ineka project

The Gold Rush

July 20, 2010 by teamineka

The Gold Rush

The Alaskan gold rush offered bigger stakes to many mushers. Men either went after the precious metal directly or they hauled supplies to miners, their camps and the settlements springing up across the region. Gold was first discovered in 1880 in Sitka, but was soon eclipsed by the Klondike Rush, which was on the scale of the California gold rush a half a century earlier. In California, mule and oxen transported supplies overland. In Alaska and the Yukon the method required riverboats in the summer and dog sleds in the winter. There were no roads or railroads in this land. The horses that were brought were extremely difficult to feed, and bogged down in the soft, deep snow. It was therefore left to the dog driver to tame this wild land.

Hauling freight became a booming business, a man could find work easily, but finding good dogs to haul the freight was a more difficult endeavor. The mushers were called “freighters” or “dog punchers” and they carried everything one could imagine. Gold if you were lucky, you if you were not. The “dog puncher” hauled his cargo on up to three of what were referred to as “Yukon” sleds, hitching one after another with heavy chain.

“The Yukon sled measured seven feet long and 16 inches wide, was braced and shod with iron and weighed as much as 80 pounds. For a good trail, a driver would load his three sleds with 600 pounds on the front sled, 400 on the middle one, and 200 on the rear. The team: six or seven large dogs, strong and hardy.”

These first mushers, the explorers, the hunters, and the “dog punchers” were the early professionals of the arctic region. They set high standards for all of their combined endeavors. These brave pioneers proved their worth time and time again in the opening up and settling of the arctic regions. These early professionals and their dogs were now ready for their next step in the journey from Siberia to sport racing: “assimilation into the developing modern society.”

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Dr. Robert Forto is the Dog Sledding Examiner, a musher training for his first Iditarod under the Team Ineka banner and the host of the Mush! You Huskies Radio Show

Ineka

July 15, 2010 by teamineka

Ineka

It is with a sad heart that I have to report that our dear friend, Ineka passed on yesterday, July 13, 2010. I want to personally thank all of our friends, family and fans that sent such kind words and support during this difficult time in our lives. It is funny how dogs affect our lives like they do. Ineka touched so many lives in is ten years with us and I want to share his story as a tribute to him and all those he made smile.

Watch the Remembering Ineka (iMovie) Please let it download all the way before playing it.

It was a cold and snowy morning in Denver in March of 2000 when Michele and I arrived at the cargo area at Denver International Airport. We were picking up a dog that we had rescued from a foster family in Washington State. We were expecting a white Siberian but we were mistaken, it was a striking black and white male with ice blue eyes and missing one of his long canine teeth.

In 2000 email was not the preferred communication medium yet and Facebook was not even heard of, so when we contacted the foster family in Washington it was almost by accident. While we shared many email messages and phone calls and when Ineka arrived we had no idea that this dog would change our lives forever.

We had already named Ineka before his arrival. His name, pronounced (IN-eck-A) means rescued friend in a Northern Native American dialect and he truly lived up to it as soon as he arrived. Michele and I loaded our new dog, who was supposedly four at the time (but we soon found out through a dental exam he was closer to two) and drove up the mountains to our Bailey, Colorado home. We were in the process of starting training for an Iditarod attempt in 2003 but I had not moved here full time yet from Minnesota and our dogs were just beginning their racing careers. I guess you can say that we were a work in progress.

We had a rough and tumble batch of Siberians in Colorado, most of them rescues and B-team members from other mushers. We had started training on the cart on the dirt roads in our neighborhood and when we arrived with Ineka we were thankful for the fresh snow on the ground.

I have owned a lot of Siberians over the years, starting with my first one, Axl in 1987 and then Rutgrr and Ryche that I purchased from a kennel in Georgia and becoming hooked on the sport of dog sledding when the breeder said, “Do you want to go for a ride?”

We hooked up a team of Siberians and off we went through the Smokey Mountains. But for some reason Ineka was different. He captured my heart from that first day and we quickly decided that he would be the house dog. This holds a special place for a sled dog because many never get to feel the comforts of laying in front of the fireplace or an occasional scrap from the family leftovers.

