Dog Sledding Basics

The Historic Iditarod Trail

Sarah · January 13, 2015 ·

The Historic Iditarod Trail

Long before there was a dogsled race, the Iditarod trail served as a vital part of the early Alaskan economy. The historic Iditarod trail ran from Seward, Alaska to Nome, Alaska. The purpose of the trail was to get freight from the northern most ice free port of Seward into the interior of the state. The trail was primarily a dog sled trail — although the portion from Seward to Nenana was eventually taken over by the Alaska railroad.

According to the Alaskan Bureau of Land Management, from 1880 to the early 1900s “the non-Native population [of Alaska] boomed from 430 people in 1880 to some 36,400 in 1910” due to the gold that was being found in Nome, Iditarod, Hope, Ophir and Ruby. The trail provided a valuable lifeline and dog sledding became the preferred method of travel.

The 1908 discovery of gold in Ophir and Ruby was one of the largest gold discovered with approximately $30 million worth of gold being removed from the areas. Although river traffic could provide transportation in the summer months, after freeze-up transportation relied solely upon the dogs.

Traveling on these trails was made easier for mail carriers by establishing cabins along the way, approximately every 20 or so miles. These roadhouses served as a convenient place for the couriers to rest their dogs at days end so they could continue down the trail. The mail the couriers brought was a welcome relief from the isolation that the long, dark Alaskan winters often brought the prospectors. Most couriers only ran a small section of the Iditarod trail, relying on relays to get mail and other essential freight in and out of the interior.

But as quickly as the miners came, the onset of world war 1, the rise of the airplane, the “drying” up and the consolidation of the gold field claims, saw the miners leave. By the mid 1930s all but a few of the dog sled mail couriers had been replaced by bush pilots.

The trail then fell into limited use until the Iditarod Sled Dog Race began in 1973 as a way to help preserve dog sledding in the state of Alaska.

The Historic Iditarod Trail with other significant Alaskan Routes — The Historic Iditarod Trail. This map is great as it also shows the 1925 serum run that helped make dogsledding famous!

The Iditarod Sled Dog Race

Against popular belief, The Iditarod Sled Dog Race does not commemorate the famous 1925 serum run to Nome (the green dotted line on the map above) ; the race commemorates the famous gold & mail trail that ran through the interior part of the state. By 1977 the Iditarod trail had become a national historic trail. Not only did the race serve as a way to help mushing stay alive, it also helped the trail become a national landmark. You can learn more about the Iditarod sled dog race on our blog post What Is The Iditarod Sled Dog Race.

Additional Resources

There are a number of resources available for those wanting to learn more about the historic Iditarod trail. The Alaska Bureau of Land Management has a great website with lots of historical information. You can check that out here. The Iditarod Historic Trail Alliance is a group of individuals dedicated to the continued preservation of the Iditarod trail. They have some great information for anyone wanting to learn more. You can visit their website here. Additional trail information is also available from the Alaska Department of Natural Resources.

Qualifying for the Iditarod

Sarah · January 8, 2015 ·

Qualifying for the Iditarod

The Iditarod is a 1,000 mile long dog sled race run annually in Alaska by some of the top mushers in the world. The race tests the bond and endurance of the musher and their team of sled dogs. It’s an impressive event with many nuances. Learn more about it in our earlier post What Is the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. In order to participate for the event, new entrants, called rookies, first have to qualify for the race. In qualifying, mushers are proving that they know how to take care of both their dogs and themselves in Alaska’s winters and wilderness.

One of the most basic requirements is the age limit. In order to participate in Iditarod, a musher must be at least 18 years old and have qualified for the race by completing a series of mid-distance races.

According to Rule #1 of the Official Iditarod Rules:

he/she must complete two (2) 300 mile qualifiers and another approved qualifier for a total of 750 miles to be qualified. The completion requirements are that a musher must finish either within the top 75% of the field or in an elapsed time of no more than twice the time of the winner.; and he/she during such approved qualifying races demonstrated the necessary physical and mental aptitude and preparedness, as well as the necessary wilderness and mushing skills.

The Iditarod keeps an updated list that can be found on their website of which races count as qualifiers. Along with completing the race, racers must have specific paperwork filled out. These “report cards” are often filled out by the head race marshall of that specific race. This helps ensure that all those who set out on the Iditarod trail are qualified to be there.

In addition to completing the races and having their report cards filled out, Iditarod rookies must also provide a reference letter from someone who is familiar with the race. This is another measure to help ensure those on the trail have the necessary skills to be out there.

Why Must Mushers Qualify for the Iditarod?

The goal of qualifying races is to ensure that all mushers know how to take care of themselves and their dogs. One thousand miles is a long way to travel and the entirety of the race is off of the Alaska Road system. Mushers and their dogs must be prepared to face any challenge.

On the path to qualifying, Rookie mushers generally learn a lot both from experience and from other mushers. Once a musher has successfully completed the Iditarod, they no longer need to qualify. One successful completion of the race is considered qualification for life.

