How to survive living with 30 dogs
Well, I've found some interesting volunteering again. This time with a guy who runs and races with dogs, so I'm looking forward to three weeks of living on his farm with over thirty grinning and perpetually hyperactive huskies.
Luis lives with the dogs near the town of Lonquimay, Chile. However, it's far enough away from any civilization that no one would mind a bunch of barking dogs. That also means we had to plan well in advance grocery shopping and any trips into town. So for three weeks I was living defacto in a secluded spot by the woods, but after those few months of traveling in an RV, hitchhiking, trekking, and camping, I'm pretty excited about something quieter.
How did it go every day?
Mornings. are. the. worst. (please hear the sarcasm here) just because have to get up before eight o'clock. It may not seem extremely early, but the nights here are terribly cold compared to the days, so I never wanted to get out of my warm and cozy duvet.
Every other day we took a few dogs for a quick running training, and the dogs were always much more excited about that than we were when we got out of the house half asleep. We always tried to feed first thing in the morning (or after the training) before the sun came out. Because with sun the wasps are coming to annoy us with their dog food fascination. Feeding was always the most dramatic part of the day (not only because of the wasps), husky dogs are terrible drama queens, so when they see one getting food before the other, they let out such dramatic barks that they could be in a movie with it.
I probably don't need to say that my clothes that I test for KILPI get more abuse than during the most demanding trekking. I've gotten used to the jumping dogs pretty quickly, but I really haven't gotten used to the 3 little kittens. They probably did more damage to my leggings than all the dogs combined.
During the day some volunteers were helping fixing things around the house or just with kitchen cleaning or cooking. I was quite often working with the photos and videos I took for Luis. Then the best part of volunteering was just playing with the dogs, taking them for walks or going for runs with them.
Then in the evening it was back to feeding, both the dogs and us, and most often we ended the day sprawled out on the couch watching Disney movies in Spanish.
My canicross experience
Yes, exactly, I was persuaded to race in Canicross with one of the huskeys. Now a quick google definition: canicross is running with your dog, where your dog helps you with its pull to run faster.
How on earth did I get into this? Well at Luis's I went running almost every day and as part of my training I took some of the husky with me every other day. And Luis decided that I was good at running and that I should go to the Valdivia races with him. He said he needed me there anyway as a photographer and assistant with the dogs. So I was convinced to drive a few hours to Valdivia to camp for two days and compete with the dogs.
Moreover, since it is summer and it is crazy hot during the day, the races have to be run early in the morning because of the dogs. So not only do they force me to get out of the tent at 6, but also to sprint with the huskies before breakfast and then suffer in the terrible heat all day.
As for the race, I finished second, but perhaps only because Kira (my four-legged running partner) was much more excited about it than I was and kept pushing me forward the whole way. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have finished the race, because after maybe two kilometers of fast uphill running, I wanted to die and quit the whole race.
What else am I not going to experience in South America I don’t know. But racing huskies was deffinitely and interesting unforgetable experience.
