When we train the dogs with ATVs, we hook up the machines to a fence with a special metal hook at the end of a line and we release the hook manually once we seat on the ATV, ready to go.
Last week, we were four handlers on the yard, 3 ladies, 1 guy. We had decided that my male colleague and I would train one dog team each for 25km, while the two other girls would train the puppy team on a shorter distance after we were gone.
We hooked up two ATVs to the fence, side by side. I would start first and my colleague would follow me. Because of the way the kennel is set up, we first gather the dogs we need in a big yard, attach each dog to a stake out line, then take them one by one outside the yard to hook them up to the line in front of the ATV.
My 12 dog team was ready and I just noticed that one of my lead dogs had his line between his leg so I walked to the front of the team to move the line. As I was walking back to my ATV, the second dog team started running forward. For a split second, I was wondering why my colleague was starting before me while we had agreed that I would go first. Then I saw that nobody was sitting on the ATV!!! The hook had given away... I screamed "THE ATV!!!" One girl was coming out of the yard, holding a dog and could only look at the ATV rolling away with an expression of terror in her eyes. My other colleague, who was standing on the other side of both dog teams, so the nearest to the moving ATV, tried to catch it but missed it. The horrible picture of 11 dogs running down the road pulling a 180kg ATV without any driver and all the dangers it could cause went through my mind and I started running along my dog team, passed my lead dogs, ran by the side of the moving ATV and threw myself on the machine. Unfortunately, I only landed sideways on the machine, chest leaning against the seat, with one hand on the handlebar. Within a second, my male colleague also jumped on the ATV but landed on ME!!! So here we were. 11 dogs pulling an ATV, reaching about 10km an hour, going down a 70% slope, with my colleague and I hanging on the side of the machine...
Since my colleague was lying on me, I could not move and I kept shouting at him "Get off!" and since the ATV was moving down along a stony ditch, he kept answering "I can't!". It was like a comic stunt moment in a Jackie Chang movie!
Fortunately, the dogs must have realised something wasn't quite right and they somehow stopped after about 100 meters down on the road. We both stood up and my colleague sat on the ATV, pressing both hand and foot brakes while I went back up to get my own dog team, the Indiana Jones theme tune echoing in my head...
Snow has since arrived and the winter season has officially started. I did my first sled tour about 4 days ago and it feels great being back on the sled!
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