Quiet at home...

We have had a wonderful white Christmas with my parents visiting us for two days.  During those two days, as much as 60 cm of fluffy powder snow fell!  We literally had to dig our way out :-)  Luke and Phoebe are in the mountains with someone we know - they are getting a lot of exercise pulling the sled, but it feels sooooo quiet here without them! Oh well....they will be back here soon enough :-)

Running....

(Picture of Hans-Christian Ørjestad's dogs)

Today I loaded Luke and Phoebe into the car and set off down the local road to the parking place close to Oslomarka Trekkhundklubb (Oslo Forest Dog Sledding Club).  We went with the bike - quite OK surface to run on, and not slippery! Puh!  Total distance 10 km, speed between 15 and 25 km/hr.  We stopped for a bit at the Club house, and I let Luke and Phoebe run freely inside one of the larger kennels. Nice day out; sunshine, minus 10 degrees C.  Back home I finished building the second small dog run, setting up the fences and shovelling gravel... Now I only need to build a couple of houses and I can welcome guests! :-)

False alarm?

Back to normal....no howling, no apparent heat...

Oooouuw, oooouw!

Luke spent the day outside alone....howling..... Our neighbour heard him howling on and off, but he stopped when she went outside and said, "NO"!  This evening, he has not shown much interest in the romantic way towards Phoebe..... Maybe he realised it was too early and he is just biding his time...!?  His howling may also just be because he is unused to being alone!?  They will now spend the time chained to their respective house, so we should not have howling at least....

Interesting developments...

Yesterday I went out for a bikeride again - I was so impressed by their team performance on Monday that I wanted to test two days in a row... Again the kids performed very well - Phoebe is extremely "forward" and Luke can pull you up a hill... His only problem is that sometime he decides to "mark the spot" and that stops everything for a few seconds - oh well, that is no real problem! Getting to the end of the road, we met a guy walking two loose dogs - they "suddenly" appeared out of nowhere in the dark, and startled Phoebe.... Bof, bof.... She stopped, backed away, but Luke good boy got us past - Phoebe is actually afraid of the dark! We got back on track, and only turned around after we hit an icy patch and.....well.....two dogs - two wheels... You figure it out! We went slow, so no problems apart from the chain coming off the cogs. "Quickly get back on your horse", as they say... Back towards home went we, with a minor detour to add on a couple of kilometers. Total maybe 7km (forgot the GPS)?
As we came back to the house and I was getting my shoes off, Luke suddenly decides to mount Phoebe....! WHAT!? Get down! Most of the evening he tried, tried....but Phoebe rejected him...
She only had her last heat 3 months ago, but it is not impossible that she could have been triggered by his arrival to have another! After all, he is The MAN! :-) At night we chained them each to their house to avoid....complications, hoping there was no hanky panky in the night! Today, we left Phoebe inside our house and Luke in the kennel.... We shall see how the situation develops...! Mjau, Voff Voff!

Doggy routines..

The dogs after a quick run.

Wake up in the morning - meaty soup... Go for a walk, pee, s**t, back in the kennel and bye bye... When I came home today I took the dogs for a spin in front of the bike. There has come a sprinkle of snow, so the local road is less slippery. Short distance - around 5 kms at a good pace. Phoebe RUNS and Luke PULLS when he doesn't stop to mark his spot...

Luke is getting more and more relaxed with us - he is a really sweet dude - calm and happy :-)

He seems to adapt really well also to Nexus - they even layed down on the floor together - Luke cleaning Nexus' fur and Nexus licking Luke on the nose just like he does with Phoebe!

Luke has spent his long life as a kennel dog - he has, shall we say, acquired a.....an odour?! On Saturday we took him into the shower and washed him - NO PROBLEMS! He was calm and accepting, even seemed to enjoy it! Gooood boy, Luke :-) We love him!

Doubling the number of dogs...!

Oh dear....here we go... We were warned about the Siberian husky sickness.... After finally moving into a house, we have had a chance to build a mini-kennel.... So now we had space for more than one dog...!

