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Leonhard Seppala

The Future Home of Iditarod Dreams: Mush! You Huskies Radio Show

September 22, 2010 by teamineka

The Future Home of Iditarod Dreams: Mush! You Huskies Radio Show

As promised, yesterday, I wanted to showcase the sister show to our highly popular, Dog Doctor Radio Show to my rabid reader, fans and friends– Mush! You Huskies, better yet, MushingRadio.com was brought on board on the Dog Works Radio platform to fill a need for the future followers of Team Ineka and my quest to train for, and run the Iditarod in 2013.

We started the show to coincide with the start of the 2010 Iditarod in March and we followed the progress of the mushers on the trail and gave daily insight and commentary  about the race. Not being a sportscaster, our shows had more of a statistical bent to it but hey, we will get better in the future, right?

This summer, we started our very popular Dog Sledding Legends series and did shows profiling the greats such as Leonhard Seppala, Scotty Allan, Doc Lombard, to name a few.

Our goal is to chronicle the adventures of my training and racing career though the show. I plan in the future of offering interviews of me (by my co-host, wife and business partner, Michele Forto). I hope to have other musher’s interviews as well.

I would also like to showcase our sponsors on the show and allow them the opportunity to take advantage of this unique advertising medium. As any musher knows, in order to get to the “big race” we have to run miles, miles and more miles, and we are often dependent on our generous sponsors in helping us reach our financial goals.

By continuing to use the BlogTalkRadio format we are able to bring the cutting edge technology of the platform and have the ability of adding video, chats, remote interviews, email, call-ins for our guests and of course an international audience. With this perfect marriage of technology and social media it is our hope to bring the sport of mushing and one man’s quest to make his own personal history a reality.

As we always say… Never Forget Your Dreams and we will see you on the trail!

I welcome your comments and suggestions. Please comment below.

Robert Forto | Team Ineka | Alaska Dog Works | Mushing Radio | Dog Doctor Radio | Denver Dog Works

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

Filed Under: Mushing, Team Ineka Tagged With: #dogs, #dogtraining, denver dog works, Doc Lombard, dog doctor radio, dog sledding, Dog Sledding Examiner, dog sledding history, Dog Sledding Legends, dog training denver, dreamchaser leadership, forto, Leonhard Seppala, Mushing, robert forto, sled dogs, team ineka

Who Are These Dogs That Pull Sleds?

March 23, 2010 by teamineka

Who are These Dogs That Pull Sleds

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 Siberian Husky

The most popular of the registered breeds for sled dog racing is the Siberian Husky. An uncommonly attractive dog, the Siberian evokes for many the call of the wild, the lure of the North.  The finely chiseled, fox-like head, the pricked ears, the “mask” markings on the face, and the expressive eyes (often a light, icy blue), seems to personify the romantic image of the North country. In temperament, Sibes, as they are often called, can be affectionate or aloof, playful or serious. They are basically gentle, protective dogs.  Stories about their exploits as guardians of children are legend, and a keener companion would be hard to find.

Siberians are bred today for the show ring or for racing, and sometimes for both. The original standard of the breed, accepted by the American Kennel Club in 1930, purposefully described the qualities of the Siberian that made him a fine working animal.The peoples of the Chukchi Peninsula in Siberia had already developed a dog which excelled as a draft animal and companion; in the hands of Alaskan sport racers at the turn of the century the husky from Siberia was selectively bred to improve these desirable traits.

When Leonhard Seppala took some forty-four of these dogs to New England in 1927 and began racing and promoting the breed there, the stage was set for the development of the American Kennel Club registered Siberian Husky. Most of Seppala’s dogs figured significantly in the foundation stocks of such influential eastern kennels as Chinook, Foxstand, and Monadnock (these dogs from Harry Wheeler’s kennel at Gray Rocks carried the suffix “of Seppala”). This researcher even has a spattering of the Seppala lines in his own breeding stock and kennel under the name of Trafalgar. Seven other imported dogs found their way to the kennels of Elizabeth Ricker, in partnership with Seppala, and to Gray Rocks. The two males in Quebec, Kree-Vanka and Tserko, influenced the registered breed tremendously. In 1946, two descendents of these dogs were sent back to Alaska, care of Earl and Natalie Norris’s Anadyr Kennels, and a new generation of racing drivers rekindled the interest of Alaska in Siberian Huskies.

