Learn About Dog Sledding

Mushers give their sled dogs straw primarily for bedding during rest stops in races and training sessions, as well as in their outdoor kennels. Straw serves several important purposes in ensuring the dogs’ comfort, health, and well-being, especially in cold weather conditions. Here are the key reasons why straw is favored:

Insulation and Warmth

• Thermal Insulation: Straw is an excellent insulator. When dogs lie down on straw, their body heat is trapped in the air pockets within the straw, helping to keep them warm in freezing conditions.
• Barrier from Cold Ground: Laying straw on the snow or ice provides a protective barrier that prevents body heat from being lost to the ground, which can be a significant risk in cold weather.

Comfort

• Soft Bedding: Straw is relatively soft and can be fluffed up to create a comfortable bed that conforms to the dog’s body, providing support and comfort during rest periods.
• Dry Resting Area: Straw can help wick away moisture from the dogs’ bodies and the ground, keeping them drier and more comfortable while resting.

Health and Hygiene

• Cleanliness: Straw can be easily replaced, ensuring that dogs have a clean and dry place to rest. This is important for maintaining the dogs’ health, as it reduces the risk of skin infections and other health issues related to damp and dirty resting areas.
• Reduced Exposure to Allergens: Compared to other bedding materials like hay, straw typically has fewer seeds and other particles that can cause allergic reactions in dogs.

Practicality and Accessibility

• Availability: Straw is widely available in most regions where dog sledding is practiced, making it a convenient choice for mushers.
• Cost-Effective: It is relatively inexpensive, especially in agricultural areas, which makes it an economical choice for bedding material.
• Portability: Straw is lightweight and can be easily transported, which is essential for mushers who travel for races or training. During long-distance races like the Iditarod, mushers carry bales of straw on their sleds to create bedding for their dogs at checkpoints.

Environmental Considerations

• Biodegradable: Straw is a natural, biodegradable material that can be left on the trail without causing environmental harm, assuming local guidelines and race rules are followed regarding litter and environmental impact.

Usage in Races and Training

In the context of sled dog racing and training, mushers often carry bales of straw on their sleds to use at checkpoints or rest stops along the trail. Creating a comfortable, insulated bed for their dogs is a critical part of caring for their team, helping to ensure the dogs can rest effectively and maintain their health throughout the race or training session.

The use of straw for sled dogs by mushers is a practice grounded in ensuring the animals’ warmth, comfort, and overall well-being, especially in the demanding and often harsh conditions of dog sledding.

After teams find themselves in Nome, Alaska celebrating their momentous achievement of finishing the Iditarod, they must then work on scheduling their own return trip. Generally, after arriving in Nome mushers are quick to make arrangements — if they haven’t done so already — for themselves and their dogs. Nothing feels quite as nice as your own bed for you and for your dogs!

What you don’t see from the live web feed after a dog team arrives under the burled arch in Nome, is where the teams go. The teams travel a few blocks further to a temporary dog lot that is set up during the race. This area is called the Nome Dog Lot. At the Nome dog lot, there is a dedicated crew of volunteers who stay with the dogs, in rotating shifts, 24/7 to help watch over the dogs when the mushers or their handlers can’t be there. That being said, care for the dogs themselves is done entirely by the mushers and their handlers.

When a musher and their team arrives at the dog lot, they are quickly directed by the volunteer crew as to where they will park their sled and unhook their team. Usually, a musher has a handler present in Nome who will help them with their team. The handler will have set up kennels for the dogs who have finished and will have also added straw to them so that the dogs will have a nice warm place to stay. The straw adds insulation to the kennels which serve, in part, as a windbreak. The handler will also bring a musher’s drop bags over. Experienced handlers will often have a hot meal waiting not only for the dogs but also for the musher!

All teams that arrive are inspected by a veterinarian as the musher and their help unharness the team and begin rubbing them down. If the musher has finished in the top 20 of Iditarod then the musher will have a panel of veterinarians over to inspect each dog. The musher will have to take each dog for a small walk in front of a committee who will carefully evaluate the gait of the dog. This is partially how the Leonhard Sepphala Humanitarian Award is given out. How a team finishes the race is almost as important as how the perform. A dog team should come into Nome looking strong and well hydrated. This evaluation is part of a larger evaluation of mushers and their care on the trail.

