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Who Are These Dogs That Pull Sleds? Special Sled Dog Breeds

April 28, 2010 by teamineka

Who Are These Dogs That Pull Sleds? The Alaskan Husky and Village Dog

By Robert Forto, PhD

Are they purebreds or mongrels? What sets them apart from other dogs and enables them to work with man under brutal weather conditions? What sort of strange dog is it that yammers and yowls to be a part of a team, preferring to work or race than rest in a warm kennel?

Written pedigrees are not required to enter a sled dog race, nor does the dog have to be a northern breed, although a majority of dogs on the racing trail are related to working dogs of the North. These dogs have a strong instinct to pull. These dogs can be everything from an American Kennel Club registered Siberian Husky, a “one-quarter husky” mixed breed, or any variety in between.  These dogs can be Irish Setters, Walker Coonhounds or even a Border Collie. In search of an unbeatable dog team, dozens and dozens of cross-breedings, in-breedings and line breedings have been tried. Some breeders work within a recognized breed, seeking to refine that breed’s natural talents; others select the fastest and strongest or whatever dogs come to their attention, caring more about performance than good looks or a fancy pedigree.

Special Sled Dog Breeds

South of Alaska other dogs have been interbred to make up special sled dog breeds. Arthur Walden’s Chinooks, the Targhee Hounds of Idaho, and the Quebec Hounds of Canadian breeders are examples of these special racing dogs. The original Chinook’s ancestry is somewhat subdued in public relations mystery, but his offspring, many resulting in a breeding with a husky, served as credible sled dogs for Walden in eastern races during the 1920’s. Chinooks are still bred at a kennel in Maine, but most are sold to recreational mushers or strictly as pets.

The Targhee Hound was originally bred in Idaho, the result of a cross between a Stagehound and an Irish Setter. These were fast, sprint dogs who dominated the American Dog Derby held in Ashton, Idaho for years. They were also capable of hauling a sled full of mail after a blizzard. Targhee Hounds still appear on teams in the west, not only in their “pure” form but also as offspring of further cross-breedings.

The Quebec Hound, also called the Canadian Hound or the Canadian Greyhound is a name that describes the dogs resulting from the propensity of Canadians to breed a lot of sleek, racy-looking hounds into their northern sled dogs. These animals have short hair and long, strong legs. Their racing record is exceptional as evidenced by Emile St. Godard’s many victories in the 1920’s and through Emile Marlett’s top team of the 1930’s, to most of the Quebec teams of today. Quebec hounds race annually at the World Championships in Laconia, New Hampshire, placing well in the standings.

Tags: Robert Forto | Michele Forto | Iditarod | Team Ineka | Dog Training Denver | Dog Doctor Radio | Denver Dog Works | Mushing Radio | Duluth Dog Works | Minnesota Dog Works

________________

Robert Forto is the training director of Denver Dog Works and a musher racing under the banner Team Ineka. Dr. Forto can be reached through his website at https://teamineka.com

Filed Under: Mushing, Uncategorized Tagged With: #dogs, #dogtraining, denver dog works, dog doctor radio, dog doctor radio show, dog sledding, Dog Sledding Legends, dog training denver, forto, Mushing, pet training denver, robert forto, sled dogs, sport racing, team ineka

Who Are These Dogs That Pull Sleds? The Samyoed

April 6, 2010 by teamineka

Who are These Dogs That Pull Sleds? The Samyoed

By Robert Forto, PhD

The Dogs

Who are these dogs that pull sleds?  Are they purebreds or mongrels? What sets them apart from other dogs and enables them to work with man under brutal weather conditions? What sort of strange dog is it that yammers and yowls to be a part of a team, preferring to work or race than rest in a warm kennel?

Written pedigrees are not required to enter a sled dog race, nor does the dog have to be a northern breed, although a majority of dogs on the racing trail are related to working dogs of the North. These dogs have a strong instinct to pull. These dogs can be everything from an American Kennel Club registered Siberian Husky, a “one-quarter husky” mixed breed, or any variety in between.  These dogs can be Irish Setters, Walker Coonhounds or even a Border Collie. In search of an unbeatable dog team, dozens and dozens of cross-breedings, in-breedings and line breedings have been tried. Some breeders work within a recognized breed, seeking to refine that breed’s natural talents; others select the fastest and strongest or whatever dogs come to their attention, caring more about performance than good looks or a fancy pedigree.

