God is Great, Beer is Good, and people are @#$%&* CRAZY!

Okay, so that song has been playing over and over in my head for most of the day. And yes there is probably going to be a very sarcastic tone, and for good reason. So here it goes.

I was talking to Chuck on the phone today and she mentioned that Sampson is back. I'm thinking bummer, but had a feeling from what had been going on that it was only a matter of time. You see there is going to be multiple side steps to this so bear with me on this. It is my rant after all. As we all know I run dogs, a good majority of my friends run dogs, we enjoy running dogs, and WE have TRAINED them to be good working sled dogs. Our teams weren't handed to us, we worked at it. We did training, and conditioning, and while it isn't always fun, the rewards of our sometimes blood, lots of sweat and happy and sad tears is insurmountable. If we didn't enjoy this we wouldn't do it. Even Zach has worked hard at running dogs, training, and being a great helper with handling teams. Even he knows you work for what you get, and that the rewards are a lot of fun to enjoy. No one who seriously runs dogs had everything handed to them, their entire team didn't come to them trained, and I think I am safe to assume that we wouldn't have what we do have if it was all handed to us.

So I know, I know, what about Sampson. Trust me you will understand my rant from reading that paragraph above. So yes Sam is back, he's a mix as you can tell by the pics, with a lot of leg. He's run in harness next to Arrow pulling Jon on a scooter. He knows how to do this, but has had no formal training. So Sam was adopted a month ago, and throughout the month, the response was "he won't pull" but at the same time the home is doing NO pull training. You see they got one sled dog retired from a kennel that's not in this state. So that dog has been trained by someone else. So now add in Sam, and the need for some training, and all they can say is the dog won't pull. Have you worked on pull training? the answer was no. So with that the person gave up on him working and decided to try and make him a guard dog. WHAT????? Yes you read that right, a guard dog, then complains about him barking at people, his personality is more Siberian than what he's mixed with. Well the even bigger problem is that they will be looking for yet another dog somewhere, and then expect it to know everything. I'm sorry I just have issue with that. The even bigger one is that this person is an older teenager that is getting everything handed to her. On top of it another excuse when he was returned was that he has shepherd hips. Ummmm.... no he doesn't, there is no swagger, he's a clean mover, and well he looks more hound in that rear than anything else. I have met other teenagers that run dogs and work their butt off for it. They are even better handlers and have a great relationship with their dogs. A lot of us know many kids that run dogs with their parents or mentor under other mushers. I've been lucky enough to meet a few of them and well you know who you are and in my opinion YOU ROCK!!! They work hard, and they play hard. They don't expect a perfectly trained team to be just handed to them, and it would probably take out some of the fun working and building that relationship with their team. Then I have to look at Zach who has been running dogs on scooters since he was 8 and running bigger teams with adult supervision for the past year or so. He did borrow a team from Hugo to be able to race one year and had a blast running a pair of dogs that don't know how to walk according to Hugo, and I believe him! It was a huge thing for Zach, he got to see what hard work will do, he couldn't run any of our dogs since I was running them, so he got to run a team that has a lot of work behind them.

So thanks for letting me rant, Sam will now be looking for another home. If he is still in rescue when winter hits he may just score a few trips up to the desert with me to run with us. I'm hoping by then he will have a home, but if not, he'll be learning about dog drops and camping. I know he's run in harness before, he just needs some fine tuning.

Here is Sampson.... just in case you were curious of what he looked like.

Beads, beads, and more beads....

Did I happen to mention BEADS? Ok so here's the deal. Laura wants beads and she could win a whole bunch of them. It's really cool, and maybe while she's behaving and staying off her foot and REALLY letting it heal she could also take up braiding and maybe make some really cool leashes with beads. We all know I love the leads with beads. I am really bad when it comes to them. Depending on how long it takes her foot to heal she could make a lead for every outfit, and nice stuff to match the lead that the handler wears. She says she's shameless, guess I'm not much better...LOL...
So here are the directions on what to do and while your at it look at all the really cool jewelry, you will find something that you have to have here http://www.silverparrotdesigns.net/

So.... PLEASE!!!!!!

Zach takes out the Malamute

Funny how things work out sometimes. At Apple Valley Kwin turned out to be the only class dog, so Nicole thought it would be cute for Zach to take him in the ring on Sunday. Let's not forget that this was the particular morning for "spring forward" so an early morning ring time for the Malamutes got us up quite early. It was worth it. It was rather cute seeing Zach show a dog that clearly out weighed him, okay so it was only by 12 pounds, but Kwin is also a competitor in weight pulling, and also runs in harness as well. So there is no lack of muscle when it comes to this boy. I also have to mention that Kwin is also well trained in the obedience arena as well as quite a few tricks. Zach and Kwin had fun showing off Kwin's talents to anyone who walked anywhere near the set up over the weekend.

What a run!

