Blog Post by Mandy

I look at the black ears flop against the broad forehead, bouncing in rhythm to the jolts caused by jumping back and forth over the gang line. The dog yard is howling in excitement while the team on the line is pulling in their impatience to go. Everyone is ready but the large dog in front of me. He pauses for a moment to look me in the eye; he doesn’t know what’s coming.

I approach slowly, cooing “easy boy.” I lift his paw and a wide tongue rolls up my cheek. My other hand goes to slip something onto, a foreign object to this pup. He jerks his paw from me and the 80-some pounds of muscle slam into my legs to escape me. I trip over the gang line and almost lose the item to the new snow.

New tactic. I straddle him, tucked right behind his should blades. His head goes up to reach for my face in hopes of another lick. I can feel his body wiggle as his tail moves with energy. My hand grabs his paw—no problem. I try again with the other hand to slip the Scary Item onto his a paw—problem. I’m sliding around his back shouting at him to chill while he throws a tantrum under me. Again.

He gets away. Well, away from me but he’s still in harness attached to the gang line and we still have one last task to accomplish before we can do what his silly puppy wants to do: run.

Sherlock

I straddle him again and get a little farther in the process before he actually bucks me off. He’s a brute of a dog! And a yearling at that! It takes another handler to help out, but we finally manage it. Sherlock wears dog booties for the first time ever.

Kalyn looks me dead in the eye: “This is why Ryne ‘happened’ to have a vet appointment on the day we ‘happen’ to run the yearlings in booties for the first time.” We laugh hard, shaking our heads, and both tell Sherlock he’s a good boy... cause he is!

And we had an amazing run in the most beautiful environment ever.