The Samoyed

Less evident on the racing trails and the most striking when they are, are the Samoyeds. Pure white with dark eyes and curled, bushy tails, the “Sammy” is similar in size to the Siberian, but gives the impression of more hair per pound than any other sled dog.

Originally bred by the inland Siberian tribe called the Samoyed, the Samoyed dog served as a general-purpose work animal which hunted, drove reindeer herds and pulled loads at such times when reindeer could not be used. The dogs also acted as companions and watchdogs, and were used for both food and clothing.  It was said that a good dog was worth more than a wife to a Samoyed herdsman, and when British explorers first came across this amazing white dog it took all their bargaining talents to accomplish a trade.  In 1899 the first Samoyed dog was exported to Britain and from there his popularity has grown. Today’s Samoyed closely resembles the original sled dogs, for attempted improvements on such a dog as Moustau of Argenteau, the American Kennel Club’s first registered Samoyed in 1906, could have been to this natural breed’s detriment.

The best racing and working Samoyeds of recent times have been dogs of medium stature and structure, perhaps somewhat taller than the standard, which is 19 to 23 ½ inches at the shoulders but never exceptionally heavy in body or bone. The ideal working Samoyed ranges from 22 to 24 inches and weighs 42 to 55 pounds. Males have more “punch” and are ordinarily a more useful size for work, but smaller, racy females can certainly add to a racing team.

On the average, Samoyeds possess a more concerned personality than other Arctic breeds; they are capable of great loyalty and have a pronounced desire to please. They are somewhat more apt to stand up to pressure that is typical of a natural runner, and they often excel in less-than-perfect conditions, where other dogs lose heart. They have a natural stubbornness and a strong will which once tuned to the driver’s advantage will keep them working hard. Although most Samoyeds are not fast enough to compete in speed races against Siberians or Alaskans, the Samoyeds heart and loyalty make him an exceptional dog, and drivers of Sam teams will break no despairing comparisons with any other dog team.

Breed clubs, traditionally interested more in show or obedience activities, have begun to recognize racing teams or weight pulling accomplishments of purebred dogs. The Siberian Husky Club of America, The Malamute Club of America, or the Organization for Working Samoyeds, for example, seeks to reward those dogs, which excel at tasks they were originally bred for—pulling sleds.

Next Week: Other Northern Breeds

Tags: Robert Forto | Michele Forto | Iditarod | Team Ineka | Dog Training Denver | Dog Doctor Radio | Denver Dog Works | Mushing Radio | Duluth Dog Works

_______________________

Dr. Robert Forto is training for his first Iditarod under the Team Ineka banner. Dr. Forto can be reached through his website at https://teamineka.com

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: #dogs, #dogtraining, denver dog works, dog doctor radio, dog sledding, dog training denver, forto, ineka, Mushing, pet training denver, robert forto, samyoed, sled dogs, team ineka

Mushing Legends: Scotty Allen

February 9, 2010 by teamineka

Scotty Allan

By Robert Forto, PhD

Scotty Allan journeyed to Alaska, attracted by news of the gold strike in the Klondike. Around him were men of action from many different countries, dependent on in a large measure upon animals. It was not long before Allan had a wife, a baby and a dog team, and with his uncanny knack with animals, was well on his way to being a first class dog-puncher. His first leader was named Dubby, a Mackenzie River Husky from the stock of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Dubby led the team the day his venturesome owner decided to sledge across the Bering Strait to Russia. While in Russia, Allan visited some Siberian Eskimos and then headed back to Nome, impressed with the self-sufficiency of those people.

Scotty Allan joined with Judge Albert Fink and other Nome citizens to organize the All-Alaska Sweepstakes, the first official series of sled dog races anywhere. From these races emerged a new kind of hero in the far North, the racing sled dog driver. In preparation for these 408-mile non-stop races, Allan put his team and himself into training. He watched everybody’s diet, gave up smoking and even practiced going without sleep. He must have done something right, for the first eight years of the Sweepstakes, Scotty Allan never finished lower than third and had three firsts and three seconds to his credit. His team consisted of lop-eared freighting dogs, mongrels, and he was proud of their ability on the racing trails.

In more than one race, however, Allan could look back over his shoulder and see John “Iron Man” Johnson’s long string of Siberians slowly gaining on him. Johnson led a team of culls from Fox Ramsay’s other two imported Siberian Husky teams to a record setting win for him in 1910. The handwriting was on the wall for the mixed-breed freighting teams. Johnson’s Siberians beat Allan’s team by nine hours in 1914, and then Leonhard Seppala and his Siberians wrapped it all up in the final three years of the Sweepstakes.

