Sled Dog Information

Iditarod Bloodwork & ECGS

Sarah · February 22, 2016 ·

We recently took our dogs for their pre-race health checks which includes Bloodwork and an ECG for each canine athlete.

Kip gets his blood drawn. Two vials are taken from each dog.

The ECGS are used to help eliminate any dogs who may be predisposed to having cardiac trouble from participating in the Iditarod.

Teddy is put on his side and held in place for his ecg

Blood is also taken and a variety of things are measured to help determine which dogs, at a cellular level, are more statistically likely to finish the race. These values can be used to help mushers determine which dogs to take.

Each musher is allowed to have up to 24 dogs vet checked. This allows mushers to continue to work with a larger pool of dogs.

For our kennel, we are able to vet check a combined 48 dogs between Travis and myself. We are actually allowed to swap dogs until we declare our final 20 dogs at the ceremonial race start.

As you can imagine, getting blood work done for 86 dog teams is no easy feat. Talking to the vet techs, who help make this happen we certainly learned how much goes into making sure every canine athlete is physically fit for the race. It takes over 20 days to do all the screenings for all the teams entered into the race.

We are fortunate that there are such dedicated volunteers who helped make this happen to helensure the safety of all dogs to participate in the Iditarod. We are also grateful that this is cupboard and part of our entry fee. What’s yours are actually able to sign paperwork that allows these blood samples and the results to be given to those in the scientific community to help continue on researchingsled dogs so that we can continue improving upon our dog care.

We’ve already learned a lot about the dogs because of the implementation of doing bloodwork. One of the most important things we’ve learned for example because the importance of vitamin E in muscle recovery in our dogs. Because of this, almost every Mosher supplements with a high-quality vitamin E.research a shown that dogs supplemented with vitamin E are far more likely to finish the race then dogs who are not supplemented with it.

Bloodwork can also be used to screen for such things as muscle myopathy, a condition in which the dogs muscles start to deteriorate and can lead to serious problems. Understanding this ahead of the race can allow mushers to take different dogs or take extra precautions.

After the blood work results come in, Stu Nelson the head veterinarian for the Iditarod calls each musher to discuss any significant findings so that mushers can make the best decisions for their team selection and help ensure the safety of all the dogs.

Here is a preview of our Iditarod line-ups:

This is just one of the many many ways Iditarod mushers and veterinarians workto ensure quality dog care and dog health from the get-go. Ironically, even though the dogs go through all these pre-race screenings, Their human counterparts are subject to no such testing. As a musher we do not have to have a doctors note, A doctors consent, or even proof that we are healthy enough to race. Everything about this event is focused on the dogs.

A Special Focus On The Iditarod Vet Book

Sarah · December 30, 2015 ·

One of the things most new fans to dog sledding want to know is how are dogs are taken care of out on the trail by vets and how the logistics of so many dogs is managed. During Iditarod and other dog sled races, mushers must carry a vet book. In Iditarod, it is a mandatory piece of gear and mushers are required to have a vet sign it at every checkpoint to ensure the dogs have been examined.

Each dog on Iditarod is given its own unique identification tag. The identifcation tag is composed of two values, a number and a letter.The number refers to the musher. Each musher’s value is determined by their starting position. In 2015, Travis started 56th so each of his dogs had a “56” on their tag. Each dog is then individually assigned a letter. Each musher is given their own tags so we put our tags 56A, 56B, 56C, on each dog on Travis’ team.

photo courtesy of Dianne Johnson of thhe Iditarod Trail Committee

At the front of the vet book, each musher lists their dogs name and next to their dog writes down the letter of the tag that dog was given. Additionally, Iditarod takes down the name, tag of each dog, and their microchip number. This way dogs have two identifiers out on the trail: their microchip which can be scanned or their dog tag on their collar.

The vet book is an integral way for vets at different checkpoints to communicate what they see in a dog or in a particular dog team. It allows volunteers to quickly look up the name of a dropped dog and relay it to those back in Anchorage.