Siberians predominated on the best New England teams in the thirties, forties, and fifties. Roland Lombard drove Siberians when he won the World Championships at The Pas in 1957, and took second at the North American Championship in 1958. His dogs, especially one named Igloo Pak’s Tok, showed excellent Siberian conformation and would have provided tough competition in the show ring. In Alaska in the fifties, Champion Tyndrum’s Oslo, C.D.X. led the team of Charles and Kit MacInnes to dozens of victories. Champion Bonzo of Anadyr, C.D., led Earl and Natalie Norris team in sixteen championship races and was never out of the money.

The suffix of C.D.X. and C.D. are titles given to dogs at an American Kennel Club obedience trial. C.D.X. stands for Companion Dog Excellent and C.D. stands for Companion dog. These are advanced titles for a sled dog to obtain. Most of the time these titles are given to dogs that show promise for service dog work such as guide dogs for the blind or assistance dogs. For a sled dog to obtain these titles shows an excellent temperament and the ability to adapt to training. This in turn shows a strong correlation of the human-canine commination conundrum. Many times pure sled dogs do not do well in the obedience ring due to their innate nature to pull and their desire to roam. In an obedience trial one of the commands that must be mastered is a long down where the handler leaves the sight of the dog for up to five minutes. Typically a sled dog is too anxious to stay in one place for an extended period of time. Therein a sled dog with an advanced title shows the correlation to the sport of dog sledding and the training procedures used to train them.

Purebred Siberian teams abound wherever there is racing, and although they are often eclipsed in speed by the mixed-breed Alaskan Husky, their racing records are solid. Today’s racing Siberian can be a credit to good breeders, for behind the breed statistics (average 22 inches at the shoulders and 45 to 50 pounds), and beneath it’s glossy coat, still stands much of the graceful, intelligent, light footed, speedy husky from Siberia. It seems harder to tell what a blue-eyed dog is thinking than a brown-eyed dog, but when the sporty Siberian is harnessed to a sled, his thoughts are transparent. “He is all go! ( Note: endnotes have been removed for blog posting. If you would like to read article in its entirety please contact me through email at train@denverdogworks.com )

Next Week: The Alaskan Malamute

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

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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: Mushing Tagged With: #dogs, #dogtraining, denver dog works, dog doctor radio, dog sledding, dog training denver, forto, Iditarod, ineka, ineka project, Leonhard Seppala, Mushing, pet training denver, robert forto, siberian husky, sled dogs, sport racing, team ineka

Leonhard Seppala

January 26, 2010 by teamineka

Leonhard Seppala

By Robert Forto, PhD

No dog driver has the status, the renown and the respect of his colleagues as does Leonhard Seppala. His fame has lasted far beyond his brief national acclaim following the race to Nome against an epidemic. His greatness has long outlasted his success as a racer. Before his death in 1967 at the age of ninety, Seppala had been made an honorary member of four prestigious organizations: The Siberian Husky Club of America, The International Siberian Husky Club (which was originally chartered as the Seppala Siberian Husky Club), The New England Sled Dog Club and The Norwegian Sled Dog Club.

The longest sled dog race in North America was named for Seppala. When thirty four dog teams left the starting line in Anchorage on March 3, 1973 bound for Nome, in the first thousand-mile Seppala Memorial Iditarod Trail Race, no driver wore Number One. Starting position Number One had been reserved in memory of the most distinguished dog driver of all time.

In 1961, at a testimonial banquet at the Alaska Press Club, Lowe Thomas introduced the 84-year-old musher with sparkling blue eyes as “the greatest dog team driver that ever lived.” For Seppala was an original, an innovator, and a pioneer. There was no aspect of dog driving he left untouched. Even today, over one hundred years after his birth, many Siberian Huskies that race today are descended from Seppala’s Siberians.

At the turn of the century young Seppala left his native Norway, his father’s fishing boat and his apprenticeship with a blacksmith, to join the hundreds of new explorers seeking their fortune in the gold fields of Alaska. He soon discovered that a steady, if less spectacular, way to make money was to have a dog team and to freight supplies to the miners. Within a few years Seppala had the reputation as one of the best dog punchers in the new territory.

His life swerved onto a new trail when inspired by the excitement of the new sled dog races in Nome, he entered and won his first race at age thirty-six. The next year, 1914, he entered the All Alaska Sweepstakes with a team of young Siberian dogs he had been training for the explorer Roald Amundsen. After losing the trail and injuring his dogs, Seppala finished last.  He started that race with a leader named Suggen, and he was hooked on sled dog racing.

