"Running with the pack"...

On Thursday this week, I took Phoebe with me to visit Johanne. We had agreed to take out a small 6-dog team on a training run that evening. Zorro and Racer (from Hans-Christian) in the lead. Phoebe was attached to the sled with her elastic leash and left to run alongside (not pulling). It was obvious that she wanted to be in the team and she strained to go ahead - the elastic pulled her back and in a second we had run over her!!! She wasn't hit by the runners, just pushed down in the snow by the toboggan-plate. She emerged happily on the other side, no worse for wear!!! With a bit of rearranging, we kept going - she still ran happily along until her harness started to completely disintigrate! We left her to run loose and she could now approach all the dogs - frequently running in the middle of the team alongside the main towline.... A total of 15km run, fairly moderate pace run without any hickups - we stopped if we spotted anyone - I went forward to pull the dogs aside and hold them. Even at 20:30 - 22:00 in the dark evening we met 3 skiers! In January when we come back from our trip to Brasil, our "new" sled will be waiting for us!!!! I have bought a secondhand mid-distance alu-sled that weighs 14kg - with Phoebe and 3 borrowed dogs it will give us a chance to experience the pleasures of dogsledding :-) Can't wait!!