Travis used the Northern Lights 300, The Tustumena 200, and the Tiaga 300 to qualify for the 2013 Iditarod. Travis has now run the Iditarod 11 times, with a top finish of 5th place!

Sarah used the Sheep Mountain 300, The Northern Lights 300, and the Tustumena 200 to qualify for Iditarod. Sarah ran the Iditarod in 2016 and in 2019.

Rookie Iditarod Meeting

Before a musher’s Rookie Iditarod, they participate in a 2-day mandatory Rookie Meeting. Running a 1,000 mile long race is very different than running a 300 mile event. No matter how much wilderness or mushing experience you have, nothing can ever truly prepare you to race the Iditarod.

The Rookie meeting’s purpose is to help answer questions specific to the race and familiarize new mushers with the logistics. During the training, rookie mushers learn about vet care, training their dogs for Iditarod and how it differs from shorter races, and what to expect during the race. The Rookie Meeting is hosted by Iditarod and usually attended by several veteran mushers who offer value feedback to novices.

What Happens When you Finish the Iditarod?

When a musher completes his/her first Iditarod, he earns their Iditarod Belt Buckle, a one time piece of hardware that only official finishers of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race can sport. They also become members of the Iditarod Official Finishers Club. This club helps provide oversight to the race by providing valuable feedback to Iditarod’s board of directors.

Once a musher has successfully completed Iditarod, they no longer need to qualify.

What Is The Iditarod Sled Dog Race

Sarah · January 6, 2015 ·

What Is The Iditarod Sled Dog Race

Dog sledding or mushing is one of the more interesting, albeit unique, sports to follow during the winter months. Mushing has been part of Alaskan heritage for thousands of years shaping the way man tamed the arctic. With the advent of snowmachines and bush planes, many thought the era of the sled dog was over but through events such as the Iditarod and other sled dog races, sled dogs have continued mushing on Alaskan trails.

No longer needed strictly for utilitarian purposes, sled dogs have evolved into incredible endurance athletes through carefully outlined breeding programs. Today’s racing huskies are – in general faster and leaner than their ancestors but the bond these dogs share with their musher is as deep as it’s ever been. Ultimately it is this deep-rooted connection to the dogs and to the land itself that dog sledding celebrates. While many think the sport is anachronistic, the sport provides a backdrop to highlight the remarkable achievements of dogs and the bonds we share with them. Dog mushing, whether done recreationally or at a competitive level, requires tremendous amounts of hard work and dedication.

This year our kennel has again chosen to focus on the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. While other races are important, especially as a testing ground and measuring stick for our teams, Iditarod is ultimately the most important race to us this season. Because of this, we will spend a good deal of time focusing on the Iditarod in this blog in the next few months leading up to the race.

Travis Beals Iditarod 2013 with his lead dog Boston out in front and all-stars Tamere and Zema in swing! — Travis Beals nearing the finish line of the 2013 Iditarod. Photo Courtesy of Jeff Schultz

So What Is The Iditarod Sled Dog Race

The Iditarod is a 1,000 mile long dog sled race currently run from Willow, Alaska to Nome, Alaska. The race first ran in 1973 as a way to help keep the tradition of dogsledding alive. Iditarod succeeded. Today, the Iditarod boasts an average of 70 entrants, has a loyal following of fans, and has become Alaska’s premier sporting event, boasting fans from all over the globe.

About The Dogs That Compete In Iditarod

The dogs that race the Iditarod are primarily Alaskan Huskies, although teams of Siberian Huskies also frequent the race. To learn more about these different types of sled dogs, check out our earlier post What Is A Sled Dog.

How Many Dogs Do You Start Iditarod With

Today mushers can start Iditarod with 16 dogs and almost every musher chooses to do so. Although historically, mushers used to be able to take more dogs in 1996 the Iditarod Trail Committee limited the teams to 16 dogs. Prior to that mushers could race up to 20 dogs. During the first years of Iditarod, there actually was no limit on the number of dogs a musher could drive. We think 16 is a good limit because that provides plenty of power and gives mushers a great deal of depth to work with. 16 dogs, believe it or not, can pull a truck — so imagine how much power they have when they are h

How Many Dogs Do You Finish With?

Although mushers start with 16 dogs, it is quite rare to see them finish with all 16 of their dogs. Mushers are able to drop dogs during Iditarod at any checkpoint. The dogs will then be left with vets and volunteers while their musher continues on down the trail. Dogs are dropped during a race for a plethora of reasons but the main reasons are: a team can only travel as fast as the slowest dog, the dog gets sick, the dog gets injured or the dog is a female coming into heat. We’ll talk more about dropping dogs and the reason a musher may do it in greater depth in the weeks to come.

Checkpoints

Mushers and their teams do not have to start the race with all their gear. Gear is sent out along the trail to established places, generally bush villages, called checkpoints. These resupply stations allow mushers to run a dog bred more for endurance rather than for pulling large, heavy loads. Although mushers are not required to rest in checkpoints (except during mandatory rests) many of them opt to do so. Checkpoints provide many amenities such as hot water, microwaves, and beds for the mushers that sleeping on the open trail would not. Because of this, they are often swarming with activity.