Most mushers feed their dogs several small snacks at the finish line consisting of fish or beef. Once the team is settled and the vet check is complete, they will get a nice big meal. Teams who have finished in the prize money for Iditarod must then wait for the Iditarod drug testing panel to come and collect urine from their dogs. This can be anywhere from the time a team finishes up until four hours after the team crosses the finish ilne. The reason the drug tester may take so long is that often the dog team needs to eat and drink before they are able to easily provide a urine sample. During this time a representative from the team must remain with the dog team.

At the earliest possible time available, a musher will make arrangements to fly their team out of Nome. Local freight carriers such as Northern Air Cargo and Alaska Airlines provide “back-haul” shipping out of Nome. Because so many supplies routinely have to go into the small town for it to survive, many planes go back empty.

This is great news for mushers because ultimately, it means it is relatively inexpensive for the dogs to get shipped home. Alaska airlines charge a flat rate of $425 to ship up to sixteen dogs and a sled back. Northern Air Cargo charges by weight — if you have a smaller team that has finished, choosing Northern Air Cargo may be a better option. We’ve worked with both carriers in the past and have been very happy with how they have taken care of us and our dogs. Believe it or not, it’s cheaper to fly the dogs back than it is to fly the humans back!

Mushers generally stay in Nome until the finishing banquet. For top placing teams, this can be 4 or 5 days so many mushers elect to send their dogs home as soon as possible. This is done because the living arrangements in Nome are temporary. The dogs will recover better sleeping in their own dog house away from the distraction of dozens of other teams. Generally, a musher running the race has a crew of people back home willing and able to take care of their team. These people have generally been involved with the care of the team for the entirety of the training season. Until the dogs depart, mushers are constantly caring for their dogs, feeding them, rubbing them down, and taking them for walks so they can stretch out.

Any musher who has finished the race will receive $1049 check to help with these expenses. Generally, this is enough to cover flying the dogs, the dog sled, and any other equipment back as well as pay for the musher’s return flight. Many mushers joke that without this check, they’d have to mush back home!

The dogs are generally shipped home in airline kennels, one dog per kennel. The kennels are generally stacked on pallets and syran wrap is used outside the kennels to keep them to the pallets to help prevent the dogs from moving in flight. Generally, four dog crates are put on each pallet, two on the bottom and two on top before the syran wrap goes around the outside of the kennels. This is done in such a way as to not impact ventilation but to ensure that the kennels are properly secured to the pallet and to each other.

The Finishing Banquet is a time for celebration. Special awards such as the Leonhard Seppala Humanitarian Award and other prizes, both those won along the trail and those voted on by judges and mushers, are handed out too. It is a fun event where mushers get to congratulate one another on finishing the race and enjoy the camaraderie of the mushing community.

The finishing banquet ends early in the evening. Most mushers, who have now been away from home for a minimum of 3 weeks, are eager to return home and hop on the earliest flight out of Nome which is directly after the banquet. Other mushers, stay for a few more days and continue to enjoy the post-Iditarod festivities.

Once home, most mushers and there dogs relax and start the planning process for next year’s race.

A lot goes into owning and operating a kennel full time. In order to take great care of our sled dogs and in order to mush, a lot of different gear is required. Knowing the different equipment used in the sport of dog sledding is an important first step in understanding the sport. Not only are there different tools used to run dogs but there is also the different gear that the dogs themselves have. In this blog post, we go over the basic mushing gear.

Mushing Equipment

Dog Sled

The quintessential piece of dog sledding equipment, besides the dogs of course, is the dog sled. Today there are many different styles of dog sleds built out of different types of material. Sleds are built differently depending on the use. Sleds with larger beds are generally “expedition” style sleds designed for mid and long distance races and the training that they involve. The bigger beds allow mushers to carry the necessary gear needed for spending time on the trail. Sleds for sprint racing are generally much smaller and nimbler.

Sleds are commonly made out of wood, carbon fiber, and aircraft aluminum. Materials need be both tough and lightweight – we don’t want our dogs pulling weight they don’t need to be!

Brushbow

The brushbow is like the front bumper of the sled.

