A Few 'Interesting' Tours

Tours are always a mixed bag - every week we have a few great tours (where the guests are good drivers and the dogs are well behaved), but we also have our fair share of 'interesting' tours. So far, I've found that the best drivers are the German guests. I like to make it a competition for the groups to be the best driver.

Reindeer

The dogs being well-behaved while they wait in line for 2 hours between tours. The jackets are for the dogs who have shorter coats of hair.

Last week, I saw some reindeer on tour. At first, we saw them from a distance, across the lake. The guests were thrilled, and I wasn't too worried that the dogs would chase them, because they were so far away. BUT 45 minutes later, we come to the spot where we had originally seen the reindeer, and I watch as the ears of the dogs start to turn towards the forest. Uh oh. My lead dogs, Amber and Alexa, decided to abandon tour and go chasing reindeer instead, so they pulled a 180° turn, and started pulling my sled backwards. The sleds are not designed to be reversed, so it was a pretty scary moment, but I was able to step off my sled and pull them back the right way. Alexa got a very firm (but very quick) lecture before we continued.

The Heatwave

An all-girl puppy team! Amber and Alexa in lead, with Chubby in the middle, and Circe and Ilja in wheel. The day that the dogs chased the reindeer.

The 'heatwave' is what we call the period where all of the female dogs come into heat at the same time - quite common in a big kennel. Unfortunately for us, the heatwave has struck and the pressure is on us immensely. We do our best to separate the girls and the boys in different teams and tell the guests, "please do NOT overlap with the team in front!", but accidents happen.

We currently have 4 'incidents' - two of which have happened on tour. If 2 dogs get 'stuck' together, there is a high probability that the female becomes pregnant. On tour a few days ago, a leading girl Bambi, turned around while the teams were stopped, and got stuck with a boy behind her. They were stuck together for 10 minutes, so the teams behind had to overtake, and the stuck team then had to catch up to the rest of the tour quickly. It was stressful for the dogs, and for the guests, and for us. Bambi has an appointment scheduled at the vet next week.

A bit about being 'stuck': They can be 'stuck' for up to an hour, as the male's penis swells inside the female's vagina, locking them together. This is normal, but you should never pull them apart as it's painful and causes injury, instead keep them calm and let them separate naturally.

Fighting

We have some girl dogs that don't like the other girls (Bubbles, Tina and Luna), and some boys who don't like other boys (Albus, Bob). Since Bubbles is in heat now, I thought she could have a go running in lead next to a castrated boy, Yard. It didn't go so well. Bubbles attacked Yard on Joyce's tour (she's very spicy). Luckily, it wasn't a bad fight, and I was on another tour behind Joyce, so I brought Yard to my guide sled and zipped him up inside. He had his head poking out, with some blood on his ear, and I had to hold onto his collar for the remainder of the tour so that he didn't jump out. But now I know that I can do a tour one-handed!