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WWWWWWORLDWIDE MAGAZINE

Sled Dog Sports Worldwide Magazine is amonthly publication dedicated to the sport of sled dog racingas well as the care and well being of the dogs that provide uswith so much love, enthusiasm and enjoyment. Our goal withthis publication is to enhance pa(icipation in the sport by pre-senting it as the exciting, adventurous, and high-level endeav-or that it is.

Editorial Submissiol'ts are welcome and highly encour-aged. We cannot, however, be responsible for the damage orloss of unsolicited materials. The best way to submit articlesor photos for consideration, or to inquire about specifics andguidelines is to do so via email at the address above.

Advertising Subm issionsPlease email or call me to receive a rate packet. Sled DogSports Magazine reserves the right to reject advertising that isnot appropriate.

Deadlines for ads and editorial copy are the 15th of themonth prior to the month of publication. ie: deadline for theOctober 2004 issue is Sept 20ln 2004.

SubscfiptioflS are available for $30 yearly in the U.S.,$38 yearly in Canada, and $50 yearly in Europe via airmail.Subscriptions are mailed out via Presort Standard Mail andarrive in about 7-10 days from date of mailing. 1st Class Mailsubscriptions arrive in '1-3 days from date of mailing and arean additional $10 per yearly subscription.

Mailing lists are not currently available for purchase.

PUBLISHING COMPANY:GSP

EDITOR & PUBLISHER:GREG SELLENTIN635 Route 94Newton, NJ 07860

T:917-929-6118F: 973-300-0455

e : greg@sleddogsportsmag.comw: sleddogsportsmag.com

Cover photo: Buddy Streeper 2004 AMA Open NorthAmerican Championships, by Heath Sandall

Volume l , #1 September 2OO4

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Gontr ibutors to th is issue:Terry Streeper - Fort Nelson, Brit ish Columbia, CanadaSponsors: Danler Sleds, NMI Mobil ity, Red Paw Dog FoodThe Streeper name has been synonymous with Sprint racing for over 20years. Terry has won just about every major sprint race there is includingthe Open North American, the Fur Rendevouz, the Pas, Yellowknife, 2 -World Championships, and the list goes on. In recent years Terry has takena back seat to racing and his son Blayne or "Buddy" has been running thedogs while Terry masterminds the strategy. Their recent entrance to mid-distance stage racing marks the beginning of a new chapter for them.

Eddy Streeper - Osage, MinnesotaSponsors: Rod Streeper Trucking, RedPaw Dog Food, GattSleds, Aschberg Equip., 3rd Crossing Trading Co., Newman's"Fast Eddy" as he is know to some, is the younger brother of Terry and hasmade his mark on sprint racing wiih an impressive history of wins includingthe Rondy - 2 times, ONAC, Laconia, Canadian Open, Yellowknife and oth-ers. His wife Amy is also a racer and one of only two women to win theONAC, and together are the only husband and wife to both win the ONAC

Hans Gatt -At t l in, Br i t ish Columbia, Canadasponsors: Eagle Pack Pet Foods, Gatt Sleds,In the early 90's, Hans Gatt, an Austrian native, moved from Europe toNorthWest BC, where he continued his winning ways in mid and long dis-tance racing. Some of his recent accomplishments are: 4 times winner ofthe Wyoming Stage Stop Race and 3 times consecutive winner of theYukon Quest, Hans also has quite a regimen to keep himself fit: he com-petes in Adventure Racing, which is a grueling physical ordeal that com-bines running, biking, canoeing, skiing, and orienteering.

Egi l El l is & Helen Lundberg - Wi l low, AlaskaSponsors: Annamaet Pet Foods, BeWe sleds, Dragrattan har-nesses, Animal Food Warehouse, Big Lake Susitna VeterinaryHosp., Cosanol 08Sprint racing's three time triple crown winner (Rondy, ONAC, Tok-same yr,),and current reigning King. Egil has been obliterating track records acrossAlaska for the past 5 yrs. Together with partner Helen Lundberg, their dogshave almost entirely transformed the breed of competitive sprint racing sleddogs in the world. Helen is also an accomplished racer - she won thewomen's Rondy in 2004! She is also the former publisher of a sled dogmagazine in Sweden.

Ar le igh Reynolds DVM PHD Salcha, AlaskaA graduate of Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine, and former professorthere, he has conducted numerous canine nutrit ional studies, and has racedat the top level in open class sprint for the past 4 yrs. Arleigh has won theMinden Sled Dog Derby - 8 dog class, and the Laconia 6-dog class.

Joe Wakshlag MS DVM- lthaca, New YorkJoe is an instructor in clinical nutrition at Cornell College of VeterinaryMedicine and a PHD candidate in the department of molecular medicine.Joe maintains a 16 dog sprint racing kennel ofalaskan huskies and euro-hounds, and races with them in the Northeast U.S.

Any opinions or statements made during interviews and published inthis magazine, are nof necessarily the opinion of the publication or it'sowner.

Greetings,

I hope you enjoy this first issue of Sled Dog SportsMagazine. lf it is half as much fun and inspiring toread as it has been to put together, I think it will havehit the mark.

First off, l 'd like to thank all the people who haveentrusted me with their subscriptions and advertising,and all my friends and family for your encouragement.I look forward to reaching your expectations.

This magazine has been a burning desire within me fora while. Just like the sport of mushing itself, publishingis not something that is done at a casual level of com-mitment. I will try to make this magazine somethingthat gets the brain thinking, the blood pumping, andinspires you to go out and spend time with your dogs.

Having been a musher for quite some time, I'vealways felt a bit let down by the way the printed mediaportrayed us. Whether it was a lapse in coverage frompublications within the sport or the occasional treat-ment of the sport in the mainstream media as somekind of peculiar side show, I felt we deserved better. Ifeel the need for a publication that will focus on thesport and everything that comes along with it - dogs,dog care, musher personalities, lifestyles, equipment,

nutrition, training, history, etc. This is more importantnow than ever before.

Beginner or professional, dryland to lditarod, if youhave ever felt the power of a dog team flow throughyour body this publication is for you.

This first issue is really packed with the good stuff.

We've got Terry Streeper in a very candid conversationabout dog training and racing. We've got some of thetop racers in the sport telling us how they prepare theircanine athletes during the summer months. We havea nutrition article so packed with information you'll haveto read it more than once, unless you're Tim White, ofcourse. We have a guide tonew products, club reports,and the first part of a greatstory written by HelenLundberg on Europeanmushers coming to race inNorth America.

Sit back, relax, enjoy.

Greg Sellentin

CHATMACSLED DOG SUPPLIER

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lntroducing Chatmac's

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festrng deslgns andprototypes, thls s/ed wasraced by Lou Serre -

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Staying with our traditional look. Features of this sled: Frame construction is aluminum. lf needed up to 45% racking.Cambered ski - we tested 31 shapes, See through Windshield - Test results-keeps wind off hands and deftects snow and ice pel-lets. Can see through if clown behind sled. Comes with J-Peg hand grips for stability when peddling or you can steer with them.Quick flip hag -loaded 70 lb. dog fast with little effort. No zippers or velcro to get in your way.. Bag design from similar design used17 years ago. Very important - sled still handles while carrying a dog. Chatmac's quick flip brake and dragmat comhination

desrgn used with great results on our Cheetah and Commander sleds for over 5 years now. For traveling comes with runner sleevesand extra bag to put sled bag in to protect your sled bag and windshield while travelling.

ONE OF NORIFI AMERICAS LE.ADING SUPPUERS, OIIR DOG BO)GS AND SLEDS ARE LEGENDARYvisif us on the web at chatmac.com (tel: 519-291-4738) Doug & Carol McNeil

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Buddy Streeper Open North Amerlcan Championships 2004

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Photo: Heath *S

Up against the best of the distance, mid-distance andstage race specialists, the Streeper team, with Buddy at the helm,won both of the major stage races in North America in 2004: theAttaboy 300 and the International Pedigree Stage Stop Sted DogRace. Then one month late4, amidst a multi season winningstreak, they furn around and win one of Sprint Racing's oldestand most prestigious races: the Anchorage Fur Rendevous,against rival and sprint specialist - Egil Ellis.

SDS: Well Terry where do we start? You guys have such along history, we could fill up volumes. Let's keep it about thelast couple of years with your incredible run of wins and yournewest chal lenge: stage racing.

TS: Ok. Well it all started acouple of years ago. We had aplan to beat Egif but I thought itwould take longer than it actual-ly did, to be honest with you.Because the team that we actual-ly beat him with at the ONACin 2003 was a reaily young team,there was like 11 or 12 two year olds in that team and I thoughtit would take one more season to beat him. Most of our dogshadn't even been around the course or whatever. So it hap-pened a little quicker than anticipated. Then when we made themove to stage racing and came back to beat him at the Rondy,that was a bit of a surprise to be quite honest.