Bed

The bed is the flat part of the sled that is used for storage and hauling gear. Generally sleds used for long distance mushing will have a longer bed than those used for sprint racing.

Runners

The runners are what the sled sits on.

Brake

The brake is used to stop the team. There are several different styles of brakes made by various companies. We’ve found that the best brake we’ve ever used

Dragmat

The dragmat is the speed control of the team.

ATV

Using an all-terrain-vehicle, more commonly referred to as an ATV or “quad” is an important part of training in modern day dog mushing. Using an atv allows dog mushers to work with their teams long before their is snow on the ground thus allowing the mushing season to begin considerably earlier. Many mushers in Alaska are able to start training in early September. This earlier training allows the dogs more time for conditioning and greatly contributes to the success of the team. More training allows us to work with our dogs and further develop their abilities.

ATVs are also a valuable tool when it comes to training lead dogs. Because atvs have both throttle and brake, mushers are able to give very direct feedback to their lead dogs. If the lead dogs get a command right, the musher will give a little gas as positive reinforcement — for sled dogs, going fast is a reward. If the lead dogs do not get the command given correct, the musher will hit the brake as a negative reinforcement — sled dogs want to run, so stopping is bad and considered punishment.

Gangline, Tuglines, and Necklines

The gangline is the main line that the dogs are attached to. The gangline is generally made out of thick cable, though sometimes that cable is covered by rope. Gangline sections range in length depending on the style of harness the musher is using on their dogs and their.

Tuglines are the lines that connect the back of the harness that the dog is wearing to the gangline. Whether the tugline is taught or not will depend on if the dog is pulling. The neckline is the line that runs from a dog’s collar to the gangline. This line isn’t used for pulling, rather it is used to help keep the team organized moving down the trail. Some mushers elect not to use necklines while moving down the trail. Necklines are also used when teams stop and rest on the trail or in checkpoints. When it is time to rest, a musher will remove the tugline but will keep the neckline on. This allows the dog freedom of movement while still being secure.

Snowhook

The snowhook is the anchor that hold the dogsled and dog team back when the musher decides to stop along the trail. It is like the parking break for the dog team — though somewhat less reliable. It looks and works like a giant fishhook. Theoretically, the harder the team jerks on the snowhook the more the hook digs into the ground, thus securing the team. The reality of this, however, is that occasionally the team will pull hard enough that the snowhook will pop free.

Sled Dog Gear

Alaskan winters can see extreme temperatures. The better care we take of our sled dogs, the better care they will take of us when we are out on the trail. We use all sorts of different pieces of gear on our sled dogs to help them perform their jobs and to keep them healthy and safe.

Harnesses

Harnesses are sized according to the dog. There are several different styles of harness currently available for sled dogs. Every musher has their preference that they think is “the best” and results in the most pull and the least amount of injury. Here are some common harness types: X-back, H-back, Half-harness, and spreader bar harness. Different harnesses have things they do best. Spreader bar harnesses are thought to add more power whereas half-harnesses are believed by some mushers to result in fewer athletic injuries.

Booties

Booties come in multiple different sizes and most dogs wear one size on their front feet and a different size on their back feet. Whenever we are racing or training the dogs, whether in the fall or winter, you will almost always see the dogs in booties. The purpose of the booties is to help prevent the dogs from getting cuts on their feet or from having snow ball up between their toes.

These booties get replaced just about every run as they only last about 60-80 miles. On average, we go through about 4000-5000 booties a year. At 90+ cents apiece, our dogs spend more on footwear per year than we do! Some popular brands of booties are from dogbooties.com, Kipmik products, and Mountain Ridge.

Ensuring proper fit is important too. Booties that are too big are uncomfortable or may fall off while running. Booties that are too small may restrict blood flow. Because of the importance of booties play in protecting the feet of sled dogs, most mushers choose to remove the back dewclaws of their dogs when they are 2-3 days old. Having back dew claws can result in painful rubs.

Here is a great video Aliy Zirkle put together from 2010 talking about dog booties.

Dog Jacket

All dogs differ in their ability to tolerate the cold. Sled dogs are generally alaskan huskies, Siberian huskies, ormalamutes all have a double layer fur coat that helps keep them warm. Sled dogs prefer colder temperatures and generally don’t require help staying warm until temperatures are approximately -20F (-28C).