Our good friend, Johanne let us inherit her trusted wheel dog Luke. He is now close to nine years young and has raced in many long-distance races such as Finnmarksløpet - lots of experience to match Phoebe's youthful enthusiasm!

They are alreday best of friends except that Phoebe tries to steal all the food...heehe! Oh - and they didn't even need the new house I had built - they moved into Phoebe's "two beedroom house"!

The one thing that Johanne has warned us about with Luke, is his previous history of eating a pet rabbit! Our chubby boy cat Nexus may be at risk, since he is used to running around with Phoebe in safety, whilst Luke might decide to hunt him for real! Well, so far everything is fine! Luke takes direction well - he breaks away when we correct him, and it seems more and more that he ignores Nexus :-) Although Phoebe and Luke sleep outside and spend the day in the kennel, they are inside the house with us in the evening in order to integrate with us :-)

At least now we have two dogs to pull bikes or our sled.... A little slow perhaps, so perhaps we need a couple more....!?

Quo vadis?

The last weekend before we moved away from the apartment a couple of friends became parents - in the hectic rush to the hospital they had to leave the dog behind, so we took pity on the "little black sausage", Hugo and let him spend the weekend with us :-) It was really nice to have a visitor - Phoebe clearly appreciated the company of another dog! But Nexus....? Well - he decided that Hugo was an object suitable for his "hunting game"....heheheh. He would jump out from behind or from the top of the cardboard boxes that were everywhere and "kill" the poor little Hugo! Of course, Hugo was only mildly curious about Nexus, and showed no fear or anxiousness as a result. What was even more interesting was Phoebe's reaction - if Nexus and Hugo got too "hot" in their encounters, Phoebe would run up to them and "push them aside", just like I imagine a mum will do with her kids or a bitch with her puppies....! :-)

Now that we are installed in the house we will hopefully have a chance to finish the building of our kennel space - perhaps we can then adopt or borrow a couple of dogs....hopefully to make a better sled team than with the little black sausage!? :-)

Home.....at last....!

After a long silence on the blogging front....we are back! Rather, "we have moved on"! Since Thursday Thursday last week, we have been living in our new house in the forest southeast of Oslo. The location is perfect for those of us who enjoy the "great outdoors". There are paths and tracks in the nearby forest, including an active group of dog sledders maintaining a small network of trails... Down the road from us, there are several kennels, and we are ourselves preparing a corner of our land for a small run-around kennel area. Nearby is a lake called "The Long One" (Langen) - this is a shallow, narrow lake that stretches for more than 10 kms North-South direction. During summer, we have our own small place to tie up a boat or our canoe (no engines allowed), and during autumn and winter, the lake can be used for ice skating and even pre-snowseason dog sledding! We hope to park our canoe there - Phoebe likes to come along - after an impatient 10 minutes she will in and swim for a bit before we drag her inside again...

We already feel quite at home in our new house, even if we are surround by cardboard boxes and outdated facilities (we will replace the kitchen). In the morning of Friday and Saturday we had visitors in the front garden - a group of two roe deer and a lone roebuck....! Nice to see them, but they tend to eat the flowers.... L8R :-)

Change of status....

In the lazy days of summer, there have been several possible life-changing events in the MjauDoggyWoggy household.... First of all, our "little boy" Nexus has had a trip "to buy ice cream" (also known as - going to the vet)....! He is now 15 months of age and has had ample time to "go through the change" of puberty.... To avoid any potential for unwanted kittens the vet removed his "crown jewels" the other day - is there no other discreet way to say that he has lost his balls!? Nexus is still the same however - after a groggy, spaced-out evening he is back to his good old self; "Prrrrr, prrrrrr - food? Prrrrr, prrrrr - scratch me under my chin, behind my ears; Prrrrr prrrrr - "trot trot" - let me chase my sister (Phoebe) and kill mummy's (Priscila's) foot under the carpet....!!" :-)

The other piece of news worth mentioning is that the household will move from the very nice apartment into an even nicer house! Our new adress will be "enter the forest and turn right by the 2nd big pine tree"..... We will have a house bigger than we need, but the bonus is that there is a big piece of land (2500 sqm) with a corner perfect for constructing a small run-around kennel area....! It is soon about time for Phoebe to "move out" and perhaps establish herself with a much older man.....!? Actually - we are hoping to adopt a mature, experienced sled dog that can teach Phoebe so much more than we humans ever could - who knows, maybe there might be puppies in her future too!?