The next morning, we took the dogs out of the kennel, put them in harness and hooked them up for a run in the fresh snow. We brought Ineka out and put on a black harness and he went wild. I am a firm believer that Siberians were born to pull and Ineka was no different. We hooked him up into team position right in front of the wheel dogs and away we went down the road. Ineka was a natural. He pulled like he had been doing it for years. When I barked out the commands: Gee and Haw and Hike and Whoa his ears turned back like he knew what I was talking about. Could this dog have been a sled dog in is previous life? Could he be a lead dog too?

Within days Ineka was settled into his new home and quickly became what we called him for the rest of his days–Sergeant Ineka. He was the Sergeant of the kennel constantly breaking up scuffles and keeping the dogs in line when they chose to goof off. Ineka seemed to possess that rare trait of a true alpa dog and for what ever reason every dog that approached him showed him the utmost respect. Its hard to describe in words but if you have seen it you know what I mean.

The days passed with me working in the office and training in the night hours with Michele and the kids following me in the van while I was traveling at break-neck speeds on a three wheeled cart on a sheet of ice. What stories I could tell. After our runs I would always go to the fridge that we had in our basement where I kept my cheese stash and Ineka and I would share a hunk. I quickly learned that cheese, pizza and spaghetti were his favorites and we made it a point of our daily ritual all the way up until the day he passed.

Over the next few months, spanning through the summer and into the fall and early snow of winter, Ineka was placed in all the positions in the teams, both the A-Team and our B-Team of ragamuffins and he seemed to excel at all of them. He soon began running in lead and training puppies to learn the ropes in harness. That winter we started running our first races as a team and didn’t do well. I had always been a mid-distance musher and ran, mostly recreationally in Minnesota up to 45 miles at a stretch. I had no idea how to train or run a sprint race and we were sorely beaten by every team. But it sure was fun!

We introduced our three kids: Kyle, who was eight at the time, Tyler (5) and Nicole (3). While Kyle and Tyler were away at school Nicole would help out in the kennel and Ineka was always there to protect her from the other dogs should they come to close. Nicole was introduced into the dog training world and quickly became quite the little handler. All three of the kids ran races that first year with Nicole competing in a 100-yard dash with her “lead dog” Tamaya.

Over the years we got out of mushing for what I like to call “life getting in the way” and Michele taking a job in Denver as a paralegal. I was completing my doctorate research and was soon defending my work for my dissertation: Chasing the Dream: A Study of Human-Canine Communication in the Sport of Dog Sledding. I moved full time to Denver in October 2006 and joined Michele and the kids and soon opened Denver Dog Works.

Upon opening Denver Dog Works Ineka would come to work with me every day and he would continue his task of keeping all the dogs in line during playtime in the dog yard and we used him constantly in our growl classes and any time we needed a dog to demonstrate with or be a decoy for. He earned his keep and was paid handsomely in cheese and affection. About this time Michele grew tired of the mundane work of a paralegal of a big time law firm and soon quit to work with me full time at Denver Dog Works. She began to utilize Ineka as a “therapy dog” when we found that he had tremendous patience with a gaggle of kids during our sled dog presentations at local elementary schools.

In July 2009 we moved into our new location on Parker Road and Ineka was starting to show signs that he was not feeling well. After numerous trips to the veterinarian we concluded that he was most likely suffering from an illness closely related to Alzheimer’s, commonly called canine dementia. Ineka didn’t go to work with us much any more, but my tasks had changed a bit and I spent more time at my home office promoting Denver Dog Works and our new business Twine Group Media, a publishing company for my new book, Run With Poodles. I spent my mornings with Ineka by my side until the symptoms of his illness started to worsen. The most visible were the almost constant pacing and inability to settle down.

In the fall of 2009 my vigor for running the Iditarod re-surfaced having invited veteran Iditarod musher, Hugh Neff to speak at my daughters middle school. After the school talk Hugh and I had breakfast at a local restaurant and talked dogs. I told him of my intentions and we agreed to stay in touch.

In March of 2010, I was in Anchorage for a conference put on by Chris Fuller of Iditarod Leadership and I met Hugh for the ceremonial start. I am eternally grateful for Hugh allowing me the chance to handle for his team and to see him off on this latest attempt at the Last Great Race. I met a realtor while up in Alaska and exchanged information.

Over the spring my motivation was to do what ever I could to start the process of training for the Iditarod again. I had decided to name my team after my good buddy and run from this point forward under the Team Ineka banner. Michele and I had decided long ago that if Ineka could not be at the finish line when I crossed under the burled arch in Nome that we would spread his ashes along the Iditarod trail.

