After kibble, the rest: what gets lost on the trail, what wears out, and what is missing on race morning.
What changes
In Stock, an item can now be gear, picked from a catalogue: booties M, neck lines, brake mats, X-back harness size 5… It is counted in pieces, and it runs down in one of three ways.
- On outings (booties). At the end of an outing on the phone, MushMate asks "Booties lost or worn?" with your last number already filled in. One tap and it is noted. The screen then says "about 8 per outing" and how many outings the stock covers.
- By the km (the brake mat). The item is linked to the sled in your gear, whose wear is already tracked. At 80 % of its service interval: "change soon". "Changed" takes a spare out of stock and records the replacement on the sled.
- By hand (anchors, lines). A threshold, and what the next race needs: "14 dogs in harness, 12 neck lines: 2 missing".
Harnesses by size come from the sizes already noted for each dog: 3 dogs in size 5, 2 harnesses in stock, 1 missing.
Who does what
A handler creates and stores a gear item, notes a delivery, a count, a "used". A guide notes a "used" at the end of an outing. The threshold stays with the owner: it decides what gets bought. MushMate refuses it to a handler, on screen and in the database.
What it does not do
- The catalogue starts empty: item types are filled in by MushMate and by your kennel, never hard-coded in the app.
- No half-bootie: gear is counted in whole pieces.
- A race's needs only look at the next race in the coming 90 days.
A choice against the obvious
No "dogs × 4 booties" sum. The number offered at the end of an outing is the last one you noted. The theoretical sum would be wrong depending on the snow, the ground and the dogs. Yours is the right one.