My 6th day of running the dogs was, well, total disaster! Where do I even begin? I guess any goal worth attaining comes along with a few challenges. I can remember distinct moments during med school and residency when I asked myself if all the sacrifice was really worth the pain. Last night running the dogs was one of those moments that really challenged my dedication to this endeavor! I guess it started by knowing that I would be running our rowdiest (is that a word?) team of dogs without Jim. He is the alpha male and its amazing the difference when he is around. However, Jims handler Jessie was to be available to help me get the team harnessed, etc..but he bailed on me at the last minute. Not a huge deal..but this would be the first time for me doing absolutely everything myself with no one there to help. Once you spread out the gangline and start hooking up the dogs, its definitely helpful to have another set of eyes and hands, particularly to help settle down the really excited dogs who might be chewing on their necklines (I went through a few of those!) nipping at their neighbors, or just jumping and pulling and barking and getting the whole kennel in a raging uproar of anticipation for the run. It took me twice as long to get the dogs harnessed and hooked up amidst all the barking, tangling, biting and humping going on. Yes - I said humping. I noticed that Delta, the lead male, just would not quit humping on Almond, the lead female. This is not that uncommon, they sometimes sneak in a hump or two out of boredom or curiosity when we are stopped on the trail, but it was all I could do to keep Delta off Almond so we could get going. He actually snapped at me the last time to the point that it drew blood on my forearm. A more seasoned musher (or even dog handler or even dog OWNER probably, lol) may have picked up on the many subtle clues that I now can recognize in hindsight - the smell, the interest of the other dogs, the extraordinary interest from Delta, etc - THIS DOG WAS IN HEAT! Sorry to say I did not pick up on this and about two miles in when I stopped to give the dogs a breather, Delta was on Almond like flies on honey and next thing you know Ive got my two lead dogs (JIM LANIERs two lead dogs!) locked together for 45 minutes. FORTY-FIVE MINUTES!!! Who knew it took that long?? So not only am I sitting there wondering if this is a huge problem that one of Jims smartest and best dogs may have just gotten knocked up (I still dont know..hes out of town til tomorrow) but my goodness the chaos this created. Im all by myself for the first time on a trail I just barely know, sun going down quickly now here in Alaska and I have 10 dogs downwind of this situation who are in the mood to run but now also very interested in whats going on up front. Worst. Tangle. Ever! Dogs pulling. Jumping. Biting. Barking. Utter freaking chaos. I would untangle one dog to fruitlessly watch all the others getting tangled while my attention was on that one. I was like the guy throwing back that one starfish on a beach of thousands. It became pointless. Finally I just decided to wait until Delta (who I think actually post climax was giving me a so sorry bro type expression on his face) disengaged from Almond. It was at this moment that I began to think about how this experience, frustrating as it was, is probably just the tip of the iceburg of whats in store for anyone who actually completes the Iditarod. I had a kind of open dialogue going inside my mind about whether this is worth it, whether Im up for it, etc. Well before I could wax tok philosophical the dogs were finally done with the deed..at which point I cleared any major tangles but left a whole lot of minor ones out of fear that the longer I took the more likely that another dog may try to hump on poor Almond (I dont know if they would do that..but I just wanted to get the dogs running again and get everyone home before pitch black dark). I managed to make it back to the kennel, getting 7 miles out of the team in the process, then crossed the train tracks and headed for Jims place. I hope hes not too disappointed, but Im still so clueless that I dont know how I couldve prevented this..
Posted on: Fri, 03 Oct 2014 23:38:32 +0000
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