Winter training on the Palouse

The Palouse is the area of high steppe grassland in eastern Washington and northern Idaho south of Spokane.  Most of the pre-settlement grassland has been plowed under and planted to wheat.

Winters here are less extreme than on the other eastern side of the Rockies but no where near as mild as in Seattle.  The usual pattern is a few inches of snow that hangs around for a few days or weeks, followed by melting or partial melting, then more snow, etc.  Where I live, winter usually means wind.  Some winters, the snow comes early, forms inconvenient drifts across the yard, and makes any outdoor training nearly impossible for months.  I am stuck doing most of my training in a crowded utility room where the longest clear diagonal is about nine feet in length.

This winter has been unusually snow free.  When I was mostly training for Novice, snow-free wasn't all that useful.  Novice is heeling, and more heeling.  My usual winter attire over my midsection is a thin shirt, a flannel shirt, a vest, a thinsulate coat, and a parka.  My head is covered by a hood and I'm wearing gloves.  I can't see my dog in heel position unless I dispense with the parka.  I can't handle the treats or leash with the heavy gloves. So training often consists of me dashing outside with no gloves and only 4 of my torso layers (no parka), doing a spot of heeling down the gravel driveway, shoving a few treats at the dog, rushing back inside to defrost my fingers, switching dogs, dashing back outside, etc. 

These high-speed training sessions served another purpose: getting in a little training after work while there is still a smidgeon of twilight outside.

By comparison, training this week, has been a dream.  The high temperatures have been above freezing.  Today, temps were in the high 30s with light rain and not too much wind.  Moreover, I've discovered a big bonus of Utility training over Novice. Many of the Utility exercise parts can be done in a parka in the rain.   To top it off, I have the week off for the holidays.  I can train outside without a flashlight.

Today, I worked on directed retrieves and scent articles with Miss Maple, the golden girl, and my fingers didn't even turn too blue.  She is still having trouble resisting the pull of the middle glove when sent to Glove 3.  I simplified by removing glove 2.  I gave Alder the poodle boy a break from training and only did a little jump work with bars on the ground.  He is a marginal jumper, so I've decided to follow the Zink program for teaching jumping, starting from the beginning.  Maybe it will help.