______________________
Dr. Robert Forto is a professional musher training for his first Iditarod racing under the name Team Ineka. Dr. Forto can be reached through his website at https://teamineka.com

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Pacing the Team

January 21, 2010 by teamineka

Pacing the Team

By Robert Forto, PhD

It takes hard training to get a team in top physical and mental condition before race season. By the time the dogs are hardened, they have lost their eagerness and might even be in a slump. Depending on how tired the dogs are, the musher should stop the serious training before race season. The dogs should be allowed to rest. After resting, a few dogs can be taken out on some very short runs. They should be left on the picket line longer then they want to rest, and the musher should not run them as far as the dogs want to go. This will restore the dog’s attitude and they will be eager to run again. If a musher can manipulate the dogs so that they are crazy to go while still in top form and still controllable, then the team will reach it’s peak performance.  With skill and sound judgment a musher can “peak out” the team just in time for the biggest event of the season.

The musher need not be a behavioral scientist or a learning theorist to accomplish this peak. They need not know the nuances of Skinnerian conditioning, Ivan Pavlov, Karen Pryor or Conrad Most. They just need to be able to read their dogs and communicate with them in a way that allows for synchronicity in order to win races and make the sport fun.

Mushing has been termed a blue-collar sport, not a white-coated, scientific endeavor. The idea is to have fun and become one of the team—the musher is the boss/leader, the quarterback if you will, and the dogs are his teammates.

_______________
Dr. Robert Forto a professional musher for Team Ineka and is training for his first Iditarod. Dr. Forto can be reached through his website at https://teamineka.com

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: #dogs, #dogtraining, denver dog works, dog doctor radio, dog sledding, dog training denver, forto, ineka, Mushing, pet training denver, sport racing, team ineka

Sled Dog Psychology: The Slump

November 24, 2009 by teamineka

Sled Dog Psychology: The Slump

By Robert Forto, PhD

This is a weekly series in which I explore a different topic relating to the sport of dog sledding and its impact on the social fabric of America and our canine companions.  I have been a professional musher for fifteen years and was given the privilege of writing my doctorate on the sport of dog sledding: Chasing the Dream: A Study of Human-Canine Communication in the Sport of Dog Sledding (2005). In these weekly articles I will showcase the sport, the history, how a dog team prepares for racing, and many more topics. If you have a story you would like to share about dog sledding please send me an email anytime at train@denverdogworks.com and be sure to check out our new website at https://teamineka.com

 The Slump

 “Has your team slumped yet?” is a common question in January. After heavy training in November and December, the whole team can go into a slump.  In a way, the slump is good, because the dogs learn that they must work whether they enjoy it or not.  The trick is to pull them out of it before the Big Event.

Mushers should first recognize the problem.  Are the dogs eager on the chain or in the kneel, but lack spirit on the trail?  Do you climb a hill and there is no power?  Do they not have any rhythm or unity?  Tugs go slack and enthusiasm wanes.  They bicker, goof off, and look for excuses to mess up.

Next, a musher must determine the cause of the problem.  Are the dogs fatigued, dehydrated, on a poor diet, suffering from infections or bad feet?  Or are they simply bored?  Only in the last case is the problem psychological and this usually goes together with general fatigue.

The musher should rest the dogs for a few days, then run them on new trails, even if you have to truck them somewhere.  Surprise them—head out the twenty-mile trail but turn back after three miles.  Time off is the best bet.  The dogs will bounce back eager and responsive, without backsliding much physically.  This is called peaking the team.

Pep talks along the trail can work wonders.  Most mushers will walk among the dogs, telling them how fantastic they are, even if you have to sometimes lie.  This works well after a bad run.  Maybe the dogs were pushed too hard on a hot day, or maybe the dogs had a fight, and they are now shooting dirty looks at each other.  After correcting the problem and the dogs are going reasonably well, the musher should stop and walk among the dogs.  They will not feel so bad.  On a long, tough pull, frequent stops keep the dogs motivated.  They will not worry that the musher will never stop, so they slack off less. A musher should be careful not stop too often or it will break their rhythm and annoy the dogs.

If the dogs rebel during a slump, a musher should not demand too much; but should not let them take advantage of you either. The musher should just cut the run short.  A good musher will keep the trip home upbeat, because the dogs go to sleep remembering the last thing that they learned during the day, not the first.  If the musher must run them the next day, they should go on a different trail or they will almost certainly have a repeat disaster.

