Training Dog for Great Dogsledding Trips

Kennel Odometer Update: 38,210 Miles It’s mid-December, and the Cumulative Kennel Odometer (CKO) has just clicked past 38K for the season. Hundreds of miles have been logged with each and every dog. They are ready for our first guests to arrive this weekend. How did we get to 38K? Energetic puppy runs where absolutely everything is new (and chewable!), yearling race team training, touring dog conditioning, and new lead dog tutorials; all are part of pre-season training.

Sled Dogs Need Exercise and Training

We start fall training with four-wheelers, running teams of 14-18 dogs, and eventually switch to dogsleds once the snowpack arrives. We’ve run through the palette of yellow, orange and red autumn colors, bone-chilling fall rainstorms, muddy wet runs where grit manages to fly everywhere, including into your teeth, deer season with the advent of carcass treats for the dog yard and the first snowfall when the dogs seem to know that prime season is just around the corner, and the energy picks up another notch – for everyone.

Dogsledding Trips are 

better with well trained dogs.

38K miles is the culmination of mileage totals for every single dog; nearly 100 sled dogs completed fall training. We have two marathon race teams with a pool of 37 dogs dedicated to longer runs and the mental toughness of back-to–back runs that simulate race conditions. The touring dogs are logging consistently longer runs three times a week as we continue to break open, track, and maintain the trails for the upcoming season. What started months ago as a slow four mile slog with out of shape couch-potatoes has methodically and tenaciously turned into 20-mile runs that scream out of the yard on fire and return with tails wagging.

38,210 miles and no flat tires, no gas consumption (the 4-wheelers are dog powered only), no transmission troubles. The dogs are tuned-up, running well and excited for our season opener.