This is SO COOL! I'd love to try racing and showing! This is a very "noobie" and off the topic conversation, but, can you make money off of showing and racing or do you have to have a day job, too?

Well my 'everyday' job pays for my true love which are my dogs- Showing can be very expensive, it depends on how serious you want to get into it how much it's going to cost you. Racing there can be small cash purse prizes but again its not what keeps the bills paid. The biggest plus is since I am owner of my kennel I can put things toward taxes for write off, like my dog food, travel expenses to/from dog shows/races, stuff like that.

Oooh that's so cool! Haha I do that right now as well with my business That is always helpful!

I'd love to start jorring with Kouda when he's old enough. I wish there were more people / trails to do it on here though.

Your pictures make me envious. I wish I could experience something like that right now! It looks like the dogs had a blast, their tongues definitely don't lie!

I agree with you Chelsi! But the weather also in Florida would severally limit the amount of time throughout the year you'd be able to do many of these activities. I know being in Orlando, the closest somewhat wooded trails are about 30-45 minutes away

My primary training trails are about an hour drive from the kennel- worth it for sure, but sometimes it's like really? I just wanna run my dogs, not drive LOL- the hubby joined so he drove today

Very true Liz. My plan was to do it earlier in the morning--like 6:30 - 7, when its not too hott (or in the evening, although, I'd assume there would be more people out there).

He should be fine on pavement for a little while either with some wax on his paws or booties, shouldn't he? (Let me know if not! I certainly don't want him hurt.)

That's quite a drive, Lani! But for something you love it's all worth it

Pavement is fine as long as you are waxing his feet. Checking feet after every run is very important on abrasive surfaces like pavement.

Awesome, thank you Lani! I wish there was snow here. I'd love to live in WA or CO. The scenery in your pictures is so beautiful too!

I count us pretty lucky up here Hoping to be able to keep the teams out for a while still- Summer is quickly approaching though

I can completely understand the just wanting to train and not drive. An hour away, yikes! For us in the summer, we'd have to be exercising between 6:30-7:30 but the sun doesn't really start to rise till 7:30ish, and I don't think I'd feel comfortable being out before sunlight. And then the only way I possible could be up that early and working the dogs would be on the weekends, since school during the week.
I'm sneaking out to the barn as much as I can right now before it gets brutally warm and the dogs can't handle running around for more than a couple minutes at a time. It's nice through since they have the creeks to get in and cool down. The evenings aren't much better though because it's still super hot typically, even with the sun setting. I've heard somewhere that the hottest part of the day is at the end of the day when the sun is going down, because the earth is just releasing all the heat from the day, though not sure how true this is.

I second Chelsi too, I wanna be where you're at! Someday I hope to move out in that direction, mainly for the dogs! I've got to wait about half a year for my younger husky Watson, but I'm going to get Darwin a custom harness so we can get bike riding again. All you do is take the bike out and he gets super excited.

Lani what are the summers up there like for you? Does all training come to a stand still because of the heat like it does down here? Or do you guys have to do some type of alternative training, or is the summer considered a rest time for the dogs?

We can get pretty warm through the summer months, training depends on how the team is performing, the endurance they've built up, and overall temperatures of the summer. If I do train it's in the later evening before sunset. I'm actually considering doing some night runs this year, depends on how ambitious I get and work load in the summer. If work is slow I'll be digging out the head lamp and running under the stars! If not I'll just go back to running a couple of dogs at a time on the bike- lower resistance, easier work load.

Chelsii wrote:

He should be fine on pavement for a little while either with some wax on his paws or booties, shouldn't he? (Let me know if not! I certainly don't want him hurt.)

I would just like to add to make sure you check how hot the pavement is. A "general" rule of thumb is to put your hands down on the concrete and if you can comfortably hold them there for 10 seconds then it is okay for your dogs paws to be on. Remember that they "sweat" out of their paw pads, and if the ground is too hot then they can't get rid of their excess heat.

Concrete is pretty much all I have around me as well. I have been looking around for some nice trails, but most of them I have found so far are really unkept or they are "no dog" trails. Big bummer.

Wow, what a site. This makes me so excited to begin training with my girl.

I must admit, I think it might be a bit more difficult to find such lovely open trails in the UK, but I will do my research!

I've seen some lovely pics from UK dryland mushers on various sites not sure how easy they are to find though-

A beautiful day for spring time training! Sun was out, warmed up a lot faster than we'd hoped it would so we had to take a couple additional breaks but still had a great time!

Another nice cool spring day here so another great day to run! The team is just looking better and better! Things are looking good for the coming year

New Dog Cart added to our training arsenal today! This is the 'Cadillac' of dog carts so lucky to have been able to find a used one!

I want to get a cart so bad, don't know where to go without spending an arm and a leg :/ Very nice!

I'd suggest Arctis carts, my 3-wheel cart that I started with was very reasonably priced brand new- thought I picked mine up used from a musher who had upgraded to the cart I got today- Though there are usually ads from Michigan mushers all the time on Mushers Exchange (Facebook)! Scooters are also out there for smaller teams

First training run of the season! New leader Weaver was a rockstar- he's still settling in but I think he'll be a wonderful addition to our team! The girls also shined, a lot of natural talent potential shining through

Love the cart! It appears to be aluminum (?), possibly small motorcycle wheels, and motorcycle hydraulic brakes. Does it fold or would it need some dis-assembly to pack it in a smaller space. really not to complicated, I think I could build one. Don't know if it could be done for less than buying one but who knows, cruse the junk yards and anything could turn up.

IESDA fun run- 3.0 miles

Wow You got a fritz! Nice rig, I've had the opportunity to ride in one. They really are the Cadillac of rigs lol! My friends have one from capetown carts (idk if you've ever heard of them) but also a nice variety!

Yes we were lucky enough to find a Fritz Dyke from another musher who was unable to keep running dogs- I had been looking at getting the new 4-wheeled Arctis, being so happy with my 3-wheeled Arctis it made sense, when this one came available and it was really a no-brainer what to do LOL. I've been very impressed with it so far! Two times out so far this season and looking forward to many more runs!

Ashley&Kaia wrote:

Wow You got a fritz! Nice rig, I've had the opportunity to ride in one. They really are the Cadillac of rigs lol! My friends have one from capetown carts (idk if you've ever heard of them) but also a nice variety!

The Cape Town carts are awesome; I checked them out at the Northern New England Sled Dog Trade Show over the weekend.

HuskyMom, your team looks great! Eventually I'm hoping to have a recreational three-dog team with a small dry-land rig (nothing fancy like you have!) and a smaller recreational sled for winter. There's a guy in Maine who builds beautiful sleds (both competitive and recreational). His recreational sleds fold up for easy transport in a car and only cost about $250 or so. I'll have to wait a while to get it, though, as the first member of our team is only seven weeks old and doesn't come home with us until next week!