A veteran musher’s advice is to make certain the dogs think you are holding them back, even when they are tired. The question is how? The answer is by using reverse psychology.  When the dogs are tired, they are glad to stop, but after a few minutes, they are usually ready to go again.  This time lapse is called the recovery time.  If the musher asks the dogs to go before they recover, they will have no enthusiasm. If the musher asks the dogs to go afterward, they need no second bidding; this is reverse psychology. 

Many mushers feel that like children, the dogs are trying to get the better of them.  If they think that you want to go, they want to stay, and vice-versa.  The turning point in their mood comes after they have recovered, when they feel like going again.  Standing up, shaking off, harness-banging, braking, and looking back are signs that the dogs have recovered.  It is important to note at this time that most behaviorists believe that dogs are not out to spite their owners, or “get the better of them”.  Whichever view an individual may hold it is important to ask, “What is really happing here, and what is the dog trying to communicate?”

By stopping when the dogs are not ready to stop and by resting longer than they feel is necessary, the musher is using reverse psychology to make them want to go.  It keeps them willing to go on a tough trail.  If the musher knows his dogs well, they will know when their dogs have recovered, even if they do not stand up together.  Shaking the handle-bow, whistling, or clucking brings the dogs to their feet readily.  The recovery period varies considerably, but half a minute to five minutes is usually all it takes.

Lead dogs require special attention because their attitude can hold together a ragged team.  Depressed leaders often turn a deaf ear to commands.  They must be replaced to avoid a worsening problem.  Just moving them back in the team can work miracles; or ask the dogs to go slower so that they are not pushing the front end so hard.

Next Week: Problem Dogs

___________________________________

Dr. Robert Forto is a professional musher and is training for the Iditarod. Dr. Forto is also the training director of Denver Dog Works and The Ineka Project in Colorado. Dr. Forto is the host of a weekly radio program, The Dog Doctor Radio Show, every Saturday. Dr. Forto can be reached through his website at http://www.denverdogworks.com

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: #dogs, #dogtraining, denver dog works, dog sledding, dogd doctor radio, Mushing, robert forto, sled dogs, team ineka

Sport Racing

October 13, 2009 by teamineka

Dog Sledding: Sport Racing

By Robert Forto

 This is the first in a weekly series of articles on the sport of dog sledding. I have been a professional musher for fifteen years and was given the privilege of writing my doctorate on the sport of dog sledding: Chasing the Dream: A Study of Human-Canine Communication in the Sport of Dog Sledding (2005). In these weekly articles I will showcase the sport, the history, how a dog team prepares for racing, and many more topics. If you have a story you would like to share about dog sledding please send me an email anytime at train@denverdogworks.com and be sure to check out our new website at https://teamineka.com

The Beginning

Dog racing began long before the invention of the sled.  It goes back to when men first began to use dogs to pull small burdens by a simple leather thong.  At that juncture in history a strange phenomenon began to unfold.  Man discovered that the dogs are fiercely competitive in the hunt, but are not naturally competitive in a race against time to reach a given point.  They will compete to catch a rabbit or other small game, but without incentive of the hunt they merely played at running.

However, once a dog is hitched to any burden with a man behind him, for some reason the dog acquires the competitive spirit to race.  When the dogs are harnessed to a sled, they become frantic if another team passes them on the trail—but only when a man is with them.

The annuals of history are replete with indications that primitive man raced dogs against each other—if only one dog against another, dragging burdens by leather thongs around their necks.  Every early record of encounters with Native Alaskans mentions dogs, and many allude to the racing of them.

The first race in continental North America was held at the St. Paul Winter Carnival in Minnesota in the early 1900’s. In this area, the fur trade was big business and dogs were used more extensively as the Native Americans began to be involved in commerce, and required transportation of more than just their supplies and their belonging. Then later on, the transportation route between St. Paul, Minnesota and Winnipeg, Canada eventually developed into a race event, the St. Paul Winter Carnival Race, that was made famous in the early 1990’s Disney movie, “Iron Will.”

In Alaska the gold rush brought a lot of people and a lot of international attention to the North. The books of Jack London and the poems of Robert Service made the gold rush in the Yukon, or on the Yukon River and in the Klondike famous. Dogs figured predominately in these literary works. The stories of Buck in The Call of the Wild and White Fang were read by hundreds of thousands of people at the time, and they are still best sellers in some areas.

