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October 1 to October 31, 2000

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Neckline destruction story... help! (and norhtern lights!)

From: swampdogz
Date: 10/30/00
Time: 12:39:13 PM
Remote Name: 209.17.42.175

Comments

It seems that my dogs learned a new trick in the last week or two. Chewing necklines. Not only are my yearlings eating my individualized, hand crafted, technologically superb necklines, but one of my 6 year olds has joined in the fray (she never did this before!).

We were going through a neckline a night for the last few runs... but Saturday, before our run we went through 3 necklines in 30 seconds while I walked to the kennel for one more dog. I tried to correct this by placing the neckline in the offenders mouth firmly and scolding. I rehooked the offenders, went to get the next dog and came back to 2 more chewed lines (and me without any replacements!)... again the offenders got the same treatment and were told to line out. Now all my dogs were lined up so I sat right down and started building a few lines and watching the dogs. 2 of the yearlings started gnawing within minutes. I stopped them of course, told em no (firmly) and they stopped to look at me for a few seconds and seemingly forgot about the chewing for a few minutes. This went on for over a half hour. The smart members of my team were sitting and laying down waiting patiently, but a few younuns were really revved up to run. Eventually, 2 dogs chomped through a neckline (while I was focussed on another dog, and putting away the roll of line) so I took them out of harness and punished them by not letting them run with the team. what do the experienced mushers think about this? Any better technique to eliminat neckline chewing? I want to take the time NOW to address this before it gets any worse.

On the bright side, the northern lights were AWESOME here (MI) on Saturday night... bright green across most of the sky, directly overhead and on the horizon!

Last changed: December 06, 2000