Dog jackets act as a track suit for our dogs. They wear them while they rest to help keep their muscles nice and warm and they also can wear them while they run. As fabric technology has developed, so too have our jackets. They are now generally sewn using windproof and waterproof material. Once bulky, they now are lightweight and compact — which is extremely helpful when packing a dogsled for a long distance endurance race.

Male Wrap

When it’s cold out our male sled dogs need help ensuring that they do not develop frostbite on their penis. A dog’s penis is normally protected by the penile sheath (the prepuce). Both the penis and penile sheath can get frostbite and prevention is a crucial component of good dog care. The development of frostbite in this area is extremely painful and requires immediate attention as it can develop into condition called paraphimosis. Paraphimosis is when the penis cannot go back into the sheath and can lead to further medical complications.

The best method of preventing frostbite is by using a male wrap, sometimes more commonly referred to as a “pecker protector” by mushers. Fur is often used because when dogs pee on it, it does not stick and ice up. Synthetic material may also be used if it is windproof and waterproof.  It is important that if males pee on the wrap that the urine does not stick to them so that ice does not build up. As mushers, we most constantly check the male wraps and “deice” them if necessary or put a new wrap on.

Males can develop frostbite even in moderate temperatures if there is a female in heat (a female capable of being bred) in the team. When females are in heat, the males may get excited and the penis will extend out of the sheath, making it more likely for them to develop frostbite. Mushers must be aware of this when they take their teams out into colder conditions. Sometimes, it may be easier to remove a female in heat from the team than to worry about the problems having her in the team may create.

Belly Wraps

Mushers also need to be careful with our females, especially those who have had pups, that they do not get frostbite on their teats as this is very uncomfortable and can be a reason a female could get dropped. So to help keep their undersides, where the dogs have less hair, we use belly wraps. Generally the belly wraps are made out of the same material as our dog jackets or are made out of fleece. Some dog jackets have belly wraps built in.

Leggings

Snow conditions vary wildly during the winter. In colder temperature, snow can be quite abrasive. When the dogs are running, the abrasive surface can cause our dogs to lose hair on the backs of their front legs. When a dog develops this, mushers may refer to it as “chicken leg.” The best course of action is always prevention. That, is where leggings come in. Leggings are wraps worn on the front legs of a dog. They may be made out of fleece or ripstop fabric and conditions may warrant the entire team to wear them or they may only be put on as needed.

Camping Gear

Straw

When out on the trail, straw is used as simple bedding for sled dogs. Straw is used to elevate the dogs off of the snow and ice and acts as a bed and insulator. Typically, races provide straw for mushers at checkpoints as it helps keeps dogs warm and improves their ability to rest and recover. Mushers can choose to use all the straw they are given or to keep some of it to carry further down the trail and to use outside of the checkpoint to camp remote. During the Iditarod, mushers are given one bale of straw per checkpoint.

Straw is also used to help insulate dog houses during the winter. Mushers typically put straw in houses and change it every one to two weeks.

Cooker

A cooker is used to melt snow to create water for the dogs. It consists of an outer pot or shell where fuel is put and the fire is made and an inner pot where snow is put to be melted. In mid and long distance dog sled racing, it is considered mandatory gear.

Zens Stoves provides the following summation on the cookstove musher’s use while on the trail.

The stove of choice for mushers is an alcohol stove running on yellow HEET methanol.  This type of stove has a simple design without any moving parts with good protection from the wind and cold.  It will dependably melt snow and heat up your meal in weather so cold that gas fuels will fail.  And without moving parts, your life doesn’t depend on how well you can maintain your stove when your fingers are frozen, your brain is numb and your eyes are blinded by the eternal darkness of winter concealed in a haze of a blizzard.

When camping with a dog team on the trail, mushers use the cooker to make water for the dogs and to melt meat. There are many different cooker styles in use today. Some cookers are square or rectangular while others are cylindrical. The goal in cooker design is to maximize the efficient heat transfer from the fire to the snow. The quicker the snow can melt into water and then boil, the faster a musher can feed their dogs. The quicker a dog team can eat, the quicker they can get to bed to begin digesting their food and recovering from the previous run. Cookers are meant to be very basic — we don’t want anything breaking out of the trail.

