Hey Everyone,
Check out the interview Barry did with Sleddogcentral.com
Here
We hope everyone is having a great spring so far.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Quicky!
Hey Everyone,
Check out the interview Barry did with Sleddogcentral.com
Here
We hope everyone is having a great spring so far.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Spring and young dog pictures!
Spring is here!
It is spring here. The temps are in the 50's and 60's during the day. The trails are getting rough, and the dogs are getting warm.
We are still in swing with training. The puppies are the main focus now. We are not training far, never more than 15 kms, but we are training very deliberately with lots of variation with emphasis on good behavior and most of all fun.
Our training philosophy is that the first year we take it super easy. If we make it only fun and no pressure, the pups will have nothing but good memories of running and will have a good mental and emotional foundation to build on next year when we start training longer runs and running them through some races.
Here are pictures of some of the gang, both adults and puppies.
It is spring here. The temps are in the 50's and 60's during the day. The trails are getting rough, and the dogs are getting warm.
We are still in swing with training. The puppies are the main focus now. We are not training far, never more than 15 kms, but we are training very deliberately with lots of variation with emphasis on good behavior and most of all fun.
Our training philosophy is that the first year we take it super easy. If we make it only fun and no pressure, the pups will have nothing but good memories of running and will have a good mental and emotional foundation to build on next year when we start training longer runs and running them through some races.
Here are pictures of some of the gang, both adults and puppies.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Some thoughts on the Winter, Ekran, Sørlie, and Wærner
Hey Everyone,
Well the last few weeks have been exciting ones for us. The race season here in Norway has been at it's peak and is starting to wind down now.
We have been concentrating on all of our young puppies, and have not run any races after the Vikerfjell race in January. We have been having a blast with these pups and are dreading the approach of May when we will have to say goodbye to more than half of them as they go back to their owners. We are lucky to be able to hold on to 7 or 8 in total and that will be a great bonus for us as we build up our own racing team over the next few years.
We are thrilled to report that our friend Sigrid Ekran won the Femundløpet in february and has just yesterday crossed the finish line of the finnmarksløpet 1000 in 2nd place, 50 minutes behind "Mr. Finnmarksløpet" Roger Dahl. Sigrid has matured a ton as a racer these last two seasons and has left no doubt in anyones mind that she is a top competitor and musher. The puppies we have from Sigrid are among the very best pups of the more than 100 puppies I have trained in my career.
Robert Sørlie came second in the Femundløpet and 3rd in the finnmarksløpet! Against some very stiff competition Robert has again shown how this sport is done. There are very few people who do as well, as consistantly, as Robert does. His longevity in this sport is amazing, and he is what we call in the USA "A dangerous dog man". What it means is that you can never underestimate Robert. The moment you underestimate Robert or his dogs, you have lost the race.
Our friend's Thomas and Birgitte Wærner at kennel berserk, have had an amazing season. They have made the switch from sprint to long distance, and have worked with amazing patience and dedication to attain their goals of becoming one of the top long distance racing teams in Norway. This year they are enjoying the benefits of all of that hard work. Thomas has placed 3rd in Femundløpet and 5th in Finnmarksløpet. We are so happy for them and wish them the best of luck and most success in the years to come.
We are proud to run the same trails as mushers of this caliber!
Congratulations one and all!
Well the last few weeks have been exciting ones for us. The race season here in Norway has been at it's peak and is starting to wind down now.
We have been concentrating on all of our young puppies, and have not run any races after the Vikerfjell race in January. We have been having a blast with these pups and are dreading the approach of May when we will have to say goodbye to more than half of them as they go back to their owners. We are lucky to be able to hold on to 7 or 8 in total and that will be a great bonus for us as we build up our own racing team over the next few years.
We are thrilled to report that our friend Sigrid Ekran won the Femundløpet in february and has just yesterday crossed the finish line of the finnmarksløpet 1000 in 2nd place, 50 minutes behind "Mr. Finnmarksløpet" Roger Dahl. Sigrid has matured a ton as a racer these last two seasons and has left no doubt in anyones mind that she is a top competitor and musher. The puppies we have from Sigrid are among the very best pups of the more than 100 puppies I have trained in my career.
Robert Sørlie came second in the Femundløpet and 3rd in the finnmarksløpet! Against some very stiff competition Robert has again shown how this sport is done. There are very few people who do as well, as consistantly, as Robert does. His longevity in this sport is amazing, and he is what we call in the USA "A dangerous dog man". What it means is that you can never underestimate Robert. The moment you underestimate Robert or his dogs, you have lost the race.
