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Dog Care -
MUKTUK DOGS Puppies, Champions & Seniors
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| When people hear the term "sled-dog", they often
picture the classic purebred Samoyed, Malamute or Siberian huskies.
In reality, very few mushers use purebred huskies for long-distance
touring or sled-dog racing. And some sled dogs do not resemble
traditional huskies at all. |
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| Sled dogs are bred for performance - strength, endurance,
speed and attitude. It is much more important to have a dog
from a line of fast, strong champions than a purebred dog. When
breeding, you try to get the best qualities from different lines.
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| Attitude is the first thing we look for in a dog. Our dogs
are really well-known for strength, will-power and determination
- and for their friendliness. |
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| Sled dogs are run in many different arrangements, depending
on terrain and the type of trip. In the high Arctic and Siberia,
for example, mushers run their dogs in a sort of fan, each dog
on a separate line. |
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| Elsewhere dogs are run in pairs on a single gangline. Teams
can be from four to twenty dogs in size - there is an awful
lot of power in a twenty-dog team, and you have to deal with
a very long gangline! |
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| Sometimes dogs are run in single file on a gangline. And these
days dogs are also hooked up to skiers, bicycles, four-wheelers,
and carts - who knows what they will be pulling next. |
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| For the Yukon Quest, and wilderness touring, we run our dogs
in pairs on a single gangline. We use fourteen dogs for the
Quest, the maximum allowed. |
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| To find out more about Muktuk's racing team, check out our
Racing Page. For
touring we use six to ten dogs. As in any sports team, each
dog has a particular job. So dogs are placed in whatever positions
suit their individual strengths; we also try to place them next
to their best buddy. |
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| To find out more about wilderness
touring with Muktuk, please visit our Page. |
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| The dogs at the front of the team are the LEAD dogs
and they are the ones who set the pace (run fastest), follow
commands really well, and read trail markers and trails in general.
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| Dogs immediately behind the leaders are SWING dogs;
usually they can also run in lead and they back up the main
leaders. |
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| The dogs immediately in front of the sled are WHEEL
dogs; their position is more physically demanding, so they are
almost always the biggest, strongest dogs in the team. |
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| The rest of the dogs take turns in lead, swing or wheel positions,
though dogs that run in lead seldom run in wheel. |
