A busy two and a half weeks at the digital kennel. Here's what changed for you, in plain language — and what's coming next.
New this week
You can now see bugs and ideas reported by other mushers, vote for the ones that matter to you, and leave a comment — and you're notified by email when your own report moves forward.
The ration sheet now shows each dog's body condition score (BCS) — green, amber or red — right next to the grams, plus kennel totals per food. It prints that way too.
Weather for the coming days now reads slot by slot, with a training verdict for each day — one weather block now, with today's conditions front and center instead of everything shown at once.
A dog already committed to another goal now shows up in the departure list, instead of silently disappearing from the team.
The site now has a real public landing page, with a direct link to this blog.
Training
The training plan now explains why it's suggesting a given run, in plain language — no more guessing what sits behind the numbers.
A dog coming back from time off now eases in by stages, instead of going straight back to the team's full workload.
Each kennel can now set its own feeding regime and effort ceiling for its young dogs, instead of one rule imposed on everyone.
The overtraining alert now stays up for as long as the situation lasts, instead of disappearing after a single good day.
Out on the trail, on your phone
New hydration alerts, sensitive to the day's heat and adjustable right before you set off — no signal needed.
Syncing no longer overwrites what you've entered: only real changes are sent, and the app tells you clearly what it hasn't received yet.
Two annoying crashes are fixed: one that stopped some of you from reopening the app at all, and another when syncing a dog carrying a health flag.
Log book, gear & kennel
The gear log and the record of what each dog wears are now a single screen, simpler to fill in.
A new printable A4 team sheet, handy to pin up at the cabin before you head out.
Each dog's insurance is now tracked in the app, with a reminder before it runs out — and it's required to enter a dog in a race.
A small feedback button has appeared at the bottom of the web screen: tell us what's getting in your way, or what you like, straight from the app.
What's next
- The first real trial of the app on iPhone — never tested on that platform until now.
- Automatic, verified backups, so kennel data is never lost.
- Better handling of several season goals at once, without the app losing track.
- More work on making syncing reliable out in the field, far from any signal.
Next log book in two weeks.