The good thing with our new location is that there are several other dog mushers in the neighbourhood, including people we know, and that there are prepared sled tracks in the forest next door... We might even have a chance to take up some rock climbing too, since a great cliff is located within walking distance from the house (Fjell - where some of the hard routes and boulders were put up in the good old sport climbing pioneering days...)

Days are already colder, so we hope that Phoebe can get some proper autumn training this year...

Summer days....

In the "off season", it is important to keep our 4-legged friends activated....

Our little boy Nexus is easy....give him his food, a nice pillow or blanket to sleep on....let him chase the red dot of the laser pointer(!) and he is happy as can be :-)

Phoebe needs more variety and challenge if she is not to get bored and start chewing up parts of the house.... This week when I was away in Germany for a conference, she destroyed my sunglasses!! So - some of the "games" we can do in the summer heat - interval training on the lawn pulling a toboggan (akebrett) loaded with some weights! A really good way to build muscles without risking overheating when running longer distances.. Se the video here:

http://andersf.multiply.com/video/item/86/Phoebe_pulling_weights_-_part_2

Priscila and I are going on our annual summer holiday next weekend - 2 weeks in Spain driving around and enjoying everything from good food, wine, to old castles, beaches...

We had to go downtown to buy a guidebook today (Saturday) - Phoebe came along with her "backpack" on and helped us carry some small things - to cool off we let her jump into one of the fountains on the harbour front - she enjoys water! Dips her head under, snaps her jaws at the spurting water, jumping around....and cools down in the process!

I hope you all have a nice few summer weeks!

Phoebe at the Norwegian Siberian Husky Club exhibition

Last weekend we went to the Norwegian Siberian Husky Club exhibition to show Phoebe in front of a judge - entering the "junior class" since our girl is just one year old :-) Ahead of time, we had practiced a bit of trotting around in a circuit, but this seems to be a something that we need to work on *a lot* more...... She tends to jump around, turn to look at the dog behind, or start to gallop - her favourite "full speed ahead mode"! However, on the day she behaved reasonably, and after the judgement was awarded a 2nd prize blue ribbon - this means she is a "good example of the breed", but that she has some "imperfections"..... Generally, she was deemed to lack maturity in build and musculation, and that she was still very "puppy-like" - Yup! That's our little girl! All in a all, we really enjoyed the weekend - weather was a balmy 24 deg C.... Luckily she enjoys swimming as an activity and was able to cool down in the local lake - see the video of her being lead into the water by one of the attending "junior mushers": http://andersf.multiply.com/video/item/83/Phoebe_swimming

For those whom are interested, here is a loose translation of Phoebe's "judgement":
"54 cm. Good type, feminine head. Good nose and bite. Good neck and back. Still somewhat undeveloped chest. Should be better angled cross(?), hip and knee as well as upper arm. Moves with a short front reach - adequate posterior movement. Good fur quality. Good temperament. Still very puppyish."

Sunday walk in the forest

Photo of Phoebe and Juluss - Resting in the shade on a hot day.

Last Sunday we went for a nice walk in the forest with our friend Johanne. She brought her sonn-to-retire racing dog Luke (8 year old male), and her two cute three month old puppies - Juluss (male) and Nenena (female). They are after "Racer", an excellent lead dog from Hans-Christian Ørjestad's kennel. Priscila walked with Juluss - he shows EXTREME "forwardness", wanting to be in front of everyone and driving up the pace..... CERTAINLY a future lead dog! Just like his mother, he complains in a loud voice if the pace is too slow or he is not allowed to be in front.....heheh - see the video here: http://andersf.multiply.com/video/item/82/Little_Juluss_going_ahead

Digging, digging, digging...mud, mud - oh glorious mud!