The next few months took me to Minnesota, California and Alaska (twice) looking for a property that would allow us to build our dream and have the ability to run sled dogs again. Living in the suburbs of Denver with a yard that you could literally spit across and an HOA restriction of just three dogs and absolutely no barking, it was time to move. On a whim I contacted my realtor friend in Alaska and he found me a place. It is an Iditarod veterans home that is within miles of the official start of the Iditarod in Willow, Alaska. My daughter and I flew up over the Fourth of July weekend and started the process of buying the place.

On Monday July 12, we officially signed the paperwork to own the home in Alaska. Later that day, some time while we were all at work, we think that Ineka suffered a stroke. When we returned home he could lift his head but he seemed to be paralyzed. One of his eyes was dilated and would not retract. I spent the night with him on the floor of our bedroom and cried while holding him in my arms. By the next morning Ineka had gotten progressively worse and we decided to take him to our vet, Dr. Holly Cogswell of Aurora Animal hospital.

We had decided long ago that we wanted to make Ineka’s last days as comfortable as possible and not to intervene with treatments that would most likely just make him more sick. By this time his dementia had gotten worse and we think he had cancer on his thyroid. We spoke many times to Dr. Cogsell and we had her on our radio show to talk about Canine Dementia. We felt that the only person in the world that could guide us in our time of need was Dr. Cogswell. Ineka passed over the rainbow bridge at our veterinarian, and also now our dear friend, Dr. Cogswell’s office. Michele, Tyler, and Nicole took Ineka inside and stayed with him during his passover. Tyler was steady and strong for his mom and little sister, but eventually broke down. Ineka had been their best friend for 11 years of their short lives.

That afternoon I was a wreck and I could hardly contain my emotions. It is funny how much our dogs hold on to our heartstrings so tight. I drove to Camp Hale near Leadville, Colorado, almost 140 miles from our Denver home. The site of our first sled dog race in Colorado and officially the start of the Team Ineka legacy. I performed a Native American ceremony for my dear friend helping him cross safely into the spirit world. I was amazed how vigorously I sang the songs and how much passion I had in my voice. I hadn’t sung those songs in years and it was like I read the lyrics yesterday.

I held my composure until I made it back to I-70 near Copper Mountain Ski Resort and I completely lost it crying my eyes out all the way to Georgetown, some 50 miles away. I regained my thoughts and quickly realized that Ineka knew it was time to go. It was bizarre–we had just signed the papers on the house in Alaska the same day he let go and it was like he was saying– “its okay my friend, I have done my job, now go do yours.”

I quickly emailed my good friend, Sid Korpi in Minnesota that had recently wrote a book on pet loss: Good Grief: Finding Peace after Pet Loss. She and I corresponded many times over email that day and she had emphasized that pets have an uncanny ability to know when it is time to go. Ineka did.

In August I will be heading to Alaska to start my racing kennel with hopes of running the Iditarod in 2013 under the Team Ineka banner. It is just something I have to do. I have thought about it since that first day with a dog team in those Georgia mountains. I know a lot of mushers have that dream and many pursue it. Many call it the Musher’s Bug. Once it gets in your veins its hard to contain. My plan (at least for now) is to stay in Alaska six months a year and the other months in Denver. We plan to keep Denver Dog Works in operation and spend our summers here at least until Nicole, now 13 and wanting to be a veterinarian, (do you think those early years in the kennel had anything to do with it?) goes to college. It will take me at least a year to get the house in order up there. It is truly a musher’s cabin with a working outhouse (that we can use in an emergency, if we need to) and high speed Internet. All the luxuries of home right? But I have tremendous drive and motivation but no carpentry skills. Luckily there is DIY Network on DirectTV. Michele and the kids will stay back while this chapter of our lives continues to be written. But one thing is for sure, Ineka’s spirit is in our hearts.

Being so close to the Iditarod trail will allow me to fulfill my promise to spread my rescued friend’s ashes in the spot that we have talked so much about over the years and then Ineka’s spirit will make the stars shine just a little brighter to guide all of us on our way to never forgetting your dreams.

On this day Ineka, my dear friend, wear your silver harness with pride and we will see you on the trail.

