Adventures With Sled Dogs

Just Running

Sarah · November 4, 2015 ·

The snow is finally showing up here in Willow, Alaska. After not seeing much of it last year, watching it slowly fall in tiny flakes is exceptionally peaceful. The dogs are also enjoying it. Every morning they squirm with anticipation for what the day brings. We are all, I think, very happy. This year marks the first time I’ve been able to consistently train and work with a group of sled dogs. It’s a welcome change for me and one of the reasons we worked so hard to move north. All the sacrifice has been worth it.

The team is camped on the side of the trail after running 20 miles. Camping is an important part of Iditarod Training.

I’m mostly working with young dogs, though Travis has given me a few outstanding dogs off of his team: Boston, Zema, Tamere, Kermit, Monroe, Madori and Ginzu. All of these dogs have been to Nome. I’m also working with an extremely talented group of young dogs, many of whom are out of BOSTON. I also have several dogs on my team out of 4 time Iditarod champion ZENA.

Check is a pup out of Zena and Boston. He is doing an incredible job so far in training.

These young dogs are more than qualified: Zeus, Check, Athena, Bensen, Coda, Shark, Hoover, Penny, Trunk, Bud, Meena, Pippa, Hank, Rowdy, Hammer, and Lena. In the coming weeks, I’ll work on writing up about my dogs so you can meet them. They’re incredible and I feel so fortunate to be working with so much raw talent. I’ve been playing around with different dogs up front in my team and am excited by the number of potential leaders I have to work with this season. It seems every dog I’ve put up front, so far, has excelled without problem. This is exciting to see. Then again, the odds are stacked in my favor given their excellent lineage.

I think this is going to be a great season and I’m really excited by all that we have going for us! Travis’ uncle will be moving up to Alaska in December and we are excited about all that will entail. He loves shooting videos so hopefully he will help us produce some top notch stuff! We are looking forward to your arrival Dwayne.

Fun with Goblin’s Puppies

Sarah · July 31, 2015 ·

We are homebodies. Our family is big and often we find that simply taking time to enjoy one another is enough. With so much going on sometimes it’s easy to get lost in what to do and when.

But our dogs root us and remind us of what’s important. Time together. Slow time. So we take the evenings and we play with the puppies, teaching them how to come when their called and to overcome obstacles. At this age, even simple things are hard: walking through tall grass that obscures their vision and downed trees seem like impossible hurdles. Inevitably, the puppies overcome and we sing them praises. We have fun together and they learn how much we love them and how much we enjoy seeing them have fun.

Sometimes we stick to the trails. Sometimes we bush whack. The puppies enjoy the maze of ferns, alders and Devils club and how it temporarily hides them.

Oh the joy in our voices when they come to our feet after wandering through the under brush. They learn quickly that all we want is for them to wander with us and be our pack mates. They’re more than happy to oblige.

Travis Beals under a sled dog puppy pile

We find the quietness of our life calming. We free run several sets of dogs and walk them around the trail. Some are anxious to show off their speed and others are all too eager to show us their love and affection, not wanting to wander far.

We just got extra batteries for Travis’ new obsession: flying drone helicopters. We’ve had several at this point. None expensive but are slowly looking at buying something nice. We think it would be fun for mushing. Don’t you?

We’ve started getting fish from the weir at Bear Lake again. Having Cook Inlet Aqua Culture as a sponsor is huge and the fish they donate is a huge asset to our feeding program. Evenings have been spent putting fish in garbage bags to freeze. Mornings are spent putting fish into cook pots to make a meal for the dog. We recently had to purchase a new fish pot because we burned a hole through our last — Travis used it as an opportunity to “taste test” the stew. It got his vote of approval and, more importantly, the dogs!

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We will try to post more regularly about our day to day adventures.

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– Sarah

Finding Balance: What Racing Sled Dogs Has Taught Us About Rest and Relaxation

Sarah · June 17, 2015 ·

In sled dog racing, it’s important to find the right balance between running and resting so that your team is as strong and efficient as possible. Not enough rest, and a musher risks wearing their dogs out but too much rest is equally problematic as too much rest can put you far behind the competition. Finding a good rest and run schedule for your sled dog team is essential to being a competitive long distance dog sled racer.