An Empty Iditarod Drop Bag waiting to be filled — An Empty Iditarod Drop Bag — headed to the checkpoint “Iditarod” — waiting to be filled

Drop Bags

We have to prepare our gear for the race weeks in advance so it can be shipped out along the trail by the Iditarod Air Force — a volunteer crew of pilots who help fly all our stuff out along the trail. Our gear is sent out in what we call drop bags. Each drop bag weighs no more than 50lbs. Mushers can send anywhere from 1-3 bags to each checkpoint.

Straw & Heet

Straw and Heet are made available to mushers in each checkpoint. Each musher generally receives 1 bale of straw to use for bedding their dogs down. Resting dogs on straw gets them up off the snow and helps keep them warm.

Heet is used as a fuel source on the trail in musher’s cookers.

Heet is used as a fuel out along the trail. Mushers use heet to melt snow and heat water for their dogs so that they can be given a warm meal along the trail. It is also carried in a mushers sled in case of emergency: mushers may need to prepare a meal along the way that they hadn’t planned or may need fire starter to help get them warm.

Mandatory Rest

Iditarod currently has 40 hours of mandatory rest built in to it. This by no means accounts for all the rest mushers must take: it simply provides a loose framework. The 40 hours of rest is broken up into 3 rests: a 24-hour layover to be taken anywhere on the trail, an 8-hour layover to be taken at any checkpoint on the Yukon river and an 8-hour layover at White Mountain, 77 miles from the finish line in Nome.

It is the structure of the rest that ultimately makes Iditarod such an interesting event when compared to other dog sled races. Because so little of the rest a dog team will end up taking in Iditarod is structured in “mandatory hours,” how and where rest is taken on the trail is not just part of an Iditarod strategy, it is the strategy.

While there are people who would prefer to see more rest built in to the race, we ultimately think that 40 hours is sufficient. Mushers know how to run their teams. If more mandatory layovers were added, rather than encourage rest it would encourage mushers to push their dogs harder until that next mandatory resting point. By giving mushers more flexibility in structuring their rest, Iditarod allows mushers to cater to the athletic style of the team.

Straw is great bedding for sled dogs — Travis Beals’ Dog Team Resting on Straw during the 2013 Copper Basin 300

Iditarod and the Two Race Routes

The Iditarod originally had only one race route, what is now the northern route, but in 1977 a decision was made by the race committee to establish a second route, now the southern route. The two routes only change the middle portion of the race, about 300 miles worth of trail. The northern route is now run during the even numbered years and the southern route is run on odd years. The decision for alternating routes helped include more bush villages and also helped eliminate the stress on villages by making it any every-other year occurrence. Preparing for the race, for all involved, takes a tremendous work and doing this helped relieve a great deal of stress on smaller interior villages

The Northern Route

The Iditarod Northern Route is run during even numbered years. It is widely considered by mushers to be the easier of the two routes because as mushers travel up the Yukon River they primarily have the wind at their backs. Additionally, the Northern Route travels through several bush villages: the trail is well maintained throughout the year and so by the time Iditarod comes around there is a nice base.

The Southern Route

Run only on odd-years, the Southern route is generally considered by mushers to be the more difficult of the two routes. The Southern Route goes through many “ghost villages,” such as the Iditarod Checkpoint, where the Iditarod Trail Committee has to send volunteers before the start of the race and put in these remote checkpoints.

Key Difference Between Northern & Southern routes

Because of the more remote nature of the Southern route, teams generally have to deal with tougher trail conditions. Unlike the more populated Northern Route, the Southern Route is not as maintained by local villages. Because of this, the first dog teams across it can (and often do) have a more difficult time and record slower speeds than teams who travel it later on in the race. This is due to the fact that the Souther Route trail does not have a good base. Put better, would you rather walk on a winter trail that people walked down all year (Northern Route) or on a trail that only one or two people have travelled over (Southern Route)?

While this is, perhaps, an over simplification it does illustrate one of the main difference between the Northern and the Southern routes. This also plays heavily into how mushers plan their 24-hour layover: many teams may choose to rest early so that other teams can break trail. After several teams have travelled the trail, cool temperatures will “harden” the trail, allowing faster travel times to be posted later on in the trace.

Another key difference between the two routes is the wind. Mushers generally say that on the Southern Route teams have to drive into the wind whereas on the Northern route the wind is at their back, helping to propel the teams along

Why You Should Follow Iditarod

Iditarod is one of the most interesting sporting events to follow along. The race showcases the bond between humans and dogs and tests the strength of that over one thousand miles. Mother nature always makes things interesting!

. There are so many variables as to what makes an individual musher and their team successful on any given year that the race generates lots of excitement. Following the race is fun due to live GPS tracking, video updates, as well as informative updates by families of the mushers. It is a sport that cherishes its fans and welcomes lots of interaction. Iditarod is a fun sport to follow. We hope you follow us in 2015!

