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Who is
your favorite dog? - To be honest
neither Erin nor have
really
have a favorite dog. They are ALL excellent sleddogs and
companions and each dog has
unconditional loyalty towards us. Every
dogs has
it role in the team and we always try to distribute our
praises
to the dogs equally. Although each dog does have it own
personality,
some are shy, some are very out going and some submissive
to other
dogs in the kennel much like the hierarchy in a wolf pack.
What is
the cost of their food?- From September through March our
food costs for 22 dogs runs about $400 per
month. During the off
season
its about $200 per month. The extra cost during the running
Season
is because a sled dog needs lots of calories during the winter
to help
keep them warm and because they get so much exercise, they can
lose
weight very easily especially when it is very cold. During the
winter
we typically feed one measured cup of commercial dog food
(which
is high in fat and protein, made special for working dogs) plus
1-1.5
pounds of a specially formulated beef mix (has vitamins and fat
added)
or salmon with poultry fat. During a race sleddog can burn
10,000
calories a day.
How do
you chose what position your dogs run in.- A dog team is
broken
up into four different units: Leaders, Swing Dogs (just behind
the leaders),
Team dogs, and Wheel Dogs (just in front of the sled).
Leaders
are dogs that can handle the stress of leading 14 or 15 other
dogs
though all of the obstacles your teams faces on the trail, they
must be
able to follow commands and at times
predict (it seems like)
what the
musher is thinking. Swing dogs are usually also leaders and
are
typically faster than most other dogs in the team. Team Dogs are
the
motor of the team and usually are dogs that run at a steady pace.
Wheel
Dogs are dogs that are able to move on either side of the
gang
line easily with out getting tangled and they are typically the
strongest, biggest dogs in the team but not always.
Do you
have any new dogs. - Yes, we purchased two dogs, Maize and
Repel
from Vern Halter who finished 3rd in last years Iditarod. Maize
will be 2
this summer and Repel will be 3 this summer.
How many
races have you run?- This year we did a 25/25 which is
where
you run 25 miles each day for 2 days, a total of 50 miles and
the
Klondike 300. Last year we ran two 200-mile races and a 120-mile
race.
What was
your most difficult race? That would have to be the
Klondike
300 because the extra 100 really changes how you have to run
the dogs and it takes much longer to
run, about 4 days. Where the 200
mile
races take about 2.5 days.
What was
your longest race? The Klondike 300
What are
the expenses. Entry fee for a 300-mile race is usually
about
$350, food for the race is about $200, plus booties, which are
about
.80 cents each and you have to always carry in your sled, enough
booties
to bootie each dog twice. We always have booties on each dog
for
distance races we used about 500 booties on the k-300, which added
up to
$500 just in booties. Races are very expensive ....you do the
math!
What is
the length of training? Well our training starts in
September on the 4-wheeler doing
1 - 2 mile runs. By January we are
running
30 - 40 mile runs two to three times a week, plus 50 - 60 mile
runs once each week. Bye Mid January we
have approx. 600 training
miles on
the race team.
Why do
you like living in Alaska. mmmm good question, I guess because
it is so
beautiful and wild. We have a large Salmon stream in our back
yard,
and moose are always around on the property. Alaska is so
diverse,
from the arctic slope which is flat and
cold, to the
interior
with its huge mountains, to southeast AK where the mountains
meet the
sea. It’s all so amazing and never a dull moment.
Have you
ever had frost bite? not yet but I have had frost nip. Which
is the
first stage of frost bite. You get large blisters on your toes
or
fingers.
What words are used to control the dogs?
Gee - right
Haw - left
Whoa - stop
Whoa easy - slow down
Gee over - dogs take a couple steps to the right
Haw over - dogs take a couple steps to the left
Come gee - dogs turn 180 degrees to the right
Come haw - dogs turn 180 degrees to the left
Whistle means to speed up
Good doggie - how we praise them
On up - encouragement to get up a hill
How did you first get interested in dog mushing?
For Thanksgiving in 1996 I took my mom dog mushing. I loved it so much
I signed Paul and myself up to be volunteers for the Iditarod. Then for
Valentines Day three years ago I took Paul dog mushing. He loved it too!
So, right then and there we decided we were going to mush dogs. Paul
didn't think I could find and buy a house within 4 months and have a team
of 10 dogs 5 months later! He thought I was crazy!
Have you ever known anyone who has won a race?
Yes, we know Martin Buser (three time Iditarod winner) and Vern Halter
(Yukon Quest winner). Both are very nice men!
Have you ever became sick while racing?
