My
Dog Blog
As soon as David first mentioned the trip I picked up on the
dog sledding straight away. I am such a
dog lover that I forgot to be apprehensive about the sledding part which
probably wasn’t a bad thing!
We met some of the dogs as soon as we arrived in Kiruna as
our first surprise was that our transfer from the airport to the lodge was by dog
sled. We were chauffeur driven on this
occasion, but it certainly gave us an insight into what was to come.
Most of the dogs didn’t look like the traditional husky you
would expect. I later found out that
most of them are cross bred with speedier breeds such as German pointers and
sometimes even greyhounds! This is
because Gaynor and Milos use the same dogs for racing as they do for tourism so
speed is of the essence.
We each had our own team of dogs which we were introduced to
the next morning and given instructions on how to handle and harness up to the
sled. The dogs are used to this type of
handling so were generally well behaved when being harnessed, sometimes even
lifting a paw to help.
The dogs clearly
love their job and get very excited at the prospect of setting off. The noise as they sense it is nearly time to
go is cacophonous to say the least.
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| Sledding in a line across a frozen lake |
We rode in a line one behind the other and the teams were
very good at following each other (most of the time, ask Julie about that
one!).
It was important if you fell off
to try to remain in contact with the sled so the dogs didn’t run off. This wasn’t the easiest of tasks and while
some of us didn’t always manage to hang on we didn’t lose any dogs fortunately.
It wasn’t just on the sleds that we had contact with the
dogs. There were also jobs to be done
before and after the riding to make sure the dogs were taken great care
of.
The two main jobs were feeding and
checking the dogs feet as they can take a battering and develop cracks between
the pads of their feet which need to be treated with iodine and zinc
cream. Some of the dogs with more sensitive
feet wear little booties while out sledding for extra protection.
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| Hard at work feeding the dogs |
As you can imagine feeding 44 dogs is quite time consuming
but very rewarding. I was lucky enough
to be on ‘dog duty’ both days and it was very satisfying to watch the dogs
hungrily devour their meal after working so hard for us during the day.
Meals consisted of huge frozen blocks of
meat, consisting of mainly pork cut into
chunks (I say cut, hacked with an axe would be more accurate), pieces of
reindeer leftovers and dry food all mashed together in warm water.
It didn’t look very appetising but the dogs
obviously love it. I regretted having
porridge for breakfast after doing the morning feed though!
Contrary to the belief that working dogs need to be focused
and not distracted by too much close human interaction we were not only allowed
but positively encouraged to cuddle and make a fuss of the dogs.
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| Almost ready to set off with Barney, Ossi, Boris and Feli |
They love it and are surprisingly
affectionate in return. I didn’t need
asking twice. I couldn’t go past any of
the dogs without giving them a fuss. I
even sang to them on the sled.
So it was with a heavy heart that I said goodbye to Barney,
Ossi, Boris and Feli, my team who looked after me for 3 days.
When I fell from the sled they stayed where
they were, waiting for me to get back on instead of running away as we were
told they would more than likely do.
I
like to think it was the singing but I think honestly they were just glad of
the rest!
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| Falling in love! |
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