Trail Lesson - a photo on Flickriver

Trail Lesson

            Running dogs always presents challenges, lessons, rewards. A few things are going on here and I will try to explain the image.

While running one of our regular trails on the Chena River we arrive at a fork; the right trail jumps up the bank while straight continues on the river. As the driver I've already decided on the route and as we near the junction two commands come into play; one is "straight ahead" and the other is "Gee!" meaning turn right.  Beluga takes a command so well that I typically only have to give it once in a soft voice. But still I usually give the command several times so that the others may learn as well. Here I want to continue on the river and I have given the "Straight Ahead" command, but Churrie (on right in lead) has it in her head that we are going Gee, most probably because that's the way we went last time we came by here. So you can see Beluga is trying his best to pull her back in the proper direction, in addition to their tug lines attached to harnesses, they are tethered to each other at the collar by a neckline. With two good leaders I like to run without the neckline, but I've had some problems with Churrie, especially in head-on passing other teams, so I've gone back to the neckline on them. 

All of this happens in a matter of seconds, or maybe less, and without stopping. You can see the wheel dogs are still in full running lope mode, while the leaders are almost completely stopped. So here it is the job of the driver to work the brake or drag matt to slow the team enough so the back dogs don't overrun those in front of them, which could cause a tangle or worse. At the same time I'm calling out a correction to Churrie, this time in a stern voice, "Haw, Haw" (left). She quickly corrects (With Beluga's help), I reinforce with a "straight ahead" command and we are smoothly running again down the main trail. I then reward both leaders with multiple variations of "good dog!"

This is an interesting spot. Some of you may have heard of this 800 mile oil pipeline that pretty much runs the length of the state. Right here we are directly over the pipe, which is buried and crosses under the river, you can see the right of way cut where the trail runs through the trees off to the right. There is almost always a bit of open water here, maybe it's related to the heat of the pipe, you can see some on the right. Beluga is very aware of it and nervous about open water. I like that about him, but I still have to reassure him when we pass leads. Open water is potentially very dangerous, so I'm most appreciative of his acute awareness of that lurking hazard. 

We had a most enjoyable run today, a brisk temperature to be sure, but our light is returning.

Taken in: United States / Alaska (show map)

Taken on: February 1, 2013

Tags:

Fairbanks

Alaska

Alyeska Pipeline

Trans-Alaska Pipeline river crossing

dog team

sled dog

training

commands

gee

haw

lead dog

wheel dog

team dog

Beluga

Churrie

BeingThere

dr.Ozda « less

Sets appears in: • Being There Kennel • dogs and mushing more » • Churrie • Beluga « less

Groups appears in: • Alaskans • Dogs In Action (Read The Rules) more » • Dog Mushing, Mushers, their Dogs and their stuff • Alaskan Huskies • Low Saturation in Color (No B/W) • All Things Alaska « less

Camera: Canon EOS 60D, f/13.0, 1/400 sec, 18mm, ISO 1000 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 60D
Aperture:	f/13.0
Exposure Time:	0.003 sec (1/400)
Focal Length:	18mm
ISO:	1000
Exposure Bias:	+2/3 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Mode:	Auto
White Balance:	Manual
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS5 Windows
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