Nope! Lucky! Paul and I did get slight hypothermia and frost nip on a
training run once.
Do you workout before a race?
Running and working with the dogs in the winter keeps you in pretty
good shape. There isn't usually time (or money) to go to the gym during
training season. We did join a gym last month to keep in shape during the
summer.
How much sleep do you get during a race?
In a 24 hour period you only get 4-6 hours of sleep and that is a good
day!
Have your dogs ever ran away?
Last winter on our first sled run both Paul and I lost our teams. Paul
lost his along the highway and had to flag down a car to help him chase
down the team. Nobody got hurt. I lost my team the same day, not knowing
Paul lost his too. When the team first takes off you are traveling about
15-18 miles an hour. I hit a big pile of snow, flipped my sled on its side
and drug for about 50 yards before I couldn't hold on any longer. Some
kind person put me in their car and drove me around until I found them
about a mile away! The snow hook (what is used to hold the team while
you're stopped) fell off the sled, hooked in the snow and stopped the team.
It was a miracle and no one was hurt!! This was a very humbling
experience. Sometimes teams can get hurt and sometimes (rare) teams are
never found. We were VERY lucky.
After the race, is there surveillance searching the tracks?
I don't understand this question. Do you mean in case someone is lost?
In that case possibly. Most of the time the trails are pretty hard and
the dogs don't leave many tracks, if any at all. There may possibly be
tracks from the runners on the sled. The best and easiest time to see
tracks is after a fresh snow and usually then the tracks get covered pretty
quickly or become wind blown.
Well, I hope I answered your questions. If not, let me know. Have a great
class and I'm so excited that you are so interested! I love these dogs so
much I could talk about them ALL the time - probably like your parents do
about you!
What is the daily routine?
Every morning at 5:30am we feed the dogs and clean up the dog yard.
A morning feeding for each dog consists of 1lb. of meat(beef, beef liver,
egg, vitamins, minerals), 1 cup dry food, 2 quarts of warm water, .5
teaspoon corn oil, and 1 teaspoon of a powder
supplement that keeps their joints, tendons and muscles healthy. If it is
a training day (usually Wednesday or Thursday, Saturday and Sunday) we'll
load up the dogs into the dog truck about hour after they eat. We drive
approx. 50 miles to where we train. After we are finished running
we give the dogs a broth of cool water, liver and frozen salmon. Feeding
liver to the dogs after exercise is like us drinking Gaterade. Drive home,
unload the dogs and feed again. We usually do our nightly feeding around
6:30pm. The evening meal for each dog consists of 1 cup dry food, 2 quarts
of warm water, chicken fat, .5 teaspoon corn oil, 2 quarts warm water, .5
teaspoon of a powder supplement that keeps their digestive tract healthy.
The routine can very from day to day because dogs are creatures of habiit
and you don't want them to get used to the samething day in and day out.
The reason for this is becasue when you are in a race you may need to feed
at a different time, use colder water, etc.. You have to be predictably
unpredictable! So, we may not always feed at 5:30am or 6:30pm, and always
use warm water. There have been mornings when we have fed at 10am and
evenings when we fed as late as 10pm.
How do we train them? Is it done according to positions? Where do we
train them? For how long?
Training is tricky! Dogs can actually get bored with running the
same trail all the time, so we are always taking the dogs to different
trails. In the late summer, when there is no snow, we use a four-wheeler
(ATV) to run the dogs. We attach a gangline (the main section of line that
the dogs are connected to) to the front of the four wheeler. We then
harness the dogs we are going to run, usually 10 at a time and attach them
to the gangline. There is a loop at the back of the harness that we attach
a line to that in turn is attached to the gangline. This line is called
the tug line. We also attach a line from the dogs collar to the gangline,
this line is called the neckline. Once all the dogs are hooked up we start
the four wheeler and off we go. On the four wheeler we'll run from 1 mile
(about 7-8 minutes) in the beginning up to 22 miles (a little over two
hours)in late October. Our speed ranges from 10-14 miles an hour. We have
to make sure that it is below 50 degrees, so sometimes we are running very
late at night (9-10pm) or early in the morning (6-7am).
Once we get enough snow (usually around Thanksgiving, but this year
it wasn't until Christmas eve) we start using a dog sled. We only hook up
5-8 dogs at first and put about 100 pounds in the sled. We do this because
after 3 months of pulling 1000 pounds they are VERY strong and fast and it
is easy to lose control. Our first run we'll go 30 miles or so (about
three hours). Our longest training run without significant rest will be
about 60 miles. But, most runs are 30-40 miles .
