Dog Sledding

Wow! Those who know me well enough would guess that this is one sport I would be involved in. We were given the opportunity to expreience Dog Sledding out on the lake. Each team consisted of five dogs, plus a sled to which there was a passenger and driver. We were given a brief lesson on the comands and actions required for driving the sled. To begin sledding you needed to take either both or one foot off the brake, push off like a skate board and call out 'hike' to the dogs. If they became distracted at all you called 'on by', which communicated to the dogs to gain their focus again. Then to stop we called 'whoa', placed one foot on the brake, then two. Whilst stopped you needed two feet on the brake otherwise the dogs were strong enough to begin without you realising. I had a brilliant time, and it was a great feeling to be interacting with animals again, especially dogs which you all know I just absolutely love. After this experience I am researching the possibilty of longer trips Dog Sledding.