Sled Dog Care: Part 2

Sarah · January 1, 2015 ·

Sled Dog Care Part 2 — A look at Caring for Sled Dogs on the Trail

Sled Dog Care: What We Do On The Trail

This is the second article in a two part series on sled dog care. Learn about how we take care of our dogs when they are in the kennel in: Sled Dog Care Part 1 – A look at Dog Care in the Kennel.

We provide sled dog care out on the trail every time we train by assessing our dogs and their abilities. Good sled dog care in training translates to good sled dog care in races. While good sled dog care doesn’t necessarily equate to a first place finish, in order to finish well you must have good dog care.

Being the recipient for a humanitarian award is one of the highest honors a musher can be given while racing. The humanitarian award is given to the musher who demonstrates the best dog care on the trail. It is generally voted on by the vets and race officials. Travis has now been the recipient of two such awards by both the Tustumena 200 and the Copper Basin 300 races.

We have tremendous respect for all of our fellow mushers out on the trail who share a willingness to talk and teach about great sled dog care. We also have tremendous respect for all the vets who volunteer their time at races. Not only do the vets assess dogs but they also play a vital role in educating mushers on ways to improve their dog care. Check out Jodi Bailey of Dew Claw Kennel‘s great post “My Not So Secret Love Affair With Veterinarians” to learn more about the wonderful thing trail vets help mushers with.

Sled dog care during training can be broken down into three distinct parts: the care and assessment you do before a run, the care and assessment you do during a run, and the care and assessment you do after a run.

Travis Beals in the 2014 Iditarod on his Way into Nome — Great sled dog care allows musher to accomplish what many people would consider impossible: Completing a 1,000 mile dog sled race.

Sled Dog Care: Before A Run

Good dog care starts by assessing trail conditions, the overall health of your dogs and looking at the temperature.

Trail Conditions

One of the most important things we need to take into consideration before heading out on a run are trail conditions. Depending on the time of year and weather, sometimes the trail can present conditions that force us to adjust our traveling speed so that we reduce the likelihood of a dog pulling a muscle.

Hard-Pack Trail

Hard-packed trail, especially early on in the season, can cause more strain on a dog’s muscles and joints – this however makes some sense. Imagine if you train for 3 or 4 months on dirt roads or grass for a marathon and then suddenly switch to running on hard pavement. Your legs would not be used to it and you would feel some soreness the next day.

Fresh Snow

New snowfall also forces the dogs to break trail. Depending on the depth of the snow, mushers may not go as far. Breaking trail through two feet of snow is incredibly tough and may only be done for 10-20 miles, whereas breaking trail through 6 inches of snow may warrant further progress.

Our summer dog sled rides are on soft dirt which does not require the use of booties. In the fall when our trails start freezing, we have to booty the dogs feet.

Fall Training: Dirt & Ice

Early on in the season, we have to worry about how frozen dirt will effect feet. Do we booty to protect feet from abrasive gravel or should we leave the booties off for better traction on ice? Sometimes, trail conditions are poor enough that it warrants sitting the dogs or finding alternative methods of exercising them.

These decisions are up to the musher but are important to take into account. Mushers often try to train in all the conditions they would encounter on a race so that their dogs are adequately prepared.
Trail conditions play an important part in our decision making for the overall length of a training run. Because of this, assessing trail conditions is the first step in having great sled dog care.

Foot Care

Our on-the-trail dog care starts before we leave on a run by paying attention to our dogs feet.

Booties

Each and every run from Mid-November on, we put booties on our dogs to help protect their feet. In the summer, our dogs working on Godwin Glacier doing summer dog sled tours also wear booties.

Dog booties come in four sizes. Some sled dogs actually wear different sizes on their front and back feet. The booties are made out of a thin material and are one of our most expensive training costs aside from food – it costs us almost $1 per booty. It terms of usefulness, however, they are invaluable as they help prevent the dogs from getting cuts on their feet.

Zema is wearing booties to help protect her feet. Photo courtesy of Betsy Palfreyman: https://blossomandbetsysblog.blogspot.com/

Booties are changed regularly when we are out on the trail or racing. Whenever we stop the dog team to rest for a few hours, we remove their booties. I don’t know about you, but when I lay down for a rest I enjoy taking my shoes off.

Booties help protect our dogs feet from getting cut or abrasions on the pads of their feet and inbetween the webbing of the toes.

Trimming Nails

Making sure our dogs have short nails is also a key part to having a successful run. Long toenails effect our dogs posture and gait and can lead to more frequent injuries. Ideally, the nails should be kept short. During fall training, the nails generally wear down on their own due to running on dirt. In the winter, however, we must routinely trim nails to keep them short. Long nails can result in shoulder and wrist injuries. Occasionally, long nails can also get torn off.

Health

Besides feet, we also have to look at the overall health of the dog. How does the dog look? Have they had diarrhea or do they look sore or perhaps lethargic? Are they in a good working weight? These are all considerations we have to take in to account when we decide to run (or not to run) a dog.

Before Iditarod, our dogs also have to undergo EKG’s and blood work to look for underlying health issues that may impact their performance and health on the trail.

Assessing Temperature

Temperature also plays a role in sled dog care. During the early parts of fall training, mushers must be cautious not to run their dogs too far during warm temperatures. Later in the season, mushers must watch the temperature to assess their dogs need for dog jackets and male wraps.