The dogs are put into certain positions - leader, swing, team, and
wheel according to ability. Only a few dogs make great leaders. The
leaders are the one or two front dogs that take commands and get the team
going in the right direction. Gee is right, haw is left, whoa is stop.
There are a few others, but these are the main commands. We're really
lucky we have 9 leaders. The swing dogs are the dogs directly behind the
leaders. Their job is to actually turn the team. We probably have 15 dogs
that can easily run in this position. The team dogs are the power. All of
our dogs can be team dogs. The wheel dogs are the dogs who actually turn
the sled and are usually your largest dogs. These dogs have to be great on
their feet becasue when a sled turns, the wheel dogs can get crowded and
they have to jump from one side of the gangline to the other. We rotate
5-6 dogs in and out of this position. Paul likes to run the same dogs
together all the time and I like to try different things. We decide who is
running where by using a magnetic board. Each dog has their name on a
magnet and we arrange them on the board to decide who is running where and
with whom.
It's a lot of work, but we sure love it! Well, I hope I answered your
questions. If you don't understand something or I missed a question,
please let me know.
Thanks for being so interested!
If you have 12 dogs and 1 died can you continue the race?
Yes, but a necropsy (autopsy) is performed right away. If it is
found that your dog died from mistreatment you are disqualified and
can't continue to race. This rule only came into affect about 5 years
ago. It used to be if a dog died you were immediately disqualified.
Can a three-legged dog race?
Yes, if the veterinarian finds nothing wrong with it. They are
just slower. HA!
How long does it take for each dog to be examined at each
checkpoint?
If the dog comes in looking healthly, probably no more than a
minute, longer if there seems to be problems.
While you are racing, do you place the females away from females,
vice versa?
Sometimes. We have one female that dislikes other females, so
we run her with a male. We have several males that can't run together
too. We don't run females with males when they are in heat.
Was there a prize for winning the Klondike 300?
Yes, the winner won $5,000. Too bad it wasn't us!
Won't it be hard for the new dogs to acquainted to the others?
No. We chose our new dogs by their personality. We can
usually tell if they are going to get along with most of the other
dogs and if we can tell they aren't we don't take them - even if they
are a superstar.
How much do good dogs cost?
Some people pay $2,000+ for a good leader and team dogs can
start at $500-$1,000. We can't do that. So, we take good older dogs
or smaller younger dogs from top mushers. They usually give them to
us for free. We have only paid for two dogs and he cut us a deal of
$250/dog. Not a cheap business if you want the BEST team and don't
want to breed your own.
Is there a limit to the number of dogs?
If you are speaking of the Iditarod, yes. You can take 20 dogs
to the vet check, but can only start the race with a maximum of 16 and
a minimum of 12.
Did you win any of the races?
No, but Paul did finish 2nd in a race last year. We still have
a lot of refining to do before we can ever compete at races.
How much is the Iditarod entry fee?
The entry fee is $1,750. If you finish the race you get it
back.
How much food do you need for you and your dogs in races?
For the Klondike 300, which takes most people 2.5 - 3 days it
takes about 65 lbs of meat, 50 lbs. dry dogfood, 30 lbs. turkey
skins, and about 5 lbs. liver. We take very little people food (to
save on weight) because there is usually some place to eat at the
checkpoint.
How cold does it get while racing?
It can get -60 or more with the wind chill. A good
temperature for the dogs and musher is -20 to +10. It looks like this
year the Iditarod is going to be pretty warm, probably -10 to 30 or
warmer. That is a little too warm for dogs.
How many dogs do you own and who is your leader?
We own 22 dogs. Our leaders are: Ike, Kacina, Truman, Rooty,
Hoover, Snapple, Annie, and Repel.
How much money do you get for the little races if you win?
The little races don't usually have prize money, but prizes.
When Paul came in second he won a gangline, 2 dog coats and a
snowhook. To us those types of things are just as important as money.
Does anyone do dogsledding for a job?
Yes! People like Martin Buser, DeeDee Jonrowe, Doug Swingly,
Jeff King, etc. that's their job. It can be their job because they
have BIG sponsors to help them out. We run a dog sled ride and tour
business on the weekends, so it's kind of our job too.
How did you get interested in sled dogs?
For Christmas three years ago I took my mom dogsledding for
a present. I loved it, so we became volunteers for the Iditarod and I
also took Paul dogsledding for Valentine's Day and he loved it too.
So, within about 8 months we owned a house and 10 dogs!
What was the most frightening race?
Paul said his first long race - the Knik 200. We had no idea
what to expect and had never ran our dogs that far in a couple of
days.
Keep the questions coming! We love it!!
