Sled Dog!

At the end of March, I decided that if I was going to get a chance to try Lottie at pulling a sled, it had to be soon, or relax and wait until next year.  After winter camp, I saw an awesome video of a blind/deaf Aussie that loved to pull a sled, and I was dying to try this with Lottie.  She gets so upset when we walk because I keep her on leash and the others get to run free in the woods.  I realized hooking her up with her buddies in harness is a way to let her run run run through the woods, and still keep her safely attached to her buddies.  So over Easter weekend I LOADED the car up with Lottie, Keebler, Skye and five border collies to make a quick sledding run to Dog Scout Camp in Michigan.  We dropped off foster border collie Charlotte at a potential new home in Ann Arbor, and the rest of us continued our trek to find a dog sled and snow.

 

At first, all we found was MUD.  I’ve never seen camp so muddy.  The trails had some snow in places, but not much.  So all we did for the first two days was hike.  Tango got to play on the Trash Agility Course, and we spent a lot of time in the woods.  

Tango practicing for Trash Agility



That was fine with the others, but Lottie wasn’t happy.  Then, the last night, the temperature dropped and we got lovely SNOW!

 

Tango on the Trash Agility course



          I hooked up Tango, who has pulled a sled several times in the past with Kannika.  Then I chose to pair him with Pascha, who had never been in harness before.  The plan was to see if I could get Pascha to pull with Tango, and then add Lottie and Jasper behind.  Tango, however, had different ideas.  This is my Wonder Dog, who is so scary smart and athletic, and biddable.  But not that day.  He flat out refused to move forward. He chewed the harness and tried to back out and finally lay down.  Absolute refusal.  I was shocked.  Pascha, however, seemed quite willing.  The best I could do was to walk behind them and pull the sled myself.  This was the only way I found to get Tango to move forward.  Finally I decided to just hook Lottie and Jasper up behind and see what happened. 

      Once in harness, Lottie jumped gleefully forward, and Jasper stayed willingly with her, but Tango put on the brakes while Pascha tried gallantly to pull forward with her harness partner Tango acting like a post.  It was twisted mess of harnesses and gang lines that resembled spaghetti.  So I just unhooked Tango and Pascha and let Lottie and Jasper go on their own.  And guess what?  Lottie totally ROCKS as a sled dog!  She loved it.  Only problem was that the snow trails were barely covered, and bumpy icy, so I’m looking forward to next winter when we can try it with some real sledding snow.  Lottie is, too!

Lottie seems to be wishing she could just run free!

One nice suprise was seeing Lottie featured as Miss February on the DSA calendar

Next year, expect a great video of Lottie Moon, lead sled dog!

Louisville Rescue Roadtrip

What does a girl do for fun on a Friday night? ROADTRIP!! And what makes it even better? Blind and deaf dogs!!

Lottie Moon, Keebler and I joined Victoria, Raquel, and Dahlia, and we all hit the road to Kentucky to pick up a double merle Aussie named Orkah. Orkah was losing his home, so Speak! For the Unspoken went to his rescue! http://www.speakfortheunspoken.com

Dahlia meeting Orkah

Orkah turned out to be a lovely young deaf and vision-impaired Aussie. So like all these double merles, he is real sweetheart. And Lottie, and all the dogs, had a great time meeting the new guy.
We spent quite a bit of time at a park in downtown Louisville on the river, which was nice, and all the dogs enjoyed stretching their legs and getting to know each other before we all piled back in the car, this time with Orkah, too, and headed back to Columbus.
We stopped for dinner at Chipotle, and I wanted to eat inside, since I wasn’t brave enough to eat in the car with all the dogs. Now, I often eat in the car with lots of dogs, but this time I was in the back seat with all four of them. It seemed a bit stressful, even for me. Yet I wasn’t comfortable leaving Keebler alone with so many big dogs while we ate inside. Rachel saved the day, or at least dinner, by being brave enough to hide the little guy in her coat while we ate. Only one time did he pop out unexpectedly and grab a mouthful of burrito from her fork!
All in all, it was a successful trip, and a good time was had by all, humans and canines.

Lottie's always ready to say HI

Dahlia, Orkah, Lottie Moon

Victoria and her dogs Dahlia and Orkah

Rachel keeping Keebler warm!

Chasing Enchantment

These double merles have such a sweet, enchanting energy about them.  I was thinking this as I drove with Lottie Moon and Keebler in the back seat of my car yesterday.  They were playing together, sharing a toy.                                         
These dogs have a different energy, in some almost indescribable way, than my other dogs.  There is a gentleness to them, but not a calmness; a wisdom to them, yet not an intellect.  This is not to say they are not ever calm, or that they are not intelligent, because absolutely they can be both.  It is more about the descriptors “gentle” and “wise” as descriptors of their energy, their auras, if you will, and not their personalities, and the sense that these words provoke in the soul, and not the mind. When I say that they are gentle, the mind brings forth images of calm, slow, quiet.  Lottie and Keebler spend massive amounts of their time running and wrestling and screaming in play together. 

Lottie has her OCD moments several times/week where she pants and barks and runs through repetitive behaviors and stresses out everyone around her. 

Keebler is a Chihuahua, and just like most Chihuahuas, he feels the need to shriek and rush forward in attack mode to big dogs who venture near him when he has a bone, or when he’s on my lap. 
Yet I still use the word “gentle” to describe both of these dogs.  It goes beyond actions; it goes deeper to their hearts.  Likewise, I have border collies and an Australian Cattle Dog, so I live with dogs that possess crazy intelligence.  Sometimes I swear they are smarter than me.  Lottie and Keebler are not more intelligent than the border collies, not at all.  But they feel wise.  Like learning from them will heal my soul. 
  
There is just something about these dogs, these double merles, that has an impact on people.  It happened to me when I met Dahlia, the deaf and blind Aussie who made me decide I needed one of these dogs, started me on my path to find Lottie, and really changed my life. 


Keebler and Dahlia



Lottie, Keebler, and Dahlia

 
Since last year when I adopted Lottie, I’ve become involved in helping other double merles find homes, and I’ve become a part of the community of owners of double merles.  I’ve watched people become just as entranced with these dogs as I was.  When you meet them, you just know you’ve met something your soul hungers for.  And once you feel this sweet enchantment, you cannot forget it, ever.