When the gold rush moved on to Nome, Alaska, many miners and prospectors moved with it. One of those people was Scotty Allan, who had come originally from Scotland as a trainer and handler of horses. When he went to Canada and the Klondike, he got into mushing dogs for a living. When he later went to Nome, he got a job with a mercantile hardware company called The Darling. Darling was the owner’s name, and Allan transported supplies from Nome to the outlying camps using Darling’s sled dogs.

In the American West cities had begun to imagine that they needed to be doing something more, they needed to become cities where children could be raised and people were decent. In the West they would probably have an opera, build an opera house, and start to invite opera companies to come and perform. It was vastly different in Alaska.

All Alaska Sweepstakes

In Nome, Alaska the idea was to develop a kennel club, and races for kids first of all were organized. After a while, they decided they needed a major event like the Kentucky Derby, which would be a social event as much as a sporting event. One of the attorneys in town was from Kentucky, and he and the people of Nome hit on the idea of having a long distance sled dog race, which became the Alaska Sweepstakes. For the first years of the race Scotty Allan was the winner and, if not the winner, he was one of the contenders. Later on there were a number of people who had heard about dogs in Siberia which were claimed to be faster or to have better endurance. Several expeditions brought dogs from Siberia over to Alaska. A lot of them were inbred with the native Alaskan dogs. Some of the people continued to race the dogs that were already there in Alaska, which were crosses between hunting dogs and whatever dogs the gold rush had brought. They did recognize, though, that those dogs from Siberia were a little bit different.

The Alaska Sweepstakes fast became a big media event. As the attention of the world was sometimes drawn to the gold rush in Nome, these races caught the imagination of the journalists, writers and the public who read the newspapers. As the news spread, some of these dogs made it south to California as early as 1914, and some of them were used in races started by the new mushing enthusiasts. Most likely, in 1914 or 1915, races were begun in The Pas, Manitoba and other places that had seasonal snow.

A lot of these races were related to using these dogs as working animals, and of the dogs spent most of their careers working in harness, hauling supplies and people around. Then for a short period every winter and spring, these dog drivers would participate in the races, which was their claim to fame; but racing was not the dogs’ full time profession.

Racing in The “Lower 48”

Then in 1925 came the diphtheria serum run. It brought a lot more attention to the dogs resulting in a statue in Central Park, New York of one of the leaders, Balto. Leonhard Seppala claimed it was Togo who deserved the credit though. But at the time dog mushing had spread across North America, and very soon, there were races in New England and in the western states—California, Idaho, and in The Pas, Manitoba. But racing in Alaska was still a big time event.

In the 1920’s, the famous were Leonhard Seppala and a French Canadian named Emile St. Godard. They had different types of dogs. Seppala had the dogs that would later become known as Siberians, although they were not called Siberians at the time, but he was not concerned with registering them. St. Godard had a cross of the native husky type dogs and long-legged coursing dogs like greyhounds and stagehounds. The mushers would load their dogs into box car trains in The Pas and the mushers in New England would load their dogs and travel to The Pas, and they would all go to race in Ashton, Idaho in a race that was to become the Great American Dog Derby.

At this point dog mushing was on a roll. There was an exhibition sled dog race at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics in 1932. There were major races with a lot of publicity throughout North America. Companies, or a company’s owner with a fair amount of money sponsored many of the teams of that day. A man from Chicago who would come up on vacation to The Pas area sponsored St. Godard. He used to tell St. Godard that he was in the meat packing business. Later on there were some people who claimed that he was actually in the Mafia, and describing his profession as a meat packer was one way of putting it.

Although mushing was popular, there were some in New England who felt there was just not enough activity. They thought it would be a lot simpler to award prizes to the dogs without having to race them, so they created two breeds, which they called the Siberian Husky and the Malamute. Rather than determining which dogs were the best because of their racing performance, they would just write down on a piece of paper a breed standard and award prizes because the dogs looked like they ought to be good. This was the foundation of the breed clubs for both dogs, and they continue to this day under the umbrella of the American Kennel Club.

There is at least one account of a breeder/musher named Eva “Short” Seeley who went through her kennel and picked out dogs and decided arbitrarily that this dog was going to be a Siberian Husky, and that dog is going to be a Malamute. Supposedly, some of the Siberians and Malamutes were in the same litter. Fortunately, in Alaska and other parts of the country where dogs were still being used for working, people did not pay any attention to that. Leonhard Seppala did not either for long. He went on for a while breeding white dogs, but then he decided on another type of dog. This had some consequences. In the next twenty years dog mushing did go into a decline. World War II had something to do with it. There were some uses for dogs during the war, but on a large scale, mushing activities in North America, even after the war ended.