2015 Iditaods Travis Beals Vet Book. The starting 16 dogs.

travis beals 2015 iditarod vet book. the first page has each dog, their “letter”, and their age.

The vet book itself is rather small and is waterproof. Many mushers elect to tie it to their sled. If you do not have your vet book, you cannot continue down the trail. If you forget your vetbook at one checkpoint, you have to go back and get it — wasting valuable time.

We generally tie our vet books to our sleds so that we cannot lose them. It allows us to access them quickly and prevents the volunteer vets from accidently walking away with them.

Mushers are required to have a vet sign their vet book at each checkpoint. Mushers also have to sign the vet book. The vets may make notes or may simply put an “all good” or a smiley face. Common notes might be about dogs who were prescribed antibiotics.

The vet book is a valuable tool to help mushers and vets make sure that the dogs get the best possible care while out on the race.

This year in training, I am carrying my own “vet book” so that I can practice not losing it. For those who know me, they know my struggle. My book, however, is a bit different. I am using it to make notes about dogs on or directly after a run so that I can keep the best records possible on my team while training myself to hold onto the small yellow notebook. My notes are usually about when I fed or watered and the effects I’m seeing in my dogs. It’s something Aaron Burmeister mentioned casually at the rookie meeting so I figured I would give it a shot. If I’m going to practice carrying a notebook, I might as well make some notes!

Picking New Lead Dogs: How We Select Which Dogs Will Begin Lead Dog Training

Sarah · August 8, 2015 ·

We have the unique opportunity with our summer dog sled tours to begin working with and developing new leaders all summer long. Unlike other dog sled tours that simply run a set loop, our sled dogs go out each tour time not knowing where they will go. Our trail system for our tour is a series of interconnected loops that allow us the opportunity to work on training commands.

Unlike many sled dog tour operations which simply focus on giving dog sled rides, often in a loop format, we focus on giving dog sled training demonstrations. Our dog sled tours are really just tag-along training sessions for our guests and are a great excuse for us to work with our dogs all summer. For the first part of the summer, we inevitably work with our youngest sled dogs dogs teaching them our expectations of them in the team.

We don’t begin training new lead dogs until our younger sled dogs are able to move seamlessly in the team, knowing how to untangle themselves and how to run on their side of the line. We do this because when we put a new, young dog up front we want that dog to have our complete attention. We don’t want to be talking to a sled dog in the team telling it to untangle itself when we need to be focused on praising and training a new lead dog running up front.

So how do we select a new lead dog and what does the process look like? Honestly, each time is a little different. We do, however, try to identify potential lead dog candidates every few weeks as our sled dogs begin to mature. Generally females start learning lead earlier than males in our kennel simply because they mature more quickly and are (at least in our kennel) more focused on pleasing their musher. This, in some ways, makes them easier to train than young males who (especially during summer) seem to have just one thing on their mind!

Our dog sled tours have proven a great way to identify future lead dogs. During the summer we routinely run our dogs 2-3 times a day, giving us a good look at our kennel each and every day. We are therefore able to consistently track the progress of our sled dogs. One thing we identify quickly is which puppies learn to respond to their name when we talk to them in the dog team.

We generally talk to our puppies when they get tangled. During their first few runs in the team we will stop our dogs and help untangle our puppies but slowly, over time, we teach them that dealing with tangles it is their responsibility. Our first look at who may be a good lead dog comes in identifying who is quick to learn how to untangle themselves. This may be as simple as returning to their side of the gangline so that one dog is on the left side of the gangline and one running on the right side. It may, however, also be more complex. Occasionally sled dogs may get their feet tangled in a neckline. In a controlled setting where we can easily stop the team, it is important that our sled dogs learn to fix themselves. There may come a time during training or race where, for one reason or another, I cannot stop to help them and they need to be nimble on their feet. While this is something small, it shows us who can learn quickly and who is actively listening to us while out training.

