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OMEGA SHEPHERDS
Adventures on the Ranch

 

 

 

--------------------------------------------Dog Sledding in Hunting Season!

------It's only the beginning of November but winter is definitely here. We've already had 10 inches of snow! So this week I hooked the dogs up for dog sledding for the first time this winter and I am so proud of them! I am using new leaders that I trained last year - only a dog sledder could know but a team is NOTHING without good leaders. I mean you get tangles - end up in ditches, caught in trees and fences - ok you get the idea! So good leaders really are everything if you plan on having any fun at all! So I started small - only 4 dogs today - just to be sure my leaders would lead. I was beyond thrilled with them.
-----This time I hooked up right by the house, I tie the sled off to a big post as I am hooking the dogs up - to be sure they stay put and don't head off without me, they love to go - barking and trying to show me their excitement any which way they can! I start out straight downhill! It can be quite scary at times taking off, the combination of fresh dogs wanting to go and a steep hill! But this time was uneventful and they headed out very well. We first pass the mares pasture, which today has 4 horses in it, but they are used to my sledding and barely lift their heads as we got whizzing by. Next up we pass the indoor arena then the outdoor arena, which is where our weanlings are kept this time of year. They have NEVER seen anything like this and immediately race to the far end of the arena tails held high, going to get as far away as possible! Now we're heading out into the wilderness, there are several roads around here that used to be for logging, now they are grown over and more like wide trails but can be rather narrow in parts with lots of trees and rocks and some very steep drop offs. Today I am heading down one of those trails, as we rounded a corner there were elk everywhere - a huge herd of them, must have been about 12! They leaped off both sides of the road, I told the dogs "Go on By!" and they did. I stopped the dogs just to admire this one beautiful bull. A big rack - just beautiful - he is just standing there looking at us. It is hunting season so he is lucky I'm not a hunter! Which if I was he wouldn't be standing there, because they really do know if your going to harm them or not. I think he would have stood there all day just looking at us, so on we went - down the logging path and turned around and came back. By the time we got back the herd was gone, so we proceeded to head back home.
-----During hunting season we have to be extra careful - living up in the mountains with wildlife all around. Everyone wears orange when we go outside, all the dogs wear orange harnesses and collars on walks and we are extra careful with the horses. I have a new buckskin weanling filly and we don't even let her out of our indoor arena right now because she could easily be mistaken for an elk by a hunter that was a little "trigger happy" and not paying enough attention.
-----So......that's dog sledding in Montana during hunting season!
-----Keep warm all 2 and 4 legged alike.
--------Till next week,
-------Leah and everyone at Omega Shepherds!

 

"Uzi just being extra careful durning hunting season!"

 

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