That year Buddy went undefeated and we had done alot of traveling . We did a lot of racing across North America.They had their pants down a tittle bit in Alaska as they didn'thave that many races up there, so they weren't as race tough aswe were and they had a poor snow year and what not. Theother side of it is that they may have been more rested than wewere after doing all that traveling and racing.

There is nothing like testing a dog at the races though.You can train till your blue in the face but I think one weekendof racing is worth about 2-3 weeks of training, in just what youlearn from the dogs and you know what you have. You can notduplicate the pressure of a race, you can do what you want intraining, you can drive them hard but nothing gets the dogspumped up like a race does. And that is hard to duplicate, eh.

SDS: I was in Laconia when Buddy won and announcedthat the team was undefeated and he was going after the ONACwin. How many races did you end up being undefeated for upuntil this year's ONAC?

TS: I think he ended up doing 21 races without a loss. Itstarted the previous winter after the ONAC (2002) where we gotbeat.

SDS: How do you care for your dogs on the road, do you dothings that maybe other mushers don't do when you are travel-ing for that long with the dogs on the truck?

TS: No, it's just that ability to do all that free running, allthat loose dropping. If there is anything I've done in the sportthat has made me as succesful as I have been, if there is onething I can attribute it to, one major thing outside of all those lit-tle things that we hope to do right, is the loose running. I thinkthat is so huge for us and has attributed to our success morethan anything else we have done.

SDS: Wow, now when you say loose running, do you meanloose dropping the dogs around the truck, or the summertimepractice of running them loose with the ATV?

TS: Both. When we are on the truck like the year we wentto Laconia, we were on the truckfrom the 5th or 6th of Januaryuntil about the middle of April.It is a hard, hard thing to do, tokeep a dog from gettingdepressed about all the travel-ing, or from gett ing real lazyand all they want to do is stay inthe dog box. So to be able to do

all that loose dropping is fun for us and real fun for the dogs.You can pick out real little limps or sorenesses. It gives us achance to see that and give that dog more rest, and an extra dayoff or a little more massage. We really don't injure many dogs.Which is really, really surprising for as many races as we do andeverything. We can just about sit down in November and saywhich dogs are going to run the North American or the Rondy.Of 24 dogs usually 20 or 22 are there.

I think it has a lot to do with them learning to runaround loose, they learn to watch where they put their feet, theydon't tend to hurt themselves.

SDS: Terry, can you give me some idea of your typical train-ing and conditioning regimen for your team from Summer tosay the first open race in late December? In the years before youentered stage races.

I'm so afraid of the heat, I don't ever put a harness on a dog ifit's above 40 degrees. With all this loose running I do, we don'tstart hooking up the young dogs in teams until late September.Then we do just short runs, about 3 miles but fairly big teamsyou know 18-20 dog teams and it's cool in the mornings sowe're training in the upper 30's or so. Then we start hookingthe main dogs in a typical year the 2nd or 3rd week of October.We start them off at 4-5 miles because they have been doing a lit-tle more serious loose running up to about 5-6 miles.

SDS: Can you describe that a litle bit more, I mean howexactly you loose run dogs?

TS: When I started this thing I did everything wrong, it tookme a while to figure out what works for us. When we first start-ed, some of the dogs wouldn't even want to chase the ATV outof the kennel. I tried hooking the dogs that didn't want to chase

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WWWm& & &tage Kww&wgthe Terry Streeper interuiew

"To come back and win therondy after stage racing, that

was a bit of a surprise"

with dogs that did, but that didn't work either. Finally I built a

little corral, about B' x 8' , I put them in there loose, so now I

have 10 or 12 dogs just milling around in this corral. If I'm by

myself, I back the ATV up to the gate, hook a rope to the back of

the ATV connected to the swing gate and when I take off the

gate opens. When I did thaf everything started to work. They

were focused. That was the key to making it all work. But now

that I have a lot of these pointers, they're not as aggresive with

other dogs, like the huskies are. I have a lot of these pointers

and crosses and I can just turn them loose in the yard, just whis-

tle and they'll follow me out of there.

SDS: You do this with 10 dogs at a time.

TS: 8 or 10, yes. Some people don't actually realize how

much difference in speeds there is between some dogs. Some

have no probiem running along at 28 mph, yet some of my bei-

ter dogs can only run at 22 mPh.But that's all they have to do once in harness. The

important thing is when running them loose, is that you don't

go too fast, you don't go outthere and race around ahead ofthem with the ATV you'll lamethem all in no time.

SDS: You mean they willover exert themselves trying tokeep up with you?

TS: Oh certainly, they'llstove themselves up just like ifyou run them too fast in earlyfal l t ra in ing. They think theycan do it but they're not physi-cally able to.

What we sort throughis trying to put them in speedgroups. We have 10 or 12 thatiik" to rrt-r along at 28mph, and another group of dogs that like

to run along at 22 rnph. We also always train all females with ali

females. I don't train males with females.

SDS: Is that because you're worried about breedings?

TS: No, it's iust that they get into pissing matches, their

always pestering the females, climbing all over them. So we just

run all males together and all females together. When we actu-

ally got into starting to train the dogs for stage racing we got

them up to running 12 mites free running, which is the farthest

we've ever went f ree running.

SDS: So prior to those 12 mile free runs, how far did those

future stage dogs free run?

TS: 5-6 miles.

SDS: Now are these woods trails, open fields, dirt roads,

what are your trails like?

TS: We go out of our yard for 200-300 yards through the

woods, then we are in fields. fust like farmers roads in the fields.

We have water holes every mile. I'm really fortunate about

where I live. I've got a real nice neighbor who owns 10,000 acres

behind me. It's incredible really - we can run 25 miles out of my

yard. And it's real good dirt, easy on their feet.

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SDS: Now what do you do about wild animals, don't the

dogs catch a scent and chase it.

TS: Fortunately where I'm at, and I probably ran 50 miles

this morning - B or 10 grouPs of dogs 5 miles each, we never

saw a thing, never crossed a driveway, never saw one animal.

You know a lot of these dogs have been raised here since they

were puppies, well they've learned to chase from day one.

Now I've bought a lot of dogs in my career too and alot of them

I'm able to convert over but some of the huskies, I never was

able to get them in shape by free running, they never figured out

how to do that. So those I had to hook them in with a team a lit-

tle earlier than the others just to get them in shape.

The key to running them loose is trying to get the dogs

to run slower than they want to, so you don't injure them. They

try to run completely over their ability. I've got 25-30 that are

sore right now so they have to learn to back off, they don't have

to run at 28-30mph.

SDS: So you don't use a wheel

for summer training at alL.

TS: I built a wheel about 15 -

17 yrs ago, just when the AIV's

were starting to be used. I

might have used it 20 times, but

never real ly had i t bui l t r ighL.This free running is really

good, the dogs really love it,

they love going in the water,running over through the grass,it is just so good for their head.

I mean I train on the same trail

ail year long, out of the same

yard, out to the same trail, it is

boring, there's no corners, but

they never get sour. The loose

running is a big part of it, they just love being out there. There

is nothing I hate more than having to Put a harness on a dog to

run 3 miles. I mean in the Fa1l, they're jumping and screaming

to go, wrapping up around you, but by doing this loose running

first, they tone down a bit. They also learn that just because

another dogs bumps into them, they don't have to turn around

and fight. It really tones them down.

Right now we are doing it once every 3 or 4 days.

Then by September I'll separate out what will be the stage rac-

ing dogs and take them a little farther. And one thing about free

running, you can do it when it is a lot warmer than you can

when training them in a team.

SDS: How warm would vour cut off be?

TS: Well I ran some this week here and it was probably as

warm as I've ever done it and it was in the 60's They get in the

water holes and cool off. But I prefer to start eariy at 7 in the

morning and like to get done by 9 or 10 by then it may be in the

50's.

SDS: So you do this until the second week in October?

TS: We start off in harness around the 20th of Oct, and in

the morning when I start to trairy it is already starting to dip

below freezing. So we start them at 3 miles, then go up to 5

miles pretty quickly and work on that for a couple weeks.

"If there is one thing I canattribute any success to, one

maj or thing outside of allthose little things you hope todo rigfut, it is the ability to doall that free running with the

dogs"

SDS: Is that about as far as you go on dirt, before you get tosnow?

TS: Well last year we ran 28 miles on dirt. Last year wehad the worst training conditions we've ever had since I've livedhere. We had the least amount of snow in 30 yrs. So we wererunrfng 28 miles on a 4 wheeler up until the first week inDecember.

SDS: On {rozen ground with little or no snory woW how didyou keep their feet happy?

TS: That didn'tbother them, but alsoin my dog yard, I haul3/4 crushed stone asfooting so they arerunning on gravel allthe time. I never havea problem with pads,if there is anything Ihave a problem with,which everyone has,it's fissures.