We also look at the overall attitude of our dogs. Each of our summer sled dog tours is between 1.5 and 2 miles in length depending on the weather; on rainy days we typically run slighty further as the cooler, damper weather allows it. During each run we stop 2 or 3 times to allow the dogs time to cool off. It is important we stop so that they can pant and get rid of any excess heat. We use this as an opportunity to talk with our guests about mushing and to evaluate which sled dogs don’t want to stop pulling. Future lead dogs are generally the first dogs to start trying to pull again. They may leap in the air or silently pull at the line, trying to get our cart to budge. Much to their dismay, however, it does not budge until we let them!

Attitude accounts for a lot of the success of a dog team; having very excitable dogs who want to run and who lead the team can help the team overcome obstacles such as a blown in trail, strong winds, or tough storms. Sled dogs with good attitudes see obstacles as challenges to overcome and they thrive in adversity. Great lead dogs do not back down when the going gets tough, rather that is when they shine the most!

Fidget running single lead during Iditarod 2015

Once we identify a dog as a potential leader, we will work on hooking that dog up towards the front of the team. Most puppies in our kennel start off running in the middle or the back of the team, so we slowly migrate our potential leaders closer and closer to the front. By slowly working them up to the front of the dog team, they get used to the idea of more and more dogs being behind them. They learn that they are part of a “team” and that the dogs behind them are not trying to chase them.

Eventually, we promote our future lead dog to running in the “swing dog” position. Swing dogs are the pair of dogs located directly behind the lead dogs. It’s an excellent place for a future leader to run. Swing is a great way to teach a dog without actually having to teach the dog. They learn through example. When we give the commands “gee” for right and “haw” for left, the swing dogs are seeing and reacting just a step behind the lead dogs. It’s a great way to start associating our commands with the direction we want our lead dogs to take. By the time we put them in lead, they don’t even think twice about being up front: they simply just run.

When our lead dog trainees are finally ready to move out of the swing position and into lead, we almost always pair them with experienced leaders who already know the ropes. Our experienced sled dogs really are the best teachers. In our kennel our go to lead dog trainers are Zema, Tamere, Madori, Boston, Jane, and Piper. These dogs are great Gee/Haw leaders and are also very patient with our younger dogs. We do run after run with our new trainee up front while paired with a “mentor.” After a number of runs — generally anywhere from about 4 to 10 — up front, we let our new trainee go at it alone so we can see what they’ve mastered.

Running in single lead is tough but it is important that each of our leaders understand that when they are up front they are responsible for responding to commands. If we always ran our lead dogs in pairs, they would not learn this valuable lesson. We will do a few runs to make sure our trainees have mastered the commands.

Training for a lead dog, however, never stops. We will continue to work with our leaders even after they have mastered the basic commands of “gee” and “haw” — teaching them how to forge ahead and go through whatever obstacle comes there way.

We certainly have fun watching our dogs progress and have learned over the past few years that we have some of the best Gee-Haw leaders in the sport. We also have some of the most dedicated and hardworking leaders. We greatly contribute our summer dog sled tours and the training they allow us to do is a huge reason for our successful lead dog training program.

Letting Hair Fly: Why We Chose to Groom Our Sled Dogs

Sarah · May 22, 2015 ·

This year we decided to have our entire kennel of sled dogs groomed. This is something we have never done before and something we absolutely loved. Amber Travis of Bully & Bug Grooming, a local dog groomer here in Seward, Alaska came out to our kennel to help us tackle the enormous project of grooming our dogs.

We first decided to have our kennel groomed after we took our older german shepherd, Betty, in to see Amber. I was sick of finding Betty’s hair everywhere as she was heavily shedding and she looked like a hot mess. Betty, however, did not enjoy me brushing her and, running two businesses, I had very little time that I could dedicate to the project. Upon advise from friends, I called Amber up and we set a date. Betty went in to Amber’s grooming facility and emerged nearly 4 hours later sleek and gorgeous. Her thick undercoat was entirely gone.