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Dr. Robert Forto is the Dog Sledding Examiner, a musher training for his first Iditarod racing under the Team Ineka banner and the host of the Mush! You Huskies radio show

Influential People in the Development of Learning Theory Part I

May 11, 2010 by teamineka

Influential People in the Development of Learning Theory Part I

By Robert Forto, PhD

Huxley and Darwin

It is unclear when formalized studies of learning actually began, however, Professor Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895) birthed the theory of association in the early 1870’s. Professor Huxley stated that “It may be laid down as a rule, that, if any two mental states be called up together, or in succession, with due frequency and vividness, the subsequent production of one of them [mental states] will suffice to call up the other, and that whether we desire it or not.” This observation may very well have laid the groundwork for later studies in respondent and operant conditioning. Huxley was an outspoken advocate of the naturalist Charles Darwin (1809-1882). The professor was so passionate in his defense of Darwin’s theories that he was often referred to as “Darwin’s Bulldog”.

In Darwin’s The Expression of the Emotion in Man and Animals, Professor Huxley’s influence was evident in Darwin’s observations of the emotions of man and animals. When studying animal expression Darwin was vividly aware of the challenges associated with those observations. He writes, “The study of expression is difficult, owing to the movements being often extremely slight, and of a fleeting nature.”Nevertheless, Darwin’s careful observations were of immeasurable value to later researchers. Darwin continued where Huxley left off by recognizing that movements, no matter how complex, can be performed with little or no forethought and minimal efforts when they have been performed with enough frequency. This premise was the foundation for Darwin’s Principle of Antithesis, which reasons, that states of mind lead to the performance of “habitual actions”, when a “directly opposite” state of mind occurs, there is a “strong and involuntary” tendency to perform movements and actions of a “directly opposite nature”. This principle is of special interest to observers of canine communication techniques, and can help the astute observer decipher the signal being sent and received by a canine, whether it is intra- or interspecies communication. Darwin states further “that gestures and expressions are to a certain extent mutually intelligible.”

Darwin speaks of his own dog’s “hot-house” face and reasoned that the opposite expression displayed by his dog was innate and not a deliberate attempt at communicating his desire to not go to the “hot-house.” He further states, “hence for the development of the movements which came under the present head, some other principle, distinct from the will and consciousness, must have intervened.”

While the vast majority of canine communication is accomplished via body language, there is some evidence that canines posses at least a limited verbal vocabulary. While most canines in the wild do not bark, but howl, this is not the case for the domesticated canine. According to Darwin “…some animals after being domesticated have acquired the habit of uttering sounds which were not natural to them. Thus domesticated dogs, and even tamed jackals have learnt [sic] to bark, which is a noise not proper to any species of the genus with the exception of the Canis latrans of North America, which is said to bark.” In regard to the Principle of Antithesis “…the bark of anger, and that of joy are sounds which by no means stand in opposition to one another;…” This lack of observable difference between barks is likely the reason that canines rely on body language so extensively. Canine body language has been studied extensively and is well documented. These postures or lack of them have been discussed in-depth in chapter three.

This is will be a multi-week series on the influential people in learning theory and the dawn of modern dog training.

If you have any questions or comments we would love to hear from you at live@dogdoctorradio.com

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Dr. Robert Forto is the training director of Denver Dog Works and the host of the Dog Doctor Radio Show. Dr. Forto can be reached through his website at http://www.denverdogworks.com

K-9 Communication by Al Magaw

May 2, 2010 by teamineka

K-9 Communication 2

By Al Magaw

I’ve had so many comments on last week’s blog, all positive – I really expected some controversy about animals, and us, to a lesser degree, being able to communicate wordlessly, and without motion, to indicate thoughts – I’ve received stories that told about dogs being able to inform their owners when there was a sick lamb, stories about dogs that just “know” when there is something that’s going to happen that involves them without any obvious indication from the owners, to the story of the siberian husky that wakes it’s owners every morning from Monday to Friday so they aren’t late for work, but lets them sleep in on Saturday and Sunday – obviously, the siberian can read the calendar? – no, I didn’t think so – I’d like to share part of a letter from an old friend that I received a number of years ago – a letter that started me wondering a bit more and observing more closely, how animals communicate without words – In part, the letter reads —-

“Kuma, my Rottie, is an angel in the shape of a dog. He made his way through three bullets to reach my door. He has taught me much about play, about lightening up (in training), and visualization. He has led the way for me (to) learn deep mind/body/spirit communication from him”. ——– “Kuma has showed me what my next pathway will be as an animal communicator. I am seriously looking into that field as I would truly like to be able to “speak” with dogs and horses and learn what they really have to say about issues in their lives.” She goes on to say, “Rottweilers are pretty intensive dogs, different from any I have owned before. Kuma is teaching me to “send” pictures to him as a way of communicating”.