Since all the "white stuff" has gone for this season- digging has been redirected towards the "black stuff"...hehehe. Out with the bike today, we stopped at our "watering hole" for Phoebe to drink and cool down..... In the microsecond she was standing still, I tried to take a photo of her after the healthy mud bath...... :-)

Mjau, mjau! Happy Birthday Nexus!!!

Today (14th May) our little boy ("Lillegutt") celebrated his 1st Birthday!!! MJAAAAAAAAU!? Extra meat, extra fish, scratch under the chin.... He is the most loveable cat ever! :-)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PHOEBE!!!!

Our little girl Phoebe is 1 year old today!! Time has gone so quickly.....they grow up so fast..... She had an extra portion of meat and some dry fish snacks today as a treat :-)

Springtime is here!!!

Time has passed....soooo quickly!! I apologise for the prolonged silence.....

What has happened since the previous post? One last nice sledtrip in the evening with Johanne... Phoebe now has a total of 30 kms as a lead dog, and doing very well so it would seem! Easter holiday was spent dogless, touring around Scotland with some friends of ours. Very nice! Leaving one of the many castles, we met a couple out walking their pair of Irish Wolfhounds...huuuuuuuuge dogs! They (the humans) had alread got bitten by the "husky sickness", having spent 1 week dogsledding in Finland, and had been over in Alaska this year to see the Iditarod... The man was already planning to add some Alaska or Siberian huskies to his household.....

See some pictures from the trip in Priscila's site:

http://prikoh.multiply.com/photos/album/99

http://prikoh.multiply.com/photos/album/100

http://prikoh.multiply.com/photos/album/101

So - what was Phoebe and Nexus up to in the meantime?! They stayed at a dog and cat hotel....5* it would seem, since Phoebe was relutcant to leave when I went to pick her up! She enjoys the place, since she is allowed to run around with other dogs inside a large fenced area....FREEEEEEEEEEEDOM (of a sort...)!

All the nice lovely snow has gone and green grass and budding leaves have come to replace it... Time to take out the bike again! Phoebe impresses me with her eagerness to run... She has become an adept single-lead dog, and seems to enjoy the speed of low-resistance bike wheels rolling...

Coming of spring....?

After a (near) record amount of snow this winter, the last few weeks have brought balmy temperatures and the beginnings of snowmelt.... There is still more than enough snow in the forest and mountains, but close to town we feel the sap rising...birds singing, sunlight...

Last weekend we had beautiful Sunday weather, and we took Phoebe to the local kindergarden where she could freely around and practice her newfound passion for.....digging! Check out the videos here: http://andersf.multiply.com/video/item/80/Phoebe_running_off_leash
http://andersf.multiply.com/video/item/81/Phoebe_digging_in_the_snow

Happy trails! :-)

Phoebe's debut as race leader...

Last weekend, Priscila and I loaded up the car with the sled, Phoebe and 3 excellent sled dogs from Hans Christian Ørjestad (aka. "The King"). We are eternally grateful that he would lend us Kaisa, Foxy and Krølløre - three of his top-class and experienced Siberians. THANK YOU! After a looooong drive through minor blizzard conditions and slippery roads, we arrived at Grimsbu Camping in Folldalen, an eldorado for dog sledding where the Norwegian Siberian Husky Cllub had their annual winter meeting.... Setting out our stake-out chain (made that same day), the dogs were given a well-deserved meal :-) Typical of a lone house dog, Phoebe is a relatively picky eater at home - on the stake-out however, she eats...well, like a dog?! No problem with her appetite, an essential trait in a working dog. See a video of the dogs here: http://andersf.multiply.com/video/item/79/Siberian_huskies_eating_at_stake-out

