March 07, 2007
New teams, indeed
Well, I did say there were a couple of new teams in the back yard. Fortunately we had the great good luck this winter to have an SSSD Project supporter come up here for six weeks to actually help us train. Jacob Heigers from Kelowna, BC, wangled enough time off from his job to do a six-weeks crash course in dog driving. He was basically green as our unbroken yearlings when he arrived, but I've never seen anyone learn the ropes so fast. By the time he left to return home, Jacob had become a competent driver of six-dog teams, capable of handling any situation six dogs could throw at him out on the trail. Some of the credit goes to the dogs themselves -- canny old veteran leaders like Kolyma of Seppala and Yolanda of Seppala can teach any newbie driver quite a lot.
What was really heartwarming and a little bit awesome was to see how quickly those yearlings settled down and acquired the habits of true Seppala sleddogs. As it turned out, we didn't do a lot with the U-litter threesome beyond basic harness-breaking, because the other thirteen were considerably bigger and stronger. I didn't want to overstress the younger three. But here's a paean of praise to:
OLAF, ORLOV and OLGA
FRIDTJOF, FURY, FRAM, FOSCA and FREYA
GORKI, GRIGOR and GROZA
PRINCE IGOR and PRINCE IVAN
none of whom had seen a harness before January, and all of whom are now competent sleddogs, including some very promising wheel pairs. Naturally, we worked with others, such as the C litter, the D litter, the M litter, the L litter and Echo, as well as the new imports from Spain. But it's those 13 yearlings who will remain forever in my memory. Each one got just six to eight runs, which seemed to be more than enough to get them to running six mile runs in six-dog teams like they had been doing it for hundreds of miles. As someone said, that's called INNATE ability!
Three days before Jacob had to leave the weather turned to a hard cold snap and stayed that way for a couple of weeks. We may or may not get anything further done. But we did what we set out to do -- we taught the yearlings their life's work.
A BIG BIG thank you goes out to TONYA OF SEPPALA who insisted that we couldn't do the job without her, and who was absolutely correct about that. At eleven-plus years of age, I somehow didn't expect her to want to or to be able to continue running like the wind leading eight-dog teams. She didn't think twice about it, she just DID it. And Little Lizzy Lineout (LIZAVETA OF SEPPALA) was my other main leader -- she grew in seriousness and dedication to the leader's job, and turned in a fine performance this year. Her sister LARA OF SEPPALA ran quite a few times beside Lizzy as trainee leader, and has demonstrated that she, too, has got what it takes to be a main leader at Seppala Kennels. Several others were also rotated into lead position for practice and evaluation.
Jacob left SK with two of our dearest rising seniors: KREVANKA OF SEPPALA (Kolyma's brother) and PIA OF SEPPALA, both ten years old in 2007. He'll be giving them a retirement home, and starting his own team with their assistance. Thanks for everything Jacob -- may you have a long and happy career in Seppalas. (The photo below shows Jacob with the gals who taught him everything, Yolanda and Kol-Doll.)