One of the most interesting things about the 1,000-mile long Iditarod sled dog race is that very little rest is actually structured within the rules of the race. There are only 3 mandatory rests throughout the 1,000 mile long race: a 24 hour layover to be completed at any checkpoint, an 8 hour layover to be completed at a checkpoint on the Yukon river, and an 8 hour layover at White Mountain 77 miles from the finish line. A musher cannot combine their mandatory 8 hour layover with their 24 hour layover.

It should go without saying that 40 hours of rest is not is not enough to get a dog team the full 1,000 miles down the trail. Mushers must decide their own rest and run schedule to suit their teams needs. This is what makes Iditarod so fascinating: mushers have to figure out how to structure their race to maximize their dog team’s capabilities.

Every Dog Team Is Different

Every dog team is different so ultimately we see many different rest and run strategies emerge throughout the race. Mushing dogs competitively means finding what works for your dogs. Some dog teams are better at going fast for short distances and taking longer rest. Other dog teams excel at running longer and farther than the competition at a slower pace; the slower pace is less taxing on the dogs and, in theory, these dogs need less rest. A main component of training is figuring out how you as a musher want to run your team and what your dog team excels at.

Young dogs learn to camp inbetween dog sled tours — Young dogs, Wrangler and Carhartt, learn to camp inbetween dog sled tours. Wrangler finished 11th and Carhartt 10th in the 2015 Iditarod.

Of course, there are personal considerations to take into account as well. In long distance racing, having adequate sleep helps mushers make crucial decisions and avoid costly errors that could put them out of the competition. It is just as important for the musher to train to their rest and run schedule as it is the dogs.

Making Rest Count

In order to make rest beneficial for the dogs, there are a number of things that we as mushers do. The most important is that we provide them with a warm, relaxing, and familiar environment that puts our dogs at ease. While we can’t necessarily go out and run the race beforehand, we can practice the basics of camping with our dogs in training so that they know what to expect.

Although each musher may have a different “order of operations” we generally all do something rather similar. First, we make a comfortable bed for our dogs to sleep. On the trail, we do this by laying out straw and making “nests” for the dogs. The straw provides a layer between the dogs and the snow, helping to insulate the dogs and keeping them warm. It is also a good signifier to the dogs that the team is going to be stopped for awhile

Straw is great bedding for sled dogs — Sled Dogs Resting on Straw near the Finger Lake checkpoint in the 2013 Northern Lights 300

The next thing we do is feed the dogs. This can be a chore if we are out on the middle of the trail as we have to melt snow to make warm water for the dogs. We feed a warm wet stew-like meal full of beef, chicken, fish, different types of fat, and kibble. The meal is loaded with high-energy fats and proteins to help our dogs stay warm and to help them refuel their bodies. Sled dogs consume roughly 12,000 calories during racing and training to help them stay warm and fuel them down the trail.

After eating, the dogs then curl up and go to sleep. As a musher, we then began working on each dog, one at a time. What we do for each dog varies, but generally it includes rubbing their feet and putting any necessary ointment on. We also like to massage our dogs wrists, shoulders, and lower back. We can spend upwards of twenty minutes on each dog. We use massage ointments on our dogs to help relax them, increase blood flow, and to help prevent injury.

Amazingly a dog team is rejuvenated and ready to head back down the trail for another run after their rest which can be as short as 2 hours or as long as 8, depending on the musher’s strategy. The dogs are excited to get back out on the trail and continue running.

Planning Rest

Believe it or not, when we prepare for a race, we prepare by planning where we will rest and how long. This helps us figure out how to pack our drop bags for each checkpoint. Drop bags are bags of gear located at the checkpoints along the race trail. It’s how we resupply crucial gear like dog food and human food. Having checkpoints allows us to use dogs bred for endurance rather than strength. Not having to haul our own gear allows us to use a faster “race” dog rather than the hefty weight-pulling dogs used during Alaska’s gold rush era.

What We’ve Learned From Our Sled Dogs

When you own sled dogs, you stay busy. When you own your own business, it seems you stay even busier. Between our kennel responsibilities and our work responsibilities it seems like we never stop working. The trouble with that, however, is that no human can sustain that pace. Just like a sled dog needs time to rest and recover after a long run, it’s important that we, as people, take time for ourselves to recuperate and to rejuvenate.

We’ve learned that just like we have to plan rests for our dogs, we also have to plan rests for ourselves. If we don’t, we run into the same problem our dogs do: we burn out.

This summer we are making a commitment to taking more time off to be with each other and relax together. We’ve worked on finding new hobbies. Travis has begun mountain biking and I’ve started painting again. I also have started a chicken coop and have 8 laying hens.

