Skijoring

[mareserinitatis]

Hi, all.

I have a question. Ada will be nine months next week, and a couple weeks later, there is going to be a skijoring clinic in the Cities. I know she's not old enough to do any pulling, but I was wondering if it would be worthwhile to go (perhaps without her?) to see what goes on. Or should I go with her, anyway, but just make sure she doesn't do any pulling?

Or should I wait until next year?

 

[Cascadians]

Take her now! It's a blast! You can start the training and commands now. She does not need to pull yet. They may have you pull a tire so just take an empty plastic container and put a little water in it and use that instead.

She'll need to get used to being around a lot of huskies and getting trained instead of playing. The clinic may show some dry land pulling sports such as scootering, canicross, rollerjoring etc.

If you go with scootering be sure to buy a Diggler, best dog scooter by far.

We joined the Cascade Sled Dog Club for the clinics and mentoring, have a fantastic champion skijor mentor.

It fits well with drafting and all training.

Get fitted for your gear now. Dogs learn joring well from other dogs, so they hitch a new dog up via neckline to an experienced calm dog for mentoring.

Fitting a Newf for skijoring is not easy. After several tries I was finally able to get an X-back harness for Orka but it does not fit perfectly. I am about to buy the new Ruffwear Omnijore™ Joring System

http://www.ruffwear.com/Omnijore-Joring-System?sc=2&category=24

and give it a try. My skijor champion mentor says it will restrict shoulder movement if used for several hours and a 1/2 back is not as good as a full back but for my purposes at the moment, caninordicwalking for about 3 hours at a time, it will be good switching it between my other 2 systems.

Joring is becoming very popular and the dogs LOVE it !!!

 

[Cascadians]

My favorite skijoring book is:

http://store.skijornow.com/merchant...N&Product_Code=9780974801100&Category_Code=B1

Ski Spot Run
by John Thompson

John is the World Skijor Champion and is a great guy. He sells skijoring outfitting; I have his sets minus the dog harness which is far too small for a Newf. You can call him and get any question answered; super smart nice guy.

If you get into this and love it, let me know; there's a really good scootering forum and also a sled dog forum.

 

[mareserinitatis]

Thanks, Leska. I'll plan to sign up (assuming the boss says I can take off for the day).

 

[R Taft]

Now, now now.........Anything you can start early the better. Just don't do any pulling as yet..........Have fun. You have so many awesome learning experiences available, I am just green with envy

 

[heather pluciennik]

Sounds like fun! I just helped our club for the draft test and learned lots of stuff! I didn't have Morgan while I was stewarding but I but you'll both have a blast being around everyone!