A Proper Mushing Setup

Finally! My awesome older brother got me a 4 dog line for mushing, and we got Denali a new harness. The green Urban Trail harness slipped to the side too much now that she really pulls. It was perfect for when she didn't pull as an X-back harness will bunch up and not fit right when the dog isn't pulling, but now that she pulls really well she needs a more appropriate harness. She'll probably still wear the green one for hiking and other adventures.

Here is her pretty new harness from Alpine Outfitters.

I worked a couple days on teaching her to put it on herself, as with the green harness she would shy away from it. She'd been having trouble with her paws peeling on runs and was relating the pain back to the harness. I did some counter-conditioning and desensitization with the green harness, and basically followed that same idea with her new harness. I hold it up and she sticks her head through the holes. I'll upload a video of that later. I did get a video of her first run with it, she did great! You might want to turn down your volume a little, the video plays loud.



I need to take her by herself to work on her bad habits at the beginning of our run to the park. She's been consistently trying to jump off the curb and also to turn too early. She's not supposed to jump or turn until told to. She anticipates too much.

I'm really loving the 4 dog line as it lets me run all 3 dogs very well. Yes, we still have the foster dog Diesel, but we're meeting a potential new foster tomorrow. I'll update about Diesel later too. I want the 4 dog line because I've had a couple people wanting me to teach their dogs to mush. I like to have that option to run dogs with Denali and Kaytu. It's so much fun!