The chickens should be fun and give us something new to do. I’ve enjoyed watching them in their temporary coop and have also enjoyed working on painting their new coop.

We spent a few blissful days watching our friends house. It was so soothing getting toleave the kennel and stay down the road from our house. The peace and tranquility that allowed gave us some much needed time to reconnect. We woke to beautiful mountain views and got to enjoy listening to loons at night. We also went kayaking one day and jet skiing another.

Our good friend and fellow Iditarod Wade Marrs and his girlfriend, Sophie, came to visit and Travis was able to show them our glacier dog sledding operation. Wade had previously worked in Skagway; getting to share that with him was great.Travis took him and Sophie snow machining. We had great weather while Wade and S0phie visited and are looking forward to them returning in a few short weeks with Sophie’s family.

My family also came to visit and we spent a great week hanging out. My parents filled in where needed, helping us in the office and at the kennel. We redid our kennel office while they were in town, enjoyed some scenic flying, and just enjoyed each others company.

Planning rest is important not just for sled dogs but for people too and we will be doing more of that this year for ourselves!

Moonlight Mushing

Sarah · January 7, 2015 ·

The endless rain and warm temperatures at home in Seward were making us wonder if winter was ever going to show her face, so we piled in the dog truck and headed north. Traveling feels so natural to me that after long miserable weeks stuck in a rainy house, when I found myself in the passenger seat of the dog truck the only thing I could think was that I finally felt at home. So much of my life has been spent riding shotgun on long car trips. Before searching for dog trails and hunting down races, my poor parents carted me around New England and the entire eastern seaboard playing soccer for the Boston Renegades. I was a goalkeeper, twice playing in the national tournament for my age bracket and once winning my own bid to try out for the national team. But my dream was always dogs.

The quiet hum of the truck as we ride north relaxes me. We listen to the country station, singing along whether we know the words or not, grateful to be on the road together. We arrive late at Stump Jumpin Kennel and help Wade Marrs as he gets his last drop bags ready for the Gin Gin 200. He leaves early the next morning for the race. The first race of the season always brings excitement for dogs, mushers, and spectators. We’re sad to stay behind — not used to missing out on races but grateful for an opportunity to train.

In the morning, we get ready to gear up. Layering up is a slow process. First thermals, then fleece, then our own coats. The temperature hovers around -15 for the most part, our cheeks rosy from winters cold kisses.

The dogs are excited. We run, mostly at night, each day going further than before. Snow is so foreign to us that we forget how it dresses up the night. It shimmers beautifully in the cold glow of our headlamps. The moon, when it rises full, is so bright that we don’t need to use our headlamps to see so we shut them off and enjoy the peace of night. Our runners scratch over the icy trail and our dogs tongues hang out of their mouths. We can see each exhalation. In those quiet moments of dogs and stars and snow we forget about everything and as long as our dogs are running in front of us, the world is perfect.

It’s hard to tell who is having more fun out in the trail; us or the dogs. They thrive in the cold and even though the temperatures continued to plummet, their attitudes continued to sore. We stop occasionally to check in.

“Are you staying warm?” Travis asks.
“Yes,” I say somewhat surprised. Our runs are mostly at -15 or -20 and last anywhere from 3 to 6 hours but I never get cold. “My dogs are doing great,” I tell him.
“Switch for a bit?”
“Sure.” I say and so we swap teams for a few miles, happy to see how all the dogs have progressed.

One time we stop for cocoa only to find that the hot water we’ve brought out smells funny. “Do you think we can drink it?” Travis asks.
I take a whiff. “Eww. No.” I tell him, embarrassed that I packed a dirty thermos.
“Ya that’s definitely moldy.” He throws the hot water out and it freezes before it hits the ground into a fine powder — a cold weather magic trick. It was Probably too cold to be sitting around drinking cocoa anyways.

We keep mushing. The dogs have jackets on and at times we have to stop and check to make sure everyone is staying warm. Our smiles are big and our hearts are full. The dogs bark and jump and we, dogs and people, are all so happy.

This is it, I tell myself. These are the moments we live for.

Playing Chicken

Sarah · October 24, 2014 ·

On Monday I didn’t want to run dogs but did anyways. That’s what you are supposed to do, isn’t it? The dogs needed to get out and were eager to go but I was in a funk. Iditarod, I told myself. So I rose reluctantly and headed out to the yard. The dogs eager heads popped out of their houses when they saw me. They quickly realized we were going to be heading out on a run.

