Harness breaking the future athletes

Harness breaking puppies is fun. It's exciting to see future athletes take flight and fulfill their birthright as sled dogs. It's exhilarating and always makes me smile.

But mostly, harness breaking puppies is pure chaos and requires a lot of patience.

Last July we welcomed our best breeding with the union of Tak and Yeti, my main leader, in the Reggae Litter.

It's difficult to believe yesterday was their eight month birthday.

I begin harness breaking - or getting the pups used to being and working in harness - around eight months with light pulling and short runs of 1-2 miles. Tak's pups have been more than ready. On our free runs in the evenings around our property, the pups have become absolutely breath taking: all legs, loping like lightning and jumping through the pastures like long, graceful merry-go-round horses.

I decided to run the pups with their daddy and my all star leader, Yeti, on my light weight peddle cart rather than my four wheeler. It was a little chaotic. I put Rasta, the only remaining female I kept from the litter, up front in lead with her dad, and while standing waiting for take off, she began bucking wildly like a horse. Perry, the biggest of the males, I put in back, and he immediately became tangled. Meanwhile, Rasta started eating her neckline.

Sigh.

Patience.

I unhooked Perry, re-situating him and called "ready?!"

Then, I grabbed my camera, jumped on and hit record. The following video is what followed! We finished a two mile run, and aside from a few shaky moments in the beginning, they got it on the first run.



*the music in this video is a song by Sean  Hayes, called, "Alabama Chicken."