On Friday, after the end of the official races, Priscila and I teamed up our 4 dogs, running Phoebe with Krølløre as wheel dogs, and Kaisa+Foxy up front. We did a practice run of the 10 km sprint circuit that I would race the next day - halfway through we switched places - Priscila and I - and Krølløre and Phoebe - so....for the last couple of kilometers Phoebe ran in lead for the first time in her life...! No problem :-) Seeing that Kaisa is a grand old lady of 11 yrs, I borrowed another dog (Hera) from fellow Siberian musher Lars - teaming up Hera and Phoebe in front with Krølløre and Foxy as wheel dogs, we set out on Saturday to compete in the informal recruitment race - 10kms sprint with up to 6 dogs. Apart from losing 1 min or so to Phoebe's desire to play with Hera, she performed really, really well for being in lead! 10 kms went by in a respectable time (37 mins or so) and we arrived in goal without any mishaps - gooooooood dogs... A really good learning experience for all of us! :-)

Training at Johanne's cabin...

This week Johanne was away working in Africa and I went to her cabin with Kjetil whom helps train her dogs. With Phoebe we had 10 dogs... I drove us there with 4 dogs in cages in the car and the remaining 6 in the dog-trailer. On the way we picked up her car from the repair-shop and one of her sleds from the "Dog musher shop" in Elverum. We had true "arctic winter" conditions with nighttime temperatures down to -25 degrees C.... Quite some debut for Phoebe's first nights to sleep outside in a dog house!!! She didn't seem worse for wear - bright and active at the morning feeding / watering time. We gave all the dogs extra food over the weekend for them to generate enough heat - "fuelling the oven" so to speak, something we had to do for us too.... When arriving at the cabin, all the plastic water storage bottles were frozen solid!!! We lit a fire in the fireplace and started melting snow on the electric stove.... Falling asleep in my sleeping bag on the sofa I was in the end warm and cozy.... :-)
At 5 in the morning, I had the pleasure (truly!) of being woken by the dog pack howling! I believe I heard an "out-of-tune" voice that perhaps was Phoebe - anyway, it is a wonderful thing to hear - I just love the dog concerts :-)

On Saturday we went out for a looooooong run - Phoebe teaming up with 4 of Johanne's experienced dogs on a run that was 34.2kms according to the GPS!! No wonder she had a great appetite when we came home, and that she went to sleep like an angel in her house....! Sunday was a shorter run of 19kms before we packed up and drove home to Oslo in the queue of cars to deliver them all back at Johanne's kennel.... It was nice to sleep in our own beds for a change - Phoebe outside our bedroom door and myself next to Priscila in our comfy bed :-)

See a video of the Saturday run here: http://andersf.multiply.com/video/item/78/Phoebe_running_long_distance

Distance sled training and cross country skiing!

Photo of Denvildra Teqno - Phoebe's father (photo by Sandra Olofsson - Huskylyan kennel).

On Friday, Phoebe and I went out with Johanne and her dogs - I ran Phoebe alone in the middle of a 5-dog team - a total of 20 kms. Really nice run in the quiet evening - we didn't get back until 23:45 (quarter to midnight).... We tried to visit a friend of Johanne, breaking trail in deep snow to reach his cabin, but we missed it by a couple of 100 meters - anyway, we don't think he was there... Phoebe is running very smoothly in the team, and seems very happy to be doing her "real job" - pulling a sled! One day soon I shall have to try her up front with an experienced leader alongside......

In the last days we have received 30-40 cms of snow here in the Oslo area - really nice!! Today Priscila and I introduced our friend Rodrigo to the pleaseure of Cross Country skiing - he is very fit (marathon runner) and has a natural talent for sports.... We did a smooth 7.5 kms on his FIRST ever outing! Of course, I had Phoebe in front pulling :-)
See a couple of videos here:
http://andersf.multiply.com/video/item/74/Priscila_and_our_friend_Rodrigo_skiing
http://andersf.multiply.com/video/item/75/Fiskebein_Fishbone_uphill_cross_country
http://andersf.multiply.com/video/item/76/Downhill_on_cross_country_skis
http://andersf.multiply.com/video/item/77/Rodrigo_going_down_the_hill...

Phoebe's debut as a long-distance dog...!