Our friend's Thomas and Birgitte Wærner at kennel berserk, have had an amazing season. They have made the switch from sprint to long distance, and have worked with amazing patience and dedication to attain their goals of becoming one of the top long distance racing teams in Norway. This year they are enjoying the benefits of all of that hard work. Thomas has placed 3rd in Femundløpet and 5th in Finnmarksløpet. We are so happy for them and wish them the best of luck and most success in the years to come.
We are proud to run the same trails as mushers of this caliber!
Congratulations one and all!
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Sun!
Hey Everyone,
So the sun has come back to Ropphaugen again. It came back for a few minutes about two weeks ago. I heard a sudden uproar in the kennel and ran out think that something was in the kennel. The puppies were all standing and barking at their shadows. They were born last spring, but i guess it had been a while.
The dogs are enjoying some slow and easy spring training. Usually we would not start with the spring training until, well, spring. This year we have so many puppies in training and no more races that we are planning on doing, that it makes sense to take it slower and enjoy the time out with the dogs and not worry about milage as much.
This has been a good light training season. The dogs have a bit over 2,500 miles of training since late September when we started training. They have gotten a little tired of running up and down the mountain we live on, so we are starting to travel a lot during the weekends. It is great to travel and train in new places and get to see many of our mushing friends who do not live close by.
We have a lot of friends who are competing in the Finnmarksløpet this week. The Finnmarksløpet is Europes longest race, and the worlds northern-most race as well.
We wish Sigrid Ekran, Nina Skramstad, Robert Sørlie, Ketil Reitan, Thomas Wærner, Elisabeth Edlund, Atle Bjerke, Bertil Nyheim, Emil Inauen, and all the other contestents a good run and healthy dogs!
We are also closely following the Iditarod this year! Lance Mackey is going for his fifth straight victory in Iditarod, Hans Gatt is trying to win his first to top off a steller career. Dallas Seavey is coming off of an impressive rookie Yukon Quest win to try and win his first Iditarod title.
Magnus Kaltenborn is representing Norway and running Martin Busers youngsters. All in all it should be a exciting race!
Our puppies are looking great, we could not be happier with how well the are doing in harness and how much fun they have while we are out! It makes it so much easier to have a blast too.
I have been on the job hunt and have finally started getting called into interviews. Hopefully something comes of that soon.
Kaia is working hard at the kindergarten and coming home and training puppies with me in the afternoons. She will hopefully start a new position as a teacher at the Lillehammer Steinarskole in a few months.
Sorry for the lack of pictures. It would seem that blogger is not uploading pictures at the moment.
Updates as events warrant.
So the sun has come back to Ropphaugen again. It came back for a few minutes about two weeks ago. I heard a sudden uproar in the kennel and ran out think that something was in the kennel. The puppies were all standing and barking at their shadows. They were born last spring, but i guess it had been a while.
The dogs are enjoying some slow and easy spring training. Usually we would not start with the spring training until, well, spring. This year we have so many puppies in training and no more races that we are planning on doing, that it makes sense to take it slower and enjoy the time out with the dogs and not worry about milage as much.
This has been a good light training season. The dogs have a bit over 2,500 miles of training since late September when we started training. They have gotten a little tired of running up and down the mountain we live on, so we are starting to travel a lot during the weekends. It is great to travel and train in new places and get to see many of our mushing friends who do not live close by.
We have a lot of friends who are competing in the Finnmarksløpet this week. The Finnmarksløpet is Europes longest race, and the worlds northern-most race as well.
We wish Sigrid Ekran, Nina Skramstad, Robert Sørlie, Ketil Reitan, Thomas Wærner, Elisabeth Edlund, Atle Bjerke, Bertil Nyheim, Emil Inauen, and all the other contestents a good run and healthy dogs!
We are also closely following the Iditarod this year! Lance Mackey is going for his fifth straight victory in Iditarod, Hans Gatt is trying to win his first to top off a steller career. Dallas Seavey is coming off of an impressive rookie Yukon Quest win to try and win his first Iditarod title.
Magnus Kaltenborn is representing Norway and running Martin Busers youngsters. All in all it should be a exciting race!
Our puppies are looking great, we could not be happier with how well the are doing in harness and how much fun they have while we are out! It makes it so much easier to have a blast too.
I have been on the job hunt and have finally started getting called into interviews. Hopefully something comes of that soon.
Kaia is working hard at the kindergarten and coming home and training puppies with me in the afternoons. She will hopefully start a new position as a teacher at the Lillehammer Steinarskole in a few months.
Sorry for the lack of pictures. It would seem that blogger is not uploading pictures at the moment.
Updates as events warrant.
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