Tuesday 23 September 2008

Northern Lights

I saw my first Northern Lights last week while training the dogs with a guide late in the evening. And what a show!!
Stripes of green lights started following us through the forest. They started changing shapes, then the intensity of the green increased and decreased continously, then, the most beautiful show I've ever seen started.
A stripe of green broke into what seemed to be a piano keyboard. Then each "key" changed colour very quickly, like if a hand had been running through the keyboard. Green, yellow, pink... It was an amazing sight. Even the guide who had been up North for a while was amazed. My jaw "dropped" many times that evening and no words could express the magical feeling that was in the air.

And no, the dogs don't howl when the Northern Lights are on, as I've seen in some bad Hollywood movie...

Thursday 11 September 2008

Holidays are over...

One week after my arrival, real work has started.

We now feed the dogs twice a day, in the morning and in the evening.

As I'm following Swedish language classes in the morning, here is a typical day at the moment.
5.30am Getting up,feeding the dogs, cleaning the kennels
8.00 Start of the Swedish language class in Kiruna
12.00pm Back at the kennel for lunch
1.30pm Start training the dogs
5.00pm Feeding time again and cleaning the kennels
7.00pm Diner time for me :-)
8.00pm Helping the guide training his dogs
10.30/11.00pm Back in my cabin, ready for bed!

I took the driving seat when training the dogs today. It's a fantastic feeling and also a great responsibility. You're sitting on this powerful machine and you need to keep a balance between letting the dogs pull and helping them a little when the trail is tough.

My lead dog almost missed one of the turns but as I've been told, it's not the dog who is bad, it's the musher giving bad or late commands. I guess this will also come with experience. :-)

Bye for now

Sunday 7 September 2008

I love this life

On Friday evening, as I was taking a walk towards the river, I met one of the guides and the other handler training the guide's dogs with the ATV. They stopped next to me and offered me to jump in. And so did I! I ended up doing twice 5 km on the back board of the ATV behind the two guys, pulled by 10 dogs. We trained the dogs in the darkness, using only the ATV's lights. The night was cold, minus one, and beautiful. There was a clear sky and I had never seen so many stars in my life. It was a magical evening and I remembered my boring evenings in London where life after work would be heading back home, have dinner and watch TV. Being out with the dogs, even by minus one degree celcius was so much more fulfilling. I love this lifestyle.

Thursday 4 September 2008

When it rains...

Day 2 of training.

I'm starting to master the art of putting on and taking off the harnesses... We trained two teams of 8 dogs this morning under the rain.

When walking back one of the lead dogs to its yard, I stepped on the wooden palette at the front of the yard. As it had been raining all night and morning, the wood was quite wet. As I was trying to hurry to get the dog back inside, my right leg went left as my left leg went right and my buttocks landed on the floor while I was still holding the dog's collar in my right hand! It took me a few seconds to "untangle" myself and get back on my feet. As I looked behind me, I saw the kennel owner smiling at me and said "It's wet...". Embarrassing moment....

Wednesday 3 September 2008

First training day

Hello from Jukkasjarvi where I landed on Sunday.

I'm taking care of about 53 siberian huskies for a dogsled tour company.

After a lazy Summer, the dogs need to be trained for the Winter season. We started today and my skills as a handler were tested... It is probably important to mention that I have almost no experience of handling dogs as I never had a family pet. My only experience is back in May-June this year when I stayed 20 days at the same kennel to get a first taste of what the life as a handler would be.

It all started wrong when I was asked to get the first dog, a female living in a dog yard with 2 other females. Me, the rookie, tried to grab the dog while standing outside of the dog yard. First mistake as one of the other females forced her way out, opening the door wide enough for the 2 other females to run free too, leaving me swearing at my lack of agility, speed and strength to stop them in time.

Fortunately, they ran straight to the main dog yard, like well trained soldiers who know the drill of a training exercice. Indeed, the main dog yard is where a dog team is gathered before hooking them up to the gangline.

The second handler, even less experienced than me, but a "dominant" male, helped me to get the two dogs back in their dog yard.

Once the 8 dogs were in the main yard, we started to put their harnesses on. Once again, holding the dogs between my legs so I can put their harness on, proved to be challenging. Some dogs will hold fairly still and will hand you their front legs quite easily. It seems that the dogs I picked had a different idea of how dogs should behave in that situation! Finally, after some twisting and collar dragging, we got the entire team hooked up to the line and I jumped at the back of the ATV while the kennel owner took the driving seat.

I felt that, although the main point of this exercice was to train the dogs, the handlers got much more training!

The last challenge of the exercice was to take the bxxxxx harnesses off. Again, one of the dogs decided not to cooperate and refused to lift up his front legs. I then remembered the words of my German guide telling me that the dog didn't need to "want to" but "had to". In short, it's up to the handler, not to the dog...

Although it feels like a distant future, I am confident that these gestures will become second nature and that I will manage to get dog teams together for our tourist tours without so much trauma! At least, let's hope so!