Iditarod XL Day 12

by Bryan

10 comments

1 JuanitaM { 03.15.12 at 12:20 pm }

Yeah, I just checked the times, and it’s really bizarre to see that whole string of mushers coming in just minutes apart for an hour +/- or so.

Just read the latest from Colleen’s husband, and he said when she was in the middle of the windstorm and traveling with Lance, she had no idea all these other mushers were so close behind them. She was terrified because she thought they were all alone! Good grief, can you imagine…

At least she wasn’t caught out there alone. Too scary to think about.

2 Bryan { 03.15.12 at 10:25 pm }

There were two groups – the leading group of nine with Lance, and a second group of five with Rick Swenson. Those guys have 9 Iditarod wins between them, and have seen the trail in all kinds of conditions, so they had things under control.

It’s the only way you can move in those conditions. The trailing team needs a weather leader, because blowing snow at those temperatures is brutal. The dry snow out there this year is like ice sand, not fluffy flakes. It won’t pack, so you can’t follow a hard track, as occurs with wet snow. It was like sledding on sand dunes. It is light, but you are constantly plowing through drifts, which is apparent from the speeds. No one was able to sustain 7mph, 6 was as good as it got.

Three teams got stranded in 2009, and they had to send out aircraft and snowmobiles to locate them. They found them using the GPS signals, but two dogs died, probably from hypothermia from the windchill.

The thing is, you don’t try to move in that situation. You stop and set up a windbreak to pile up snow and wait it out huddled together, sharing body heat. Mushers should take an Arctic survival course so they know how to deal with the conditions.

3 JuanitaM { 03.16.12 at 8:35 am }

Yeah, the years when animals die are terrible. Last year was great – one could enjoy keeping up with the race without thinking about some sad dog that didn’t make it.

So far, there were some close calls, but I haven’t heard of any deaths. Have you?

Of course, they’re still strung out to Unalakleet, so there’s a lot of dogs yet to come into Nome, but it’s looking good.

4 Bryan { 03.16.12 at 10:05 pm }

The temperatures were good for the dogs, like a not overly warm Spring day, and the snow padded feet.

People are a lot more aware of issues with their dogs than even four years ago, and the vets are tougher than ever.

Another thing that kennels have become attuned to is following bloodlines, so if a dog develops heart problems on the trail, people know to check other dogs in that line for heart issues.

The powder kept speeds down, and I would guess that a lot of the dogs that were dropped were two-year-0lds, the canine equivalent of teenagers. Mushers are being reminded that while they are fast and strong, they will over-exert themselves and eat much more than older dogs. That’s what Lance is dealing with on his new team, and there is a weight penalty for carrying all of the extra food you need. He ran low on one leg of the Quest because he underestimated how much food he would need on the trail.

He should be back next year, or the year after, with a real Mackey team.

One of the best things about most current rookies is that they have put in their time as dog handlers before they attempt either of the 1000s. They learn from the professionals, and do things right.

5 JuanitaM { 03.18.12 at 8:44 am }

He ran low on one leg of the Quest because he underestimated how much food he would need on the trail.

Well, that doesn’t sound much like Lance, does it? It’s good to know that even the most talented of us can have a “What was I thinking?” moment!

And, yes, it’s amazing how well these (so-called) rookies do. When I read some of their bios, it shows that many of them starting working with a professional kennel when they were just kids. As you mentioned before, it’s obvious all these people absolutely love and care deeply for their dogs.

I noticed in an earlier post where an animal rights person was arguing her case using IMO altogether exaggerated positions on the race. It’s like she had read the pamphlet and was reciting it word for word without actually making the effort to see if these accusations were true. It irritated me so much, I started to respond but decided to sleep on it before responding. By the next day, you had handled her elegantly in your polite but firm way, so there was nothing left to say about it.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m an animal rights person from way back, but much that’s been said about the Iditarod is wrong and skews the reality. Yeah, maybe they could say that it’s a bit too long for the health of the dogs, or that the rare mushers may not handle their dogs humanely. But does that rise to the level of the venom that’s been directed at the race?

I would posit that a higher percentage of inhumane acts would be found in the general public rather than in a highly publicized event such as the Iditarod. You know, the people that take puppies and throw them out on a busy street (or worse things which I don’t even want to mention, but we all know happens).

The musher who abuses his animals will probably not be tolerated by other mushers, veterinarians, and general public watching at each post.

My apologies – this turned into a long one.

6 Bryan { 03.18.12 at 11:27 am }

If you don’t spend time working with dogs, you don’t understand dogs. A sleddog team is a pack, and acts like a pack. This isn’t taught, this is the way dogs evolved. The ‘bad’ mushers are the fools who think they can tell the dogs how things are going to be. Dogs aren’t people.

