Cimmaron Sled Dogs

The weather has been amazing here over the last week with beautiful blue skies, perfect for cycling and horse riding. The evening/morning temperatures have come down drastically in the last few days, so Keith has had the dogs out in harness a couple of times.

We are making more use of the 4x4 and dog trailer, so think it may be time to sell the van. Anyone interested? Just need to buy a tent for the races we decide to go to, or be posh and book into a hotel.

I have invested in a new share horse as well as taking riding lessons. His name is Ginnis and he is lovely. Pictures in the Gallery.

Keith has been getting out loads on his bike, and is now in training for the cyclo cross season.

We are off to a wedding in Wales this weekend. Hope the weather stays nice.

It has been so long since I last posted – 5 months! How time flies.

We have had a really busy summer and it has been great to have some down time – I think the dogs have appreciated the rest too.

We spent 10 days in sunny Spain, which was fab. Sunshine every day and lots of lovely food and drink. It was very depressing to come home to such horrible weather. Big thanks once again to Melissa for taking such good care of our dogs and to my mum and dad who took very good care of Maggie for me.

We have been decorating and buying new furniture, so that has taken up loads of time, but is now finished and the house is looking nice.

Keith has been spending most days on his bike and has been competing at a few local races and doing pretty well. I have started horse riding again and it has been great fun.

The days are starting to get shorter and it will soon be time to start training the dogs for the winter again but I don’t think we will be going to too many races this season. It will be nice to go training when we want to and not have to stick to a race schedule.

Nothing much else to report. Will no doubt blog more in the coming months.

It was quite a weird week for us, but we bit the bullet and took the dogs out for a run on Thursday.  I think we all enjoyed it although it was strange having an empty box in the van.

Took Maggie to her first training class last week and she was very good. Definitely the smallest and youngest there, but she was very well behaved and was good with her sit and stay. Not so good at down and finish, but she did well for such a young dog - she loves her treats which helps a lot! Look forward to going back this week. Watching the mini agility at Crufts gives me a great incentive.

We met up with Emma and Henrik on Saturday for training, which is always a good laugh especially since Emma was running 4 dogs for the first time that day and was very, very nervous.  All went well though and Calvin, who Keith is training to pass at the moment for Emma, was a star too.  So good runs all round.

Lots of running around over the weekend.  Meeting friends for lunch on Saturday and then visiting for mother's day on Sunday.

We took Maggie with us to visit my mum and Keith's mum for the first time and she was great.  Absolutely knackered by the time she got home though as she spent most of the afternoon playing with the neice and nephew and Jack Russell, Kizzie.

Today, we had a complete shock and had to make the decision to have our gorgeous boy, Tosh, put to sleep.

After trying to discover the root of his unknown infection for the last 5 weeks, we took him back to the vets again today after he developed stress breathing. After x-rays, and an unexpected discovery, the conclusion was that it was unlikely he would recover from an operation, so we made the ultimate decision and had him pts whilst he was already under sedation.

We will miss him terribly, as will his brother Mac. A beautiful boy whom we only had the pleasure of owning for 2 years.

We had a great race at Tentsmuir last weekend.  The weather stayed dry and it was nice to stay in the hotel and have dinner with a bunch of friends on Saturday night. Little Maggie had a ball meeting lots of new people and dogs - she is so brave.  Gary and Sandra did a great job and the trails were amazing.  Big thanks to them for all their hard work and hopefully, if the forestry commission allow it, they will put on the race there again next year. 

Keith's reduced team (5 instead of 6) ran really well.  Keith was very pleased with the way they took the turns and was brave enough to run on his 3-wheeled rig on the Sunday (1st time in about 2 years!). :wink:  Spike was also amazing in the bike class with Keith.  He is really enjoying running by himself which we were surprised at.  Keith has won the SDAS championship for the season in the 6-dog open and bikejoring classes. 

I ran my 3 old trailhounds with Bud, who is recovering well from his AiHA.  They were very good, but you could see Bud would have been happy to go faster, so this is a positive sign that he may eventually make it back into the 6-dog team next season.  I think this will be Bruce's last season competing.  He was so tired after the weekend that he just went to his bed when we got home.  I think he will be finding a spot in front of the fire beside Orly.

Time for us and the dogs to relax now. Roll on the spring.

Its been a busy week for us so far.

We took Maggie to the vets for her second injection last week, so she is finally allowed out in the big wide world and is taking it all in her stride.  She is such an affectionate little dog, she wants to say hello to everyone.  This is very nice, but makes it hard to train her as she is so easily distracted by other dogs and people.  She is great at home, but once outside, everything she has learned goes out her head.  :)  She is doing very well considering she is so young.  Off to training classes next week, so we'll see how she gets on there!

We went to see The Stranglers in Glasgow at the weekend and what a great gig.  The guys are looking their age but still sound great and know how to get the audience going.  A good night except for the 3 6 foot+ tall guys who decided to stand in front of us!  Very annoying - they did move a bit when asked though.  They should have a separate section at venues for really tall people.

Off to see the Stereophonics tonight and am really looking forward to that.

