Pink Tongues

WernerG · February 2, 2011

Dog Sled Race

Thanks for looking,

Sam · February 2, 2011

These have to be the strangest sled dogs I have ever seen.

Are these the Haitian dog sled team?

Sam

WernerG · February 2, 2011

These races are sprints, 4 to 8 miles, depending on the number of dogs in the team . The dogs are mixed breeds, German Short-Haired Pointers mixed with Huskies and even some Greyhounds mixed with Huskies. There's no Iditarod here in the Vermont. These are sprinters. They don't have to endure nights on the tundra or run weeks long endurance races. The sleds are mostly lightweight frames with runners and a brake. The mushers run behind the sled a good bit of the time, especially uphill. Out of a 1000 dogs there, very few were pure bred Huskies.

I should add that most of the pure bred Huskies we saw were spectator's dogs or were attached to the sled that was taking spectators for rides.

Azzaro · February 2, 2011

8 miles is a sprint:D That is a cool shot....I'm a dog lover, thanks for sharing the photo......

WernerG · February 2, 2011

The formula seems to be approximately 1 mile per dog, 4 dogs = 4+ miles, 6 dogs = 6+, 8 dogs = 8+ and there is a 13 mile open class course. They are actually called Dash Races. You can read more about them here. It's a pretty serious competition with 1000 dogs entered over two days (all of them barking continuously BTW) with entries from all over the colder northeastern States and Canada.