Kazzie & Magnum


Robin & Frosty


Dylan & Arrow

Well the weekend started out with a pretty leisurely pace Saturday morning. We were up at Red Mountain camping and since we rolled in quite late on Friday night we slept in a bit on Saturday morning. By the time we got the dogs out it was too warm to run them, plus I was still really tired. After napping on and off for a good portion of the morning and early afternoon I was finally awake enough and the dogs were restless and it was also finally cool enough to do a shorter run with the dogs. I decided to take out 6 dogs, so I unloaded Sean's cart and got the lines out and was getting the dogs harnessed with the help of Zach and Sharon. My team consisted of Magnum and Kazzie in lead, Robin and Frosty in team and Dylan and Arrow in wheel. I must not have really been awake since none of those dogs are even remotely tourists running. My second mistake was I unloaded Sean's cart instead of Sharon's. Sharon's has much more substantial brakes compared to the other. So here we are hooking up dogs and I getting ready to take them out for a short run. Zach was going to go with me, but more on that part later. So we are all loaded up the dogs are pumped and the ones staying behind in camp are jumping on their drops not to mention the ones hooked up are lunging into their harnesses. So I get on the cart, pull up the earth brakes (that were already moved from the dogs trying to go). Zach is stanging off to the side since usually I can slow the team down enough for him to grab on and jump on. Not this time! Sharon let go of my leaders and we were off like every dog had a rocket up their butt. I'm riding the brake and it isn't even phasing them. I started playing back all my mistakes in my head. The first, wrong cart, the second, six insane dogs, and third my sanity must have escaped me for a brief period of time. So my take off scared Sharon and Zach to the point that Zach started walking up the road that I just bolted down and was already out of site of him. About a mile out they finally settled into a nice pace, they tried to make a quick snack stop into a campground of frat boys, but I was able to right that one and get them back on the trail (probably not something they see everyday). Finally we started up this hill and by this point we're a couple miles out of camp so since it was warmer than I prefer for the dogs and the breeze was doing its job I decided to turn the team around. I decided since we were in a nice river bottom and the sand was adding some traction that it was the right time to turn them around which is exactly what I did. We started back towards camp and from my vantage point I can see a small portion of casa Kecia (aka the tent mansion), so I know I'm a good ways out. So off we go again, although nothing like when we left camp, but at a good clip no doubt. I'm coming down the trail the team does a really good on-by past the frat boys and we continue on. Then I notice I'm closing in on Zach walking my direction quite relieved to see me in what I soon find out in one piece as well. I had no clue up to this point of the scare I had given Sharon and Zach. I slow the team down and Zach climbs on to go back the last 1/2 to 3/4 mile back to camp. They rolled in to camp still pumped, but with a fraction less energy. The next day I contemplated running only 4 dogs, but since we were breaking down camp, Zach decided to run dogs off the scooter 2 at a time. His first team was Max and Frosty, then Robin and Ice, then Kazzie and Magnum and last was Dylan and Arrow. A team of 2 was much more manageable than a team of 6. Chalk it up to next time weigh down the cart with lots of stuff, and make sure I have brakes would be a good idea. Or better yet not having a lapse in sanity would be a good start.....

That was then.... This is now.....

These photo's of Zach were taken by my friend Robert (http://www.photoducoeur.com/main_gallery.htm), and needless to say when I saw them I realized just how far Zach has come with his girl Katie. While I'm not going to post photo's of Zach's first show, those that have watched him would get a good kick out of them (and Zach would kill me for posting them). We have good enough memory with out what Zach now considers embarassing photos. These were taken at the Yuma show over Thanksgiving weekend. It's been fun watching this duo grow as a team.

Zach & his girl or Katie & her boy

There are many terms when referring to this pair, dynamic duo, Katie and her boy, Zach and his girl, and recently someone said "my competition". The last was quite a complement considering it was someone Zach competes against in the conformation ring, an adult. Zach and his girl are quite a pair, and as Laura says "Katie's handler of choice". They have only been a pair for a little over a year now in the junior ring making their debut last year in Prescott, and


beginning in February '08 Zach started handling her in the competitive conformation ring with the adults. During the last 10 months they have taken 7 Reserve Winners Bitch, including two to majors which one came from the Mission Circuit shows with them taking 1st in the open class of 10 total competitors, and their second one to a major over this past Thanksgiving weekend in Yuma. How they came about being a pair is still a very lucky chance of events and not only has Zach benefitted from it, we have also been fortunate to have made some great friends.

Now as some have seen Katie is quite accomodated ("not spoiled" as the Kaos Grandma Sharon will tell you), and of course her boy is just as accomodated. They have matching Chairs for when they are ring side with Katies being pink and Zachs being blue. Then there is also the extra crate pad that is now part of Katies x-pen for Zach to sleep on, since he is still small enough he likes to nap in there and since crate pads are only so big there wasn't enough room on them for both, so now there is two. There is nothing more cute than a boy and his Siberian, but Zach and Katie have taken it to a whole new level.

The Sled

There comes a time where something starts to make you think about the past. Today was one of those days for me. You see, today was the day I started taking some of the parts off the sled that was given to me last week. Some of the parts were put on after it was purchased and some bolts haven't been touched since Frank Hall made it sometime in the 70's. The parts that were later put on for the original driver of the sled were also put on in the 70's. This sled is nearly as old as I am if not older, and the dogs that pulled it have long since passed. One of the original owners of the sled was the person who handed it down for another shot to run on the snow, and come this winter it will be back on the snow. It's still in great condition and there isn't anything some sandpaper and varnish won't be able to do for this sled, but I know I will be thinking of the person who once rode this sled. When I picked up this sled last Friday I was stoked, it's not easy to come across a sled in southern California. I didn't realize what I was really in store for. I arrived at the residence and a really nice elderly gentleman named Chuck answered the door. He took me to his garage and showed me not only the sled, but a beautiful picture of his wife Fern on the sled with 5 German Shepherds in x-back harnesses pulling the sled. He talked about how much fun they had running their dogs. He talked about their races that they participated in and what an amazing thing it is to stand on a set of runners behind a dog team. The one thing that hasn't changed is that it is still an amazing thing to stand on a set of runners behind a team, the sound of just the runners as they glide along the snow, surrounded by trees that have been dusted with the last snowfall, there is really nothing that can describe it. It will take a little time to sand down the sled and varnish it up, but is going to be a lot of fun.