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Looking back at the season and to sum it up in one word - FUN! Okay Matt had an operation at the beginning of the season which put us back a month and then our house flooding over Christmas with no access to our usual training forests which were also flooded, but we have done some brilliant races and events on new trails, made so many new friends and the dogs as always have been happy! We also organised our first sled dog rally which enjoyed a great entry and was a super experience and a really fun weekend! We have learnt so much and continue to learn which is one of the beauties of having a passion of living a life with dogs. Dogs are never boring! All the dogs seemed to 'click' this year in training which in no doubt was helped by our two younger girls gaining maturity and enjoying the responsibility and sheer joy of running in the two dog classes together and also us using everything we have learnt and trying new things out when training. Now all our local trails are dry so we have a choice of forests to train so we are enjoying spending time with our dogs in the forest whether it is running them on a rig, watching them chew sticks or sunbathing. Our dogs are awesome! We have taken a few trips away this month we popped to the gorgeous Lake district for the scenery and to take the dogs for a paddle at Lake Windermere, we then headed to Scotland to visit Shane Murray who had made us a new dual control passenger rig. Our old passenger went to a very good home and is with our friend Mel and her super dogs and we are very happy with the stability and control of the new rig. Thankyou to Shane and Lyn for their hospitality and for the rig! Our forests don't allow the use of a quad for training purposes so this rig allows us to train larger teams with lots of control with the dual braking and also a four dog team without a passenger. We are aiming to build condition after the lack of distance we were able to put on the dogs because of the awful weather situation and maintain this condition until closer to the race season where we will mix this up by training for speed using the lighter rigs.  We paid a trip to the Kennel Club building in Coventry over Easter weekend for the SHCGB Champ show. Nothing for Laika, although she was shortlisted from a huge class of 21 bitches but was a nice chance to dust off the show lead and get her (and me) used to the razzle dazzle for a summer of champ shows. We also met some lovely people at the show and it was a fun but tiring day as we had spent the previous nights camping in the van training late at night and early in the mornings. Laika will be making an appearance at Welks under judge Sheril Leich of the Forstal Kennel at the end of the month so are looking forward to seeing how she gets on and seeing lots of lovely siberian huskies.  Delighted with Laika's reserve out of a really nice class of ten under Sheril Leich (Forstal) The weather was awful with the dogs being shown in the outside ring and when the weather turned really poor, the bitches were shown in the inside ring which was a shame as the dogs all enjoy a stretch out in a bigger ring but it was a great day and lots of lovely wins for lots of lovely dogs! See results here http://www.fossedata.co.uk/show_results/result.aspx?id=WELK_APR_14 'Dryland' Mushing - Spot the lead dogs!  Snik, Kara, Cass, Snak, Laika and Hux after a muddy training session This month we are also spending time pimping out both our rigs. Matt has his old school cudos heritage which he loves (a bit unhealthily if you ask me) and we have aquired a new to us cudos heritage for me (Lou) to use. Both rigs are getting a re-spray courtesy of Matt's work contacts - who doesn't want a rig sprayed the same colour as a helicoptor?! They have done a superb job on Matt's rig even painting the footplate with non slip 'stuff' that they use on the helicoptor steps for safety, new handlebars and a general refurb almost completes the picture just needs to go to the clever Andy at 'Wheels in Motion' https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wheels-In-Motion/217487251617395 to sort out the brake cables. My rig is next in for the pimping which I am so excited about, afterall diamonds are boring and nothing sparkles like a newly painted rig...
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