As a rule, most mushers do not put anything besides snow or water into their cooker. This is done as a safety precaution for both dogs and humans. In the event of an emergency, if a musher needs to use their cooker to make drinking water for themselves, they do not want it contaminated by raw meat. Additionally, using the cooker only for water ensures its cleanliness and helps limit the spread of bacteria.

In recent years, many mushers have tried adopting cookers that could be used while moving down the trail. Although these designs have seen some moderate success, their has yet to be a foolproof way to melt snow on a jostling sled thats going down the trail. When an approach is developed that is both safe and efficient, it will likely be a game-changer in the evolution of long distance endurance dog sled racing.

Cookers are not only used to prepare food for the sled dogs — they are also used to help prepare the food for the musher while out on the trail. Musher may eat either frozen or dehydrated meals out on the trail: frozen meals are reheated in the cooker as the water warms for the dogs and water bottles may be put in to heat up water for dehydrated meals.

Heet

HEET is the fuel source of choice for mushers and for dog sled races when out on the trail. HEET is usuallyused as a means of getting water out of the fuel line in vehicles during the cold winter months. It is an ideal fuel source because it is relatively easy to carry and is not effect by cold temperatures.

Generally mushers will carry this while they are camping or racing. Many races specify how many bottles of heet a musher must carry as mandatory gear because without it, a cooker is of little use.

https://youtu.be/rgPUpvTqqAA

Travel Dishes

Just like we have travel mugs, our dogs have special lightweight travel dishes. Most mushers use a heavyweight durable plastic dish that is stackable and easy to wash. When on long endurance races, mushers may swap out sets of dishes every few checkpoints to help ensure cleanliness.

Not every dog that enters an endurance sled dog race as part of a team ends up finishing. In fact, it is quite common for mushers to return or drop dogs from their teams. Events like the Iditarod have elaborate systems in place to help manage and care for drop dogs.

Endurance dog sled races are races that range from shorter 200-mile-long events to premier 1,000-mile-long events like the Iditarod Sled Dog Race and the Yukon Quest. Like any endurance sporting event, teams that compete must begin training months prior so that they are adequately prepared. Most dogs start in 200 to 300-mile events, like the Knik 200 Sled Dog Race or the Copper Basin 300,  when they are about 1.5 years old and will graduate to 1,000-mile races when they are older. Competitive racing kennels often have dogs complete their first 1000-mile race doing what is commonly referred to as a “puppy schedule.” This schedule is designed with lots of rest and is intentionally slower-paced.

The purpose of a puppy schedule is to show the dogs the race course at a low-key pace so that the following year, they can run competitively and know where they’re going. It’s like a marathon runner running their race route ahead of time or carrying a GPS so that they know where they at in the race. With this knowledge, athletes are able to pace themselves better.

During a mid or long-distance dog sled race, it is quite common to see the size of a dog team drop over the duration of a race.  Sled dogs are dropped during races for a number of reasons, but the predominant reason dogs are dropped has to do with the dynamics of working with a group of high-caliber athletes. When running sled dogs, a musher can only go as fast as the slowest team member. Even though all our athletes are at peak physical fitness, over the course of 1,000 miles small differences in athleticism are accentuated. When we cater our team’s speed to the slowest member, the dogs who are more athletic are not pushing themselves at that pace. If you normally run a 9-minute mile but decide to run with a group of your friends who are less athletic and only can do a 12-minute mile pace, you will find that your friends will likely tire quicker than you do. Something similar happens with our dogs. We cater to our slowest team members and when we eventually drop them, the remaining teammates are able to maintain speed or even travel a little faster.

It is an unfortunate misconception that sled dogs do not finish races because the race is too difficult or because the musher is pushing the team too hard. That is not the case at all! Mushers drop dogs because we are trying to work as efficiently as possible and because it is not always fair to keep all our teammates as part of the team. Peak performance for one athlete is different for another. As the coach of the team, our job is to help each athlete on our team reach their full potential. Good sled dog care requires dropping dogs.

