Dirty Dog Recap, Part 2

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Hello, again! Now that we’ve had a few days to rest up and jot our thoughts down, we are ready to tell you all about day one of Redpaw’s Dirty Dog Dryland Race, which was on Saturday, November 2! Sorry in advance, it’s a little lengthy, but worth it.

In Tuesday’s newsletter, we left off with selecting our dog team members for each of our races. We had a couple hours before any of our group went out, but we knew it would be one after another once they started. Chute times and start times were only one minute apart for each team. Here was our schedule on day one:

• 11:40am: Riley - 2 dog bike with Leap and Boo

• 11:44am: Ross - 2 dog bike with Mazzy and Waller

• 12:33pm: Blair - 2 dog scooter with Yotam and Dora

• 12:37pm: Hannah - 2 dog scooter with Pence and Kiwi

• 2:06pm: Ross - 1 dog bike with Tenzing

• 2:08pm: Riley - 1 dog bike with Zagat

• 3:01pm: Hannah - 1 dog scooter with Lima

About an hour and a half or so before each dog's first race, they were given a small cube of unsalted butter. Roughly 20 minutes before each dog’s race, they were “dropped” from the dog truck, meaning let out of their dog box to stretch their legs and do their business. Some dogs required a short walk to accomplish the latter.

Roughly five minutes or so before each team’s chute time, we would harness the dogs up and take the bike/scooter to the start while the human on the team put their bib and helmet on.

Riley was first to go out on the trail for our group, and it was quite the show apparently lol. His chute time kind of snuck up on us because Blair had just shown up with the twin babies moments before, and everyone was enamored with them.

With about a minute until go time, I ran Leap up to the start chute while someone else ran Boo over to meet Riley and the bike at the line. The dogs were hooked up with about 30 seconds to spare. However, a lady who was trying to help fairly aggressively grabbed Boo and tried to straighten his line out. This made Boo absolutely freak out and flail around, ultimately making his line tangled when they took off.

Unfortunately, the tangle and the lady lead to a bad start, and not a great race. Boo remained tangled for the first half mile or more, and was very spooked. He wasn’t pulling much at all, and was set in a trotting pace. Lesson learned here - when Boo goes up to the line, either me or Riley, or Blair or Q, need to be the ones to handle him. It clearly threw him off his game having a stranger touch him like that. We know he doesn’t do well with strangers, but this lady grabbed him out of nowhere. I now know to be more direct and tell people who try to do that to back off.

This lesson could be applied to all dogs, not even just our weird ole Boo. If you don’t have enough help with people you trust your dogs with, always make it a priority to handle your dogs yourself. If you need help getting dogs/gear to the chute, have someone help wheel over your bike/scooter. They don’t have emotions and aren’t jumping around like crazy like dogs lol.

The three of them did make it around the 2.5 mile trail, but it was not as good of a showing as we hoped it would be. They finished with a time of 12 minutes and 5 seconds, which put them in 14th out of 20.

When they returned, we were talking about how close we were to running out of time and being late to the start chute. I said we had 30 seconds left! Plenty of time! Blair said something to the effect of psh, 30 seconds, you’re talking like a musher now!

In reality, standing at the start chute with screaming, tugging dogs for 30 seconds can seem like forever. We try not to get up there too early, or they’ll wear themselves out.

While Riley was out on the trail, we helped Ross and his team to the chute. They got off without a hitch, and had a solid run of 10 minutes and 2 seconds. They were in 7th after day one. It was Ross’s first ever dryland race, and he did very well!

We had about a half hour until the 2 dog scooter events started, still on the 2.5 mile trail. During that time, we gave raw chicken and water to the dogs that had just finished races. We also switched over the tug lines from the bikes to the scooters and got the next teams of dogs ready.

Blair went out on scooter first with Yotam and Dora. I knew they would be a fast team! She said they had a great race. They finished 6th out of 11 on day 1 with a time of 11 minutes and 28 seconds. They passed a couple teams on the trail!

Right after Blair, I went out on two dog scooter with Pence and Kiwi. I typically take day one a little more conservative to get a feel for the dogs and a feel for the trail. We had a great run and even passed a couple teams! We placed 9th out of 11 with a time of 12 minutes and 33 seconds.