Then the races were restarted in Alaska, along with some in New England. They were restarted in The Pas in the early fifties after a delay related to the war. It was a slow period in the sport, and the hope of its revival, because of national and international publicity in the 1920’s and 30’s and the participation in the Winter Olympics, did not happen.

In the early seventies there was a feeling among some people that the big event or the big part of the sport that needed to be saved in order for the sport to survive was open class mushing. During that time a lot of people were saying that they had to have a lot more participation in the open class; they have got to have more people involved so that they can have more open teams. Many people did not get involved because they were not ready to make the kind of commitment it takes to have thirty or forty dogs in their yard. There were a lot of obstacles in those days, and if a musher was not willing to make the commitment, their efforts would often be fruitless. It was those mushers who did make the commitment, who dedicated themselves to dog mushing, who gave up other professions to be dog mushers even through it was not very profitable, may have sustained or saved the sport.

The Iditarod

Many mushers in the 1960’s big ambition was to win the North American or the Rendezvous, which were the biggest mushing events in the world. It was their thought that if they could become famous, they could make a career out of that. Most of these mushers failed to make ends meet. Then in 1973, the Iditarod started. Some of those same mushers scoffed at it and said that mushers would never make it to Nome. They said, the race was never going to be anything. But it immediately became an event, because in a sense, it was a throwback race. It inspired people like the early dog races did. It was more of what the general public imagined dog sledding should be—that is working together with the dogs for long periods of time. When the Iditarod came along it immediately went into the forefront of the sport, and it helped to publicize the sport and bring people back into it.

A Sled Dog in Every State and Europe

About the same time inflation hit an all time high in the United States, the price of gasoline skyrocketed and dog food prices went up. People could not afford to travel anymore. In the 1980’s some other races came on and expanded the sport. The John Beargrease Marathon in Minnesota and the Alpirod in Europe are just two. Again the naysayers had their reservations. Many were opposed to the idea of racing in Europe saying it was a lot of nonsense, that mushing originated in North America and was going to stay in North America, and nobody was going to claim our glory. What was true is that new ideas were being developed in Europe, and that is still true. If a person was to look through a European sled dog publication, they would see all kinds of crazy ideas, and equipment and things that which have not been developed here in North America.

The Alpirod, the first big stage race in a long time, was a European invention. Maybe North Americans were just a bit too inflexible. We in North America have not thought of ways to promote the sport, and that is still true today.

When the Alpirod ended, because some big political and economic problems in France, it really did not make a big impact. There were other races that started. People in Europe were training dogs races and continue to do so because that is the way they enjoy working with their dogs. People in the United States and Canada, who may have planned to run the Alpirod, had to redirect their efforts, and focused on some new races like the rejuvenated The Pas race and The Yukon Quest. The races in Alaska continued to grow as well.

Today there are many races held throughout the winter months in the United States, as long as there is enough snow. Some notable races are the Race to the Sky in Montana, The UP-200 in Michigan, the Triple Crown races in Colorado, The International Pedigree Stage Stop Race and Atta-Boy 300 stage races in Wyoming and Oregon. Sprint and middle distance races are held each year in Minnesota, Maine, New Hampshire, Washington, Wisconsin and various other cold weather locales.

The future of the sport is very bright. A lot of people are running dogs, people are out having fun—recreational mushers who race small teams are the base of the sport today. Their common thread is they like the outdoors and they like to work with their dogs. Many a recreational mushers run dogs in winter carnivals and events put on by hundreds of breed and sled dog clubs throughout North America and Canada. Racing is being done in countries like Australia and Chilé, were they use three-wheeled carts instead of sleds. And as an added bonus the International Federation of Sled Dog Sports was formed with the sole purpose of getting the sport of dog sledding back into the Olympics. There is resurgence in making the Siberian a dual-purpose working dog, on the trail and in the show ring. These areas are where this researcher’s interest truly lie and is the purpose of this dissertation.

Summary

In summary, mushing has been popular for many hundreds of years. Events like the Alaskan Sweepstakes, the Nome diphtheria epidemic and later the establishments of the Iditarod have all contributed to its lure. Mushing has also been aversely affected to some degree or another by such circumstances as were presented in World War II. In spite of setbacks, the sport of mushing has been able to rebound and flourish today and is in fact becoming a worldwide phenomenon.

______________________

Robert Forto is a professional musher under Team Ineka, public speaker and the training director of Alaska Dog Works. Forto hosts a weekly radio program, The Dog Works Radio Show.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: sport racing

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