Sunday 5th February, we awoke to the garden covered in snow. I had been planning on completing Slink's final WPD walk that day anyway, but with heavy snow fall, especially on the route I had planned, it was touch and go as to whether we'd be able to get there to start the walk. Jumping out of bed, I...
Wednesday 1st February, little Selene and Sammy set out to complete a 10 mile backpacking walk to qualify for the 3rd leg of Selene's Working Pack Dog title (WPD). Armed with a map, directions, a GPS and supplies, they headed out from Witley Station just before 10am. The weather couldn't have been m...
| Leg 1 of WPD complete |
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On the walk we saw much of the New Forest "wildlife" including New Forest Ponies, Cattle, Ducks and a Donkey. The dogs were very well behaved, and when told to leave the animals alone, were quite happy to just walk on by. All dogs there, including Lucien's litter brother Lewis (Hyteton Makka Pakka), and his Uncle Kimo (Hyteton Inbo Harvest Moon) were of exceptional temperament and of the 5 entire boys and our girly Mina, all were happy walking shoulder to shoulder with not one sign of unhappiness between them.
The walk was enjoyable, even though we walked through boggy areas where we were waist deep in water, the dogs walked hard and pushed through these areas with ease. We also had to cross a stream on a plank of wood. I tried walking across it getting the dogs to wait on one side whilst i crossed, but they didn't wait and they fell in the deep stream. (I am sure Michelle got a picture of this and their struggle to haul themselves and their packs out of it. A few miles on and Mina found a dead rabbit. It took me nearly 15 minutes to prize this poor bunny out of Mina's mouth, I managed it once but then lost my grip on Mina's collar and she dove and managed to pick it up again getting a really good grip on it, but I managed to get my hand in Mina's mouth to open up her jaws and kicked the rabbit away, much to Mina's horror. She sulked for a good 2 miles after that! We made it back to the van in early afternoon, Lucien still pulling strongly and looking like he could do a few more miles. Thank you to Kirsty Terry (Koyukuk) for organising a fantastic route, and Michelle Anderson for being our witness, and also to Mark Smith for all his help on this fantastic walk. We can't wait for leg 2! Thank you to Mark Smith for taking the above photo of Lewis (left), Mina and Lucien (right). 1 down... 3 to go!! |
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We are so proud of Mina and Lucien who both completed the first leg of their Working Pack Dog (WPD) titles. The walk was just over 10 miles, taking in the wonderful scenery of the New Forest. They had to carry 30% of their body weight, meaning Lucien carried 14.3kg and Mina carried 12.9kg. Their packs mainly consisted of "dead weight" including lead diving weights, the packs also contained several liters of water. Their finishing weights were 12.5kg for Lucien and about 10kg for Mina.