We drove to Calgary today to participate in a drafting/carting clinic put on by the Bernese Mountain Dog Club of Canada and the Newfoundland Dog Fanciers of Alberta. We were joined by Coreen & Steve Johnson of Tailspin Bernese (Spirit’s breeders) with their Newfie Ryder and two other Tailspin Berners, brother and sister Gunnar and Felice.
Felice, Gunnar, Ryder and Spirit (L-R)
We started out a little rocky. Spirit has been kicksledding for the last two months so she thought that she was supposed to take off like a rocket and pull the cart. It had to stand in front of her to stop her from racing off (and I have the bruises to prove it). Eventually she caught on and began to walk nicely at my side and even started making some decent left and right turns. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us before we could even consider taking the draft dog test.
She was spayed 2 weeks ago so she has been very bored hanging out around the house without any physical activity except 2 gentle walks a day. Somehow she still managed to rip her toe nail almost completely off and leave just exposed tissue and bone. I had the unfortunate job of having to trim off the nail. I’m so lucky that we have such a strong bond that she completely trusted and allowed me to slowly and careful trim back the nail close to the base. Poor girl. She has sure had a run of bad luck health wise. Let’s hope that 2017 is a new beginning for her.
Today Spirit and I attended a pulling seminar. Berners were bred to pull milk carts so I thought it would be fun to try doing something that she would enjoy. It proved to be a bit of a challenge to start with. Spirit has been trained to walk beside me on a loose leash so I had a hard time getting her to go out in front of me and put some tension on the leash. The teacher said that dogs with good obedience always have more of a challenge with pulling sports. I did get her to drag a few old bike tires and at the end we did a little work with me on a scooter. If there was a dog in front of us she would pull a little. Hopefully I can get her to reliably pull in harness without losing her loose leash walk in a collar. Fingers crossed!!!! 
Our girl has a good nose. Spirit passed her first 
Life In The Dog House 
