Ice

Description

Hello Lisa – I hope all is well with you and all the staff and all the fluffters at the Mayhew!

Ice and his companion and running partner Sasha (Siberian Husky x GSD) are doing extremely well.

Any initial teething problems we had with the dogs in the first few weeks of taking on Sasha now long forgotten and they are inseparable now!  Sasha has moved Ice down a rank within the ‘pack’, being quite a dominant bitch, but we think he seems happy about that, as he has such a easy-going nature!  In fact, he seems to feel much more relaxed now with Sasha around and has also learnt from her to be more demanding in seeking our attention, whereas before he could be a little apathetic (typical husky!)  He is now very affectionate and cuddly, which is funny because our main concern about getting a second dog was that he may become more interested in the other dog and we would no longer have any attention from him!

As well as clearly loving each other to bits, Ice and Sasha work so well together in harness at cani-cross races.  Ice gets very, very excited at the race start lines, letting out high-pitched squeals and trying to pull me off the start before he is supposed to go!  Being the slower of the two dogs, Ice doesn’t tend to pull as much as Sasha in harness, but acts as her companion when we’re running and she runs much better when he is cantering alongside her than when not –  occasionally she’ll slap an encouraging lick on his cheek to keep him going!

I was very proud that we won the CaniX UK Championship 2011/12 Extreme Female category earlier this year and we have been training very hard since then to get fit for the new season.  Our first event of the season was at Cannock Chase, Staffordshire, 1+2 Sept, where Ice and I took part in our first bikejor  event.

Bikejoring is a step up from cani-cross and requires more speed, stamina, obedience and confidence (particularly in terms of human team member’s technical mountain-biking skills), so competing in such races is a bit of a challenge for us – Ice certainly isn’t well-known for obedience!  It can also be tricky when your dog doesn’t run flat out at the front of the bike because the line becomes slack and there is a danger of it becoming entangled in the front wheel.

He did so well in his first race though and, although we only came 5th we did improve our Saturday race time by 2 minutes and came 4th on the Sunday.  I ran Sasha in the running races immediately after each of the bikejor races on both days – exhausting but fun!

We are also very proud that we will be competing for the UK team in the CaniX European Championships, on 12-14 October 2012.  We have been training lots and we will be taking part in lots of races in the lead up to the event.  In the recent spell of nice weather it has been too hot to run the dogs during the daytime, so Ice and I have been getting up at 5:30am every morning to train before I go to work.  At first he used to be very sleepy in the mornings and would drag his feet a little, but he has built up his fitness level now and seems to really enjoy his morning training – he is also listening to my commands much better, which is great.

The European CaniX Championship organisers have teamed up with CanineMax and turned the annual competition into a full doggy-Olympics for 2012, with flyball, terrier racing, obedience classes and all sorts of other dog-related sports going on, so I think it will be a great event!  Princess Anne may be opening the event on the Friday evening during the opening ceremony and we CaniXers will be camping there from the Thursday through to Sunday.

I have attached some of the PR photos that were recently taken at the CaniX UK training camp – me with both dogs and my daughter Ice, as she will also be running in the Euros.  Also attached is a photo of both dogs at a recent hydrotherapy session (organised by our behaviourist) and a photo of Ice and I during the ‘best in show’ round at a recent fun dog show where he won ‘most handsome dog’…..again!

Take care for now

Mel

Ice Pictures & Videos

Pictures