Seppala trained hard and in secret, far away from town and returned to win the race by over an hour in 1915.  He repeated this feat in 1916, and 1917, winning both Sweepstakes by large margins.  Seppala was to obtain permanent possession of the Siberians when Amundsen’s North Pole trip was cancelled. Seppala’s appreciation of the imported huskies was immediately apparent and years later he wrote, “Once more the little Siberians had proved their superiority over the other dogs and I was proud to have been their driver and to have brought them in such good condition.”

Seppala’s continuing success put him on “top of the list when the chairman of Nome’s Board of Health was looking for fast teams to go for the diphtheria serum being relayed in from Anchorage.”

Seppala’s leader by then was Togo, a son of Suggen. Togo, destined to be a hero as the result of his valiant leadership across the trackless treachery of Norton Sound, began life as a spoiled, hard to handle pup. He was the offspring of some of Fox Ramsay’s Siberian imports. Part of his early training including running free beside the big team, which he loved, but one day he ran into a team of tough Malamutes and was badly chewed up. Perhaps this is one of the ways a future lead dog learns part of his lessons, for Togo became the best passer Seppala ever had. Togo was a master at leading his team well out of reach of any other dogs on the trail.

After the successful life-saving race to Nome, Seppala toured the East Coast of the United States. In 1927 he took his whole team to New England and proceeded to win race after race. He won New England Sled Dog Club races in Maine and New Hampshire; he won Eastern International Dog Derby’s in Quebec; he raced in Lake Placid, although Canada’s great Emile St. Godard did beat him for first place in the Olympic Games exhibition race. Everywhere he went, if he was not actually racing, he was “talking dogs.” Many future dog drivers learned the basics, the fun and the dangers of driving sled dogs by listening whenever “Sepp” was around.

Eastern mushers became just as enamored of the Siberian Huskies as was Seppala and, with his help, selective breeding programs were started at several kennels. Seppala was looking for a slightly larger dog without diminishing alertness, grace and the lightness of foot had contributed to this natural breed’s success in racing. These new kennels provided this by mixing their bloodlines with his.

In addition to the dogs, Seppala introduced to the East at least two innovations to the sport of dog sled racing. To New Englander’s familiar with the single file freight hitch brought from Alaska by Arthur Walden, Seppala’s method of hooking the dogs in pairs with a single leader looked strange. Nothing bodes better for an innovation than success however, and this double tandem hitch, with occasional slight modifications, is standard in races today.  The other novelty presented by Seppala was the driver’s more active participation in the race. Although dog punchers and long-distance racers usually ran beside their sleds, the sprint racers would stand on the runners of their lighter sleds, jumping off only to run uphill. Seppala broke through this prevailing concept by introducing a pedaling motion. With one leg, as though on a scooter, timing his push with the dogs’ strides to keep the sled moving at an even rate.

Seppala and his wife returned to Alaska in the mid-thirties, and then after retirement moved to Seattle, Washington. In 1960 the chipper little man flew to Laconia to serve as honorary judge at the World Championships Sled Dog Derby. He was eighty-three years young and still delighted with the sled dogs. He reflected on his forty-five years of dog driving, his quarter of a million miles by dog team, his ninety-three silver cups and eight gold medals.  The people of Laconia knew they were witnessing a giant in the sport.

Beyond the trophies, the Seppala-strain sled dogs, the inspired dog drivers, the innovations and contributions to the sport, lies the quality of the man. In a sport where handling dogs well is a necessity, the best still pay tribute to Seppala’s skillful relationship with his dogs. In a sport where some try to win with pressure and punishment, Seppala’s unequalled triumphs were achieved with kindness and encouragement. A driver could be running a good race, but he knew if Seppala was in it, chances were good that the little Siberian team would go flying past, almost soundless. Many mushers would say that Seppala would just cluck them every now and then, and the dogs would lay into their harnesses harder than they have ever seen before. One competitor said, “Something came out of him and went into those dogs with that clucking sound. He passed me every day of the race and I wasn’t loafing any.”

After a long day Seppala would reach for his parka and cap and go out to his dogs one more time before retiring for the night to check on their comfort. Out would go that little weather-beaten Alaskan, a man who pinned his faith and his life on the good health, endurance and loyalty of his dogs.

_______________________

Dr. Robert Forto is a professional musher and the training director for Denver Dog Works. Dr. Forto can be reached through his website at https://teamineka.com


Filed Under: Mushing Tagged With: #dogs, denver dog works, dog doctor radio, dog sledding, dog training denver, forto, ineka, ineka project, Leonhard Seppala, Mushing, pet training denver, sled dogs, sport racing, stress and sled dogs, team ineka

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