I am slow and methodical when I hook up my dog team. I like them to be quiet but it takes time and patience for them to learn that. Today, they obliged sprawling out waiting as one by one their teammates joined them. When I hooked up my 8th dog, they finally started getting excited but I was able to calm them down.

“Good dogs,” I told them when they settled back down.

So I harnessed them up and they were patient with me, letting me take my time and reserving their excitement until the end when I had all 14 of them hooked up. They were excited. We took off and then —

Oh no!

An orange ball of enthusiasm rushed out of the woods and charged at my team. Before I knew it, I yelled: “MAX! GET OUT OF HERE!”

The ball of fur was Max, my pet dog. And when I yelled he turned remarkably fast, but not before my lead dogs brush him aside.

Ok, Disaster Averted. “Good boy Kermit!” I tell my lead dog. He didn’t let Max phase him and I sure wasn’t it going to let it phase me. I tried to calm myself and get that mediative composure that seems so engrained to dog mushing. Max has given me some great training the past few months and now he is slowly trotting behind the fourwheeler.

“Go home,” I growl. He looks at me and then slinks off as if to say “I was only trying to help.” And he has helped. He comes out of the woods at random intervals and uses his moose-sized body to charge the team. One of two things inevitably happens when he does this: my team is well behaved, ignores him, and continues down the trail… or all hell breaks loose. Max likes mayhem. But today there is no mayhem, today there are only dogs who listen and who know their job and who know that no matter what the big orange dog does, they just keep running.

Good.

So we continue on our run. And it’s starting to shape up nicely. They settle into a fast steady trot quickly. We are probably averaging about 9 or 10mph and I’ve finally partnered all the dogs in a way that I can stand. My team is a mess of gaits. Hardly anyone runs the same. I have the B-team, after all, but after several runs of moving dogs around, I’ve finally come up with some good pairs. Each dog matches their partner and they step in rhythm. I have the building blocks for a great team. Running with Travis for so many years though, I have caught on to some of his OCD about gaits, running, and rhythm and certain dogs, despite being great athletes, just don’t fit in. Finally though, I have matched them well:

Kermit* (m)– Bonnie (f)

Marlow (m) — Barkley*(m)

Sphinx (f) — Tamere*(f)

Dolly (f) — Varden (f)

Ayla (f) — Havoc (f)

Ginzu*(m)– Teddy (m)

Bud (m)– Big Guy*(m)

That’s the team I have been running and they look good together. But I am still missing a few dogs from my training pool: Pinky (f), Weiser* (m), Ray* (m), Monroe* (m), Mary*(f), and Madori*(f). I have 10 dogs who have run Iditarod*, 9 puppies, and 1 adult (Bud)who has never quite made it to race day.

We are starting to look really good and on this run, everyone is starting to finally gel. Yes. It’s happening. It’s hard not to get a little excited at how they work and move together.

So we keep running and we go by a neighbor’s house when all of a sudden — YIP YIP YIP — a small, pint size dog comes tearing across it’s yard and starts to chase me.

Oh no. One of my leaders, Bonnie, turns her head for a second to see what the commotion is. “Straight ahead!” I holler. The little dog keeps following me but isn’t gaining on me.

What do I do? I’m not sure if stopping is a good idea but I ams supposed to turn around in about 200 yards. I am terrified for the little dog. My dogs are well behaved. They are friendly. But this little dog wants to pick a fight with them. I have no idea what to expect from my own dogs — we routinely pass a Saint Bernard with gnashing teeth and a fat black labrador that likes to pretend its vicious, but these are big dogs and it’s become a game to my team. Those dogs have taught us how to speed up and run fast. They’ve taught the dogs discipline. So why would I expect my dogs to do anything but pass this little dog?

Because it weighed 15 lbs and it was wearing a sweater: my dogs had no idea what it was. Was it friend or foe?

We made the turn around and the little dog sat and watched us. My team picked up speed when they saw the small dog and the little dog began charging us head on.

Really? I asked in disbelief. You have to hand it to small dogs they are both brave and stupid. I don’t think this little dog quite knew the bargain it was trying to make with my team, so I stopped, got off my ATV, walked to the front of the team, and tried to get the little dog to go away. It just wouldn’t leave.