The dogs are kept on short leads if there is no one around to prevent dominance fights, a normal part of pack life, and the real concern for people who live in Alaska, wild dogs. They have to be exercised, and you need to devote the time to do it. During the long breaks in the Quest and Iditarod the dogs have to be walked. They can’t just be kept chained up for 24 hours. There is a lot of work involved in providing minimal care for 16 dogs, so you had better like doing it, or find something else to do in your spare time.

Mushers and races have brought the dogs back from near extinction. The snowmobile really reduced the number of sled dogs in the North, and competitive mushing gave people who loved the dogs an acceptable reason to keep a lot of them. But you have to love the dogs. Mike Williams wouldn’t be wading into freezing water to tend salmon traps for dog food, if he didn’t love dogs. High gasoline prices have had a big impact on rural life in Alaska, but the dogs are there to take up the slack. They may not be as fast, but they are a hell of lot friendlier than BP.

Yeah, the animal rights people get carried away. They were right to push for more vet surveillance and it has improved the condition of the dogs, but they want to turn them all into house pets. My grandfather loved his horses, but my grandmother wasn’t about to let Belgian Greys into the house, even if she did allow Great Danes. Even so, he had to give them up when he couldn’t justify the expense of keeping them.

What people don’t seem to understand is that working animals need to work. They can do the ‘pet thing’, but they really need to work. Their metabolism was designed with a lot of exercise in mind, so keeping them in the house turns them into neurotic furry balloons with multiple health problems.

7 JuanitaM { 03.18.12 at 1:36 pm }

Their metabolism was designed with a lot of exercise in mind, so keeping them in the house turns them into neurotic furry balloons with multiple health problems.

Exactly! I see many of those furry balloons walk by my office window. The people are walking them regularly but it’s just not enough.

Of course, I should be talking since I have “Miss Pork Bellies”, but she’s still not the size of ones I see every day go by the window. She has a lot of Siberian husky in her, and I walk her and the other mutt out in the woods back of the house on sunny days so they can run hard and fast – which they do. There’s no way I could leash them and walk far enough or fast enough to get their heart rate up to anything like what they need, so this is my solution. No telling what she would look like if I didn’t – good grief.

8 Bryan { 03.18.12 at 10:21 pm }

I just bought a cable run for my neighbor because his 6-month-old ‘puppy’ was driving me up the wall whining all day. They have to put him inside a small kennel during the day because he can now leap over their fence. On the cable run he can do 20 yard dashes and get tired. When the kids get home, they can watch him and play with him in the backyard off the lead, but being in the 8 by 10 foot kennel was driving him and me nuts.

Even my Mother’s last dog, a miniature poodle, needed more exercise that just walking. He needed to go crazy outside, so he didn’t go crazy inside.

Another person on the street has a black lab that has to watch Scooter Store ads with great interest. She walks him at a good clip around the block every day, but she refuses to take him to any of the three parks in town that are on the water. It’s a lab, it wants to swim – it needs to swim, but she doesn’t want to rinse him off [salt water], or have him get wet. Result, getting around the block is a chore and his food comes from Weight Watchers.

I love big dogs, but I don’t have room for one. It wouldn’t be fair to the dog.

9 JuanitaM { 03.19.12 at 8:19 pm }

There’s nothing worse than hearing a dog go on, and on, and on…ad infinitum. For some reason, dogs just never seem to tire of barking or whining once they get started. It’s almost like a law of physics where something in motion tends to stay in motion.

And, hey that cable thing sounds like something that might work for me, too. I can’t believe I had not thought of it as a help to drain the male’s energy during the day. Of course, my girl has managed to get all collars and halters over her head whenever she decides she’s tired of the dang things, and it’s time for them to go. She just shrugs her shoulders and shakes them off. There’s got to be a halter out there that actually works.

Shame about that lab. My male is mostly a large hound of some type, but his favorite place is in the creek behind the house 🙂

10 Bryan { 03.19.12 at 10:15 pm }

I got an order for a second one behind me, so their dogs don’t have to stay in the house in crates when they are at work. The one I use has a 75-foot overhead cable and a 10-foot lead, so the dog can really race around.

Dogs generally do that when they are frustrated because they can’t investigate something suspicious. In my neighborhood that is usually a cat being a PITA. Lucrezia makes a point of annoying that dog, passing by the kennel when he is locked up. If they can move and see what it happening, or chase away the problem, they quiet down.

They do have much better designs for halters that would be nearly impossible to get out of because they have chest straps as well as back straps. They also avoid any pressure on the throat. I have a friend who has a long-haired Chihuahua mix, and he uses the harness to pick up the dog, rather than having to bend over to get a hand under the dog’s chest – like a furry duffel bag.