The blog updates have been few and far between because I’ve been out of town completing a long and extensive Autumn dog training period in Målselv. We took all 86 adult dogs out there around mid-August to begin the training after a long (and well deserved) summer break.
Our daily training routine consisted of feeding the dogs a nice biscuit soup for their morning breakfast (smelled pretty yum I might add!). Afterwards, we would organize the teams that would be sent out on the training runs that day. With that many dogs we usually had 8 teams (4 teams of 12 dogs & 4 teams of 10 dogs) unless we had to rest some of the older dogs or if the dogs were injured or sore from running.
Next, we would gather our dog harnesses and start putting them on the first 2 teams of dogs to run. We’d also have to check their feet while doing this to see if they received any injuries to their paws from running on stones/ice. Once this was done we could start hooking them up to the ganglines attached to the quad bikes we use to drive the dogs. From there we would drive out of the training camp on the quads and the dogs would run! Once the dogs came back to camp we would give them a big bowl of water to re-hydrate after a ~8-15km run through the forest & local quarry. These trips were then repeated for the remaining 6 teams.
When the final dog team had returned and rested for ~30 minutes we go ahead and feed them a nice big dinner. Dog dinner consisted of biscuits, water and lots of cow guts! The dogs loved it!
This would be done 5 days of the week, with us and the dogs taking 2 days off for the weekend.
Here are some great pics of my time there during training:
After taking a short birthday trip to Oslo (post coming soon!) we arrived back at Målselv and it was covered in snow!
My Nordic Life 
Looks like hard work to me Josh but also enjoyable working with the dogs. It also looks very cold too. Luv Granma xxx
Only saw it in the snow but what a contrast! Hard but exhilarating work in such a beautiful area. Loved visiting and meeting the dogs, as well as the people you work with. Enjoy the rest of your time there!