I could try to pass the dog — I am sure my team would pass it — but what if they didn’t? What if they thought this little dog was not a dog? What if they decided it was something like a porcupine? Sled dogs are famous for attacking porcupine out on the trail despite the fact that they get needle-nosed faces and then must spend hours having quills removed. Or what if this little dog tried to attack them? If it tried to bite one of my dogs, which I wouldn’t put it past the dog, would my dogs retaliate?

So we sat. We waited. My dogs barked saying “What the hold up?” The little dog was still determined to get in the middle of my team.

“Go Home!” I told the dog.

I sit and stared at me. My leaders eyed it as if to ask “What is that?”

We played a game of back and forth that lasted 5 minutes.

With enough cajoling the dog finally got off the road and well back into the woods. I didn’t wait. I got on the ATV hit the gas and we roared past the little dog.

Phew! Glad that’s over!

I thought I was in for a quieter run after this but when we made our next turn I spied, with horror, a flock of loose chickens on the side of the road. We were almost upon them when I noticed.

Maybe the dogs won’t notice. I told myself. I really hoped they didn’t. We slid by the chickens without the dogs noticing. I was so relieved. I did not want to see the chaos of having a chicken run through the team nor did I want to have to admit to my neighbor that one of my dogs ate her chickens. You see, getting one dog to go by chickens is easy but the more dogs you add to the equation the more dogs you have that could potentially be disobedient. It only takes one to think its a good idea. If one thinks its a good idea, if you aren’t quick about it, they all will quickly think its a good idea.

At this point I was only about 3 miles into my run and left with a question: Do I continue my run or should I wait? In order to continue my run I would have to run past the small dog and past the chickens at least another 10 times in order to get the mileage I wanted. I knew, at the very least, I had to run by the little dog to get back home.

So I ran back by and fortunately at this point someone must have noticed the little dog was missing because he was no longer out to chase me. And then the second question: do I continue my run? Do I hope the chickens have been put away?

I decided I would give it a shot. I came around through the neighborhood the reverse of what I did before. When I initially passed the chicken we were on the same side of the road and they were about 3 feet from my team. This time, I came from the other direction and called my team over so we would have the whole road between us. I eagerly scanned ahead to see if I could see the birds. I knew if I did see them I would simply call the dogs up and make them run faster. I figured that at faster speeds they would have to be more focused and would have less time to notice the birds.

But the chickens were gone.

Thank goodness.

We continued to have a great run. We ran about 14 miles before I decided that we should go home. Once in the yard the dogs were still eager so I decided to take them out for another quick loop and put on an additional 2 miles. What a mistake that turned out to be!

Dusk was settling in now and a woman was out walking her two small dogs on leashes. We see her frequently and pass without much hesitation. Today was different though. Today we passed and I got a small tangle with a dog so I stopped ahead of the woman. My leaders turned down a driveway and I went up to correct them. That was when the woman walking her dogs dropped the leash.

This small 10lbs dog came barreling through my parked team. Before I knew it my lead dogs (they are in training) were turned around looking at the little dog. My whole team just sat there staring at this dog, who kept barking at them.

I tried to get the little dog out of the middle but it was dodging my hands. I was calm. My dogs were calm. But this little dog was barking, darting back and forth, and trying to elicit excitement from my team. Fortunately, they stayed calm and inquisitive though they proceeded to dance around the little dog.

Eventually, I got it out of my team but we got massively tangled.

My lead dogs were next to my wheel dogs. My swing dogs were my lead dogs. There were tug lines wrapped around legs and the gangline had gotten tangled around my team. And my team just stood there. This would have been the opportune moment for a dog, or the whole team, to panic. It was a recipe for someone to get injured, but I remained calm and talked to them. “It’s ok, we’ll get you guys untangled” I undid tuglines and necklines and had a few dogs completely turned loose. They went over to the little dog, who was still there with its owner, wagged their tails at each other and came when I called them to get back to their place in the team.

I blocked the road and directed a few cars by as night settled in. “It’s ok” I kept reassuring the dogs while working out the tangles. The woman, who was watching this all unfold, must have thought I was nuts as I never stopped talking to my dogs.

Then, when I was almost in the clear the smaller of the two dogs got loose again. This time, my lead dogs held the team out. They knew they had a job to do and that they hadn’t done it before so now they better. The little dog tried to stir up trouble but my dogs, frustrated at our lack of mobility, were patient and it grew bored and ran back to its owner. I was proud of my team.

Eventually, after about 15 minutes, we sorted everybody out and we continued down the trail with a little more trust in each other, a little more patience, and a little bit closer to the startling line.