pyrless Posted March 30, 2005 Posted March 30, 2005 Hi! I was wondering if you see many Elkhounds or Elkhound-crosses in dogsledding. (They use them in Norway as sled dogs but here in Ohio I have only seen Siberians, I thought with your experience you would know better) I was thinking this might be a nice activity for me to do with Taz-he has the most energy and stamina out of all 3 of mine and I would like a new way to exercise, both him AND me! :D . Obviously I can't have a whole sled team-is there such thing as one-dog sleds? Also, i live in northeast ohio, and the weather here is nothing if not predictable. Is this something you can do "on wheels" for the muddy months? Quote
Pumpkin the musher Posted March 30, 2005 Posted March 30, 2005 Elkhounds would be fine for recreational pulling-either sled, ski or roller blades. They are too heavily built for competitive mushing, as are most Siberians,IMO. you would have to be careful if the temperature/humidity was high, as the Elkhounds I've seen have super heavy coats and would overheat pretty fast. There are one dog sleds, called "kick sleds", looks like a small lawn chair with runners... or you can skijour- XC skiing behind one to three dogs. Almost any dog can skijour, I've seen everything from Standard Poodles, Blue Heelers, and even Dobermans. You can check this site out- tons of links for supplies, mentors, and a great discussion forum. http://www.sleddogcentral.com/ Quote
pyrless Posted March 31, 2005 Author Posted March 31, 2005 Roller blades! Brilliant! :D Thank you, I will check out that site! Quote
pyrless Posted March 31, 2005 Author Posted March 31, 2005 Okay I have been doing some nosing around this morning, and I think the smartest thing for me to look into is "scootering"...have you done this, PTM? I joined the forum and asked some questions too and one guy said that he had experience with an Elkhound mix and she was a great sled dog (lighter-built than a purebred). That is a pretty serious site for people in the sport, wow! There was also a whole discussion on rollerblading and i don't think that would be wise for me, I am REALLY klutzy! :P Quote
Rowie-the-Pooh Posted March 31, 2005 Posted March 31, 2005 Pyrless, totally off topic, but I was wondering if you had a pic of Taz? I've always wondered what he looked like, and Elkhounds are gorgeous (even if he is a mix)! :wink: Quote
pyrless Posted March 31, 2005 Author Posted March 31, 2005 Hi Rowie! I am a real loser when it comes to digital stuff so the only photos I have of him are prints-BUT my husband got one of those camera phones that does everything but clean your house for you (would that they would invent THAT! :D ) so I will get some SOON! I do love showing him off, he is gorgeous. I know everyone says that about their dogs but you will not believe it when you see it-people have actually stopped their cars when we were out & asked about him. I will announce as soon as I have pics! (I am going to try the scanner here at work, too...) Quote
Pumpkin the musher Posted March 31, 2005 Posted March 31, 2005 I've never done the scootering-when I start training in the fall I take all 11 dogs, and I use an ATV. That way, even the retirees get to go, since our initial runs are fairly short. As our mileage increases, the older ones drop out, and my husband takes them for short runs and I keep working with the race dogs. The Sled Dog Central site is pretty comprehensive- it's funny tho, it's run by a couple who live about 40 miles from me, and I've known them since about 1980, andI buy all my meat from them in the winter. It's hard to connect the two for me sometimes! I tried skiing behing three dogs once and damn near killed myself. I'll stick to the sled and the 4-wheeler, thanks! Quote
pyrless Posted March 31, 2005 Author Posted March 31, 2005 okay, that looks like ALOT of fun!!!!!!! :P You must have a pretty consistent winter up there. Here it is up and down and craziness, the Siberian Husky club sponsors a race every year that they have to cancel 75% of the time because of the weather not being right...plus I live right in the city so anything we can do on pavement would be excellent. I don't think encouraging him to pull will be too hard-i have had to train him NOT to pull on walks so i think if i let him have at it he will have a blast. On the site it said to practice some of the commands while on a walk. How do you get them to stop? I have put his photo here, this is him in my siggie. Quote
Pumpkin the musher Posted March 31, 2005 Posted March 31, 2005 Stop? Stop!?!? :Help_2: They know quite a few commands, but "whoa" is'nt one of them. First rule of mushing: Never,never,ever let go.... I give my guys credit tho, they do slow down alittle when I say whoa. Sometimes. :roll: Quote