Cold Training Conditions

When we begin training or racing in colder conditions, we must help our dogs stay warm. We must also be keenly aware of each dog’s unique needs and metabolism during colder events.

Dog Jackets

Dog jackets are an important way to keep dogs warm when it is cold out. Although our dogs are adapted to the cold they do need help staying warm when the temperature reaches about -25F.

Male Wraps & Belly Warmers

When cold, mushers often put male wraps on their male dogs and belly warmers on their females. These important pieces of gear help the dogs stay warm in cold temperatures. The wraps are specifically designed out of fur or another waterproof fabric so that the dogs can urinate on them without the urine sticking. These help our dogs keep their undersides warm where dogs sometimes have less hair.

training sled dogs in the fall allows us to lengthen our season immensely! — When sled dogs train in warm conditions during fall training we must stop frequently to allow them to cool off.

Warm Training Conditions

Generally warm training conditions are much harder to overcome. Warm conditions require constant stopping to allow dogs to get rid of any excess heat and lots of water. Good hydration in warmer temperatures is imperative. Generally, mushers choose to run shorter distances in warmer weather.

Sled Dog Care: During A Run

Out on the trail we must constantly assess our dogs performance to make sure they are able to continue running. Fluke injuries, muscle strains, fatigue, and illness are all things that can impact a dog’s performance during a run. We are able to assess our dogs during a run in a multitude of ways: we look at their gait, we monitor their behavior, we assess their attitudes, and we judge their performance. Our job is to constantly assess our dogs. When assessing a dog we look at their gait, behavior, and attitude as ways to judge their overall performance.

Gait

Once out on the trail with our team, we watch the gait of our dogs relentlessly. We tune in to the rhythm of our dogs movement. Over the course of a run, we may find one dog falls out of sync with the rest of the team. Unlike his teammates, this dog is no longer moving completely smoothly. This subtle change in gait could indicate a muscle strain or soreness starting up.

Gait is indicative of many things. Although gaits can vary widely between dogs, a musher training for a mid-distance or long-distance race has to spend so much time with their dogs that they can easily spot a change in gait. You’d notice, wouldn’t you, if your friend was walking funny because they stubbed a toe? Although this is a gross exaggeration, this is a great comparison for how a musher sees their team.

Great sled dog care leads to happy dogs! — Sometimes you can just see the pure joy these dogs get from running. Ginzu (center) looks like he is having a blast!

Behavior

We also monitor the dogs behavior while they’re running– Are they eating snow a lot? Is one dog pooping a lot? Is a dog looking back at me a lot? — as another way to assess our dogs overall physical condition.

Generally, when fully trained, our dogs will run anywhere from 30-80 miles at a time, stopping only for a quick snack of fish, chicken, or beef. If, however, we see a dog eating snow a lot (an indication they are getting hot) we will stop and rest the team, allowing the dogs to cool off. If a dog has been having lots of loose stools, we would check to make sure they were staying properly hydrated and adjust their feeding. If we were on a race, we would consult a vet. At home, if we notice a dog feeling under the weather it may warrant the dog spending a night or two inside and taking a few days off from training.

Wrangler and Willie-Charlie from Travis Beals' 2015 Iditarod team. — Wrangler and Willie-Charlie exhibit some tangible excitement during the start of the 2014 Iditarod

Attitude

Attitude is an important way we can assess our dogs while out on the trail and is easiest to do while stopped. Are the dogs barking to go? Is one dog getting cranky whenever we stop? We look at our dogs attitude as a great indication of how they are doing on the run.

Judging Performance

Overall during a run we are looking for changes in behavior, gait, and attitude as a way to look at our dogs overall performance and determine their eligibility to continue running. This is a subject that is quite complicated as, generally speaking, a musher does not wait for a dog to stop pulling to remove it from their team.

Sled Dog Care: After a Run

When we complete a long run, whether we are on a race or at home training, there are certain things we do to help keep our dogs in tip-top shape. Because of this, it is after a run that the the work for the musher really begins. The musher has many tools to assess their sled dogs. One of the acronyms mushers and vets use in looking at dogs is H.A.W.L. — this is easily remembered because “Haw” is the command for left.

H: Heart / Hydrartion

A: Attitude/ Appetite

W: Weight

L: Lungs

Heart

During races, vets will often take stethoscopes to our dogs to listen to their hearts to make sure they sound normal. Mushers may also carry stethoscopes.

Hydration

Hydration is crucial for a sled dog. Dogs, like humans, have are composed of a majority of water. The Yukon Quest provides the staggering fact in their article “Water, Water Everywhere” that:

Over the course of 10 to 15 days, the Alaskan sled dogs and huskies racing the Yukon Quest will require roughly 6 liters (or quarts) every day. That’s 1.5 gallons of water for a 50-pound dog. A 150-pound human would have to drink 4.5 gallons, or 72 glasses, of water every day to keep up.