But in a nor-mal year; the firstweek of November weare on snow. Andusually when it comes,it stays.

SDS: So when youare training for yournormal open races, 20mile races, how far doyou train them eachrun? I'm talking aboutlater in the seasory saylate December.

Buddy Streeper winning Ihe 2004 Anchorge Fur Rendezvous

TS: Well with the huskies I say if you trained them about3/4 distance it was enough. fhe pointers I'd say, have to see abit more distance, but not a lot of it. 20 milers no problem, butwhen you start taking them 30 or 40 they have to see it first oth-erwise their head gets a little weak on them. I stilt think that99% of people in this sport over train dogs.

SDS: Wow, I think that would be contrary to what most peo-ple believe.

TS: I think most of the limited class people start trainingway too soon. I think the biggest thing that hurts a dog is heat.There is nothing that can destroy a dog's desire to run hardmore than overheating them. It takes an absolute idiot of a dogafter he's been overheated, to go out and give 100/o again.Sooner or later they start to back it off a bit.

SDS: So you're talking about emphasizing high quality vs.high quantity.

TS: Much more high quality. I don't think you need muchquantity. The team we took stage racing last year only had 600miles on them before the race. That whole stage race team lastyeaq, with the crappy training we had, there wasn't a dog on

that team, anytime in their life that trained 3 days in a row, thereprobably wasn't a dog in that team that had trained two days ina row that year.

Before that race, I never drove a dog 4 days in a row inmy life! The last 6 or 7 years, we've stuck with 1 day on 1 dayoff. Most teams I see now screw up so bad in the last 2 weeksbefore the race, they put too

-ut'ryirrs on them. Most people

are going into the race with their gas tanks half empty, trying tomake up for lost time.

I've seen Saunderson doing that for years, (one day oryone day off) and I kept questioning it, but he kept beating usand beat ing us and beat ing us.

Egil on the other hand is an over trainer I think, he

Photo: Magali Phi l ip

tends to run them far-ther.

SDS: Really?

TS: He proba-bly had more miles onhis dogs when we gotto the Rondy this yea1,then we had even aftergoing stage racing!

SDS: Sohowdid your training letyou know how thestage racing dogswould react to thelonger distances? Ithink one of the biggestquestions a sprintmusher would havegoing stage racing is"how am I going toslow these dogs down,because they may tuck-er out after the distance

they are used to"?

TS: Well remember though, that we had raced Yellowknifefor the past 4 years, so we had taken them 52 miles and seenwhat they could do, by doing the Yellowknife runs and doing itwrong most of the times, even though we wory we did it wrong.Because we were forced into that situation comins from theONAC, and went there without proper training for it. You know,taking dogs that had only gone 2 -20's and one 30, then all of asudden, put two 40's on them, then we would run 3- 50's andstill win the race.

SDS: When you say you did it wrong, you mean you wouldhave rather put some more longer runs on them beforeYellowknife?

TS: Yes, they got too sore, but I know how to pick dogs thatcould do that k ind of racing.

When we went to the stage racing, we had alreadydone the Yellowknife race, which is a tough one. We already hadan idea of what dogs could do that sort of stuff. So then wemade the decision we were going to do stage racing, we'd runthem longer, run them up to 12 miles in the middle of October,and of course we had to put miles on them a little quicker so wewere jumping up the increments a lot faster than what we

w

would do for sprint racing. By the first of December we were

already up to 25,28 miles.

SDS: Now did you run them (stage dogs) slower than you'd

run the sprint dogs at that distance?

TS: Yes, when we train sprint we run fairly fast, if the trails

are good we are running around 19mph, but the stage team we

trained that team 15mph the whole winter.

SDS: Were youlooking to build a spe-cific pace into them?

TS: WeLl, we werelooking at a 15mphpace, heck we foundout that was 5mph toofast! In the stage race,we were avg 9,10mph.So I don't think thathelped. I think thisyear I'II train them alittle slower. and thatwould keep more dogsin the game for onething. We started with26 - 28 dogs for thestage team and it gotcut down to 20 realquick. Training at 12mph, they could havehung in there longerand still been ok.

SDS: A commonthing that happenswith sprint dogs, andI've discussed this alot with other sprint racers, you try to slow them dowry and

give them a break during training by using a mat on the sled, or

the brake on the AIV, and they tend to just work harder, and get

more tired.

TS: Right, which will happen a lot of times. This group of

dogs, having had done Yellowknife and everything, it doesn't

take long, a couple of runs, for them to settle down to the slow-

er pace.When we went to the stage race last year, we had 3 or 4

28 milers, 2 - 32m1lers, and 2- 43's, and that was it for long

training.

SDS: How do you think the long distance guys like Swingley

trained for the stage race, as it is really a stepping stone for them

to the Iditarod?

TS: Well Swingtey is a really good dog Persory even though

he is a little bit arroganf and likes to talk all the time, I mean

he's got some really good dogs. Most of the guys who come

from distance, have no idea what speed is. They think 1'2 rnph,

is fast. Honestly.

SDS: Do you think their training methods are different?

TS: They're way different, they bulk the hell out of them

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and train them to go real slow. Like Gilbertson, Loyd was run-ning his dogs 50 miles the first of October!

SDS: But probably at 12 mph.

TS: More like 8 mplu it would take them 5 hrs. Most ofthose distance guys, their just too slow They don't have dogsthat have enough athleticism I think. They have no idea whatspeed is.

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Photo: John Gomes

We all know this and we've all heard this a million

times: You can take a fast dog and make it go slow, bui if you

take a dog that can't run fast, there is no way you are going to

- -^^ l L i - , ,^ryEsu rrur uy.

SDS: But you can toughen up a faster dog?

TS: Not all of them, not every dog that runs the North

American is going to run the Iditarod. And there are some dogs

that run the Iditarod, that can run the North American, but there

are more dogs that run the North American that will fit into an

Iditarod team than vice versa.

Just because you slow them down doesn't necesarily

mean they are going to be tough though. Most of the guys who

are coming out of the mid-distance, and distance stuff train too

slow (for stage racing).

SDS: Do you think that will change, once people know how

you trained, and won?

TS: They probably will anyway. You know people always

think your not telling the truth.....I said early in this sport that

I'm going to tell the truth, you know, because it is easier to

remember.

The Streeper dogs keep a tight gangline at the Anchorage Fur Rendezvouz2OO4

continued on pflge 24...

wwwffi ffi&wwffiM ffiwffiffieuropeans likely to do well

by helen lundberg

won the gold medal in the unllmited class sprint in Todtmoos2003 and he has planned for years for his start at the WC2005. "ln 2003 we had a litter especially for the WC 2005. Asyou can see we have been focused for a long time on the rac-ing season 2005. We kept all of the dogs in that l i tter, 10, andthey were all looking great last winter. I think that nearly all ofthem will be a big help for my team this year." I ask Klaus if

Getting ready for racing this winter?

That is what several mushers in Europe are doing and havebeen for quite some time. The reason is that this season wil lbe a lot different for many of them, compared to a normal rac-ing season. Why, because they will be traveling over toCanada and the U.S. where they wil l participate in the IFSSWorld Championships.

IFSS, International Federation of Sled DogSports organizes World Championship inpulka, skijoring, sled sprint and mid distanceevery other year. And 2005 the championshipwill be held in Dawson City, Canada forpulka, skijoring and sled sprint, and inOregon, U.S. for 6 & 12 dog mid-distance inconjuntion with the ATTA BOY 300.

The World Championship 2005 wil l be the11th time IFSS organizes a WC. And everytime the championship is held in U.S. it actslike a magnet on the European mushers. Toget a chance to race "over here" is a dreamcome true for almost every musher inEurope. Two years ago, 2003, the IFSSWorld Championship was held in Todtmoos,Germany. And only a few mushers from U.S.and Canada showed up. Actually none In thesled dog classes or the pulka and just a fewin the skijoring classes. But in 2005 it wil l besomething else, champions wil l come to tryand defend their t it les and many challengerteams will try to take new titles.

