A cold start to the new year

So far 2012 has been cold, with temperatures ranging from in the -40's on colder days to the -20's on warmer days. The cold weather hasn't slowed us down to much though, we've still been getting out with the dogs. Going on runs up to 36 miles and we've even started getting some of our pups into harness for the first time and going on 2.5 mile runs with them. It is a lot of fun watching pups grow up and become part of the team. They change so much in their first year of life it's amazing. They go from being blind, deaf , and unable to walk at birth to amazing athletes at just over a year old who can run 50-100 miles in a day.

Everything takes longer when its cold out, you have to put more gear on before going out side, let the truck run longer to warm up before driving anywhere, and last but not least put booties, coats and fox tails on all of the dogs before a run. The only thing that happens quickly when its this cold out is things freezing. At -40 a cup of boiling water will turn to steam instantly when thrown into the air. -40 is also cold enough to freeze bubbles before they can pop.

This is my friend Jana, she went on a 20 mile dog run
with me on Monday, and about 8 miles from home tipped
her sled over and fell in some overflow while crossing spinach
creek.  we were able to get some dry clothes on her but she had a
mostly damp cold ride home. It was -20 when we started the run and
-30 when we got home about 2.5 hours later.
The photo below is of Jana's pants after we got back to the cabin
She had so much ice on them she could hardly bend her legs and had to
stand in front of the heater for a very long time just to thaw them out
enough to get them off. Due to good cold weather gear and only a 8 mile
run to get home she managed to escape the incident with little to no frost bite.

Here Rogue shows of her fancy coat that is designed to
keep her belly and inner thighs warm and protected from the wind
while running as these are some of the areas more prone to frostbite
on female dogs. Swamper the tall handsome guy next to her is wearing
a fox tail to help protect the sheath of his penis from getting frostbitten
while running in cold temperatures. I sew Velcro to both ends of the
fox tails so that I can quickly attach them to their harnesses while gearing
up the team.