Voff!? This weekend we went to Johanne's cabin to run our new sled..... Johanne was very kind in giving us a "helping hand", lending us dogs to match Phoebe with and give her a real initiation into the art of running....! We did a quick run on Friday when we arrived, giving Phoebe and some of Johanne's dogs a short stretch of the legs... On Saturday, I ran a string of 4 dogs, Racer (from Hans Christian) and Kobuq (Johanne's) up front, with Phoebe and Spock forming the wheel-dig pair. It was a great feeling running the new sled, and observing how Phoebe ran. She was mostly very concentrated and seemed to be enjoying herself very much! Priscila is perhaps the up-and-coming (only one?!) Brasilian dog musher!? She ran another set of 4 dogs with Johanne's sprint sled - expertly controlling the situation even when the sled tipped over!!! Johanne had another 4 dogs and her friend Egil had a string of 7 Alaska huskies.... Boy were we glad he took the job of leading all the teams in the beginning...! There was a LOT of snow, so his team broke trail for all of us :-) Thanks Egil! The total distance run was around 27 kms with a break midway - pretty good going for Phoebe the novice long-distance dog!!! On Staturday evening we joined the local dog musher neighours for a dinner party - what a party! Good food, good drink and good fun for all :-)

Phoebe really enjoyed her initiation to distance running - her tug-line was mostly tight and despite being tired at the end, she kept running...and pulling - gooooood girl!
She also seemed to fit in very well with Johanne's dogs, all of which behaved themselved very well around her! Perhaps she is eyeing them up as potential mates for the future?! Needless to say, her "boyfriend" Bardus was happy to see her :-) Woof, woof!

See a couple of videos from the weekend here:
http://andersf.multiply.com/video/item/71/Siberian_husky_dogsledding
http://andersf.multiply.com/video/item/72/Dogs_talking...
http://andersf.multiply.com/video/item/73/8-dog_Siberian_husky_team_setting_off...

Not to forget "chubby boy" Nexus! He had the treatment befitting a King during the weekend, when my mother looked after him! I believe he has charmed his way into her heart......miiiiiiijau!?

Snow, snow, snow!

Last weekend we went to Trysil to do some alpine skiing for the first time this winter - Priscila, Paula, Rodrigo and Patricia - we all enjoyed playing in the white stuff!
We bought a cheap "akrebrett" (toboggan?) that the kids use to slide down the hills... Phoebe was hooked up in front and.....she pulled!! See the video from this week that I took at home - by the shaking of the camera, you should realise that I was running to keep up!
http://andersf.multiply.com/video/item/69

Priscila really enjoyed it - it has given us a preview taste the dogsledding.... We are going to Johanne's cabin this weekend, bringing the new sled and borrowing a set of dogs :-)

Holiday, party and growing up!

Priscila and I went to Brasil over the Xmas and New Year holidays - the first time since she moved 1.5 yrs ago! It was very good to see family again, but since most people were travelling, we didn't see as many friends as we wanted.... My parents came over, and we - Priscila, her mum Zo, my mum and dad and me, all went to a beautiful island "Ilha Grande"...

The word on the beach is that a new World Champion surfer was born......NOT! Great fun at least!

The main event of our trip was the delayed celebration of our wedding - a great party was had by all - a modest (by Brazilian standards) 150 guests! See the pictures on Priscila's website here: http://prikoh.multiply.com/photos/album/95
http://prikoh.multiply.com/photos/album/96

As for the animals.... They had a nice stay in a "dog and cat hotel" - Nexus emerging as a larger cat after 3 weeks of what must have been a food orgy! :-) And little Phoebe......is not so "little" anymore! She had her first menstrual cycle - as I write this, she is in the last week of the cycle... At least it seems most of her "PMS" attidue has relaxed a bit....nothing destroyed here in the apartment of note the last few days....heheh! She is now 8 months old - weighs 16 kg.

We are looking forward to the return of winter, and will hopefully have a debut with the new sled in the weekend in little more than one week..... We shall see......!

MjauVoff!