Cimmaron Sled Dogs

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!).   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.   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!  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.

When will the thaw come!  We have been without water at our house for 5 days now due to frozen pipes.  Despite blasting the pipes with hot air, the ice has not gone.  It is so frustrating and we are getting fed up going to parents and friends for showers every day.  We phoned a plumber on Tuesday and can't get someone to come until Friday night!  Crazy stuff.  We are meant to have milder temperatures tomorrow and over the weekend but as I look out the window at more snow falling, its hard to believe.

Anyway, the first week back at work was hard and this week has not been any easier.  Its so easy to get into the routine of longer lies in the morning.

The SDAS Culbin race was cancelled last weekend, which was such a shame as the organiser and his friends had worked hard to piste trails.  Club politics!  So glad I am not on the committee any more.

Keith and I tried to arrange a sled race at John Carter's trails for this weekend to no avail.  Just not enough interest from club members.  Such a pity.  We spent another lovely weekend up at Bowlands last weekend in the snow.  John and Mary are great hosts.  It was nice to spend some time with Michael and Jim and Jude again too.

Had to take Remey to the vets this week.  She had a sore toe before Christmas which flared up again last weekend.  The vet pulled her claw out with pliers as it was getting infected!   Remey was a brave sole though an barely made a sound.  I think Keith and I were more traumatised than she was.  

Anyway, we are looking forward to having a relaxing weekend coming (hopefully with water) .  We do have 4 family birthdays though, so will be out and about visiting quite a lot! 

Think we will need to take the dogs to the beach for training as all our trails either have crusty snow or ice!  The joys.

The holidays have gone by so quickly.  We have had a great time though, visiting friends and family and training the dogs with the sled.

We had an evening with Emma and Henrik and their new hot tub. Fabulous. Drinking beer in 38 deg water whilst its -1 deg outside.  A bit of a mad dash back to the house when you get out though! Brrrrrrr.

We spent new year's eve at Alison and Steven's house with Beth and Dan and Mike and Liz and it was good fun.  Then a quick trip home on new year's day to collect some bits and bobs and up to John and Mary's place at Bowlands for some fun in the snow.

What an amazing place they have there and John has worked really hard to piste the trails, resulting in packed surfaces that are better than some we have sledded on abroad. 

We spent 2 days there and it was brilliant.  There were 18 round the table for dinner on Saturday night and Mary was amazing catering for us all.  Then out for some sled runs in the dark with the moon shining down.

So, a HUGE thanks to them both for inviting us - it was a great end to our holidays.  Video and photos to come soon.

Now its back to work and time to get back into a routine again.

SDAS Culbin is this weekend.  Not sure if the trails have snow or ice, so we'll wait and see what happens.

It's been a great few days playing in the snow. 

We've managed 6 days on the sled so far and with the cold weather set to continue, we are hoping we'll be able to get out in the snow until we go back to work next week.

I've uploaded some video to You Tube (link on the Video Clips page) of our snow runs and added a new picture folder onto the Photo Gallery page.  Enjoy.