Guest Anonymous Posted April 1, 2005 Posted April 1, 2005 Hey, sounds like something up my alley here. I've been letting Kiani - a samoyed mut - pull me on my scooter since I got her. Which is nice for South Florida weather. Kari got me a razor scooter for christmas two years ago, and I used to run along side Moogle on it. Well I tried that with Kiani, only it ended up her pulling me... very very very fast. There is a website Scooterdog.com that talks a lot about it. As for commands, I have to use slow down a lot when crossing the streets or turning around, which Kiani is used to but still hates it. She knows right and left pretty well now. I just kinda start turning the scooter in that direction and tell her the command. BTW, a scooter is a good start, it allows you to have control over the direction of where you're going, and you can let go at any time (unlike roller blades where you can just toss them off). Granted you should where protective gear, as Kari learned the hard way of letting go and scraping her shoulder and knee pretty badly. I think the worst part about scootering in the city, is the amount of dogs in the yard, and people walking them, that every dog has to say hi to each other. I've fallen a couple times cause Kiani wanted to go say hi. And forget it, I get close to the dog park, I have to get off and walk her or else I'd definatly be in trouble. It's very fun, and scooter prices aren't too bad. I mean, I'm not very tall at all, so I can get away with using a childs scooter that only costs 30$. Quote
Pumpkin the musher Posted April 1, 2005 Posted April 1, 2005 I use the command "on-by" when the team comes upon something that may interest them, say deer, livestock, other dogs or whatever. They will slow down to look, but they will go buy just about everything, even ostriches! :drinking: Yes, one winter I was going down the trail, and there were about a dozen ostriches running around! In Wisconsin! In January! Really!! (They escaped from a farm that had a (herd? group? gang?) of ostriches. Quote
Guest Anonymous Posted April 1, 2005 Posted April 1, 2005 Well I guess its easier or harder to get a whole lot of dogs to not go examine other things. Cause if you get the leader and some of the other dogs to listen, the others wont have a choice. But if the leader doesn't listen... i guess you're in trouble. I'm constantly like, come on kiani, good girl kiani, NO KIANI, pay attention, come on, lets go. Dragging my foot creates a lot more friction and makes it harder for her to pull me in the wrong direction. Now if only my right shoe had a thicker sole. Quote
Pumpkin the musher Posted April 1, 2005 Posted April 1, 2005 Could it be possible that you are saying too much? I limit my verbalizing somewhat, especially in races. The lead dogs have allot to think about, and if you say too much, they could just tune you out. Genuine praise is good, don't get me wrong, but what you say has to have consequence and meaning for them. Did that make sense? I'm kind of tired tonite, not thinking to clearly... :sleep: Quote
pyrless Posted April 1, 2005 Author Posted April 1, 2005 oh my! ostriches? (what do they call a group of them anyway?) :P that is one thing i could see being a problem...Taz loves to chase squirrels more than life itself. It has gotten to the point where he knows the trees they live in and actually looks for them... so we would need to work on that... 8) i am going to try working on some of the commands while walking him and see how he does...PTM, if i come up with a good one to get him to stop i will let you know!!! (how about "oh no, that tree is getting awfully close...") Quote
Guest Anonymous Posted April 1, 2005 Posted April 1, 2005 Well generally I'll stay quite except for a command of right or left, but once I see that head turning I'll say something to get her going straight again, sometimes it'll take more than one thing. Thankfully the two houses that have dogs, are almost directly across from each other. I learned my lesson of taking her out early in the evening, most the dogs are outside, but at night, they're inside. At least it only happens on runs by my apartment. I still take her other places that she has more room to run in, it's just that they're further away. I've also learned that I can almost scooter as fast as she runs, so if I start pushing she'll get into a race mode and want to out beat me rather than go find the other dog. Quote
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