My friend goes on to describe how she found Kuma on her porch one morning, badly wounded with three bullet holes in him. She nursed him back to health and on one of the first walks with him.

“He started to chase some deer that went flying off in front of him.” “I immediately sent off a picture of him in the stage of a stock horse doing a sliding stop.” — “He looked just like a stock horse as he slid to a stop. He immediately came right to me, the first time he had done so off leash.” “I felt like I had just won a championship!” “it was an awesome moment. He is one powerful dog who displayed a fine line between play and aggression when he first came into my life.”

The letter goes on to talk about mutual friends and interests — I’ve read this letter from my friend many times over the years since I received it and it still sends shivers up my spine, shivers of recognition of what is what is real and possible, if only we could learn.

We would love to hear your comments regarding this article. Please let us know at live@dogdoctorradio.com

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Al Magaw is a musher from Salmo, BC. Al keeps a medium sized kennel of 20 – 45 alaskan huskies as well as several pet dogs of various breeds. Al has been training and racing for the last 33 years. Before becoming involved with sled dogs, Al, along with his family, kept and competed with horses for many years. Al can be reached through his website at http://www.spiritofthenorthkennels.com Al is a guest blogger for Denver Dog Works and can be reached through our website at http://www.denverdogworks.com

K-9 Communication by Al Magaw

April 25, 2010 by teamineka

K-9 Communication

by Al Magaw

I think every dog owner has experienced incidents when their dog seems to know, without being told, when the owner is going to be doing something that the pet will be involved in. Much of this recognition can be put down to clues like a break in routine, body language, verbalization, etc. There are times, though, when none of the above apply. Times like a Saturday morning when the owner gets up at the same hour as normal, puts on the same clothes as normal, goes through the same routine as they do the rest of the week, yet the dog is filled with excitement because they “know” they are going too. There has been no verbalization, no change in routine, yet the dog knows. How is this possible? I’ve always wondered about this phenomena. I didn’t pursue this line of thought though, even when I was demonstrating how my dog would do tricks as I silently read a list of tricks scribbled on a scrap of paper. I did my best to not move my body, nor give any clue, even avoiding eye contact, but “Cylus” would reliably roll over, sit up, speak, etc., as I read what ever trick was written on the list. It made a great parlour trick to show off to friends and family, but it wasn’t until I got my little border collie, “Quick” that it dawned on me that this phenomenon of silent communication went much further than a parlour trick.

Many mushers have experienced having leaders that would go down the wrong trail, perhaps a dangerous one, no matter what command was being given. The common advice given is to keep your thoughts on the trail you want to be on, rather than the one you don’t. I’ve heard mushers claim that all they have to do is to picture in their mind what trail they want to travel without giving a command, and that’s where their “in tune” leader will go. Many obedience trainers will advise “picturing” the behavior you want from your dog, rather than fearing the behavior you don’t want.

To get back to “Quick”. Quick was a rescue from the pound. I’ve always admired the intelligence of the border collie, the dedication to the job they have, their alertness and awareness of what’s going on, but I had no expectations of what was going to happen with Quick. Quick assumed the job as caretaker of the kennel, a self imposed job that she has dutifully fulfilled for the past 13-years. She treats the kennel dogs as her charges, much as a dog like her would be expected to treat a herd of sheep. Not only does Quick do her best to keep order in the kennel, and does her best to help bring dogs from the kennel to the hook-up area, she has brought loose dogs back to the truck when we were traveling. Quick never leaves the kennel to follow a team when we’re training at home. When we return from a run, she goes up the side of the team with me as I give each dog a pet and a “good dog” for a job well done. Quick will nuzzle an ear as I give each dog a pet, as if she too was saying “good dog”. That is until we come to a dog that screwed up on the run. To me, once we are home, every dog is a “good dog” and they all get their pet, yet Quick will start to scold and nag that dog with a series of sharp yips and barks. How she knows what a dog did on the trail, I could only surmise. It took a friend of mine to point out the most remarkable thing about Quick and the sled dogs though. Occasionally, Quick will scold a dog on it’s way from the kennel to the hook-up area, and sure enough THAT dog will screw up during the run! That’s when I realized that dogs have a way of communicating well beyond mere words. Not only are they able to silently communicate complex things, they have an awareness of the future, and can make plans and follow through with those plans.

