Dirty Dog Recap, Part 4

Hello! We are FINALLY ready to wrap up our recap of Dirty Dog! When we left off on Tuesday’s newsletter, I had just finished talking about my two dog scooter run with Pence and Kiwi, where I overcame a fear of racing on mud and in the rain! Here’s how the rest of the day went…

After a quick lunch break, Riley was first up in our group for one dog bike with Zagat. Riley and Zagat had another solid run, but ran the trail slightly slower due to the muddy and rainy conditions. They finished with a time of 6 minutes and 54 seconds, just 45 seconds slower than day one. Out of the 21 teams that entered the race, they placed 6th overall!

Ross went out shortly after Riley with Tenzing. On day one, Tenzing tried to pull a 180 in the middle of the trail a couple times and tried to head back toward the start line. However, in day two he did much better! Q gave him a pep talk at the start chute and said something like “ok Tenzing, we’re going to run straight down the trail today” (based off the pic below, that is my guess as to what was said, anyhow). And he did!

Keep in mind that the dogs are not used to running by themselves, so this is often a new experience or challenge for them, but they tend to learn fairly quick. They knocked nearly two minutes off their time compared to day one, finishing in 6 minutes and 3 seconds, placing 7th out of 21!

I was the last event of the weekend for our group in one dog scooter with Lima. Remember on day one, Lima was very distracted, zig-zagging back and forth across the trail to sniff and mark everything. I more-or-less pulled him around the mile and a half trail, and we were passed by one scooter and four canicross racers.

The rain had continued throughout the day and the trail had gotten more slick and muddy. I really wasn’t worried about that though, because I figured we would be taking it slow again. I ended up using Blair’s scooter for the race because it was lighter than mine and lower to the ground, which would make it easier for me to push around the trail if Lima did not help much again.

At the start of our race, Lima did some zigs and zags, and a few sniffs, but we got out of the chute quicker than the previous day. He settled into a nice little trot slightly in front of the scooter for the first half mile or so. Still not pulling, but a little more out in front at least.

It wasn’t long before we caught up to another scooter. Could we actually pass someone?! We ended up trotting/walking along side this other team for the majority of the race, chatting back and forth. We took turns letting our dogs be out in front to try and get them to chase each other and pull more. And it actually worked!

Lima actually lined out and pulled for about 20 feet. Then slowed down again. When the other dog passed us, he lined out and pulled for maybe 40 feet before slowing down again. This continued the rest of the race, with longer segments of pulling each time! He was finally understanding it!!

By the end of the race, he was in a full sprint down the last slope and up the finish line hill! I was so proud of him! I knew if we were persistent and kept trying, with some encouragement, he would figure it out! It was a great learning experience for him, and me too! I told Blair and Q he deserves the award for most improved for the weekend!

We knocked two and a half minutes off our time compared to day one and finished in 13 minutes and 17 seconds! We ended up placing 4th out of 5 teams, just 46 seconds out of 3rd place and a podium finish!

When the races were over, we took Pence to say hi to her former owners, Sara Tarlton and Ryan Beaber! They seemed so happy to see her and so glad to hear how well she’s still doing pulling at 11 years old! She was a leader for them, and Ryan actually raced four of her kids at Dirty Dog!

Of course, we had to meet her kids. When Sara and Ryan brought her pups out, I was SHOCKED. Pence is blonde. And she was bred with a reddish-brown dog. And all 8 of her pups are BLACK. They are also absolutely MASSIVE. Here is Pence greeting three of her sons after a couple years apart. They all have the same pointy head bump!

Oh ya, if you don’t know who Muppy and her owner Betsy are, they’re badasses. This little dog has so much drive and power, it’s unbelievable. A few weekends ago, Muppy ran two 2.5 mile races and THEN did a weight pull of 340 pounds!!! Muppy only weighs like 18 pounds!! You always know when they’re on the trail because you hear crowds of people yelling GO MUPPY GO!! (Sorry Betsy, you’re cool too!).

After that, we packed up all of our belongings and went in search of food. We ended up at The Schoolhouse Bar in Mountain, Wisconsin. We’d been there a few times before, but this visit was different.

We clearly crashed a Packer party. We arrived just after halftime during a Packers football game, and there were probably 20 or 30 people there watching. We sat down at the bar top and ordered drinks. The bartender told us they didn’t have any food that night, but to help ourselves to the food laid out on the tables across the room.

Apparently, it’s tradition there that people who come to watch the Packer game bring some sort of a dish, and everyone shares their homemade food at halftime. We felt super out of place, and also felt bad because we didn’t bring anything and were eating their food. The folks who brought food kept telling us to grab whatever we wanted, it was no problem.

We ended up eating homemade chili and cheesecake and enjoyed a couple drinks with some Packer fans! We even tried to give the bartender some extra money to buy the locals some drinks to thank them for the food, but he refused to accept it. He said as long as we came back sometime, everything was squared away. We told him we always stop at Schoolhouse when we’re in town for races and to see Blair and Q, and he said that’s all he needed to hear. Such great people, and great hospitality up in the north woods!

It was an early bed time once again after an exhausting weekend full of dogs, friends, and fun. Monday morning, we headed back home with the dogs. It took us a few days to get everything dried out, unpacked, and washed (equipment, clothes, and vehicle). That was the last dryland race of the season, so now we wait and hope for snow this winter!

Our sprint sled is itching to get out of the garage this year. Whether we find a sprint winter race to attend, or just go up north to run dogs on snow for fun, we are determined to get it out this winter!

We hope you enjoyed our adventures surrounding Dirty Dog! If you have any questions about anything we talked about, feel free to reach out! If not, we’ll talk to you all next week!

-Hannah, Riley, Boo, and Pence