I figure it must take a certain mental ineptitude to live in Northern climates. And to have children living in such a climate, well, those people must really be nuts. I often think about cabin fever in the run up to winter, long lazy fall afternoons playing outside for hours on end. Thinking of ways to stay entertained, without spending a fortune, and without going off the deep end and finding when Spring finally arrives that I have accumulated like 30 cats.
This year I had a brilliant idea. One that John failed to see the merits of. Or perhaps he was scared off by the inherent danger... A few years ago we got a skijoring harness for the dog as a way to keep both John and Sampson sane after Odin arrive... Never did catch on.
So this winter, I decided to try having Sampson pull the sled with Odin hanging on. The original plan calls for me to XC ski, I think we may get there, baby steps.
Today was the test run, with me running. To lead up to this a few weeks ago I went for a run with Sampson in the harness hooked up to me. He got a vague idea what the harness was for. Today he got a better idea.
He did not like starting out having to pull the sled from a stop. But did great when I helped him. Odin loved it, and did a great job of holding on.
I will say we are very lucky that Sampson is a pretty smart dog and listens and is failry well trained. There were no near misses with trees, no squirrel chasing, all in all a full success.
Once he really got going I couldn't get ahead of him to take any good action pictures.... Maybe I can get some help next time.
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