Alaska Sled Dogs

100 Dogs And Competitors To Contest Gruelling Nz Sled Dog Champs Near Taupo

About 50 people and more than 100 dogs will take part in the gruelling New Zealand sled dog championships in the Kaiangaroa forest near Taupo next month.

One of the teams of (six) huskies will be pulling more than a quarter of a tonne around an 8.5km course. This is the 10th year of the nationals and the four and six dog freight events will be the toughest on in the July 23rd championships.

``Those races will cover 8.5km and will take just over half an hour,'' current national four-dog freight team champion Mark Roberts of Christchurch said today.

``My dad spent time in Antarctica in the 1960s working with sled dogs, so I've always been interested in them. Earlier this year I did a tough overnight trip in Central Otago and the dogs covered 50km in two days. The dogs had a lot of deep river crossings and thick mud and rocks to contend with.

``My event is the most difficult because the dogs are pulling140kg in weights, plus the 40kg cart and me which totals 260kg, or over a quarter of a tonne. It's tough for me too because if I'm working up a hill or through mud I have to get off the cart and work with the dogs.''

Other dogs competing in sled dog sports in New Zealand include Pointers, Alaskan Malamutes, Huntaways, Weimaraners and a range of other dogs and cross breeds.

The course for the championships is on typical undulating forestry trails with a mix of pine needles, gravel, and occasional puddles on a clay/pumice base.

Roberts said he trained his team of six Siberian huskies dogs five days a week for up to 13km a day. He won the four-dog freight title last year and this year he hopes to win the national six-dog freight event next month.

All his dogs eat K9 Natural dog food which is a species appropriate diet and contains raw fat for energy and excellent sources of raw protein to help build muscle and develop strength and endurance. He said they could not compete at the highest level if they were not on the K9 Natural diet.

K9 Natural is the only fresh raw 100 percent complete diet sourced from New Zealand animals deemed fit for human. Last year K9 Natural was named one of the top 10 fastest growing companies in New Zealand and they are now exporting to 23 countries.

K9 Natural's founding director Geoff Bowers of Christchurch is a former British marine and police dog handler who spent three months living with wolves in Alaska. Bowers has eaten raw and freeze dried K9 Natural dog food to highlight the quality of the product. Bowers said the DNA showed dogs were 99.8 percent wolf and their digestive system was exactly the same, so it made sense to copy the diet of the wolf.

Sled Dogs

Dogs have been pulling sleds for thousands of years. Their work and lifestyle have been immortalized in fact and fiction, most notably in Jack London’s Call of the Wild. Before sled pulling became a sport, it served a very real and necessary function for people living in icy climates. Today, severeal breed s(including Eskimo Dogs, Samoyeds and mixed breeds) can be used for pulling,though historically Alaskan Malamutes and Siberian Huskies have performed this job. Dveloped in conjuction with the needs of the Mahlemut people of the Alaskan area, the dogs typically pulled food from hunting and fishing sights back to the villages. In Siberia, people used Huskies for both herding and pulling.

The American gold rush of the mid-nineteenth century altered the roled fo both dog breeds, Huskies were imported to Alaska to work with the Malamutes in hauling gold from the discovery site to buyers and transportation locations. As the practical need for dog pulling diminishes toard the end of the century , more owners began using sled dogs afor sport and recreation.In the first decade of te twentieth century, formal rules for sledding evolved and the first official race took place in Alska in 1908. The sport’s popularity grew slowly for the next few decades.

In 1925, sled dogs were used to rush diphteria antitozin to Nome, Alaska,. Due to harsh conditions, planes and trains were considered dangerous and unreliable. Twenty sled drivers and over 100 dogs covered nearly 700 miles in six days, delivering the medicine and saving many inhabitants.

A variety of equipment and know-how is used for leading a pulling team. The primary requirement is a sled, which can be a basket or toboggan type. Toboggans are rigid and durable and capable of sustaining great loads, but with somewhat limited agility. Basket sled are used for speed or in windy situations. They are lightweight, but less effective with large loads. Harnesses, which attack the dogs to the sleds, come in many styles. The most common choices are the x-back and freighting harnesses. The x-back is used for sport, while the freighting harness is effective for hauling large loads. People interested in sledding should consult with a professional handler or supplier before choosing a harness.Additional lines, bags and brackets will also be needed. These are fairly inexpensive and should adapted to the sled and harness-type OS you have.

Special training is necessary both for the person driving the sled and dogs. Young puppies can get used to the equipment and processes to make things from a very young age. Young animals do not need to transport large equipment to get used to the sensation and can become injured if high demands are placed on their growing bodies. Most adult dogs show a natural instinct to pull, but it can withstand harness.The hardest part of training involved keeping the lines between the sled and dogs tight. Introduce your dog new skills gradually and never punish or hit the dog to make mistakes. Huskies take advantage of their skills and should never fear the experience.

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