Amber had special combs and blow out tools that she used to help get rid of the fur Betty was trying to shed. We talked and after thinking about it for a few days I decided that this was something I wanted to do for our sled dogs.

Why Groom Sled Dogs?

Most mushers would say that they don’t groom their sled dogs and that they rarely give their dogs baths. We, however, decided that grooming our dogs would be beneficial for several important reasons:

Our dogs work hard and they deserve to be pampered.
Getting rid of their heavy undercoat would help them run tours in the warm summer temperatures.
When dogs have problems shedding their coat in can lead to skin irritation and infection; by having their coats blown out we avoid this problem all together.

When we looked at these reasons, we decided that they really aligned with our kennel’s mission to provide consistently excellent dog care. We were also able to help another local business which, in our book, is always a great thing to do. We can help be a part of our local community by hosting events like Paint-A-Palooza and we can also be a part of our local community by supporting local businesses, such as Amber’s.

Looking back, I can’t believe we hadn’t done something like this before because it really has significantly impacted our dogs overall well being. Not only did they (mostly) enjoy being blown and brushed out, they are also now much more comfortable as temperatures continue to climb as we enter the warm summer months.

Here is a short video of the dogs being groomed:

[su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKJ1vV2VTWc&feature=youtu.be”]

The Hair of 40 Sled Dogs — Just some of the hair of 40 sled dogs

Because our dogs do tours, they will retain less of their body heat and will be better at keeping themselves cool. It also significantly impacts the dogs who will go up on Godwin Glacier for the summer as by blowing them out, they will now shed significantly less on the glacier meaning our crew will have less work. Believe it or not, we have to rake up dog hair on the glacier all summer long!

We are really happy with our decision to have our dogs groomed and will be looking forward to letting their hair fly again next year!

How Summer Dog Sled Tours Help Us As A Competitive Racing Kennel

Sarah · May 20, 2015 ·

Racing season may be over but it doesn’t mean we stop training. For an athlete, the journey to better yourself and your team is never ending. How can we improve? What can we build upon? What do we need to do to continue our success? These are the questions that pour into our conversation at morning coffee.

Most importantly, what can we be doing right now to help us later on in the season?

Even though the snow has melted, our dogs still need to exercise. Exercise is a crucial part of any healthy lifestyle. When your job is to compete in 1,000 mile races staying in shape is a critical job requirement. Although the length of our sled dog runs may shorten due to the warming temperatures, it is important that our dogs still have an outlet for their endless energy. Running is required!

Lots Of Visitors Means Lots of Opportunity for Dog Sled Tours

During the summer, Alaska comes to life as visitors from all over the world flock to see our state’s majestic scenery and experience our unique Alaskan culture. Dogsledding is such a unique part of Alaskan culture that people can’t help but be interested. Before we started doing dog sled tours, curious visitors would pull in to our driveway at all hours of the day.

We’d happily great them, thinking they were lost, but they weren’t lost.

“Can we check out your sled dogs?” People would stop in asking, again and again.

Eventually our need to run our dogs, our passion for sharing our sport, and the curiosity of people passing by our kennel made doing dog sled tours an easy choice for us.

On a daily basis, we get to share our passion.

“I had no idea how much they loved to run!”

“I am amazed at how smart your dogs are.”

“They are so excited.”

Guests on our summer dog sled tour help us socialize our young puppies

We get so much positive feedback from people who are curious because dogsledding is something so foreign to them. By the end of our tour, many of our guests are hooked and continue to follow us along throughout the racing season – some of you may even be reading this blog post!

Time and again people are amazed at how much our dogs love their job. To a sled dog running isn’t work — it is a way of life. For a musher, running dogs isn’t work either. It’s a way to decompress and get away from the hectic chaos that defines most modern lives. When we are out on the trail, we must be one hundred percent focus on our dogs.

