Esky the husky

Ok good to hear that we're on the right track. :) I've upped her evening meal in the last 2 weeks and changed from a 70% roo 30% beef blend to an 80% chicken 20% roo mixture. Kibble we feed currently is Earthborn which has good macros 38% protein 20% fat. Excercise is about 3-4 days a week sled racing training ( or equal running ) and a little weight pull practice.

I want to put some more weight on Esky, I don't want her to end being a flabby guts though. Any tips to safely add weight to a sporting dog ?

i wouldnt know i have a husky :p

I seriously can't even manage to keep Esky looking good for more than a few minutes and we get lots of compliments :laugh:

Canberra Folk this is for you :D

Victorians, the Northern Victorian sled dog club is having a beginners bootcamp this weekend. :D Here's a link to the event page http://www.facebook.com/events/208931579248976/

I often offer to steal people's dogs I'm serious though, I'd love a few borrowed dogs to race with and return at seasons end :laugh:

PB today of 280 Long way to go yet miss thing. She has no trouble pulling the weight, just stands there sometimes looking dopey :laugh:

So sorry Lhok

Esky on the right versing Akira

Wow!! I hope she does some kind of sport. She's amazing.. ...if only I had half that focus from my girl :laugh:

Great turn out today something like 23 new faces out there :D Esky and I came 8th out of 9 :laugh: it was a day for the malamutes. I'll pop in later with some pics if there's anything decent

Assuming I don't win any kibble at all and I feed my winter diet year round, (Which I don't) then this would be our costs Food: 1 x Box 1 biscuit- $35 a box- 200 servings- Roughly 17c a day 1 serve of mince- was roo/beef. now chicken / roo. Cost varies a bit but most recent bulk buy. About 30 c a portion Kibble is Earthborn Hollistic about $100 -$120 for a 12.something kg bag.. Just over a dollar for a serve of that. About 2-3 times a week she gets bones instead of mince. Either a carcass 25c each or some king of neck between 50c and $2 Rough cost per year $610 per year for an adult siberian husky working in weightpull and sledding. That's if I fed racing diet all year. 4-5 months over the hotter months of the year food is reduced by around half.

Awww Happy Birthday to the dog that makes me want a greyhound

I'd say that $800 probably just covers 'maintenance' level. Food, vaccines, wormers and flea treatment. I just worked out my dogs yearly diet to cost around the $700 mark, so yeah I 'd say that figure is a little off ;)

To be honest as a buyer I've never researched costs of vaccinations, wormers or any of that stuff. Of course they have to be paid, but they would be paid for regardless, it's part and parcel of owning a dog

From 1:30 :D

We've been using Earthborn Hollistic, which is a Petstock exclusive. I don't normally like using kibbles but this one is very good. She doesn't smell like she did on grainy food, and I find it very economical. Only two of their range is grain free. Also on the cheaper end of the scale available in woolies is the VIP grain free. Haven't tried it myself as it's not the right nutrient profile for my sports dog. Heard good things about it. Then there's taste of the wild, I know of a few in SA that feed it but I don't think it can be bought in shops. I think it has to be ordered in. We miss out on a few brands here in SA

Hope you can make it out. :) 8am is the time that you should be there, I just confirmed that with the secretary. Oh the only thing is to make sure your dog is weighed and you bring a record of that :D I got ours done today .. exactly 25 :/

You mean pre entry - there's no need for that. Entry forms and money is taken on the day, if you do make it just make sure you get there a little earlier to fill everything out. Plus you can give your dog a go on the cart, if they've never seen it before :) I'll find and post up the flyer if I can Here's our generic entry form, we don't seem to have specific ones for the event, since they're all same time same place. If you want to save yourself time, you can print this out and pre-fill it

We only started last year going along to support club events. We didnt really compete seriously last year, but still managed a 3rd in her weight division :) I've done a little more training this year, but we still don't have a proper harness, so it's just been training the command 'pull it' to get her working for me. She used to play up when she would get frustrated, do zoomies and jump onto the cart. Hopefully she's got more brain about her this year. We already managed to beat her pb at our intro day. :) Not sure how they'll run it in NSW but here novices can have a go before competition starts. it seems like elsewhere its actually run as an event. In competition like other dog sports you can't take anything rewarding into the ring. no food, toy extra handlers. You stand behind the line and can use any othermethod to call ypur dog up to you, commands, silly voices, walking off .

Go for it :) Are you taking your guys along to try it out An thanks I'll add that information to the first post :D SA folk our first competition is this Sunday. There are no weigh in facilities at the grounds so to compete you MUST bring in a weight certificate. I get them done free at the vet :) So annoying Esky is right on the edge between two classes depending on the day she's weighing between 24.9 , 25 and 25.1 kg d 'oh

Or maybe the puppy buyer wanted to start out showing and breeding and it was a good opportunity to get a quality bitch and a mentour to.go along with it

Here it's 9 months minimum to race in the novice or touring class. They're both run on shorter tracks than the 1 dog teams. Normally about 1.5 -2.5 km Some sibe owners I know start them younger than this. Go with what you're comfy with though, no one knows your dog better than you :) I didn't have a choice, Esky was 5-6 months during her first winter, so her first season in harness started around 17 months. ;) The sprint race is only 100m, and novices can help out by scooting the whole way to assist their dog. So all the dog has to do is run ahead of the scooter. In the open classes there is a line about 10-15 metres along the track. The driver can assist the dog to this line and then the dog has to do the rest of the work themselves :D There's also a race training day on the 5th of may out in Kuitpo. That's open to novices only :) The tracks there are good for running on, and the track laid out will be under 1 km. Just something easy to begin with

Yay, aussies are quite popular with recreational mushers overseas. I'd love to see some running here :D There'll be plenty of equiptment there for you guys to borrow :) If you got any more questions just ask