First Skijoring Fundamentals Clinic a Success

The Mush Larose Association skijoring racers who train at the Kanata Nordic trails offered a skijoring fundamentals clinic on Sunday, December 4th, at the Wesley Clover campgrounds. The clinic was attended by 9 participants interested in teaching their dogs to skijor. They were familiarized with the harnesses and lines used for the sport and given pointers on finding the appropriate size and style of harness for their dogs. That was followed up with some practice exercises to teach the dogs to feel comfortable pulling in a harness, starting without getting tangled in the equipment and introducing the dogs to commands to turn and stop. The instructors were happy to offer the clinic and received positive feedback from the participants, who got a glimpse of the work required to train a skijoring dog. It can take an experienced skijorer a year or more of focused training to prepare a dog and then several more years for the team to reach it’s full racing potential. The dog and skier teams that participate in the Mush Larose training group at Kanata Nordic have been training for between 4 to 7 years. For those teams it all started with the skills that were taught at the foundations clinic.