Klaus Starfl inger l ives in southern Germany where he and hiswife and their dogs enjoy a warm and sunny summer. Klaus

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Klaus Starflinger (Unlimited Class Champ) in action at Todtmoos WC 2003

he has made any changes in his team from 2003? "l still haveall the dogs that I raced wilh when I won the gold inTodtmoos, but some of my dogs are seven years old now and

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ZTMA Harnesses: the originof x-back--5O yeors of/ Mode excfusively ot

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I think a lew will have problems to keep up with the speed forthis season. But Nova, my main leader, still looks good and Ialso have a four year old Mike-son that I have prepared forthe race in Dawson City. His name is Carlo and I think he willbe in lead in all the important races." How many dogs wil l you

bring with you to Alaska? "We plan to come with around 25dogs." How will you prepare your leam for this coming sea-son? "We siarted last year with the young ones in Gafsele,Sweden, only with open teams and this season our new win'ter camp is ready in Ga{sele and will provide us with the bestconditions to prepare for the World Championship. We will goearlier this fall to Sweden and our winter training camp, thiswil l give us a chance to train longer distances and hopefully

on early snow."What is your goal at the WC in Dawson City? "Since the titlein 2003 we had the goal to take part in the next WC with abetter and a more uniform team to be able to have morespeed in them than you need for the trails in Germany. Wehope to be competitive for a medal." Who do you consider tobe your toughest competitor at the IFSS WC? "Egil Ell is andBuddy Streeper, but it's always more difficult to race at anoth-er continent and we have to try to prepare the team for the

conditions we expecl to meet. So we are happy if we canbuild up a good team for Alaska and Canada" Klaus has beenracing before in Alaska and I ask him i{ he plans to compete inany other race than the IFSS World Championship when hecomes over to U.S.? "Of course, we want to start in theStanley Dayo Open in Manley, and hopefully some moreraces. I don't know if I will have enough dogs for the ONAC,but we will see." To travel from Germany over to Alaska is alogislic challenge but Klaus has made this trip before so heknows how to prepare {or the long travel. He will fly out fromFrankfurt with Lufthansa Cargo with destination FairbanksAlaska. "l hope we can rent a good dog-truck in Fairbanks forthe drive to Dawson City. But so far we have got no informa-tion from IFSS when it comes to lodging etc in Dawson. lts noteasy to travel with such a big team and we feel a little sadabout the lack of information, to know more would havehelped us to plan ahead."

The 8-dog class sprint is always a very competitive challengeand in Todtmoos there were several very fast teams going lorthe gold. But after three days of racing the fastest team camefrom Sweden, Lena Westas Havimdki won the gold medal out-running all her competitors. Lena has never been racing in thU.S. before, but she wil l come to Dawson City and the IFSSWC to deJend her tit le. "l ' l l bring my 11 best dogs with me"says Lena. "l know that the competit ion wil l be tough' bothfrom U.S. teams and from European teams." Lena has beenone oJ the most successful mushers in Sweden and Europefor several years in the 8-dog class and she has a lot of racingexperience. "l have never had more than 16 dogs in trainingin eadier years, and this fall I wil l only have a group of 14dogs. Included in this group are also six very promisingyounger dogs. Out of these 14 | wil l pick out my WCteam."Lenas dogs are all hound crosses. I ask her how she pre-pares her team for this very special season? "l give my dogsthe best possible care. I want them to be happy, healthy andwell prepared and trained before the racing season starts.This year I want to train my team early on snow, and thatmeans that I will have to travel north in Sweden to get thebest conditions. Where I l ive in mid Sweden we can't expectany snow until after Christmas." Lena also tells me that shewill try to start in as many races as possible in both Swedenand Norway before she takes off to the IFSS WC, just to getthe dogs ready for the big race. "When it comes to my self, Iwil l also need to be well prepared both mentally and physical-ly" she says.

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It is quite a long travel to get from Sweden to Dawson Citybut Lena has it all planned. "We will ship the dogs withLufthansa Cargo from Gothenburg, Sweden, with a directfl ight to Fairbanks, Alaska. For the fl ight we have speciallybuilt dog-boxes that wil l f i t on the pallet as well as on thebed of a pick up truck. This makes it easier because thenwe don't need to rent a dog-truck when we arrive inFairbanks, we wil l be fine with a normal pick up. lf every-thing goes as planned I wil l stad in the Limited NorthAmerican Championship and than travel to Dawson Cityand the World Championship. I also would l ike to race atthe Tok Race of Champions before I go back home toSweden" Lena says. "lt 's a dream coming true for me, rac-ing in Alaska. As long as I have been a musher I haveheard lots of stories about dogs and mushers "over there,"finally I will be able to see it with my own eyes. To race withmy own team in Alaska will be the peak of my life as amusher!"

Giuseppe Bombardieri, l taly, had the fastest 6 dog team atthe IFSS WC 2003 in Todtmoos. His dream is also to cometo Dawson City and defend his gold medal. "But I don'tknow if it wil l be happening," he tells me. "lt is quit expen-sive to travel with dogs and equipment to U.S from ltaly andright now I don't have enough money for the trip," Giuseppesays. Maybe there wil l be an opening. Giuseppe has notgiven up his plans yet about participating in the IFSS WC2005. "Oh no, if everything works out there is a chance ofa new sponsor for the ltalian team and that would make abig difference. That would make it possible for me and mydogs to come to Alaska." With his team of hound crossesGiuseppe has been in the top of 6-dog sprint mushing forseveral years in Europe and of course he wants to defendhis gold medal and once again show that he has the worldsfastest 6 dog team.

So, it looks like pretty good chances that we will see atleast three defending champions on the start line in DawsonCity and the IFSS World Championship. But there is onefamiliar face we won't see for sure.

Lena Boysen Hillestad, Norway, has dominated the 4-dogclass sprint racing for years, both in Europe and worldwidebut now it looks like her sled dog career has come to an end."l have made up my mind when it comes to sled dog racingand actually I have even sold my sled," Lena tells me on thephone when I asked about defending her title in Dawson City.

"ll I come to the World Championships in Canada it will bewith one dog and my skis and I will only participate in the ski-joring event"" Lena Boysen Hillestad has an impressive longline of wins at earlier World Championships. 5 gold medals1994,97,99,01 and 2003. She has also been very success-ful in pulka and skijoring. And she is not ready to give up theskijoring. "l have two very fast dogs and a promising year-ling, so I will keep on racing with them.

Teams from Norway and Sweden dominated in the pulkaand skijoring style of racing at the IFSS WC 2003 inTodtmoos, Germany. But are they planning to defend theirmedals in Dawson City? (please turn to page 27)

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The new addit ions wil l be joining Ken Andersonand Gwen Holdmann in our team ofprofessional partners. Like Ken and Gwen, theywil l part icipate in our feed testing program.These partnerships provide Redpaw Feed withan excellent venue in which to continuallymonitor the perforrnance of our products incutting-edge kennels. They will also participatein research and development of new productsas well as h9l.n promote goodwill and improvethe sport or Mushing.

Redpaw is eagerly anticipating theircontribuiion, especially in relation to racingsprint sled dogs" Our goals at Redpaw are tomeet the needs of the musher and the Streeperswil l provide great insight into the needs of thesprint driver. Wil l iam wil l further strengthen our'distance program.

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Northern Ontario Sled Dog Club:Cfaude Aumont, President reporting:

The NOSDC board is in thoughts right now in regards to howwe could make our circuit bigger and better. lt was suggestedby a board member to hold an early (pot) race just beforeChristmas, and then to have our 4 races through Februaryand early March. These discussions are ongoing. Anybodywho has ever raced in Northern Ontario knows the quality oftrail that our club can produce...with a lot of help from MotherNature of course!Because of the low population base, it's always difficult toraise the funds from sponsors for the purse, to draw teamsJrom near and far. We have had a Spring meeting, wheere wediscussed potential ideas, and wil lbe trying to discuss it further with host communities before theFall. Stay Tuned as these talks are surely not f inalized.Other than that, our club is extremely proud of our championLou Serre for his ISDRA Gold medall l

Alaska Dog Musher's AssociationDave Partee, President rePorting:

The Alaska Dog Mushers Association is hosting the 17thannual International Sled Dog Symposium and trade fair inFairbanks, Alaska, October 8th-1Oth. Our keynote speaker thisyear is Cheryl S. Smith, expert dog trainer and nutrit ionist.Other speakers include Jeff King, John Schandelmeier, HansGatt, Curtis Erhart, Egil Ell is, Wes Rau, Arleigh Reynolds, andmore. Program and registration information is on our websiteat sleddog.org. This March wil l be the 60th running of theOpen North American Championship, the oldest continuouslyrun sled dog race in the world. Our other |SDRA-sanctionedchampionship races, starting in February, include the GoldRun, North Pole Championships, and the Limited NorthAmerican Championships. Our season gets underway with theAnnamaet Challenge Series, beginning December Sth. For thecomplete schedule with distances and classes, visitsleddog.org.

Great Lakes Sled Dog AssociationGeorge Lewis reporting:

GLSDA has a series of 5 sprint races planned for 2005, withthe first kicking off on Jan 1st & 2nd in Kalkaska, Kinross the8th and 9th, East Jordan the 22nd & 23rd, Mackinaw Mush onFebruary sth & 6th, and Kinross #2 on February 26th &271h."Golfing has gone to the dogs" is a golf outing to be held onOctover 16th to raise money for the GLSDA race in Kalkaska.It is an 18 hole scramble and the $50 entry fee includes abufet as well as the golfing. Proceeds will go towards thepurse. The Kalkaska Winter Fest is the largest sprint race inthe U.S., and is scheduled for January 15th & ' l6th 2005.Although this race is not a GLSDA race, many club members,attend it as well as GLSDA lending a hand in the organization.