Fortunately, sled dogs are able to get a lot of their water from food that they eat. Mushers try to get water in their dogs by feeding lots of fish, frozen meats, and soaked kibble. In fact, a majority of the water sled dogs drink is actually in their food!

Checking hydration can be done by observing the color of urine. Well hydrated sled dogs have a very light yellow to clear colored urine whereas dehydrated sled dogs will have bright yellow urine.

Skin elasticity or the “Skin Tent Test” is another way to check for hydration in dogs. By lifting the skin on the back shoulder blades of the dog, one can quickly tell if a dog is dehydrated. In a well hydrated dog, the skin will snap back quickly. In a dehydrated dog, it will do so slowly causing a “skin tent.” Here is a short video about ways to determine hydration in dogs:

Appetite

Appetite is a great way to assess a team’s overall condition – this is why you will generally see race commentators noting how the dogs are eating. A team’s appetite hugely influences the amount of rest a musher will take during a race.

If a team is eating well, a musher may be able to afford resting less. A team with a voracious appetite will have plenty of fuel to help them get further down the trail once it’s time to take off. Getting food and water into a dog team is crucial for success.

A team that is not eating well needs to rest until they are up to eating again. A team that is not eating well may be sick or tired.

Attitude

How do the dogs look when they come in? A team that is barking and screaming to continue down the trail paints an entirely different picture than a team that comes in slow and tired. Ideally, dogs look alert, confident, and ready to go.

Weight

How do the dogs look? Do they have enough fat reserve should the weather turn? Are they able to stay adequately warm? During the demands of an endurance race such as Iditarod, maintaining good body weight is key for overall success.

Lungs

How do the lungs sound? Lungs should sound clear. Dogs should not wheeze.

After the run, our dogs wait happily to have their booties removed and their feet rubbed! — Bud and Weiser wait to have their booties removed and their feet rubbed after a glacier dog sled tour. Photo courtesy of Stephanie Go

Foot Care

Foot care is, without a doubt, one of the most crucial aspects of our dog care. If a dog’s feet are not in tip-top shape, there is no way they will be able to run!

The first thing we do after every run is remove booties and check feet. When looking at feet, we look for splits in between the toes of our dogs, check for abrasions on the pad of the foot, and also look at the individual toes to make sure there is no soreness. Nails are also assessed as long nails or cracked nails can be painful!

Generally, we put ointment on our dogs feet to aid in the healing of any splits (think canine blister) and gently massage it in. The The ointment is more or less a Neosporin for dogs.

Massage

After massaging the feet, we also massage the dog’s front wrist joints and check for tenderness. Every sport has an injury that it’s athletes are more likely to receive – skiers worry about their ACL, football players concussions, runner’s ankle and knee problems – and for sled dogs its problems in their wrists. We proactively take care of wrist injuries through massage and wraps.

We also massage the shoulders of our dogs and stretch them out. We thoroughly work over each dog, massaging, stretching, and, of course, loving the dog. The Yukon Quest wrote a great article on the use of massage therapy on sled dogs — it’s definitely worth a read.

Generally, if we are on a race or series of runs, the dogs would then eat a meal and rest for a few hours before going out on another run and the cycle of observe, react, care and rest would repeat itself.

Why Sled Dog Care On The Trail is Important

During training, musher pay close attention to their dogs, analyzing their gaits, their habits, and their normal routines. Learning the intricacies of our dogs helps us recognize when things aren’t right so that we can take the best possible care of our dogs. Good dog care leads to dog results!

During races, we work closely with the trail vets to assess our dogs. Dr. Tim Hunt has a great two-part article about Dr. Stu Nelson: The Work of an Iditarod Trail Vet Part 1 and Stu Nelson — Part 2: Who is Stu Nelson, What He Does In His Free Time, And What you Can Do To Keep Your Pet Health Dr. Tim is the maker of premium dog food Dr. Tim’s as well as being a veterinarian and Iditarod racer. Stu Nelson is the Chief vet on Iditarod — it’s definitely worth a quick read.

We hope you enjoyed this blog post going over the basics of sled dog care out on the trail. Hopefully, we will be able to provide more in depth articles on sled dog care in the future!

Sled Dog Care: PART 1

Sarah · December 31, 2014 ·

Sled Dog Care Part 1 — A look at Housing & Caring for Sled Dogs

This is the first article in a two part series about how we take care of our sled dogs both at home and out on the trail.

We love our dogs and strive to take the best care possible of them. To us, our dogs are family. We are not alone in this philosophy: mushers run dogs because we love dogs and when you love something, you take excellent care of it.

Owning sled dogs is a huge commitment. Like any animal, they require lots of attention every single day and so, in many ways, we give up a good deal of freedom. We choose to do this because we love our animals and the lifestyle we share with them.

Good sled dog care happens both at home and on the trail and its important to have both. We feel really honored that Travis has now been the recipient of two humanitarian awards, given for best dog care, by both the Tustumena 200 and the Copper Basin 300 sled dog races.