As a musher, we do not devote our lives to raising and working with our dogs to push them beyond their abilities. Instead, we coach our dogs. Through our training and deep relationship with each individual canine athlete, we help each dog reach their full potential. Dropping dogs is a normal part of racing. When a dog is dropped it does not mean that dog has “failed” any more than it does when a player is subbed out of a soccer match — that player has contributed a valuable part to the team’s effort thus far. Any dog who is a part of the team, is part of the team’s success.

For an event like Iditarod, bigger dogs an play a valuable role during the first several hundred miles of the race as teams travel through several mountain ranges. These uphill climbs are hard and require strong dogs and bigger teams. These dogs provide valuable strength during this segment of trail, which may be tougher and slower going, but may not be as fast or nimble during flatter parts of the trail. These dogs, however, have provided power and have allowed some of their smaller teammates to do less work, keeping them more well-rested for later segments of the race. This is a very strategic set up that many dog teams use and is a common reason why we see team size drop after crossing the Alaska range; these bigger dogs have done their job and have put in their contribution to help their team and have allowed their faster teammates to be better rested.

Sled dogs may also be dropped from a team due to illness or injury. Although mushers work diligently to protect their dogs from getting sick, illness is an inevitable part of racing when so many dogs are brought together during racing. During the Iditarod, an average of 75 teams compete, each with 16 dogs — that’s 1200 sled dogs on the trail. During Iditarod, teams come from all over Alaska, a huge state, the lower 48, Canada, and Europe (primarily Norway). That’s a lot of ground! Inevitably some dogs carry bugs that other dogs have not been exposed to. The result is that some dogs get sick. This is no different than when kids first go to kindergarten or preschool; they are exposed to new things and illness results. If a sled dog does not feel well, we drop it from the team. Illness can be determined by behavioral changes, such as not eating or a lethargic attitude or by external signs such as diarrhea or vomiting. A vet is consulted and, if needed, the dog is removed from the team where it will receive the necessary medical treatment.

In order to help protect our dogs from illness, our dogs do a number of races and train in popular areas for mushing to increase their exposure to other sled dogs. We do this to help our dogs build immunity to different bugs and viruses. In order to participate in dog sled races, all sled dogs also must follow a strict vaccination protocol. Vaccination records are checked by a team of veterinarians before the start of each race. Regular deworming is also done to help ensure the health of our dogs. On top of these standard practices, racing sled dogs are also given probiotics as well as various vitamin supplements to help boost their immune system and help improve athletic performance.

Additionally, racing standards for Iditarod include even more measures to help protect our dogs: dogs must undergo ECG’s and bloodwork to ensure that they have no underlying heart or medical conditions. Despite these precautions, dogs still develop illnesses and get sick. When this occurs, dogs are dropped from the race.

Dogs may also be dropped from a dog sled team due to injury. Injuries are an inevitable part of any sports competition. Our goal as mushers is always to minimize injuries to our dogs. This is done by building a training regimen that helps prepare our dogs for the race they will be doing. We start dogs out by running short mileage and building up their muscles and endurance over time. During the summer months, we do “weight lift training” when we operate our summer dog sled tours. Our first goal in our dog care is always injury avoidance. This is done through preventative gear, knowing the dogs, and being able to read trail conditions and pace the team accordingly, as well as by following a “warm up” and a “cool down” procedure.

We use various pieces of equipment to help our dogs give great performances out on the trail. After all, the better care we take of our dogs, the better they will be able to run and compete. The most important piece of gear for injury prevention is our dog booties. Dog booties are the running shoes of the dog sled world. They are made out of cordura nylon. We put them on over our dogs’ paws to protect them from getting cuts from ice or rock and it also helps prevent snow from balling up in between their toes.

Dog booties traditionally come in four sizes: small, medium, large, and extra-large. Because the front feet and the back feet of a sled dog vary widely, some dogs may wear two different sizes of booties. Like any running shoe, dog booties aren’t designed to last forever. In fact, most dog booties only last one run before they start to develop wear and tear. When we race our dogs, we always put booties on before a run and we take them off when it is time for the dogs to rest. Just like humans, dogs don’t enjoy wearing their shoes to bed! When it is time to run again, we put on a brand new set of booties. During the course of a training and racing season, our kennel of 50 sled dogs goes through about 8,000 dog booties. These booties cost approximately $1 to $1.25 each and are one of the biggest expenses of running a kennel outside of dog food.

