Endurance Kennels » Racing

2011-2012 Dog Practice Has Started!

Tone — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 21:41:36 +0000

It’s finally cool enough to get out there training dogs! The athletes are very excited to be out and running again. Only 4 weeks until the first dryland race so we have some work to do, wish us luck!

Video “The Mean Machine” Showing Incident During the 2011 Rondy Which DQ’ed Blayne Streeper

Tone — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 22:40:57 +0000

I picked Buddy to win the Rondy until this happened on day two. I’m not sure it warrants a DQ, but he should have been a little careful what he said in front of all those ppl. while passing Luke. Luke never filed a protest either so that raises even more questions. However he did, scratch from the race.

Video submitted on Flickr

Bud Streeper "hits" Luke Sampson

From Buddy’s Facebook Page

February 27, 2011

Fur Rondy World Championship

Statement from Blayne Streeper on events in the 2nd heat of the race.

Yesterday evening following the second heat of the Fur Rondy, I was informed by the Race Marshall that I was being disqualified from the race for unsportsmanlike conduct.

This incident happened on Cordova Hill as I caught Luke Sampson. I hollered, “Luke Trail Luke,” several times. He did not hear me and as my leaders reached him and attempted to pass he jumped off his sled and started running along side, interfering with my leaders.

As my team caught and passed Luke at the top of the hill I slapped his arm to get his attention and hollered, “Luke, Pay Fu—ng attention!” The way it was perceived by some in the crowd was that I was assaulting Luke. I felt that as an experienced driver that I had an obligation to advise this driver of his failure to pay attention and that he caused a safety risk to my team and that of others. At the finish of the race the Race Marshall came to me at the truck asking what had happened and that a trail official had phoned her and stated that I had punched Luke and yelled profanities. The Race Marshall also contacted Luke Sampson, who refused to file a protest.

I feel that the Race Marshall has over reacted on this incident and the penalty of disqualification from the race is too severe. I know the safety of our dogs is of the first concern for all of us. The dogs are defenseless and count on us to care for and protect them.

I regret using profanity during the race and apologize to all of the fans that I may have offended and to my friend Luke Sampson.

Sled Dog Racing: Coughlin Third in 10-dog Class

Tone — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 20:22:54 +0000

By: News Tribune staff, Duluth News Tribune
Published on February 15, 2011

Tone Coughlin of Iron River was third in the adult 10-dog class Saturday in the Pine River Run of the Wisconsin Trailblazers Sled Dog Club races in Merrill, Wis. Jan Bootz-Dittmar of Wausau, Wis., won the 20-mile event in 1 hour, 4 minutes, 47.20 seconds. Coughlin’s team finished in 1:08:32.16.

Sled-Dog Racing: Wallace, Coughlin Place 2-3

Tone — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 17:48:09 +0000

By: News Tribune staff, Duluth News Tribune
Published on February 2, 2011

Ted Wallace of Wrenshall and Tone Coughlin of Iron River, Wis., placed second and third in the Adult 10-Dog Speed class at the Willow Springs Round Barn Rally race Sunday in Wausau, Wis.

Wallace finished the 20-mile course in 1 hour, 15 minutes, 51 seconds; Coughlin was next in 1:17:28.57. Jan Bootz-Dittmar of Wausau won in 1:12:58.08.

The race is sanctioned by the International Sled Dog Racing Association and counts toward the International Championship Series.

Heading Out to the First Sled Races of the Year!

Tone — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 14:27:17 +0000

Deb, the dogs, and I are headed out tomorrow morning for the first sled race of the season tomorrow morning in Kalkaska, MI. It’s the second longest running sled dog race in the lower 48 behind Laconia, NY. I am driving three teams, 8 dog, 6 dog, and 4 dog. The teams have been training hard and have lots of hookups, Ari and Jaana (1.5 y/o) have 110 hookups in the last two seasons!

8 Dog Team Picks – 4 Endurance Kennels and 4 Windigo Kennels
Seppo-Jaana* in Lead
Ari*-Elroy*
Jetson*-Magnus
Ollie**-Ragnar**

**,* – Littermates

6 Dog Picks
Mandy-Diane
Dan-Snape
Astro*-Raimo**

4 Dog Picks
Toivo-Sven
Toivo-Prongs

Yes, there are two Toivo’s here!!

