Pull Clinic

Yesterday Cedar, Koyuk and I were on the road at 0515. Anyone who knows me knows I am NOT a morning person and that it takes something really special to get me going, let alone driving, at that hour. Our destination was the Cascade Sled Dog Club pulling clinic. Koyuk learned to mush from Willy but never had formal pull training. She was in class with me for the day. CSDC puts on the best clinic in the PNW. Fourteen dogs spent the morning doing several exercises including: learning a harness on = pull; dogs dragging tires to get used to a weight following them; how to "line-out and wait"; passing other dogs and being passed; and "gee" and "haw" commands. I was too busy handling Koyuk to have a camera during the exercises.

Koyuk

 After lunch and mini lectures, it was time to harness the dogs for scooter practice.

Chinooks Lu, Parker, Cedar and Koyuk ready to run.

After I scootered with them, Koyuk ran with the very experienced Lu. Koyuk quickly took lead and showed Lu what she had learned in class.

Cedar then ran with Parker.

The Chinooks after running.

A warn-out Koyuk.

A very pleased Cedar.

The drive home was another adventure. Suddenly, as I approached Salem on I-5, there were numerous cop cars with blazing lights lining the on-ramp to the freeway. An ODOT truck sign lit up with "Do Not Pass" just as I was next to it. Going 65 mph at the time, I kept on as did four other cars. For the next 35 miles, we four with our police escort were the only cars on the freeway. All on-ramps were blocked by police cars. No, I wasn't tripping from fatigue or spacy from too much caffeine. We were the only ones on the normally busy 6-lane freeway. Needless to say, we all drove 5 miles under the speed limit. The dogs needed to pee when I got just past Albany so I pulled off only to find a still empty freeway and my police escort on our on-ramp. My curiosity was on overdrive by then. I got out and asked them "what's up?" Apparently a "suspicious object" was found under the freeway bridge that goes over the river. Our four cars were the last to go over it. They did let me know that the "anxious herd" had been let loose up north and that I should probably head out. They remained to catch frustrated speeders.