We had about an hour lunch break to snack on some homemade chili before the one dog events began, which is run on a 1.5 mile trail. Ross was up first on bike with Tenzing. Although Tenzing had done one dog events in the past, he had a couple of “Grinch” moments where he tried to turn around and run backwards in the middle of the trail.

That could’ve been because the trail is very hilly and when he felt resistance going up the hill, he may have thought Ross was wanting him to stop. When they’re going slow, sometimes they get a little distracted. They finished 17th out of 21 on day 1, with a time of 7 minutes and 44 seconds.

Riley left the start chute just two minutes after Ross with Zagat. Zagat is a verrrrrry strong, very energetic boy. We were at the start chute a few minutes early to send Ross off, and Zagat was so pumped up watching everyone else take off.

When it was their turn, he shot out of the start like a rocket. They had a fantastic run together, finishing 8th out of 21 with a time of 6 minutes and 10 seconds!

I was the last event for our group for day one in one dog scooter. I found out moments before our race that it was Lima’s first time ever running a one dog event. When the countdown ended and it was time to take off, it was a rather uneventful start lol.

Lima zig-zagged the start chute, sniffing and peeing on everything. With some encouragement, we made it out of the chute and onto the trail, but it was more of the same.

It was more or less “human-joring”, where I was pulling the dog lol. He spent most of the race trotting beside me, sniffing, and peeing. Obviously I knew we would not be competitive in the one dog scooter event, so we took it as a learning experience for him.

We ended up getting passed by the amazing Muppy, a short legged wiener-dog-blue-heeler looking mutt, with a tremendous amount of drive. I joked with Muppy’s musher, Betsty, before the race that she would pass me, and she did! We also got passed by another scooter team, not surprisingly.

Here’s the real kicker though - we were also passed by FOUR canicross teams! Canicross, where a human runs on foot with a dog pulling them, was the event that started after the scooter events. We were going slow enough that four canicross teams passed us!

It actually seemed to help us a little bit though. Lima now had another dog to “chase” and he picked up the pace a little more. I think he also wanted to make friends with the dogs that passed us though haha.

Our team members who were waiting at the finish line for us knew something must’ve happened, or that Lima’s slow start continued throughout the trail, when they saw canicrossers finish before us.

When we neared the finish line, Q started calling Lima’s name and the energy at the finish line helped him go into a run to make it up the final hill. He looked so proud of himself for finishing! I was proud of him for finishing! We finished 5th out of 5 with a time of 15 minutes and 43 seconds.

Back at the dog truck, Q and I talked about the race. Q said he was glad that I didn’t give up on Lima and finished out the race. I said OF COURSE we were going to finish the race! It was just a little more effort on my part than I had anticipated lol. I think it was a great learning experience for Lima on how to (eventually) run out in front by himself, how to deal with dogs passing him, and how to run with a different musher than he’s used to.

I want to note that all of these dogs that we ran as a group are trained and bred for long distance mushing, not sprint mushing like this event is meant for. That means the dogs are more used to pacing themselves and running long distances, not going all out and running as fast as possible for a short distance.

Because of that, and because we are still fairly new to the sport, we compete in the SPORT classes, not the pro classes. The pro classes have dogs who are specifically trained for speed over short distances.

Ross, Riley, and I each had one dog in one of our events that wasn’t quite on their game on day one. When the races were finished, we took those dogs on another short lead by a four wheeler to try and work out some kinks. Boo was back to normal, pulling, and having a great time, so we definitely it was the spook by the lady and the tangle that threw him off his game during the race. We also did another run with Lima chasing the four wheeler to see if that would help him learn what to do, but the run was about the same.

Side note - for dinner Saturday night, we went to Big Easel Gallery and Bistro in Wabeno, Wisconsin with Blair, Q, the twins, and a few Uglydogs. This was my second time there, but Riley’s first. It is someone’s house, and the couple who own it cook a 7 course meal on Friday and Saturday nights for guests. The food is always amazing, and the company even better. The entire house is decorated extravagantly. This is the bathroom, to give you an idea.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel and were in bed around 9pm. We were exhausted! Boo and Pence went to stay with the other dogs at Blair and Qs after the peeing incidents from the previous night.

So, looking at day two, did our mishaps continue, or did the dogs figure it out and improve? Find out in next week’s newsletter when we talk all about the races on day two - and how the rain may have made a difference as well.

Talk to you soon,

-Hannah, Riley, Boo, and Pence