Our tours have now evolved into a crucial part of our training program. Just as collegiate and professional athletes train during the “off season” so do our sled dogs. When you go on one of our dog sled tours, you are not simply going for a dog sled ride. Our tour is about experiencing training in action. It’s about sharing not only what we love but about educating people on how sled dogs our trained.

The summer dog sled ride we give at our kennel incorporates two crucial components to help us maintain a competitive edge throughout the racing season. First, instead of simply running our dogs we are actually putting them through a strength training program. Second, we use each tour as an opportunity to work on training a new lead dog.

Dog Sled Tours As Strength Training

Running dogs in the warm summer months is inherently different than running in the winter. Careful considerations have to be made about how to best run the dogs and how to accommodate them to the warmer temperatures that summer brings. We are particularly lucky because our kennel is situated in a glacier valley and we often have cold wind that blows down off the Harding Icefield that helps keep our dogs cool. Additionally, we take precautions by resting our dogs frequently and giving them plenty of access to fresh water before, after, and even during our tours.

Because of the warm conditions, we generally run the dogs between 1 and 2 miles. We are fortunate that our trail system allows us to customize the length of our runs based on the weather so we can adjust how far we run them based on what is best for the dogs. On warm days, we run shorter than on cool rainy days.

We use an aluminum cart that weighs about 800 lbs without passengers and can seat 8 for our summer time mushing. Unlike some of the bigger dog sledding operations, we generally have between 4 and 8 guests per tour. This roughly equates to an additional weight of 600 to 1200 pounds that the dogs are pulling. So on average when we go out with our team they are pulling anywhere from 1200 to 2400 pounds.

We use this information to build a great strength work out for our dogs. At the start of the summer our dogs have generally had close to a month and a half of very light easy runs. They are no longer on the aggressive training schedule required for racing because that is over so we carefully work them into their new routine.

When the summer season begins, we generally hook up 14 to 16 dogs based on the size of the tour and rotate our dogs out after every run. That means the dogs run once and, if we have another tour, a completely different team is then hooked up. As the summer progresses however, we begin making changes so that the work outs continue to challenge our dogs.

Generally speaking, the weather in Seward caters to us strengthening our team. We generally see more temperate weather in the early part of the summer and we see more rain in the latter half. The latter part of July and August can bring wet, cool, and damp weather – which allows us to run our dogs longer and harder. As we enter the cooler and rainier stretch of summer, we take advantage of it.

During the middle of the summer, our will adjust to pulling heavy loads. We can’t up the weight but we can increase the number of reps our dogs do so when the weather is sufficiently cool we may “camp” our dogs in between tours. Camping refers to the practice of leaving the dogs hooked up but resting on the line so that they are ready to run again. This is commonly done in checkpoints and during races.

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.

Camping the dogs allows us to spend less time hooking dogs up and more time interacting with our guests. It also starts teaching our dogs the basics of racing: first you run, then you rest, then you run some more.

Finally, towards the end of the season we may even start to use fewer dogs. The number of tours we do each day significantly decreases towards the end of August and at this point our dogs are officially body builders so instead of hooking up 14 dogs we may only hook up 10 or 12, depending on the number of guests we have.

This great strength training program helps our dogs stay in shape throughout the summer and ensures that every dog is ready to begin working on building their endurance come the fall.

Lead Dog Training Is The Best Part Of Our Dog Sled Tour

The tours we do in the summer don’t just serve as weight training. They are a vital component to our lead dog training program. This year, we realized how special our kennel is because of the number of high quality leaders we have. This is a direct result of the emphasis we place on making our tours a training exercise for our guests to be a part of rather than simply a ride.

It is very easy to hook up well-trained leaders to make your runs go smoothly. It’s much more difficult to take dogs who have never run lead and work with them up front while communicating with guests. That, however, is what we have chosen to do. We don’t stick with our go-to race leaders, instead we focus on building new leaders. This gives our kennel tremendous depth.

