As you know, I have been working the last two years to be a musher. I am, at heart, an educator. And every good educator knows that learning is a big part of teaching. Not only that, but being aware of how we learn is quintessential. 

So this means that my mind is always on and alert thinking and learning from all my experiences, including dog mushing. In the past year I have had to learn how to manage a team of 4, 6, and 10 dogs. This year I have to learn how to manage 16 dogs. This is really not as easy as some people may think. Imagine 16 kindergarten age kids that you must get to run in one direction without being side tracked by one another or distracted by objects in their environment. Good luck! 

So, after the first day of running a 16 dog team with help, I realized that it was possible and I just need to adjust my perspective a bit. The following run however changed everything, again. I had to run my 16 dog team on my own. This meant if there was a problem, I had to fix it on my own, and what was even more of an issue was the break on the 4-wheeler was not at its best. Trying to get off to fix a problem would mean some creative parking so the 4-wheeler would not be pulled away even if it was in gear. 

If this was not bad enough, 15 minutes before the run we discovered we were out of gas. Now, as a teacher I have to be constantly on my toes ready to deal with any problem that presents itself. This is one of the reasons I enjoy working with dogs, it is a lot like working in a classroom. Fast paced, exciting, sometimes dangerous. Finding out about the gas set me into a mode of wearing my administrative teacher hat and quickly finding a solution.

I proposed that the other musher run ahead of me get gas and meet me on the trail for a fill up. The other musher, Rich, cocked his head and thought for a minute. And then he said, " sure I think the dogs can do that." I froze in my steps and thought about what he said, looking at him with "Deer-in-the-headlight-eyes."  He was really looking at the solution from the dogs perspective. Would it hurt them at all if they had to  pull the 4-wheeler for awhile without gas on the trail we were choosing for the day. I on the other hand saw the problem from the perspective of an administrator, which was how could we get the run done as soon as possible without sacrificing time to run out and get gas, wasting more gas in the process. 

Now these are some broad and sweeping statements of perspectives that are represented by teachers and administrators, but in a general sense, this is what happens in a school. As an experienced and comfortable classroom teacher,  I am constantly thinking of my students first, questioning the use of curriculum, technology, methodology I use in the classroom. As a beginner musher, I am not always so great to take off my manage the family and time hat, and put on my teacher hat. But it really needs to be done. If my end goal is for my dogs and myself to be a successful musher, I need to be willing to change my perspective for the benefit of the dogs in this partnership. 

What perspectives have you tried on lately? 

Fall is here- and hopefully almost gone with winter on it's heels- so it's time to go over this years dog plans.

First, we are a month into training right now and have just under a hundred miles on the dogs.  Which doesn't seem like much compared to some years but we are doing things a lot different now a days. 

That's because of a few training experiences of my own over the summer.  First, I trained for a 12hr endurance mountain bike race in June by basically following the same style of training as I use with my dogs.

this isn't as wacky as it may seem.  Most of the research I have done to learn how to train my dogs has been adapted from reading cyling books.  So it seemed natural to use these same methods to train myself.

It worked okay.

I met my goals in the race and didn't suffer too much.  I was happy.

But then we all went on a cycle tour down the Atlantic Coast for a month- which was GREAT time!  We rode everyday!  Some days easy.  Some days hard.  But EVERY day. 

Now this trip was a month and a half past the mtn. bike race and I had ridden just short, fun rides in between with Christina and Pippin.  We were all comfortable with rides in the 20 mile range.  But by the end of the trip we could have ridden 100!  And not even have felt sore (except maybe our rear ends!).

This was true for Christina and Pippin, as well as, me.  And they hadn't trained hardley at all before the trip.

I could have easily doubled my distance in the 12 hr race after the tour with just a few weeks of intervals and tapering- maybe even more!

And so how does this relate to the dogs?

Well, typically we train on a fairly consistent schedule which has changed over the years but starts easy and then gets progressively harder as the winter moves forward.

That's how I trained for the Mtn. bike race.

It works but I felt a little flat and bored for the training so didn't get as much out of each ride as I could have.

On the Atlantic trip we rode different amounts everyday.  Our bodies stayed actively adapting to each days ride rather than just humdrum moving along.  We are going to mimic that with the dogs this year.

So.

Right now we are laying in easy base miles.  Just getting a funamental layer of conditioning on the dogs.  Nothing stressfull and really being carefull to avoid injuries and any hint of boredom.

We haven't run the same trail more than once this year.

Then in mid-November through mid-December we are going to run EVERY day- sometimes long, sometimes short, sometimes slow with a heavy load, sometimes fast with a light sled.  The goal being a 75-100mi run by the end.

Then we will taper and be ready for our first race- the Knic 200, on the first weekend of Jan.

More on our race plans to come.....

But you can see that dog training is ever evolving and training myself has had a huge effect on how I approach the dogs conditioning!

This year, Kigluait Adventures is going to focus on a monthly theme that will be integrated into our Special Event Program and our Monthly program. This month's theme is all about helping the teacher's to kick off their school year with a fun and educational activity involving videoconferencing and distance learning. 

September's theme is all about conflict resolution, decision making and building our characters. So it makes sense to highlight our Meet a Musher Program this month, as it focuses on looking at the strong character traits that makes a musher a musher, or a sled dog a sled dog for that matter. During our Monthly Highlighted Mutli-Point program this month, students will get a chance to videoconference with other students to learn about the life of a musher from a 13 year old musher and an adult musher while touring Flash Kennels and meeting several very special sled dogs. 

We invite teachers to join our Social Networks, Flash Kennels and Kigluait Ning to discuss ways they build conflict resolution skills in their classroom communities and how character plays in helping have a positive classroom community.  Students also get a chance to practice their conflict resolution skills through several simulations.