snowshoes and an axe

My next strategy involved adventures closer to home to keep us off the road. I took and afternoon to stamp out some trails around our little five acres, basically creating a wide, looping figure-eight wrapped around the driveway and our usual out-trail from the yard. It roughly followed an old ATV trail, but several small trees had fallen across the path since it was last maintained. I set off with snowshoes to pack down a bigger, wider trail that would be easy for the dogs to follow and a little hatchet to chop through the offending birch. It was a nice little bout of hiking through the woods chopping at things. I certainly enjoyed it. The woods were quiet and beautiful, and there were fox, rabbit, ptarmigan and moose tracks lacing the snow under the trees. I was actually a little startled by all the moose tracks. This summer, the moose certainly didn't hesitate to graze in our overgrown clearing but for whatever reason (perhaps a full dog yard?) they are keeping out of sight this winter. I had no idea they've been watching us from the trees.

A concerned Norrin stays very, very still while our summer visitor grazes behind his house.

After I stamped out the trail a few times, I hooked up Reese with Devilfish and Parka in wheel. I wanted to run a couple of the big loops with just the three of them, and then try to work on gee-haw training ... or at least work on preventing unauthorized u-turns on the trail. Setting out did not go well. Every time I got Reese pointed in the right direction down my new little trail system, he would swing back around to our usual out-trail before I was back at the sled. After several failed attempts, I recruited Peter to be my Rabbit and run ahead of the team in the right direction to get us started. This helped, and we did a nice, smooth loop down the bottom half of the property, packing down and widening the trail further as we went.

This was all well and good until we reached the driveway. The dogs were way more excited about heading down this nice, wide, packed trail than continuing to break my little foot path out around the house. We were at an impasse for awhile, but eventually my hooking in, walking forward, correcting direction, walking back and starting over sunk in and Reese continued around through the trees. We made good progress until our path again crossed the out-trail. Reese turned us sharply towards the house. He corrected his direction much more quickly this time, but not without wrapping his tug around a little birch. I was pretty sure that by the time I got him untangled, whatever positive re-enforcement I would have gotten from getting the team immediately running again after a correct turn was lost. We powered on. On the second loop, the driveway was again enough of a temptation to have us stalled for what felt like hours (probably three minutes.) On our second encounter with the out-trail, we had an exact, unsatisfying repeat of Reese's birch tangle. As we came for our third round, all three dogs seemed to lose momentum. These loops were too short, we were stopping for turn-confusion every few minutes and not really gaining enough momentum for the nice stretch-out run they're used to. They all stopped running several times on the trail for no reason, looking back at me like, "Um, really? What are we doing here?" I was starting to doubt my grand plans, too.

On round three of the birch-tangle the snowhook popped loose just as I got Reese unwrapped and he immediately took the team up the trail to the house. I was lucky to snatch the sled as it went flying past. Reese pulled the team through the yard and stopped at his doghouse. He was done.

I put him up and put Norrin in lead, taking my big boy down the same now-broken path, hoping for something better after his spectacular - albeit temporarily spectacular - performance the day before. Norrin made it about fifty yards before stopping dead. No amount of encouragement could get him to budge, so I moved Parka up beside him. She was confused as all get-out to be up front, but plucky as always she plowed forward and managed to drag Norrin along with her to the driveway. She, however, had no intentions of continuing around the loop yet again and absolutely refused to go anywhere but down the driveway and towards the dogyard. Norrin was happy enough to comply, and mule-balked when I tried to point him in the right direction. No amount of hooking in and walking forward and guiding and walking back got our direction straight. This time, when the snow hook finally popped loose from all the back-and-forth of the gang line, I just grabbed the sled and rode behind them back to the house.

Somehow Norrin, in his dazed state at all this confusion and absurdity of running circles around the house, smacked his head directly into the mud flap of the truck as the team passed it. That was it. He was done. He sat down next to the wheel well and refused to budge. I got Parka and Devilfish unhooked (and at that point, untangled) and then carefully coaxed Norrin past the truck and back to his house. Three and a half loops of my new little trail, no successful intersections or even use of the figure-eight features, and two traumatized proto-lead dogs to show for it.

Things were still not going our way.

:: Peter got some video of this misadventure from the safety of the stairwell. Don't be fooled by the apparent success - that was just round one. ::