Memorial Day

It's Memorial Day here in the U.S., a day to remember the fallen.

Please take a time-out from your every day activities and remember those who gave their lives so that we can enjoy the things we tend to take for granted.

And while this is a U.S. holiday, please also remember all those allied troops who fought and died for the same ideals alongside our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines.

Last, not least, please thank a vet for his or her service.
It's an easy thing to do and means a lot to those who put their lives on the line each and every day, so we can go about ours.

Support Our Troops!

Catching up

We're finally caught up on spring orders and continue on with the next batch of carts to be shipped into the summer months.
The spring rush really caught us by surprise, albeit a nice surprise, and we tried to speed-up the process by changing a few things a round the shop. As it turned out, the new process ended up delaying the delivery of carts to our customers, so we're back to the old, tried and tested routine and will be able to deliver carts as promised.
To all our new friends customers we would like to apologize for the delays in recent weeks and thank you for your patience!

We've already had a few inquiries for carts for fall training and current orders are extending well into July, so if you're thinking about a new dryland rig for the fall, please contact us as soon as possible to ensure timely delivery.

Thanks again!

Henning & "Team Arctis"

Busy Times in "Arctis Land"

Wow, time flies when you're having fun...and when you're busy, too!
It's been a great spring for Arctis, thanks to all of our new friends and customers from all four corners of the country. From Georgia, to Ohio and Illinois, all the way up to Alaska and way back down here in southern California. Thank you so much!

In between busy times at the shop, we're still able to participate in events around the area, like the Pet Expo and Wag-A-Thon mentioned below, plus we get to run the puppies 2-3 times a week with our local Urban Mushing group. So far, temperatures are still ok to run, if we get on the trail early in the morning or later in the evening.

Since it's getting warmer everywhere around the country, dog sledding events are few and far between, so more time for us to catch up on those orders.

OC Pet Expo and Dana Point Wag-A-Thon

The 21st annual Pet Expo at Orange County Fairgrounds is behind us, and as always, it was a great success with a huge turnout.
Our local "Urban Mushing" group had its own booth, thanks to our good friends from the Southern California Alaskan Malamute Club. Tom & Tina Dunn came through just like every year and allowed us to do our mushing demonstrations with carts, scooters and bikes, while they informed the unsuspecting public of weight pull and backpacking activities.
KTLA Channel 5 in Los Angeles did a live broadcast to get things started on Friday and invited us to be part of it. The first half of the video is obviously not a dog sledding demo :-)



(yes, that's yours truly driving the cart :-))


Coming up this Saturday, April 24th, it's Pet Project Foundation's annual Wag-A-Thon at Dana Point Harbor, benefiting the San Clemente-Dana Point Animal Shelter.
Our Urban Mushing group has been invited to also do dog sledding demos that day.


For more information about this event, please visit Pet Project Foundation's website.

Central Oregon dog scootering & dryland mushing

Sunday, April 11th- scootering fun run- not suitable for larger teams/rigs-
Shevlin Park, west of Bend @ 9am. Spencer Egbert has agreed to be the point person for this run.

Saturday, April 17th- scootering fun run- suitable for teams/rigs- La Pine State Park, north of La Pine (some teams will run again on the 18th). Some of the folks from Cascade Sled Dog Club will be down for the weekend, which made it a good excuse for an outing!

Saturday, April 24th- Pacific Sled Dog & Skijoring Association (PSDSA) club meeting @ Diamond Lake- noon- scootering before or after the meeting.

Saturday, May 1st- scootering fun run or class- location/venue to be announced.

Saturday, May 8th- dog scootering class taught by Karen Yeargain & Jane Devlin- location, Karen's place

For info on any of these events, contact Karen at tumnatki@earthlink.net
Info will also be posted at www.tumnatkisiberians.com

What did we learn...?

Our local "Urban Mushing" group got together for its weekend fun runs at Fairview Park, a week after our annual mushing clinic.
So today it was time to put all newly acquired techniques to work and take the dogs out on the trails. Several scooter, bike and cart teams were out and about, running 1 to 8 dogs.
Weather conditions were excellent: overcast skies and cool temperatures allowed for long runs.
At the end of the day, the dogs were tired and happy (and so were the drivers) but everyone realized, that there's still a lot to learn for us and our dogs.

If you like what you see and would like to learn more about our group, we're going to be at the OC Pet Expo in Costa Mesa April 16th -18th and at the Wag-A-Thon in Dana Point on April 24th.

California Urban Mushing Clinic

Our 4th annual "Urban Mushing Clinic" was once again a great success.
Each day, a decent size group went out on the trails for a quick run while the temperatures were still cool enough for the dogs.
Turn-out was excellent on both days, even though the weather didn't make anyone feel like wanting to go mushing, but it's southern California after all.

Carmen Rasmussen of Alpine Outfitters shared her knowledge and experience both days, and we can't thank her enough for making the trip down the coast to do so.
This year, the clinic was divided into one day for newcomers to the sport and one day for the intermediate musher.
Topics that were covered ranged from the very basics like harnessing, basic commands as well as health and safety, to dog physiology, nutrition and race preparation.

As always, a lot of information to digest and hopefully convert into either better exercise with your dog or a better performing team of dogs (and driver).