The first step involves identifying potential leaders. This is generally easy as we already know the dogs. Each spring we identify about a dozen dogs in our kennel that we think could possibly run lead. Then, we make a goal of trying to get those dogs in lead as much as possible. We challenge ourselves, we challenge our dogs, and we keep our guests thoroughly entertained because seeing a lead dog develop is truly exciting.

Every other dog sled tour we have ever seen in the summer time has a set course that they operate on. The dogs (and even sometimes the musher) eventually go into “autopilot.” The dogs aren’t taking commands, they are simply going through the motions. This is not good training and, in our mind, is actually un-training the dogs.

So we don’t have a set course.

We have a system of trails and each time we go out for a tour we never know exactly where we will go. Sometimes commands are called at the very last second and guests are awed by how our leaders quickly take the command or sometimes they watch as we patiently work with our dogs until they correctly figure out what we are asking.

To effectively train lead dogs over a short 1 or 2 mile run requires having multiple intersections so that the dogs can constantly be tested with their commands. Throughout our tours the lead dog or pair of lead dogs need to take, on average, about a dozen different commands. The commands we use are “gee” for right, “haw” for left and, occasionally, we use “straight ahead” to tell the dogs that they are to continue down the trail without turning.

When we start a new dog off in lead, we generally partner it with a more experienced leader. Zema is one of our go to dogs for partnering new potential leaders. She know her commands better, I think, than most people know their right and left. She turns on a dime and having her up front means you can go anywhere you want. She is the ideal tutor for our younger dogs.

When we start training a new young dog up front we hook them up with Zema and Zema (or another well-trained lead dog) shows them the ropes. This usually lasts 1 or 2 weeks. After that, we start hooking up the young dog on their own in single-lead or with another young leader who has been running up front but still hasn’t “mastered” the commands.

That’s when the magic happens.

We start giving commands and we can see how much our dogs have or haven’t absorbed from their previous times up front. Instead of relying on the wisdom of the older dog, the new young pup must now rely on their own intelligence. Sometimes, the new leader gets the commands right from the beginning but that is very rare.

Instead, they make mistakes. We stop. We work with them. Honestly, after doing this for three years, I think our visitors actually enjoy seeing the dogs mess up because they then get to see how we work with the dog to get it to make the correct decision.

Training a lead dog is actually a very simply process if you own high caliber dogs and know what you are doing. A sled dog wants to run. To train a lead dog we simply must channel this desire.

When we approach an intersection we will call a command such as “Gee!” to that the leader will go to the right. If the leader goes to the right nothing happens; the dogs got the command right and the reward is that they get to keep running. If, however, we call out “gee” and the dogs get the command wrong, we suddenly stop the team.

A good sled dog does not like being stopped. If we are giving a command, our leader knows it is supposed to be doing something but perhaps it does not know what. The connection between the word and action has not yet solidified so the dog will make guesses. We repeat the command “gee” and when the dog tries to go to the right we say “yes! Gee! Gee! Gee!” release the brake, and the team can continue to go.

It’s really magical watching this process happen and some very lucky guests got to be part of this last year as we worked and refined many leaders. Last year, we made Fidget a leader through our summer tours. This year, we reaped the reward from that effort in Iditarod. When several of our leaders became injured right before the race, Fidget really had to step up her A-game. She led 700 miles of Iditarod either in single lead or with a partner. She was able to do this because we invested time in training her to run up front during our summer tours.

Running sled dog tours during the summer has helped us build a competitive kennel with a tremendous amount of depth. After the summer season is over the new leaders we have built spent much of fall training running up front on the open river bed in front of our house as a kind of “final” exam. Out on the river bed, there is no trail to follow and the wind can often reach 30 or 40mph. Amazingly, our dogs seem to have no trouble.

We love getting to share our passion with guests and inviting them to be with us as we train future champions.