As a prelude to this column I will have to start with abit of a disclaimer: I am first and foremost a veterinarian.Though I have a kennel of huskies my contributions will defi_nitely be from a veterinary angle, in hopes of explaining howcertain disease processes, nutrients, supplements and medica_tions affect dogs in generaf with special emphasis on what thatmay mean to the dog-man/woman. This forum is by no meansthe absolute truth, because medical sciences are as much art asscience, and much of what will be written is based on the ,,sci_

ence", which in the dog may not be well delineated and needsfurther investigation. I hope that the contributions that myselfand others will make to this column can provide insight a; tohow we feed, supplement, medically treat, care fo4 and breedour dogs, hoping to achieve the healthiest canine companionspossible.

With that said, the questions often comes up: ,,What do omega 3fatty acids matter to sled dogs?" ,,Can they really benefit ouidogs?" Is there any evidence to say it will help the dogs runfaste4, longel, recover better or increase their ricing lives?

What is in an omega fatty acid?

As many have said before "not all fats,, are created equal. Fatsfall into 3 major classifications - the saturated fats, the mono-unsaturated fats and the poly-unsaturated fats. All of these fatscan vary in their length from 12-24 carbon atom chains boundtogether by a single wire, like beads on a chain. The mono-unsaturated fats will have a bond between two of the carbonatoms that is linked by two bonds, or wires if you wilt. Thesedouble bonds usually add a certain amount oistructural inteeri-ty to the carbon chain and form ,,kinks,, in the chain. These diu-ble bonds increase in the polyunsaturated fatty acids, up to 6depending on how long the carbon chain is. This is where theomega 3 vs. omega 6 classification comes in. If my first doublebond is 6 carbons away from the end of my chain it is an omega6 fatty.acid, while if my first double bond is 3 carbons awayfrom the end of the chain it is an omega 3 fatty acid, whichresults in what that particular fatty acid can become duringmetabol ism.

Each and every cell:

When we think of fats, we think of energy, which all fats havethe ability to become. But every single cell in a dog,s body has amembrane which is primarily composed of the fats they eat andsynthesize. Therefore, these cell membranes have saturated,monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats in them. The oneswe will be discussing are 18 carbons long or greater which areintegrated into cell membranes and can be lengthened by cellu_lar enzyme machinery (adding more carbons ur-ra/o. aouttebonds).

Ww& &kw&k;Fatty Acids: What's in an omega?

Joe Wakshlag MS, DVM

During normal cellular metabolism and during times ofstress, trauma or inflammation these fatty acids can be releasedin excess from the membrane to form bio-active molecules. Theomega 6 fatty acids, particularly the 20 carbon fatty acidarachadonic acid (ARA) can be released to form 2 seriesprostaglandins or 4 series leukotrienes. On the flip side, theomega 3 equivalent to 20 carbon arachadonic acid is eicosapen_taenoic acid (EPA), which if released forms the 3 seriesprostaglandins or the 5 series leukotrienes. All of these fatderived molecules are called eicosanoids, with the end resultbeing lipid mediators that are either pro-inflammatory from theomega 6 pathway, or neutral or anti-inflammatory omega 3pathway. An easy way to visualize this is through folloiwing thissequence: Omega 6: Linoleic.Acid (LA) t Arachadonic Acid(ARA) + pro-inflammation Omega 3: Alpha Linolenic acid(ALA) + Eicosapentaenoic Acid (EpA) + inert or anti-inflammato_ry. In general, these fatty acids can be found in high concentra_tions in various oils. The omega 6 fatty acid linoleic acid can befound primarily in plant derived oils, while arachadonic acidcan be found in terrestrial mammal meats. Omega 3 fatty acids,alpha linolenic acid can be found in flaxseed oil and canola oil,while EPA is found primarily in cold water marine oils.

Medically speaking:

The omega 3 fatty acids have been touted as preventative medi-cine for many diseases in human medicine iniluding cancer andheart disease, and for the treatment of conditions mediatedthrough inflammation such as arthritis, allergies, and kidneydisease. In dogs there is sufficient evidence to show thatincreasing omega 3 fatty acids in the diet will decrease the pro_inflammatory eicosanoids by giving fish oil which is rich in theomega 3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EpA) and docosa_hexaenoic acid (DHA), an even longer fatty acid that acts muchlike EPA. Skin inflammation may also respond to vegetable oilsthat are rich in linoleic acid, an omega 6 fitty acid, since the 1gcarbon linoleic acid (LA) cannot be turned into a 20 carbon fattyacid, thereby preventing ARA from ever being formed. Thismay not be the case for other diseases which ire responsive toomega 3 fatty acids including kidney disease or arthritis, wheremarine source oils rich in EPA and DHA may be necessary to getthe full effect of anti-inflammation and blood flow charrges.

Balancing the diet for omega 3 content:

Let's say that you have an older dog who appears stiff and pos_sibly arthritic and you are looking to increaie the omega 3 con_tent in the diet. You are feeding a quality chicken based klbblewith a typical 32/o protein 20/o fat mix and are adding meat toincrease the protein and fat content, so the dog is getting about 2cups of kibble (220grams) plus 1 pound of raw ground beef.

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When looking at the table to the right it is obvious that any oilyou add with a ratio of greater than B:1 (see wheat germ oil andcorn oil on the table!) will not lower the omega 6 to omega 3fatty acid ratio. Changing the ratios of omega 6 to omega 3 isthe goal in this situation, which means you are stuck using oilsthat have lower ratios than your kibble. Good examples of thisare canola oil (2:1), flaxseed oil (1:3), and fish oil (1:9). In generalmeats are low in polyunsaturated fats and chicken and pork willhave higher ratios (16:1) than beef and lamb (6:1), but overallmeats will not shift the omega 6 or omega 3 intake too dramati-cally. This is easier to see when examining the table above show-ing that the omegas will be coming from the kibble, and themeat is somewhat negligible when trying to alter the ratio of

omega fat intake.

One may ask: Well if omega 3's are so great why not give allomega 3 and little to no omega 6? Well, the problem is that ifyou give too much omega 3 and omega 6 decreases in the cellmembranes then theoretically you can start to shut down theseomega 6 eicosanoids. These eicosanoids are made at low levelsin tissue for a reasory which is to maintain normal tissue func-tion (i.e. gastrointestinal health), and during times of damageand inflammation they can be made in excess. It is this exces-sive production during inflammation which we are trying toquench with omega 3 fatty acids. In sled dogs a theoretical con-cern may be that increased omega 3 content in the diet can causeIess vitamin E to integrate into cell membranes when the ratio ofomega 6:3 reaches about 1:1. Vitamin E status in cells may belinked to exertional rhabdomyolysis, which is the primary rea-son most dog drivers supplement vitamin E to distance dogs.So in the end it is much like anything else we put into our dogsbodies, there is a limit, and balance is the key. In my opinion asa veterinarian somewhere between a 2:1 to 1:1 ratio is as low as

Feed Ornega 6(grarnt

Omega 3 (gnns) Omega 6:3 ratio

Quality Kibble 2 cups 1.1 1.0 'l .7:1

* 1b Eeef(25% fat) 2.0 0.36 5.5: I

Whea.t Germ Oil 7.7 1.0 1.11

Corn Oil 7.0 0.1 70:l

Canola oil I tbsp 5.6 2,8 2: l

Natural tish oii 1 tbsp 0.6 5,6 1:9.3

Xi bb le/b e ef/c an o I a oil 14.2 4.26 3,3:l

Kibbldbeef/fish oil 9.1 6.9 1.4:]

one should go when suppiementing omega 3 fatty acids.

What about my sled dog?

The question that we all really want to know is how will balanc-ing fatty acids benefit our sled dogs, or any dog for that matter?The answer lies in the intangibles. Think of it this way, if I amworried about joint problems, injuries, or chronic inflammatorydisease like allergies, if I have a good omega 6 to 3 ratio I will beblunting the clinical signs the best that I can. The appropriateamount of omega 6 to omega 3 is somewhere between 6:1 or 1:1ratio. Many quality foods will iist the amounts on the bag underthe guaranteed analysis. The chart on above shows some exam-ples of balancing acts with some pdnciples to keep in mind.Will they make your dog run fasteq, pull harde{, run longer? No... probably not. But you may gain piece of mind knowing

2OO4 International Sled Dog SymposiumOctober 8 - 10, Pioneer Parlc Fairbanks, Alaska

Keynote speaker Cheryl S. Smith, expert in dog training & nutrition,will present, "How to Be Chicken about Training or, What You CanLearn from a Dumb Bird."

