Sled dog racing season has arrived. A prelude of smaller, shorter races got things started in December. Now the 200- and 300-mile events of January are underway.
Organized sled dog racing is a rapidly evolving sport. How it evolves and the direction it takes is important to those of us who participate and those who watch.
Participation is not limited to mushers. It also involves race organizers, volunteers, and sponsors. Possibly the most important people in controlling the direction this young sport will take is the race fan.
Over the past several decades, the Iditarod has come to be synonymous with sled dog racing, catching the attention of dog fanciers that otherwise might know little of sled dogs.
Innovator Jeff King
Most race watchers have no idea of the mechanics involved in getting a team of dogs down a thousand-mile trail. Training techniques are a mystery and the care and feeding of sled dogs is often an assumption. To many, the equipment that mushers use is just a sled and a pair of snowshoes.
In reality, the gear that mushers use has undergone major changes over the past 15 years. Four-time Iditarod champion Jeff King has been perhaps the most innovative musher in the sport. Credit him, for instance, with the "tail-dragger" sled designed with a very short front basket and a gear-carrying compartment behind the driver. Whether this was Jeff's idea or not, he is the guy who brought it onto the modern-day mushing scene.
The tail-dragger has morphed into several types of trailer sleds. A trailer sled is a smaller sled towed behind the driven sled and can be detached and dropped if necessary. The trailer is generally used to carry gear and rest dogs. There has been some controversy concerning the dog hauler and how the trailer is used. Dallas Seavey, winner of the 2015 Iditarod, used a trailer to rest as many as three dogs at a time while he moved down the trail.
This technique begs the argument as to whether resting dogs should be allowed while a team is moving down the trail, or do all of the dogs, barring injury, need to be on the towline? As a racer, I have nothing against resting a dog in my sled on occasion; all of us do it. On the other hand, I hear from a number of race fans who think trailers, sitdown sleds and taildraggers all should be disallowed. The reasoning is that competition in this sport should be based on dog-power, not equipment. That reasoning has some merit; a good comparison might be NASCAR rules.
The Iditarod has a history of barring changes. King tried small wheels on a sled for the hard-pack trail on the Yukon River. Martin Buser used a sail on the Iditarod's northern route. The Iditarod nixed both ideas.
Dog food upgraded
Dog food has also seen big changes. High fat calorie-dense feeds are the order of the day. Some of that food is kibble, much of it is beef imported from the Lower 48. Salmon still plays an important role, though not as a base diet in most cases. Dogs are no longer given baited water in the morning and a big meal at the end of the day. They are given calories before the run and fed many times during both training and racing runs. The Iditarod's visibility has encouraged dog food manufacturers to improve the quality of their feeds and helped to promote better nutrition for all dogs.
Along with better nutrition, dog conditioning has changed. Long gone are the days when a 30-mile session was considered a long training run. Twelve and 14-hour runs are now relatively common when training a competitive group of dogs. There are disagreements as to whether or not extremely long runs should be regulated during races, however. This is certainly a subject that may be addressed by the rules committees of the various races. Wishes of fans, thoughts of competitors and the welfare of the dogs all need to be considered.
Upgrades in food, technology, animal care and training have combined to allow the Iditarod go from a race that took the winner more than 20 days to complete in its early days to one that sees a champion in less than nine days — with far fewer dog deaths.
Whether one is a competitive distance racer or someone who occasionally checks in on the Iditarod, all of us have a role to play. Folks with a Yorkie in their lap certainly care about the treatment of dogs. People who like competitions care about a level playing field in their sport. Sponsors of individuals and events all have concerns about the value and return on the dollars they spend. Whatever category you fit into, don't be afraid to stand up and have your say.
John Schandelmeier is a lifelong Alaskan who lives with his family near Delta. He is a Bristol Bay commercial fisherman and two-time winner of the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race.