A Glimpse At Our Kennel: Sled Dog Care in The Dog Yard

When you walk into our dog yard you will notice two things. The first is that we have a lot of dogs who live at brightly colored houses. The second is that they aren’t making any noise. That’s because our dogs have their needs met: they have shelter, food, water, and, most importantly, lots of love and attention. Because we provide sled dog tours for a living, we are able to work with our dogs full time. I couldn’t think of better, happier co-workers!

Most mushers have between 30-100 dogs — seeing so many dogs at once can be overwhelming if you have never experienced it. We have 55 dogs and are leasing another 10 this year from musher Louis Ambrose. Our dogs are all friendly and generally speaking we allow our guests to interact with whichever dogs they would like.

Turning Heads Kennel from the Air — Our kennel as seen from the air. We have a perimeter fence around our dog lot to keep moose out of our yard and so our dogs can run loose.

Many people wonder why sled dogs live outside year-round. The main reason sled dogs live outside is that they are highly adapted for living outside in cold weather climates. While many of our dogs spend time in our home on a rotational basis, they generally get too hot and need to go back outside after a few hours. Imagine if you had to wear your parka inside all day long when it was 70F out — you’d get pretty uncomfortable after a while too! Throughout the summer and fall, our dogs hardly use their houses, preferring to sleep outside even in the rain.

Tethering Sled Dogs

Outside, our dogs are on tethers or in pens. Generally speaking, we space our dogs so they are close enough to play. We supplement this by routinely letting the dogs have free-time in our fenced in yard. We are currently working on building another large pen so that our dogs can enjoy greater freedom and more space to roam and play together. It is important to our philosophy as a kennel that our dogs have plenty of time to be dogs and have decided that building large enclosures where they can run around, play, and interact with their teammate is important to us.

Tethering sled dogs is a routine practice. Although many people are uncomfortable with the idea of tethering dogs, sled dogs receive so much exercise and care, it is important for each dog to have their own spot to call home where they can rest in relax. Cornell University published a paper saying that keeping sled dogs in pens showed no benefit over keeping them on tethers. You can read that study here, if you’d like. Nancy Russell also wrote a wonderful short article called “the positive effects of tethering.”

We tether most of our dogs but have pens for our puppies, who are not yet pulling sleds, and our females in heat. We would like to have more pens available for our older dogs in the future and hope to work on that this coming spring. We have also purchased two large dog carousels, but have lacked the time and resources to get it put together. This will be one of our springtime projects!

Part of great sled dog care gives dogs opportunities to play. This is especially important for young sled dogs. — Fergie enjoys getting some exercise outside of the puppy pen. It is important young dogs get lots of exercise when they are not in a training program.

Our young dogs generally run loose through the yard when we are not doing tours; this helps socialize our puppies with the rest of the kennel while also providing playmates for our older dogs.

Keeping Sled Dogs Inside

Even though sled dogs don’t always enjoy being inside, sometimes we have to bring them in. Last fall, I built a 10-hole dog box for our basement. We’ve used it numerous times to bring in sick or injured dogs, young dogs who we want to spend more time with, or if the weather is particularly bad.

Here in Seward, it generally does not get cold enough where we would want to consider bringing our dogs in. Mushers who live further north sometimes see temperatures of -40, -50 and even -60 below! While sled dogs are adapted to the cold, many mushers who live in these areas have “dog barns” where they can bring their dogs inside. Aliy Zirkle and Allen Moore of SP Kennel live in Two Rivers Alaska where it can get quite cold and have a dog barn they use. Check out their dog barn! Mike Santos of Wolf’s Den Kennel also makes use of a dog barn though his set up is quite different from SP Kennel’s. Check out Mike’s dog barn!

Although we do not have cold temperatures that warrant brining our dogs inside, we do receive lots of rain. Occasionally we get lots of rain at 33F. While our dogs are well adapted to the cold, no one likes to be wet and cold. If we need to, we can actually bring all 65 of our dogs out of the rain. We have spots in our basement, dog trailer, and truck to accommodate every single dog.

A number of our older all-star lead dogs such as Zema, Tamere, Boston and Madison are also familiar with inside living so they can be loose. When we bring the four of them in with our 4 pet dogs who already live inside, real mayhem can occur!

Being able to bring all our dogs inside is important. We learned in 2012 that we need to have an evacuation plan in place for our kennel because we can experience extreme flooding. Most of our dogs are able to go in dog trucks or trailers so that should we need to move our dogs to higher ground quickly.

Remember the flood? We sure do. Being adequately prepared for another flooding event has been important to us.

Musher undeterred by Seward flooding from anchoragedailynews on Vimeo.

Sled Dog Care: Taking Care Of Dogs

What proper sled dog care looks like in the kennel varies from musher to musher, kennel to kennel but these are some of the things that are important to us. We believe most mushers would agree that these are good standards of care.

A Clean Yard

At the kennel, proper dog care comes in the form of scooping the yard on a regular basis. We often scoop the yard 2-3 times a day. The cleaner the dogyard, the better! A clean dog yard is important for the health and well being of our dogs.

No standing water

This should go without saying but it is important. Standing water is a breeding ground for bacteria and infection. No thanks! While less of a problem in the interior part of Alaska, in Seward where we can see inches of rain per day having effective draining systems is crucial and has taken lots of time and money.