It’s going to be fun to see how they do, the 8 dog team may be competitive if we have some clean runs. I think we would do best in the 10 dog and up races, but the dogs don’t have the mileage yet. By mid Feb., they should be ready to go. The 6 and 4 are just there to get experience since most of my competition is 14 y/o girls that weigh 90 lbs! LMAO!

Ready to Race!

Tone — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 14:09:02 +0000

One of Deb’s long time customers from northern Illinois came up last weekend to run his rescue siberians on some snow. Jason got some good footage of my team heading out for our first interval training session of the year. The dogs in blaze orange and Raimo in wheel are Endurance Kennel’s dogs, all the other ones are Windigo dogs. Seppo and Jaana are in lead.

And here is a shot of us during the third interval.

We are unsure what race we are doing first, it all depends on when Steve is going to have his new knee put in. Most likely we will be heading to Merrill, WI on Jan. 8 & 9 instead of Markstay-Warren, ON. After that is Kalkaska, MI, Antigo, WI, Wausau, WI, and Land ‘O Lakes, WI. I’m excited to race and I think the team is ready too!

2010 East Meets West Dryland Championships

Tone — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 02:50:50 +0000

All I have to say, is that the race crew had their shit together this year! Everything was great, ppl were friendly, trail was awesome, volunteers were spectacular, and trail help was superb! The staff definitely raised the bar compared to last season. If you didn’t come down, too bad. You missed out. Thank you Monica Jendro and Joel Nelson and all of your workers and volunteers, we hope that you keep on keeping on!

Although we had our “C” team in operation, I couldn’t have asked more from the dogs especially Magnus. The poor guy had to race twice both days within 20 mins of both of his races due to Seppo wigging out. He was a real trooper, we love you big buddy. Thank you also to the folks that helped us out during the races, getting to the line, back to the truck, etc.

We DNF’ed in the one dog bikejor (Seppo). Took 4th in the two dog scooter (Magnus & Jaana), and 3rd in the two dog bikejor (Magnus & Dan).

Here are some videos from the weekend.

Endurance Kennels in Wikipedia!

Tone — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 00:39:09 +0000

Valor, Magnus, Seppo, Jaana, and Ari are in Wikipedia under Bikejoring! Check it out here.

Valor also has his picture two times under Eurohound! Check that out here.

Fall Training Has Begun!

Tone — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 17:54:42 +0000

We’ve had six hook ups to the wheeler so far, all have gone pretty good considering they haven’t been hooked up for four months. We did some free running when we could, depending on temps that the dogs can tolerate. Swimming is always part of summer training and letting the dogs be dogs!

Dryland racing season is coming up soon, with our first event in Clearwater, MN. The East Meets West Dryland Championships will be held on Halloween weekend, Oct. 30 & 31. After that we are heading to the dirty dog the weekend after in Antigo, WI. There’s also a possibility of racing in Canada at the end of Nov., but we will see where the team is at.

Snowflake Sprint Classic

Tone — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 20:00:00 +0000

We finally were able to race close to home, so very nice to sleep in your own bed! The weather was very warm this weekend, in the upper 30′s to low 40′s, almost too hot for dogs. Good thing we only had to race 4 miles!

Saturday’s race was beautiful, sunny and clear skies with little to no wind. Great spectating weather! Our run didn’t go so smooth though, we came up on our 1:00 team within the first mile. Toivo and Magnus were running lead with Ari and Seppo in wheel. The dogs tried to pass on the inside but they punched through the deep snow causing Magnus to tangle on his neckline. Then we tried another pass which succeeded only to have Ari slam on the brakes on a short downhill causing another tangle and me taking the sled right into the woods to avoid running over the dogs! Finally we got back up and going again only to have Toivo looking at all the cutoffs! He wanted to take the short way back since he knows the trail system pretty well, silly dogs. I think we stopped at least 6-7 times, not good for a sprint race! I think we ended up in 6th place in the sport class for the first day.

Sunday’s race went much better, even though the trail was chewed up and in terrible shape. All the dogs must have punched through at least a half dozen times, no one was hurt though! Jaana did an awesome job, she’s going to be a superstar! The run was almost perfect, Toivo only stopped once at the main cutoff making me set the hook down and steer him in the right direction. Seppo ran lead with Toivo and had a rock solid performance, he’s going to be doing more lead from now on!

We moved from 6th to 4th posting the 2nd fastest time of the day for our category. It was fun to have a hometown race, thanks to all that made it happen and thank you VERY much to my friends that came out to help. William, Seth, and Laddie!