DzDog Dad Snow Adventure

Snow Adventure

By: The DZ Dog Daddy

It's been maybe a year since the Dante and Ziva have practiced mushing on dry land.  It was my first time on cross country skies.  It was my second time EVER on skies.  For these reasons, I was sooo proud of my pups.


I have been dreaming of mushing Dante and Ziva ever since...  I've always wanted to do this.

I've been away from my dogs, wife, and Pacific Northwest wilderness paradise for a while for work, so having the chance to come home and take this adventure with DzDog Mom, my brother and sister-in-law and my new niece and nephew twins was more necessary and rejuvenating than I could have ever imagined.

I am a "learn by doing" kind of person, so after reviewing an in-depth how to tutorial on x-country skiing, I clicked my boots in, hooked dog power up to my waist harness and shouted "HUP HUP!"

Off we went, though having to resolve multiple tangle issues and several crashes into the snow bank, Dante, Ziva and I were able to reasonably pull off a performance which may have appeared that we knew what we were doing.

As we crested a hill, the beauty of the trail and the wilderness filled me with awe and peace.  Then I started to pick up speed...  As it turns out, skies are faster than dogs downhill.  Once Ziva realize that I was gaining on them she said, "YIKES!" and scampered behind me.  This sent one tow line under my left ski and then between my legs.  Ziva decided to veer off to the side and then try to catch up with her brother, who had taken up pacing beside me to my right while I attempted to slow down on the icy early morning snow pack.  Fearing that I might injure one of them with my skies, and because the tow lines were now tangled around my feet and wrapped around one of my ski poles, I decided to "tactically" plow into the next snowbank with the grace and elegance of a Lawn Dart.

All was fine, once the towlines were all untangled and sorted out.  Ziva wasn't so sure about the endeavor after that.  I let her hang back and tow the twins' sleds while Dante and I pressed on with the joring mushing winter experiment.  With only one tow line to contend with, and mostly because Dante began to remember his training, we began to truck along at a great pace and he got to experience some real success.

Dog Power!  The only way to ski!

Happy Mischief Monday!