We put in thousands of dollars worth of gravel each spring, only to have September roll around and expose a new “low spot.” We will always have to worry about flooding but we can counteract problems that routine rainfall brings. When we do find low spots (mainly holes our dogs dig!) we end up digging trenches to help with drainage. We are hoping to alleviate this problem entirely by redoing our dogyard for a third time in the spring of 2015. Stay tuned for updates – this is going to be a pretty cool project.

A Good Feeding Program

Again, it should be obvious that a kennel, especially a kennel full of working dogs, needs to have a good feeding program as a part of having good sled dog care. Long distance sled dogs are some of the best fed dogs in the canine world. Because of their work, these dogs need to eat the best food out there.

In our feeding program, we feed the dogs anywhere between 2-3 times a day depending on their level of activity as well as providing snacks while training. The amount of food we feed varies based on the dog’s metabolism, their age, and how much they have run. In general, young dogs who have started running require the most food: they are like teenage boys – they can eat, eat, and eat some more but because their metabolism goes so fast they gain very little weight. Generally speaking, we feed a mixture of beef, fish, and dog food.

In the summer and fall, we feed lots of fish and kibble. Fish is readily available, free or low-cost, and is one of our dogs’ favorite foods and one of the best options out there. Sled dogs have been powered for hundreds of years on salmon. We are proud to continue that tradition with the help of the Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association who donates us fish each year and Resurrection Bay Seafoods who help us freeze the fish. Here is a video we put together last year about getting fish.

Tim Osmar and Monica Zappa, two other mushers living on the Kenai peninsula, also helped us with getting fish this year. Monica will be running her second Iditarod this year Check out their kennel and like their page on facebook to follow along!

When heavier training commences, we often start adding in beef, chicken, beef fat and chicken fat. Meat is an important part of a sled dog’s diet.

A Healthy Working Weight

Most people who encounter sled dogs for the first time are often surprised at how lean they are. Our racing sled dogs are lean because they have been bred for both endurance and speed. They are the marathon runners of the dog world: picture a winning marathon racer – not exactly someone you would call fat now, is it? Our dogs are built very similarly.

It’s important that our dogs stay in a healthy working weight. Because we focus on long distance events, good cardiovascular health is especially important. Being overweight is dangerous for any dog, but for a sled dog it can mean an inability to perform. Overweight dogs are also more likely to overheat. To keep our dogs in good weight, we exercise them regularly and change the amount of food we feed them if they are gaining too much weight.

Similarly, dogs who are underweight should not be run. Generally, mushers do not have a problem maintaining a healthy weight for their dogs as we focus a lot on feeding. Dogs, however, can become underweight due to changes in feed, exercise, weather or health. Immediate attention should be given to encourage weight gain.

Mushers generally classify their dogs as “easy keepers” or “difficult keepers” based on the dogs’ metabolism. Easy keepers do not have a problem maintaining weight under normal working and feeding conditions. Difficult keepers, as the name implies, do have problems and require more feed. Many people falsely assume that larger dogs require more food than smaller dogs. This is not true with sled dogs. The amount of food a dog receives is based primarily on the metabolism of the dog. Generally speaking, young dogs have faster metabolisms than older dogs. Unaltered dogs have faster metabolisms than dogs who have been spayed or neutered. Dogs who have problems maintaining weight can be altered to improve their ability to retain weight while working. We have done this on numerous occasions and found that dogs who are spayed or neutered require very little food in comparison to dogs who have not been spayed or neutered.

Water Availability

During months when water won’t freeze, access to water should be available at all times. During winter months when freezing becomes an issue, watering dogs should be done on a routine basis but especially before going on a run. Proper hydration is key to on-trail success.

Water should always be available to sled dogs during summer months

We generally give a baited broth once in the morning. Baited broth is basically hot water that has been flavored with something. At our kennel, typically we bait our broth with beef or chicken. We also feed wet meals to ensure our dogs are getting plenty of liquid, even in the summer. Our dogs work in the summer so ensuring they are properly hydrated is important.

The Yukon Quest another 1,000 mile long dog sled race wrote an excellent article about keeping sled dogs hydrated. The article, titled “Water, Water Everywhere” is well worth the read and provides an in-depth look at how sled dogs derive water from food sources such as meat, fish, and fat but also goes in to great detail about how much water a sled dog needs.

Sled Dog Care: Vaccines and Worming

It’s important to keep the dogs healthy. One of the easiest ways to do this is by making sure our sled dogs stay up-to-date on their routine vaccinations and that we regularly worm the dogs. Reputable dog sled races also require that dogs have certain shots in order to compete.

We provide all of our own shots with the exception of the rabies vaccine. The rabies vaccine must be administered by a veterinarian so we have our local vet come to the kennel to administer the vaccine to those dogs that need it. When needed, we take our dogs into the vet.

We hope you enjoyed this post. While it by no means covers everything, we hope we helped provide a good foundation. Stay tuned for Sled Dog Care Part 2 — Taking care of the Dog Team While Out on the Trail.