Americano Blue's musher/mushing chat thread

[Americano Blue]

awesome. I used a lab as my first.sled dog. Be warned about herding breeds, they are slef serving dogs. When they get bored or tired, they stop and wint pull. (I tried a border collie.) Also they tend to try to her the others making the team lose focus. I woukd try a lab if you have one.

also, start out slow. And keep train short. Dont expect your dog to pull a cart the first day or week. There is a lot if things i know now i wish i knew back then

 

[charnic44]

I ain't sad about having a full time job. I wasn't always self employed. I worked in may different fields since I was 10 yrs old. Some jobs were easy. The 9-5 ears were the easiest. BORING. And most were "go no-where real quick".
I loved cutting pulp and logs. I loved hunting, I loved trapping, I loved fishing(commercial[with a net, not a rod and reel]). I loved being on the farm. I loved gardening. I loved living on, with , in nature.
The only reason I took the job at the landfill site was because I wanted to do my bit to clean up the mess we were making of our world.
I got sick of it because I saw way way way too much disregard for our world by even some of the people that were the ones that got me into it in the first place and the ones that that I was doing it for, the young people. Now I just tell everyone"If you don't give a ---- about the world you're gona inherit from me, why should I? I'm gona be dead by the time all that crap WE are putting out there now". Mind you I quietly do my piece but at least now I can say whatever I want because I no longer need to fear being fired for talking sternly to a bunch of whiny little spoiled brat ?ADULTS? Who will go whine to my boss about it......
...kuz I don't have a boss anymore.LOL
The last full time job I had before that was with what we call Child and Family Services in 1993.
Again, I just wanted to help.... .....bunch of dysfunctional idiots with a piece of paper on their wall that said they have the right to mess with people's lives(thats very dangerous to kids). Could you imagine an only child, 18 yr old, single woman essentially dictating to me, a father of 3 at home young children,.. and having already raised 6 others that had moved on and were doing well, some with their own 1 or 3 kids. ???? dont make sense to me. I think she was actually single. Oh my though, doncha know, she had a bachelors degree in social work. Well now, ain't that like a 12 yr old virgin boy teaching women how to breastfeed doncha think? Crap like this wounds the spirit.
So...! ...quit that crap after 6 months.
I now work at the local food-bank 1X /wk, and thats near all the greed, selfishness, abuse, disrespect, self-pity, dishonesty, disregard,etc I can handle. I just wana help you know, but people, man oh man........... Crap like this also wounds the spirit.
So now here I am, no job(per say), spending the biggest part of my time at home, the biggest part of that with my animals, while my fam runs around all over the country spending money like it sprouts out of the thin air.
Ain't crowded doing what I do, Thaz fo sho. Know what tho, I don't think I could handle it much differently now. I am so tired of humans and their egomaniacal idiosyncrasies that I think it's better for me to be alone with my animals as much as I am. At least they don't judge and swear at me for tryna help em.....???I think.....? I hope!Haha

As I have said before, 9 times outta 10, I would choose the animals over people. People today have some (okay, a lot of) problems. Some don't give a darn about what happens to the earth and just about how much money they make. Others care so much that they think we shouldn't hunt, fish, cut trees, ect. When really those hunters, fishers, and loggers are very helpful to the earth. Society has issues...

 

[charnic44]

also, start out slow. And keep train short. Dont expect your dog to pull a cart the first day or week. There is a lot if things i know now i wish i knew back then

Yeah, I discovered the bored/tired thing. The horse would walk by and he would try to go after it. I picked him to train first 'cause I want to try him as a lead (he learns fast and is very smart). I have Rowdy (lab/dane) but he is really rambunctious and doesn't listen well. Then there is Tess (lab, registered but we don't have the papers) she is getting older and the cold gives her some arthritis so I don't want to make her hurt. I'm going to work with Rowdy tomorrow as well as Badger and see how it goes.

I have to go to bed, night!

 

[Americano Blue]

Yeah, I discovered the bored/tired thing. The horse would walk by and he would try to go after it. I picked him to train first 'cause I want to try him as a lead (he learns fast and is very smart). I have Rowdy (lab/dane) but he is really rambunctious and doesn't listen well. Then there is Tess (lab, registered but we don't have the papers) she is getting older and the cold gives her some arthritis so I don't want to make her hurt. I'm going to work with Rowdy tomorrow as well as Badger and see how it goes.

I have to go to bed, night!

From my experience, herding dogs dont do well in lead. Maybe it will different for you.

 

[charnic44]

From my experience, herding dogs dont do well in lead. Maybe it will different for you.

Hmm... I don't know if he will be lead yet, I'm just trying him out.

 

[Americano Blue]

Hmm... I don't know if he will be lead yet, I'm just trying him out.

Good luck w/ him!!

 

[charnic44]

Good luck w/ him!!

Thanks!

 

[Americano Blue]

ITS SNOWING!

 

[RezChamp]

Ha! I'm not her baby. I'm the middle child; the one who gets looked over and ignored. My little sister is her baby and my big sister is her spitting image. I'm the ignored one. That's just how it is and how it's always been.
Interesting. That's cool.
What ever works. My family raises quarter horses so I have to break the 2 and 3 year olds and ride them all summer. I get $1 for each ride but I rarely have time to ride more than 2 a day plus chores and working with my other 4-H animals (pig/steer, chickens, other horses, ect.) I'm thinking about getting an easy job baby-sitting or something to help pay for the dogs.


I had some extra time today because my school got out an hour early and I decided to train one of my dogs I have already. I figure if I can't get a sled dog breed, I make my dogs into sled dogs. My collie/heeler cross, Badger, did good. I don't have an actual harness, so I improvised. I used a horse halter and lead ropes. At first I let him run around with the halter on and ropes dragging and then I tied a plastic bucket to the ropes to get him used to the sound. He did great, then I hooked up an old little wagon and he drug that through the snow a while. By this time, Rowdy had come over with a stick so I threw it and Badger took off after him. The wagon is old and rusty and the sudden jolt made the back wheels/axel fall off. ( ) So now, the wagon is part wagon, part sled. He pulled it some more and then he got to be done. He did really good for not knowing what the heck I was doing to him. Lol.

You are her baby. Maybe not "the baby" but one of her children. Ya, middle child. I know the way it works. Seen it lots.
I'm first born. But spent a lot of time "not" with my siblings. I was raised by my Nana and Pampa.
I would have loved riding horses as my job. I grew up around horses too. We used them for cutting and haulin hay, tilling the fields, hauling wood, going to town. And when I got my first Appaloosa stallion I worked at the community pasture rounding up cattle. I rode to go see my girlfriend too. I usually say woman or female, but really, I was just a boy then. Like 10 or 12. She was 1 year younger than me so, ya, girlfriend.

I like your ingenuity with the halter. That was my first harness too. I was 8 maybe. I had one of them old steel runner sleds. My dog, Timber, was the first Siberian Husky to come into our home land area.
Haha, "part wagon, part sled"... Good one.
Yup, your hooked. A musher in the making.

 

[RezChamp]

...

also, start out slow. And keep train short. Dont expect your dog to pull a cart the first day or week. There is a lot if things i know now i wish i knew back then[/quote]

Aw. You just sound old an wise.