The warmer weather is definitely affecting the teams and going into heat is a common reaction. Lance Mackey lost two male dogs last year when they got into a fight over a female in heat.

They aren’t writing much about it, but there are also a lot of damaged sleds this year, and probably no lack of bruised bodies. It has been a very weird race with a lot of normal finishers scratching. It could be due to the economy, i.e. if you don’t think you will finish in the money, you scratch and cut your losses.

There are a lot of the regular competitors with low dog counts, so the dogs are very unhappy, I think they are going to need to reschedule the race to provide better conditions for everyone involved. They canceled the Yukon Quest Junior race because the trail turned to garbage, so it isn’t just coastal Alaska.

On top of this, she has more than one female in heat which I can only imagine the disorder THAT can cause among the team. Her husband’s blog made it sound as if it had been pretty much a nightmare. On a more positive note, it sounds like the 29 lb Penny along with a couple others have been keeping the rest of the team motivated. I’m glad you told me about Penny – she’s impressive. Must be 29 lbs of determination!

Anyway, the blog is much more detailed. For anyone who’d like to read further about Colleen: http://rogueskennel.com/blog/