Some humans have admirable intuitions about people or events. Watching my dogs for all these years has made me wonder if what is commonly called “intuition” is a vestige of what animals do all the time, much as our tail bone is a vestige of a tail.

We would love to hear your comments regarding this article. Please let us know at live@dogdoctorradio.com

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Al Magaw is a musher from Salmo BC. Al keeps a medium sized kennel of 20 – 45 alaskan huskies as well as several pet dogs of various breeds. Al has been training and racing for the last 33 years. Before becoming involved with sled dogs, Al, along with his family, kept and competed with horses for many years. Al can be reached through his website at http://www.spiritofthenorthkennels.com Al is a guest blogger for Denver Dog Works and can be reached through our website at http://www.denverdogworks.com

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

April 20, 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.

Alaskan Husky and Village Dog

Mixed breeds ran the first sled dog races in Nome, Alaska, and today’s best teams are still made up of mixed breeds, although of a vastly different genetic composition. The first racing sled dogs were “working animals first and racers second.” The Eskimos and Indians of Alaska had their natural breeds of sled dogs when the gold “stampeders” arrived in the last years of the 1800’s, but there were not enough dogs to support the thousands of men and women traveling around the territory. As a result, large, strong dogs were brought from the lower 48 states, mixed in with the northern dogs, and the result was mongrel sled dogs like those of Scotty Allan. These were the dogs that won the early All-Alaska Sweepstakes races, but were rapidly replaced by the fast, more intelligent and more eager to please Siberian Huskies on the racing trails. Then as sled dog racing became popular and profitable in Alaska, drivers bred their working stock with the fastest native dogs they could find. These tough hybrids provided a speedy tenacity, and when interbred with the bigger Alaskan Malamute or the Mackenzie River Husky (the biggest of the natural sled dog breeds from Canada) produced a racing sled dog to suit most early competitors.

The most frequent canine winners of sled dog races today are Alaskan Huskies and another indigenous Alaskan marvel called the Village Dog. Neither of these types are purebreds but they are recognized as distinct nevertheless. The Alaskan Husky is essentially a mixture of northern dogs, and would be called simply “husky” in Alaska. The Village or Indian Dog is the chief racing dog in Alaska and has been for many years. Basically a northern dog, but in his background is anything from domestic stock, to wolf, to whatever the interior villages of Alaska had around.

Alaskan Huskies, bred mainly by white men in the north, reveal their dominant arctic genes in their appearance; a nicely marked face, curled tail, pricked ears, and perhaps blue eyes. The larger of this type have been bred from Malamutes or Mackenzie River Huskies or even wolves. The smaller ones reflect their Siberian Husky or Samoyed background. Siberian-Malamute cross-breedings yield the most common Alaskan Huskies, but there can also be Eskimo or Greenland Husky, or any other northern breed mixed in. The average Alaskan Husky stands from 24 to 26 inches high, weighs between 50 and 70 pounds, and can be quite handsome. This breed is taller than the Siberian, lighter and rangier than the Malamute and stronger than almost any other bred on the snowy racing trail.

Ever since the mid-fifties when John Huntington surprised the racing world by winning the Dual Championship with a dog team from Huslia, Alaska, the dogs from that area have been deservedly famous for their racing abilities. Neither Huntington or George Attla can definitely pin down the origin of this village dog, but they are aware of variations from village to village. According to Attla, “the average production of good dogs in Huslia is much higher than any place I have been to. I have gone to a lot of places and gone through a lot of dogs, just buying dogs generally, but I still get my best percentage right in Huslia.” The Huslia strain shared with other Koyukuk River villages of Allakaket and Hughes, contains some hound, collie and Labrador Retriever, since that is what is in the village. They are fast, strong sled dogs and have earned the title of “Huslia Hustler” for several of the local racers.

Efforts to keep track of sled dogs in their own registry are more popular in the lower 48 states than in Alaska. The Alaskan Husky Club provides a registry for the non-pedigreed Alaskan Husky and the International Sled Dog Racing Association has developed guidelines for registering sled dogs. Qualifications for dogs on these registries are based on performance, similar to the Border Collie registries for herding, and not on appearance. A dog’s ancestry becomes significant and valuable only when it can prove itself on the trail or as a producer of other good sled dogs.

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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