PUPPY!!!!

Today's activity was Husky Sleding.  We'd done this in 2011 at the Ice Hotel and you'd have thought I'd have learnt that it's cold, really cold, but no, I took the Hotel booklets advice and put on two layers under my thermal suit.  It wasn't too bad when you were driving the sled but when you were sat in it, it was freezing!

The minibus that took us to the sleding was tiny, 12 of us crammed in, barely able to move.  When we arrived and piled out in comedy clown car fashion, we were greeted by a guide and told we were waiting for 8 more to arrive.  We were given a demonstration as to how to use the sleds and some rules to stick to.  Because I asked for clarification of how far 20m was (the distance to leave between sleds), we were put at the front.  As the guides were on snowmobiles at times we were sledding through our own private winter wonderland.

We weren't far in to our journey through the woods before we realised we had the pack that was slightly lacking in brain cells.  It didn't help that the females were on heat so the dogs were constantly getting scent of females that had been along the route previously, it also made some of them a little aggressive toward each other.  They also like to run in -30'c to -40'c so our cool -7'c was a bit warm for them as well.  We had 3 or 4 dog position changes before our pack would behave and even then they still weren't the best runners.  One of the lead dogs was on his first time leading but he did really well.

At the half way point we switched drivers and then it wasn't long before we "parked" and the dogs were anchored so we could stop for lunch.  We fussed the dogs whilst the guides got fires going in a wooden hut and heated soup.  The dogs were so gentle and friendly towards us.

After lunch we headed back.  With the dogs safely home, the guide asked if we wanted to see the puppies.  Well who wouldn't!  He took us past juvenille dogs and we kind of thought they were the puppies he was referring to... Until we arrived at a pen with 8 little puppies in!  They were four weeks old and had only ventured out of their little house five days earlier.  Now they were out, their socialisation with humans had to begin which meant they needed cuddled.  A hard job but we just had to remind ourselves the puppies needed it!

We had the evening to ourselves so we took another walk in the other direction down the illuminated ski trail before getting an early night.