confidence on the 4th day of training in the lead position. 
This week, we increased the mileage on the runs to 71/2 miles. The teams handled it well and were not tired from the longer run.
For the next couple of weeks, we will alternate the distances run with a longer run the first day after a day off and then a shorter run on the second day.
The longer runs will be at a slower speed and the short runs will be a speed run.
The trails here are perfect with nice packed snow.
Daily the trails are groomed.
Both Olive and Flair arrived here last Sunday and had a week in the kennel with the other dogs to get socialized.
We moved Flair into the whelping pen on Saturday and are now awaiting the arrival of her puppies. All indications are the puppies will be delivered soon.
Now is the waiting period and making the mother to be comfortable as she goes through her labor.
The video above is with Olive/Yoda turning the team into the extension loop.
​Until next week.......

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.......

This week was the first full week of scheduled training.
We ran two teams, one of 10 dogs and one of 8 dogs, on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday were rest days.
This is the normal training schedule we like to follow.
It is important for the dogs to get rest days for the muscles to recover from the exercise. 
The dogs are doing great and on Thursday & Friday, we ran Levis on the 10 dog team and moved Hok'ee over to the 8 dog team.
We are now running all the "L" litter on the Open Class Team.
You can see Levis on the right side at Wheel running with his father Blue.
The weather here this week was perfect for running with below zero temperatures at night into the early mornings. We also had some more snow flurries which helped soften the trails making it good for the dogs feet.
The only dog needing booties was Venus who has very sensitive paws.
Some of the dogs needed their nails clipped to prevent the nails splitting/breaking on the frozen ground.
​Chloe & Leo leveled the boys side of the kennel before the ground froze too hard.
This morning the lake had some ice forming on it for the first time this season.
It looks like Winter conditions are going to arrive early this year.
HAPPY TRAILS!
​Until next week.......

It was a great time here at Miortuk with are first week of training.
The dogs are settling in very quickly to their training routine.
It always amazes me how fast they adapt to team running.
It is very important at this time to keep the speeds down to do proper conditioning and not over stress the muscles with going to fast.
A muscle injury at this time of the season could put a dog out of action for the balance of the season.
Now it is slow and easy!
The above video was filmed using Chloe's GoPro Camera mounted on the harness of Yoda, one of our Leaders.  
Her and Indigo stay calm until they start to run.
Both Chloe & Leo have adapted to life here and are a great help with the dogs.
They have quickly mastered the routine with harnessing and getting the dogs hooked up in the teams.
The weather here this week has been a mix with rain, snow flurries, warm and below zero temperatures.
All are runs are completed in the morning to ensure the coolest temperatures for safely running the dogs.
​Until next week.......

A busy, exciting week here at Miortuk.
On Thursday Chloe & Leo, from France, arrived here to start their adventure as Handler/Trainees learning about Sled Dogs and life here in the forest.
After a introduction to the dogs and learning how to harness them on Friday, we set off on Saturday for our first training/conditioning run of the 2018/19 season.
Our first run was with two teams, one with 10 dogs and one with 8 dogs, going 4.5 miles.
All went extremely well with the dogs performing great and enjoying getting back in harness.
Both Chloe & Leo did a great job for their first sortie.
They also had the opportunity to meet and feed the Grey Jays, a local wild bird the spends the Fall/Winter/Spring here. 
It is a fun experience to have them land on your hands and take pieces of bread.
Also on Friday, We had our first snow flurry of the season.
It is great to get back running the dogs!!!
​Until next week......

This weekend was Thanksgiving here at Miortuk.
It was time to reflect on all the blessings of living here in the forest with the Nature, friends and of course my dogs.
It was a wonderful few days spent with some good friends and having great meals.
Yesterday afternoon and last evening enjoying the company of friends gathering around a nice campfire on a beautiful/cool Fall day.
Chloe & Leo, a couple from France, arrive to start their adventure here with Sled Dogs and our training season will begin!
The dogs are ready and the weather is now turning cooler to affiliate the start of another great season.
To all my Canadian friends, Happy Thanksgiving.
​Until next week.......