Other featured speakers include: Veterinarians Jean Battig, JeanneMaddux, Jeanne Olson, & Arteigh Reynolds o Veterinary PhysicalTherapist Wes Rau . Champion mushers Egil Etlis, Curtis Erhart, JeffKing, John Schandelmeier, Mitch Seavey, and ZackSteer. and more...

Presentations for everyone interested in sled dogs: Mushing 101:Harness fit &selection . Mushing 201: Do-it-yoursel{ . Distance mushingstrategies . Sprint mushing strategies . Physiology of human & canineconditioning . Comparing sled designs & construction o and more...

Don't forget the trade fair and fundraising ouction!

The Comfort Inn is offering a specialrate of S65/night + tax for participants.Conveniently located behind PioneerPark,the Comfort Inn is dog-friendlyand provides a complimentary deluxecontinental breakfast.To reserve aroom at the 2004 Sled DogSymposium rate, call 907 /479-8080.

Advance registration is $40/person ifpostmarked by September 24.Sign up early to save money!

Speakers & sessions subject to change.

continueil from preaious page:

you are applying a little bit of preventative medicine for whenthose problems of chronic inflammation arise.

DOG & EQUIPMENTAUCTIO'VS

Minnesota - 7th annual auctionStreeper Ranch.

Saturday 9/25/0411am.Free camping, bonfires, food stand, music and fun.

Maine - Down East Fall Seminar'l0l9l04 Sat. Night

Don't miss this great opportunity to buy adog that will help your team and breeding program.

''STAY IN THE RACE''These dogs wiil takc you into the future.

They are whi i wc wi l l be usins this racins vear.Ed and Amy celebrate 50 years oY combined"tiainins

and racing, and arc the onlv act ive couple in the spoittoday to"havc both won the Open North Ameriian- Championships in Fairbanks, AK.

From puppies and started yearlingsta adults. Dogs from our multi-generatiansof proven lines mixed with the best pointer

lines today - German, Englistt, Ellis, etc.

For more informatiory guestions or io buv a dobefore the auction and have it broueht with ds out

call 218-573-3993 or email: strEeper@eot.comwebsite: www.fastestreeperk-ennel.com

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Club2004 T'rade

Fair ' & SeminarOctober Bth, gth, & 1Oth. -

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ts rAd/d/y StroetparBuddy has won 21 straight malor racesacross the lower 48, Canda, and Alaska

also featurino:Jdnys KaYine)ty

winners of 2004 Beargrease Marathon

See presentations on a wide array of topics from get-ting stafted in mushing to making your own gang

l ines, there is something for everyone:Tel l ington Touch

Canine Eye Diseases & Eye cl in icRed Cross Pet First Aid Cert i f icatron

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Stay for the famous "Fast Eddy" Auction on Saturday Nightand get your opportunity to purchase

greaf dogs & equipment.

Plus: IFSS accredited Dryland Races:Bikejoring, Canicross, Rig Races

endors, raf f les, workshops, pot luck supper Sat. eve.For more informat ion see www.desdc.oro or

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How do they do it? Coming across the finish line on the

third day - after averaging almost 20 mph for 30 each day, how

can 12 dogs stitl be pulling strongly, tugs all tight, and in uni-

son? How can a team from a relatively small kennel win the

ONAC on it's 2nd try, and continue to dominate and win 5 out

of 6 subsequent ONAC titles? How can a team that has never

run a stage race, win both major stage races in the U.S., besting

the top level distance racing competition entered? What allows

a team to win what is, arguably the mostgrueling race on the planet, The Yukon

Quest, 3 times in a row?Well we all know there realiy

aren't many "secrets" to training sled dogs.For the most part we get out of it what weput into it. Mentally huppy, well fed, physi-

cally capable, well conditioned dogs win

races. There are a lot of us that look at the"off season" as a time to enjoy other hob-

bies, keep the grass on the lawn lower thanthe weeds and generally re-charge our bat-teries. There are some that look at the sum-mer months as the start to a training and

conditioning regimen for themselves andtheir dogs that will propel them to record

breaking achievements. Over the years,after talking to many top racers in search oftheir training secrets, one common denomi-nator that has come to the surface is thatmost or all of them have a summer trainingplan. There are some as elaborate as build-

ing specialized swim pools for their dogs,and there are some that require little morethan a walk through the woods with their

dogs running around them. I've talked tosome of today's top mushers to find outwhat they do with their dogs in the "off season". The following

is what transpired.

Arleigh Reynolds DVMSalcha, AlaskaOpen Class Sprint

"This summer we are trying a three step approach to off season

conditioning. We are trying to accomplish 3 goals:1. Maintain cardiovascular fitness2. Cross train to broaden muscle group recruitment and hopeful-

ly "re-balance" muscle structure to prevent injuries once formal

training begins3. Increase and improve contact with the dogs to enhance my

relationship with them and keep them stimulated and hupPy

during the off season.To accomplish this we are using the wheel, free running

and swimming in a rotating schedule. Each does something dif-

ferent for the dogs and the rotation decreases monotony for me

dfr

Im

and the living is easytt

and them.The swimming is fantastic cardiovascular work with no

impact. This allows maintenance or even improvement of con-

ditioning without wear and tear on joints. A canine rehab spe-

cialist once said one minute of swimming is worth 4 minutes of

running. When our dogs runs in a race their pulse at the end is

generally 160-180 bpm, after a 20 minute swim it is usually 180-

210 bpm. Swimming recruits all muscle groups and does so in a

balanced way without building muscle

MASS.

Look at Otympic swimmers, they are

well muscled but not bulky and they arevery flexible. I think this kind of work wiil

help our dogs "re-balance themselves after a

season where they often run on one side of

the line. I know when I rowed crew

Starboard rowers were much larger on the

right side of their body and ports on their

left. This often led to injuries on the off-side due to an imbalance of the strength of

the muscles between the right and ieft sides

of the back. It takes a while for the dogs to

become comfortable swimming but of the

40 we are swimming this summer only 3

have had trouble adapting. We are accli-mating our pups to the pool at 10 weeks

and this is going very well so I don't antici-pate any problems next year.

The wheel work is similar to long

slow distance work used by human com-

petitive endurance athletes. It builds oxy-gen transport and fat metabolism pathways

and does so in a relatively low impact man-ner. The idea is to run longer than you

would normallv run at a much lower inten-

sity. This type of training is also good for their minds as it

makes them comfortable running for longer times than the are

used to while staying well within their comfort range (i.e., they

don't have lactic acid build up or get stiff, sore or painful during

the run). As monotonous as it seems to us to trot in a circle for

2-3 hours at a time they love it and I think it actually builds atti-

tude.We generally run20-25 miles per session on the wheel. I

remember Harris Dunlap once said that when he used the wheel

to maintain conditioning during periods of poor weather he

thought the dogs lost conditioning if he did not run at least 2

hours which would translate to about 14-16 miles.

Terry Streeper is the worlds expert on free running so I

would defer most comments on that to him. I can tell you that it

does make the dogs very happy and it is fun to see them stretch

out and run at speeds you'll never see in harness. I think it does

help make them learn their gaits better and learn how to run fast

over different terrain.Nothing takes the place of actual hooking up dogs to prepare

them for racing but I think this cross training may help keep

them from de-training in the off season and help maintain a

ee$wxmmww &Kmw

Arleigh Reynolds' pool Photos: Kriya Dunlap

close bond with the dogs in the off season. I know for exampleOlympic caliber cross country skiers will cross train in the offseason to balance their muscling, maintain fitness, and preventburnout. Having the three options we use helps accomplishthese goals and allows us to be flexible if the weather is too hot(i.e., to wheel or free run) or too cold (i.e., to swim) for any oneactivity. This is a work in progress and it will likely take a cou-ple of seasons to refine these concepts and to evaluate the effectthey have on race performance, which is of course the ultimate

test of their worth."

Eddy StreeperOsage, MinnesotaOpen Class Sprint

SDS: Eddy, when is your last snow run on a sled?

ES: Our last snow runs are usually the end of March earlyApril, if weather cooperates. And it also depends on what racesI'm at in March.

swimming equals 4 minutes of running for a dog.

SDS: What is the temperature of the water?

ES: I have never tested the water other than with my hand,and it feels cool, approximately air temperature, not cold.

SDS: Do the dogs "bully" each other in the pool?

ES: There are a few that push their way around in the pool, afew that will try to climb up on the back of a slower swimmer,we make them let go immediately.

SDS: So they are not tethered in the pool?

ES: Our dogs free swim, not tied or connected. I am workingon setting up a wheel for controlled directional swimming in thepool.

SDS: Cool, I'd love to see that!How many dogs are you swimming?