We have been taking advantage of the nice weather and have been getting the dogs out as much as possible.  Hopefully they will be nice and fit for Tentsmuir. 

We've been meeting up with Emma and Henrik at weekends to help them run their boy Calvin and to try and teach him that he needs to keep moving after overtaking a team.  He is getting there and we'll see how much he has learned this weekend.

Really looking forward to the Tentsmuir race - Gary always puts on a good trail.  It would be great if the weather stays nice.

We have been trying to get the dogs out training as much as possible in the last week as we lost a lot of time after the Ae race, due to bad feet.  The dogs are much better now and are really enjoying the cold weather training runs.  Hopefully these temperatures stick around for at least another couple of weeks.

Looking forward to the last SDAS race of the season at Tentsmuir.  Mainly because of the lovely trails and that we have booked into a hotel for the Saturday night (luxury), but also because it signals the end of the race season.  I won't be sad to see the back of this season.  We have had so many poorly dogs that we can only hope next year will be better.

On a brighter note, Mac has finished his very long course of antibiotics and seems to be back to normal.  Bud is still on medication, but this is slowly being reduced and his last lot of blood tests came back completely normal.  It will take a while and the vet says he may always have to be on some type of medication. :dry:  He is doing great though and we are starting to notice an improvement in his running ability so hopefully he will make a return to at least one of the teams next season.

Little Maggie is doing well.  She comes to work with me every day and is not making too much of a nuisance of herself.  The sleddogs are tolerating her; Mac, Tosh and Orly like to play with her.  Spike and Monty put up with her sleeping on top of them.  The rest tend to keep their distance!  At least I am able to put her outside with them under supervision - makes toilet training so much easier.

Keith competed in his first cycle race of the year in Irvine last weekend and came 15th with his partner in the 2up Icebreaker TT.  Not bad considering he has been concentrating on the dogs over the winter and hasn't been doing much cycling.

We are going to see The Stranglers play in Glasgow at the weekend, which should be good.  Other than that, a quiet weekend training the dogs.

We have been so busy since we came back from Pembrey that there has been no time to update the blog.

The race at Pembrey was small but great.  Sue and Graham did an excellent job.  We had a relatively easy journey down there on the Friday although there was lots of snow, a lovely stay in a hotel on Saturday night, and a slow journey home on Sunday.  Hopefully, the race will go ahead next year and more people will attend.

Then it was straight into organising the Ae race for the following weekend.  Luckily I was only doing the timing and Mick and Alan were seeing to the trails.

I took possession of my new Border Terrier puppy, Maggie, on the Thursday before the Ae race.  I couldn't believe it when Kate handed her over to me, she was tiny.  Full of terrier personality though.  She has met all the big dogs and so far so good.  Some of them don't really know what to make of this tiny ankle biter and are keeping their distance, but the older dogs like Orly, Spike and Monty have been great with her.  She has her own section in the Photo Gallery page.

The Ae race went well.  We have a few dogs with bad feet afterwards though, which was not so great.  Considering it was a bit of a last minute event, the turnout was good. 

A few relaxing weekends before the final race at Tentsmuir and then the wind down to training will begin. :)  We have our summer holiday booked, so that will be something to look forward to.

We had a nice relaxing weekend.  Got lots of tidying done around the house and kennels and to the van and got the dogs out training quite a lot.  That actually doesn't sound very relaxing! :roll: It was nice to be at home though.

We are going down to Pembrey this weekend for the Open race that Sue and Graham are organising.  We are looking forward to this race as the trails are lovely.  Its a pity it is so far away though.  We have booked ourselves into the local hotel on Saturday night, which will be nice and there is a "do" planned for the evening at a nearby location.

It will be a quick visit for us as we need to leave early on Sunday to get home in time for work on Monday.  Melissa is very kindly looking after some of our dogs at home, so we don't need to take the trailer.  This will help our speed on the windy Welsh roads! :)  Thanks Melissa, don't know what we would do without you.

We decided not to go up to Aviemore this year and save our money for Pembrey.  However from the pictures I've seen, it looks as if it was a great race.  Well done to all the competitors, especially Matty Clarke, Callum Patterson and Gary Patterson who were running Buffy pups in their teams.

I have a new fluffy arrival coming next week, but will update more when she actually arrives! Needless to say, I'm very excited.

Mandie

Nothing much to report from this weekend.

We had a nice relaxing time, just pottering about the house and getting the garden and kennels tidied up now that the last of the snow and ice has gone.  Our water started running again on Friday, which was a relief and meant Keith could power wash the kennels.

Got the dogs out on Sunday and the trail was OK.  Still a bit icy in some places but it was manageable. 

Lots on at the start of this week so it will be Thursday, Friday before we can get the dogs out again and hopefully the trail will be fully thawed by then.

Although we have been invited to stay with friends at Aviemore, we have decided not to go up this year.  It looks like we will miss all the fun in the snow though!  Should be interesting for spectators watching the teams go out with sleds.

Good luck to everyone who is going up this week.  Hope the roads are clear for you.