Quote Originally Posted by Jadapit
Omg, what happens when another dog jumps in the middle of your team? I cant even imagine that.
Generally my dogs will ignore a dog on the side of the trail and follow the ON-BY commands. If the other dog gets in their way though, it gets ugly fast. I often wonder what the other dogs are thinking when they decided to take on 6 to 8 dogs at once!

I carry an axe handle with no cutting head on it and I will use it to get a dog out of my team. Sometimes, usually if Paxil is leading, we just keep running and the other dog gets run over or bounced out of the way. I've never hit a loose dog with the sled. The dogs get them out of the way before that.

Franklin was injured once by a loose Belgian that jumped him. I didn't get off the sled and up to him fast enough. That's part of why I let Daisy come with us all the time. She always lets me know when something is coming.

I often let Mac run loose with us too. I never really meant to train him to do this, but Mac's job has become to chase loose dogs off! He just does it instinctively and I encourage it now. I used to feel guilty about that too. Now I figure if your dog doesn't come when you call it, it shouldn't be off leash in the first place.