SDS: How late in the Spring do youATV train after that?

ES: We run dogs for 2 months afterthat, pups and older dogs all run.

SDS: After their last run in harness,what do you do with them over theSummer to keep ihe dogs iin shape?

ES: Free running and swimming.

SDS: You are one of the first mushers tostart systemat ical ly swimming yourdogs, how did you get the idea to getthe pool, and swim your dogs in a struc-tured manner?

ES: I have been thinking about swim-ming of sorts for many, many years. Iwas always wondering how I could uti-lize the lake we live ory but there is apublic road in between the dog lot andthe lake. Therefore I was always afraid to run the dogs acrossthe road to the lake, and hauling them in a dog box would betoo hot for them. I realized a smaller home made r:ool o{ sortscould and should work. It does.

SDS: Can you describe the "pooI"?

ES: Our pool is a fiberglass fish raising tank, 8000 gallonswhen full. We put about 6500-7000 gallons in it to keep a tiparound the edge so the dogs can't climb out too easily. It's 16.5feet across and 7 feet deep in the center. It has a 4 foot flat edgeand.a conical shape to the deepest part in the center on the bot-

SDS: How long do they swim for?

ES: The dogs start at 3-4 minutes then step up to 6-8 minutes,then up to 15 minutes max. I heard that some swimming testswere done in a structured tested environment and 1 minute of

Eddv Streeper in action aI Frazee. MN 2004 Photo: Joy Green

ES: We swim approximately 8 adults at a time, and we havehad up to 12 adults in at once.

SDS: Do you think that swimming builds muscle that is morelike speed, or flatter muscle, or does it build bulkier musclemore like heavy ATV work?

ES: Their muscle seems flatter and not that bulky from swim-ming, but we only got them up to 15 minutes last Summer.

SDS: Have you measured their heart rate after swimming?

ES: Their heart rates are at 180-210 beats per minutes afterswimming, same dogs are approximately 160 from running.

SDS: After a swimming workout have you measured theirbody temps?

ES: Haven't done temos vet.

xw

rl

l

Egi|E| | isonhiswayton|sf i { thwininsixyearsinthe2004openNorthAmericanchampionshiprace

Photo: Heath Sandall

SDS: Could you notice less injuries from the group you swam

vs. the gro.tp ihut didn't swim last year?

ES: We normally have very few injuries the first couple'

months of FalI training, but #imming the dogs we took them

ir-rio eufi training in belter condition' I don't know if the swim-

;i;g i; stiii heliing by Xmas after 400 running miles' and

months out of the Pool'

Egil EllisWillow AKOpen Class SPrint

I sooke with Egil Ellis via telephone early in August this year' At'#,it

" ii *"Jhot (for Alaska) and dry' it hadn't rained in a

couple of weeks. To keep dust d'own Egil hadto water down the

k"eill ,"h"r-, h" iet the dogs ioose beacuase of the dust'

U"a"""*a, the musher w"ho sets the mark in open class-sprint

;;;;"t on schedule with his Program and was very forth--.Jtit

with information about hi' *"'rn"t training methods'

and I was all ears.

SDS: When is your last run in harness each year?

4ffiffiffi

EE: For the most part after Tok' the main race dogs are laid

.ff. W" may have u f"* ^o'"

runs at home training pups for.a

i"* *""tr, tut they are more or less laid off for "in the team"

i;;t#g.'il L"p iu the dogs going by free running around.the

"".J "fi"t that foi about an iou"r at i tim" euch day' By April'

;;;* kind of tired of sled runs, and so are the dogs'

SDS: How big is your yard that you cut the dogs loose in?

EE:I th inki t isabout2acres,andinsid.ethatyardiswherethe walker is.

SDS : The kennel is inside that yard also?

EE: No the kennel is outside that yard'

SD: So in the Spring, the dogs get to run around loose for

about an ho.,r each aiy, ao you use your training wheel during

this period?

EE: No' The race dogs have off except for the loose running

lr-, in" yu.a, for April, liuy utd llne'.tt is just relaxing time for

them to iaze around und te bored' The loose running in-the

vard sets the worst enerSy outof them. And then usual lyby the

i l "g i# ing of July, [hat is when we stdrt wi th the walKer ' I oon r

:.;si 1&

ds

g in the Yard training'

really it is more like PlaYing" Egl Eui'

consider the loose running in the yard training really, it is moreIike playing.

SDS: So you don't try to keep them moving by having themchase the atv around, or running or anything?

EE: No, but when we let them into this fenced area 25 or so ata time, they get really excited about that, and chase each otheraround and piay alot. They are very active for about an hour.

SDS: Have you ever had any problems with dogs fighting, orfemales in heat?

EE: I usually have a group of females in heat, then the othergroups are mixed. But if I have a lot of dogs under a year old Itry to put those dogs in together separately otherwise the olderdogs might start to pick on them. We pay alot of attention thatthey go well togethel, we don't want any dog getting picked on.They all have to be happy about it.

SDS: Now they all do this until the beginning of July, then youstart to use the walker?

EE: Yes in the beginning of July we start the younger dogs on

the walker that are new to it. I do that by mixing a few of theolder dogs with the younger ones so they can kind of watch andget the hang of it. This year it was really easy. It only took threeor four times and all the yearlings look like they have neverdone anything else.

SDS: Do you ever have to lure or coax them into training on thewheel.

EE: Yes, that is what I do. I put it on a really slow, walkingspeed and the yearlings go back and {orth and every way. ThenI go inside the circle and walk or jog in the same direction as thewalker and they see which way I'm going and get the hang of it.

SDS: What is your temperature cut off for using the walker?

EE: The walker training is not so dependant on cool weatheras with four wheeler training. They seem to do well even at tem-peratures around 60 - 65 F, if the walker is located in the shadeor if it is a cloudy day. That is one important thing to considerwhen building a walkeq, the location. When we put ours iry wemanaged to find a spot where the sun hits last in the morningsand is surrounded by big trees. Of course, you have to use yourjudgment and shorten the runs if some dogs start to look over

At B0' in diameter, this is probably be the biggest piece of canine exercise equipment ever constructed. El l is 'wheel needs three types of braking sys-tems to control the dog power, and is computer control led. Bui l t by Rusty Hagan of Mushing Metals in Fairbanks, Alaska Photos: Helen Lundberg

xw

heated just like with any training. Early mornings or late

evenings also helps, even though 5 am starts get old quickl

SDS: Now how fast, when you normally are using the walket'

are they moving?

EE: With the older dogs I start the run at about 13-14 mph' a

slow lope. That I do beciuse I can hook 20 dogs to this thing

and when 20 dogs are pulling hard the brakes are getting pretty

hot on it.

SDS: So you have 20 arms..

EE: No there are 10 arms, each 40 feet long, with a dog

hooked off each arm and one between each arm' I start them off

at that higher speed for about 10 minutes maybe' until they set-

tle down-a bit, ihen slowly bring them down to about 8 or 9

moh. The one I had in Sweden was half the size, and it seems

like they were always going sideways a bit because the circle

was tightel, here they are almost running straight'

SDS: That has to be the biggest waiker in existence! What kind

of motor do you have on it?

EE: I think it is 3hp, with reduction gears and 3 different

tvpes of brakes. One brake is a drag / friction type brake on the

axle that I keep at a constant drag, the other is an air brake from

a truck that operates on a drum via a hand leve1, the third is a

regenerative type of brake. It also has a pretty sophisticatedlit-

tle computer in it that I can program in specific time intervals at

differeni speeds. But I don,t use that function because I want to

be around and do it manuallY.

SDS: Who did you find to build that for you?

EE: Rusty Hagan built it. He's done a few of these' but never

this big. -He's

always done the 40 foot ones' Originally I had the

idea for a huge cable type exercise system that would run

around the whole kennel and I could hook all the dogs to' Kind

of like a ski tift cable trolley. So that's what I talked to him

about originaliy and he was all set to build it, but it got too

expensivJ and ihat's when we started talking about a big walk-

SDS: So you use the wheel starting in July, at that point do you

still free run the dogs in the Pen?

EE: Well no, but the walker is in that area and I let them run

loose for about 15 minutes before I walk them, and they play

around and eliminate and stuff. I start off with about 20 min-

utes, 10 in each directiory then step it up in 5 minute intervals

each way.

SDS: I remember you saying you take the dogs for long walks

in the woods. Do you stitl do that with the aduit dogs or just

puppies.

EE: We used to do it but it got too dangerous, too lively after

awhileandtheystartedgett inghurt.Anotherthingwiththatisthat they start to learn to take off from the yard and mn away

-hen e.rer they are loose. But that is what we still do with the

pups up until around the time we harness break them'

SDS: When do you start with the race team training in harness

on the atv?