When we have decided to rest the team, we then have other gear that we use on the dogs to help their muscles recover. When the team stops, we put out straw to elevate them off the snow so that they stay warmer. We use jackets to also ensure that the dogs stay warm. We put heat, in the form of hand warmers, on dogs who are more likely to develop injuries or who may have minor inflammation. This is no different than what we do as human athletes. Mushers will then go through their team and rub down their dogs using dog massage oil, helping the dogs stretch and relax. When it is time to go again, we booty our dogs and we make sure the dogs ease into their run, rather than starting off at a fast pace. Like humans, dogs also need their muscles to properly warm up.

Injuries typically result from bad trail conditions or, like in human athletes, may be the result of overuse. Fresh snow, which creates harder pulling conditions, often results in more injuries as the snow is punchy and has no base. In these conditions, it’s more likely to see shoulder injuries develop as a result of a dog misstepping. Hard-pack or icy trails allow teams to travel faster but the firmer trail creates more impact and can result in more wrist injuries. Older dogs, near the end of their career, are more likely to develop stiffness and soreness than young dogs who are in their physical primer. As mushers, we are aware of how different trail conditions will affect each of our dogs: that’s why some dogs will get longer massages or will get wrist wraps whereas others don’t.

Finally, sometimes mushers choose to drop dogs because of something they as a musher just “feel in their gut.” As a musher, you can’t say the exact reason as to why you are dropping a dog  — the dog isn’t injured or sick and is performing fine — but it’s a gut feeling and, as a musher, you learn to trust that instinct. It is that instinct that helps us succeed as outdoorsmen and outdoorswomen.

Often, when explaining why dogs are dropped from dog sled races, a common question we are asked is: why are the dogs not replaced? There are three reasons why we don’t replace dogs with other dogs when they have been dropped. The first is that endurance racing is about the endurance of the entire team; replacing a dog with another dog would go directly against this basic premise.  Although some mushers may choose to carry dogs in their sled for an extended period of time, the other dogs in the team are having to work harder to pull the extra weight.

The second reason we don’t replace dogs is that it really is not feasible. Many of our long-distance races are run in remote parts of Alaska; staging dogs would be an enormous feat and very expensive. In order to get “replacement” dogs out along the trail, we would have to fly them in via bush plane and then they would have to be properly cared for by handlers or volunteers until we decided that we wanted to use that dog. This does not seem very practical!

Finally, we don’t replace dogs because having to maintain your team for the entirety of the race is one of the measures that help ensure that mushers give their dogs quality care and that mushers run their dogs correctly. If teams could swap out their dogs, inexperienced mushers or those too focused on winning would just constantly replace their dogs. Endurance dog sled racing is an event that combines the skills of dog training and coaching with the need for excellent dog care: to excel at endurance racing requires that a kennel be completely focused on the well-being of its dogs.

In a long-distance race such as the 1000-mile-long Iditarod, it is typical to see the top-placing dog teams finish with fewer dogs than teams running less competitively. This is because in order to compete at the highest level of athleticism, not only does each dog need to be at the same fitness level but the musher driving the team also needs to be completely confident in each dog’s ability to make it to the next checkpoint. If a dog shows any potential signs of injury, illness, or fatigue, that dog will be dropped immediately because that dog is more of a liability. A team trying to come in first does not want to have to unexpectedly carry a dog in their sled or stop: this would lead to slower traveling times and allow competition to catch them. Teams that are less competitive, can afford to carry dogs or stop and camp if a dog gets tired.

Finally, it’s important to remember that team size is not indicative of dog care. Teams that have shrunk in size have done so because their mushers recognized that dogs needed to be dropped or due to bad luck. Large teams may be large because of good dog care practices and a good training regiment. Smaller teams may also be more “picky” about who they keep in their team than larger teams.

Without proper knowledge of the sport, it is easy to see the shrinking of a dog sled team over the course of the race as something negative. When we learn more about the reasons and motives behind dropping dogs, however, we understand that it is a very positive thing. Dropping dogs is an important part of the racing strategy and part of having good dog care.