Too much thoughts for my head,to much energy in my legs...let´s set them free!~task four~When i first met Silk,she gave off a pretty intelligent vibe. but i had never guessed this husky mutt was that energetic, mind-and bodywise. It started a few weeks after our training against her fear of fireworks-once there where no more daily training sessions,she started to get restless in the evening,and on the days she could not accompany me on some adventure because i just decited to stay at home ,watching splatter films and eating nachos all the day,she clearly showed how little she thought of such behavior. she sat herself directly in my view,blocking the screen with her puffy,stubborn face that spoke as clearly as if she was actually using my language : "slyran you nerd,get up and do something interesting,im gonna diiiiie of boredom in a few minutes! come on,entertain me,you know you want iiiiit,dont let me dieeee!" if that was not effective,she stepped up,pushed her nose on my face and nudged me until i gave up and did something to entertain her,mostly wandering through the woods or hiding some treats for her to find. but it was clear that this was not enough for her,and so iquickly decided that it was time for silk to get some hobbies of her own.
And so it was time for a quick call to the BWSLD-Rescue center again. The whole time,theese peeps where thebest help i could have wished for,especially during the first time when i had to learn the basics of how to dog. feeding,necessary vaccinations,the most comon diseases and grooming tipps,i got everything from them and could always call them up if i thought something was wrong,even in the middle of the night.It felt awesome to know someone out there cared almost as much for silk as i did. This day,the friendlyvoice on the telephone directly confirmed my theory : baltic huskies are dogs with an enormous need of movement and entertainment,they want challenges of both body and mind,as much as one can offerthem. the first thing thatt came to my mind was trick dogging,wich soon became silk´s new favorite thing.
-some of the trick learning goes here-
-pushing a trolley
-drinking from a cup
-getting shot
-highfive
-opening doors with and without key
Sledding -day 2
Another thing that comes naturally with havintg a big sled dog at home is ...well,teaching her how to pull a sleigh. Even though i have to say there was not much "teaching" involved,the stuff breeders say about thoose dogs is apparently true: sledding seems to be part of their basic knowledge,pulling something through the snow at high speed came just naturally to her,and i have never seen heras happy as when she comes back home after a long sled tour through the open fields-it just challenges all of her senses,her speed and stamina,and it helps her the best to let all the bubbling energy out of her.The she is finally able to curl on the sofa and watch bad horror movies with me.
Learning how to sled was surprisingly easy: at first,i changed her collar with a fancy bordeaux leather harness ,wich stayed on her during the whole day-at first she was a bit irritated,but after ten minutes she had already forgotten it was there as we wandered thourgh the snowy fields.there are way more interesting things for a dog outside thanher own clothes. At noon,when she was completely used to her harness,i took a long leash and clipped in onto the harness before i released silk into the garden where she first wondered about the weird thing following her around wherever she went,but after a certain time,she got used to this too-weird,unexplainable stuff never bothered her much as long as it came from me or other friends,she just took it as it was ,faithfull that none of us would ever do something harmfull to her. Next step was a huge pillow that i fixed onto the leash,finally followed by her first sled. To be honest,it was neither the most professional nor the prettiest sled around,for it was just the old wooded sleigh ioften use for riding down the hills and slopes behind the house.nope,this is not just for the kids. I had "upgraded" the sleigh with a pair of wooden rods wich i could fix to her harness ,so she would not be in danger of the sleigh crashing her from behind once it was faster than her or she stopped suddenly. I was exited as heck as i first put her to the sleigh,but she acted as chilled as if she had never done anything esle. i watched her prancing around in pride,the sled with the tiny bells following her smoothly,andthen i could not resist -i just HAD to take a seat. when she noticed me on the sleigh,she firstly stood in wonder,but i just clicked my tongue and she continued walking around the garden. I enjoyed myself beeing pulled thorugh the garden ,completely letting her choose where to go at first-directing her would follow later. For the first day,it was more than enough,and i had never though that this would be so much fun.
Last thing to be said is that my first dog sleigh ride ended for my with the face in the snow-i guess i was just a bit too confident,because i suddenly gave silk the command to run-wich she did immediately,always happy for the occasion of a good run. unfortunately for me,i had forgotten that there was nothing to direct her,and so she just sprinted forwards before making a quick turnaround as she went after a small bird,completely ignoring my demand to stop,and i ended up getting skidded off the sleigh and into the snow. At least,silk came back immediately to check if i was okay,and to be honest...getting thrown out of the sharp corner at full speed is a fun of its own ,as long as you land softly,and so we went back inside laughing. and i could have sworn that silk grinned to,she had a pretty expressive facefor a dog.
Sledding-day 2
