Do you remember when Nuka arrived? Do you remember when Go arrived? Do you remember when Pii arrived?
This photo was taken a month ago. Today Pii (left) weights 29,5 kg and Nuka (right) 27 kg. Still Pii is such a little puppy and counts everything on Nuka. Nuka definitely is the alpha female of our little pack.
Our cat Kukka is already 12 years old. Sometimes when it is cold enough she tolerates Pii's warmth and comfort. Slowly Pii has learnt the cat has sharp claws every single time she puts her nose somewhere it doesn't belong to. (Picture above taken by YoungLady.)
Pii is a working dog. She is just 8 moths old puppy but is learning it all. She is the lower one in our pack and loves the life in that way. But naturally, this autumn, she has started to place herself from Nuka's protection on lead when hiking or "being on the run" which in this case means moving on from a place A to place B. In wolf packs the alpha female is behind when moving on. She sees the whole picture better from the back and can give commands. They do communicate also other ways than howling. We just don't know it all yet how they do it. (Picture above taken by YoungLady.)
If we had a sled dog racing team this (Pii on lead) would be a problem because Pii is the biggest and strongest so she should be a wheel dog in the team. But we are not racing. We a living a real life. We need Pii to pull a sled, not to run for the team. She will pull her own sled or someone of us. That changes the situation. So, when you have a sled dog you need to figure out what you need it to do for you. We want her to work, to earn her own living in working: to help in hunting and transporting things in the wilderness. That is what for we need her. That is what for she needs to be trained. And that is why we must adapt her training now when she has naturally positioned on lead.
This means that yesterday she had an extra hard training day. We hiked 4,8 km route. She was pulling me and I helped a lot. The weight was not the most hardest thing. She weights 29,5 kg. I weight 59 kg. I walked and run so I was able to control all the time the burden she had on. The most difficult part was the new command she had to learn.
"Choose the route."
WHAT!
"Yes, choose the route, decide where it is best to across the fragile ice."
GOSH!
"Yep, choose the route."
Always before we have chosen the route. When Pii has been insecure about it she has turn to us to ask where to go. Yesterday she had to decide. She had to take the responsibility which way to lead us. Only 3 times but it was enough to make her exhausted. Twice she wet her paws but we praised her a lot because she did what we asked, chose the route. In her opinion it was not the right one because she wet her paws in icy water. So, on the third time she was again about to choose the similar route twice before but suddenly stopped, looked back to see how Nuka was about to do it. Pii noticed Nuka was about to across the fragile ice from the other edge. Pii sniffed the ground and walked carefully to the other edge and across the fragile ice there before Nuka. This time she got super praising and we saw she was satisfied on herself too. No wet paws on this time! It was a lucky coincidence that is was the last chose she had to make. (Picture above taken by our GodSon.)
Other difficult thing Pii had to learn yesterday was "the bridge". We needed to across two challenging bridges. The other was 5 m long and 2 m wide but has metal cover over which you need to walk to get to the other side. This metal cover has ice cover on so it keeps similar but not the same sound as fragile ice. It causes confusion and fear. Our dogs love water but they have learnt the lesson. Water is wet and cold. When it is winter it is not fun. And water hides under the ice. (Picture above taken by our GodSon.)
The other bridge we needed to across was 1 m wide but 20 m long. It is made of wood so it doesn't keep scary sound. Under the metal bridge runs a flooding brook. But under the wooden bridge runs flooding rapids. So, both bridges are scary at the same level.
But when I say "the bridge", they must trust and count on me that it is safe to go on and across it. That lays a huge responsibility on me. I am never allowed to lead them to across the bridge which security I am not 110% sure about. If the bridge falls down under us how can they ever trust in me when it is up to life and death? That is a very important thing we all should remember in our daily lives too. When someone counts on you, don't let them down.
Pii needs to learn to choose the right route because if she is going to be on lead we need to be able to count on her and the fact that she is experienced enough to make right chooses. Wrong choose can cost us quite a lot in arctic wilderness.
