New Year

Today starts the new year. Why does the new year start now, you ask? It is the new year for my dog training log. Since winter is the main season, it does not make sense to start the training log on January 1st. I start the training year in April because the races are all done by then. I am no longer working on getting the main racing dogs in condition, so I am usually concentrating on training pups to harness, building confidence in new leaders, and generally trying to instill good manners and work habits in all the dogs. Thus it makes sense to me that this is all training for next year's race season, not the one just past.

I had time for only one run to start out the new year. I took out a team of eight, including four pups, two yearlings, and two three-year olds. One of the yearlings - Meadowlark - is an outstanding leader prospect. I am very excited about having her in the race team next winter. She is fast and hard driving, and she likes to push the pace in lead. I will probably move her off the puppy team so that she has a chance to run a bit faster with more mature dogs. I ran her in lead today with Cinnamon, who was an excellent leader for me in both the Canadian Challenge and the Ashton race.

Cinnamon, age 3