As the name implies, a dog sled is a vehicle that slides over ice and snow, pulled by dogs. These have been used to transport supplies, mail, and medicine to people who live in the coldest and most remote parts of the world. At one time, people who lived in the Arctic regions relied on sled dogs as their main mode of transportation.
Almost everyone loves dogs; they are known to be our best friend. Treat your dog well, feed him, comfort him, give him a warm place to sleep and he will spend his life looking out for you! The dogs used in the teams that pull sleds are very, very well cared for. They may be your only line between life and death, especially if you live in the freezing cold areas of the world.
Sled dogs are pampered from birth to old age, and kept in tip-top health. Dogs are carefully chosen at birth and groomed to become a “runner” for as long as they can. Teams are made up of old and young dogs. The younger dogs provide more power; the older dogs are wise to the conditions in which they have to run.
The dogs have thick “double-coats” with a coarse outer fur and a dense, softer inner layer for insulation – perfect for a cold climate. Their paws are protected by thick pads. When they go to sleep, it is often out in the snow and they curl up with their big fluffy tails covering their noses.
Dogs were attached to sleds first by the First Nations Indian people in Canada, as they had no horses to travel with. This happened long before the English and French got there. The people in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia found it easier to travel across the snow and ice using dog sleds too.
Dog sled teams can travel at speeds up to 20 miles per hour. Imagine how fit both the dogs and the humans have to be to manage pulling a heavy sled through icy conditions. The people who head out into this freezing cold travelling from tiny hamlet to tiny hamlet, far from help if something goes wrong, needed help that they could rely on, and dogs proved to be their best friends and teammates.
There are two types of dog breeds used to pull these sleds – one is the Siberian Huskies and the other is the Alaskan Malamutes.
Dog sledding is sometimes called “mushing"; and a person who travels by dog sled is called a “musher". Mushers take great care when selecting their dog sled team, which includes several dogs with different jobs. The dogs are tied together by a long “gangline" running between them. Dog sled racing has been around for over 1,000 years!
The "lead dog" is the most important member of the pack; he stays out in the front of the team. “Swing dogs" follow behind the lead dog and help it turn the pack. After the swing dogs come the "team dogs" which provide momentum and speed. The “wheel dogs" bring up the rear. Wheel dogs, usually the largest dogs on the team, must be able to free the sled if it gets stuck in snow or ice.
Mushing has become a sport! The most well-known of the races held every year is the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. There are various categories entered in these races – all have to do with dogs pulling something from sleds to bikes to skis as well as weight pulling and moving heavy loads around.
Every year, mushers from around the world travel to Alaska for these races which last nine to 15 days. The weather is usually freezing cold, and there can be ice and snow storms, making it even more cold and dangerous.
The word mush is a funny word; it came from the French word “marche”, which means to “walk” or “move”, and all too soon it turned into the English word “mush.”
Using dogs to pull sleds started way back before Christ was born, at least as far back as 2000 BC. The Siberians (it is dreadfully cold in the wasteland called Siberia) used dogs, as did the American Indians of North America.
More recently, in 1911, some explorers had a race to see who could get to the South Pole first. The Norwegian explorer used dog sleds to help him get through the icy, snowy waste, but his competitor used Siberian ponies and, sadly, he died while attempting to reach the South Pole first.
Sled dogs were used in the Arctic at least 9,000 years ago when humans were moving and transporting their goods. Snow mobiles then became popular, but many old timers these days are going back to using dogs as they are more trust-worthy than man-made machines.
