A dog musher and their team head out on a run near Central, Alaska. Pat Kane/patkanephoto.com - Dawson City, Yukon Have northerners been breeding the wrong type of sled dog?
An NWT dog runner is calling on northern mushers to return to breeding traditional dogs in order to promote the sport.
Sholto Douglas, president of the Thebacha Dog Mushers Association, believes mushers in the northern part of the territory must return to the sport’s roots and run bigger, thicker breeds of dogs built for northern winters.
“Dogs such as the Canadian Eskimo dog, the Alaskan Malamute, the Mackenzie River husky,” says Douglas. “They were very ideal dogs for the geography that they were in and for the uses that the dogs had.”
In the past, says Douglas, northern families would rely on their dogs in order to hunt, trap, and run supplies from community to community. However, with modern technologies such as snowmobiles and planes making everyday life easier, he argues mushers looked to breed their dogs with one thing in mind: speed.
This meant smaller, lighter dogs that no longer needed to break trails or hunt wild animals.
“A mixture of short-haired pointers, mixed in St Bernards and mastiffs, and everything else, created a dog that was highly energetic,” says Douglas. “People start using their dogs for racing, and at the end of the year they would have a little sled dog contest and the winner would end up with bragging rights.”
View Full Article