EE: By mid October with the race dogs' This year we have a

fairly big group of yearlings that got harness broke this Spring

andi *i'il"sta.ithoi" dogslraining in harness by mid September'

SDS: That reminds me of something you had told me a few

vears back that you don't like to put the dogs on the wheel until

ih"rr'rr" had a few months of steady harness training in the team'

Is that still true?

EE: Yes, they need to know what being a sled dog is before

they become walkers.

SDS: Do you notice any gait differences when they are trotting

on the wheel, because I imagine you don't get to see them trot

too often in Your team?

EE: No, but I was afraid of that when I started walker train-

ing, that they would develop into really good trotters' but we

hu"rr" .,".r", seen anything iike that. They don't seem to relate

the walking training to team training' Somepf the more eager

vearlinss d-o try to l,ope on the wheel as long as they can' but

fr-r." you get up to ut hont on it they figure they better start

trotting.

SDS: Ok, so from July to Mid-October using the walker every

other day at an average of thr per session at 8mph that's a lot of

walkingl

EE: Yes, by the start of AIV training we have about 400 miles

on the dogs using the dogwalker'

EE: I think it is reaily important to say to anybody that is --

thinking of building or buying a training wa-lker/wheel to really

Iook hard at the brake system' Safety is really important'

because if you hook up 10 or 20 dogs, they have an incredible

amount of power .

Hans GattAttlin, British ColumbiaDistance

We spoke with Hans ihis summer, about his training methods to

keep the dogs happy, and fit during the off season'

SDS: Hi Hans, how are You doing?

HG: I 'm doing Pret tY good.

SDS: Let's take it from your last race, is that usually the Quest?

HG: Yes, the last few years it has, there are some other good

races but a lot of times after the Quest I am a bit tired of racing

and I don't want to do races anymore' After that it is a good

time to train the puppies that are 8 or 9 months old' I don't

have time over the winter to train them, while the hectic prePa-

rations for the racing is going on, so I like to take the relaxed

time in Spring to break PuPPies.

SDS: When is your last sled run in the Spring?

HG: We usually have pretty good snow conditions here and

we usually have training until the end of April'

KW

SDS: And you dothat until the endof April, andyou're not concen-trating on the racedogs during thattime?

HG: No I'm not,they get a reallygood time off,even the Questdogs, I might takethem out for 10mile runs so theyloosen up theirmuscles and get

;:lt t'the sum-

"It's all about commitment, thebig thing is you haae to trust

yOUr dOgs" Hans Gatt

HC:

How far do you take those pups?

It's a 4 mile loop, I never do anything less than 4 miles

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SDS: What size teams do you run at that time?

HG: I harness break puppies in big size teams actually. I mixthem up with some older dogs, but usually a 14 dog team, most-ly puppies.

SDS: You do that until the end of April when you said you loseyour snow trails?

HG: Yes, there is always a little bit of down time when thetrails have a little bit of snow but are too muddy, before weswitch to the ATV. Breakup time, not very long really, jusi a cou-ple of weeks. This is a complete time off from runmng.

SDS: When you say you switch to the AIV do you switch torunning them in harness, or loose running?

HG: It might be a little bit of bot[ if I'm not satisfied with theharness training on the pups that we had with the sled.

SDS: I saw the video on your web site. There were a fewframes in it that looked as if you had about 30 dogs loose infront of your ATV going down the trail. It looked like a masskennel breakout!

HG: That is what I do during the summer, and I try to do itevery day. This year we had a really hot, dry summer and thedust got in the way of doing it every day. I try to do it as oftenas possible.

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SDS:

Hans Gatt and Pepper photo: Mario Vi l leneuve

SDS: So, explain to me how you do this, do you just cut 30

dogs loose, crank up the ATV and take off, or do you have a

more systematic method?

HG: Very simple really, I have a fenced in dog yard - that is

something I believe in and something I've had as long as I've

had dogsl I just turn them loose in the yard, open the gate and

go.

SDS: And how manY go at a time?

HG: It really depends, I have groups' Actually I've run the-

whole kennel at once - 60 dogs. A few years ago I had a really

good group where I could do that. Right now I'm running 65

iogr ;-t 3 gro.,ps, because that is the way they fit together the

Uei. I tuy"io match them speed wise, age wise and how they get

aiong wiih each other and that determines how big a group I'm

running.

SDS: How fast do you go with the ATV and are the dogs in

front of you the whole time?

HG: They really get going fast on their own and obviously all

my dogs gio*.tp doing that from puppies' It-is a 4 or 5 mile

folp - itl"y all know it, they've been doing it all their lives' The

moment iopen the gate the whole group of dogs is gone, and-

I'm behind ihem. fhey go for a mile or 2, then they come back

and look for me. They are always around' They go wide opeo

there are dogs running all around me, passing me on the ATV

left and right.

SDS: That sounds like fun for the dogs, mentally and physically'

HG: That is what it's all about really. It's not just about physi-

cal. Of course they need to get out and stretch out, but I think

the mental effect of the training is even more important'

SDS: A lot of mushers are afraid to let their dogs loose, because

they have iost dogs or had injuries. Are you concerned about

this?

HG: Yes, lhad'2 incidents like that where I had dogs clip trees

or something and had hip injuries' It is a wild scene when you

see the d.ogs running like that beside each other running

through th"" tr""t, but that is part of the training and they just

keep [etting better at it. Really it is fascinating to see how-they

can aioid those trees at those kinds of speeds' Like I said I've

had 2 injuries in17 years, so really that is not so bad'

Not everybody is in a position to do this, obviously if

you live in a subdivision you can't' But anybody can start in

small groups. I mean people just can't turn their dogs loose if

they h"ave never d.one it and expect everything to go well' it,has

to be buiit up. And you don't have to do it out of your yald' I

mean Martin Buser doesn't do it out of his yard, he trucks his

dogs miles away with his dog truck all summer' It's all about

commitment I think.

SDS: Right on. How long do you do this free running, up until

the time of harness training?

HG: Yes, I'm still doing it right now, but by the end of August'

the beginning of September I start putting them in harness and

hookilig teams up. But I still, even then I still run them loose in

betweeii. I run them loose all yea4 even in the winter in the

middle of the season, I take them out because I think it is just

great for them to stretch out and move different muscles in their

f,odies. It think it is realiy important' I use it all year as a sort of

cross training.

SDS: Do you ever use a training wheel?

HG: No I don't have one. For me it doesn't make any sense'

because I'm in a position to run them loose ail the time' I think

if someone doest-t't have any chance to do that, a training wheel

is better than nothing.

SDS: Some people say that with the pointer crosses that every-

one is using now it is a lot easier to let your dogs loose' But -

when L"""yo.tt dogs, they don't look like crosses' they look like

old school huskies.

HG: Weil that's what they are, I have 3 or 4 pointer crosses in

my yard', and actually they are the worst (laughs) those are the

ones that don't come back right away sometimes'

SDS: Maybe they are looking for birds!

HG: I think the huskies are just fine for this, the big thing is

you iust have to trust your dogs, and people who spend a lot of

iimewith their dogs should be able to trust them' If you

always worry about it then it will never work' You can never

,o"nd too much time with the dogs' It's one of the most impor-

tant things in our sport I think. A lot of people probably don't

spend enough time with their dogs, that is a problem'

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continued from Page 8

SDS: For a lot of people, the daily structure of stage racing is

not known yet. Can you describe the daily routine of a stage

race?

TS: It's a long day. You've got to be :opby 6 am' A lot of

guys were getting up earlier and going to the race site and

iuut"t uttd Jo eveiything, but we did that all at our hotel and

were the last ones io the race site. We always had a snowma-

chine with us so we could be in the back of the parking lot and

still get to the line easily and under control'

The races all start fairly early in the morning, most of

them started around 9:30 so you had to have them watered and

a chance to pee before the start' Then you run them for 4 or 5

hrs.The distance guys fed right after their runs, but we

would wait a couple oi hon.t and feed ours' Then you're on the

road to the banquet, do the drops and find the place where you

are staying.

SDS: Now in Oregory every stage starts and stops in the

same place?

TS: Yes, they quit doing tha! I guess it was a logistical

nightmare. In Wyoming there was a couple of stages of moving

the vehicle around.

SDS: What about the sizes of the teams in stage racing:

TS: You have a maximum of 16 dogs, but you can only

hook 12. And that was the same for both stage races'

SDS: Do you think that witl be the new standard for stage

racing?

TS: I sure do, it sure looks like it's going to be' And I think

that's ok. We hooked 12 dogs every day' That was part of our

game plary maybe not, maybe one stage in Wyoming we took 10

6".uni" there was a real long stage coming the next day and

that particular stage was a really short one-' Our outlook on it

*u, ihut if you took a smaller team, each dog had to pull harder

and would be more tired.

SDS: So if you took a smaller team, you had more dogs rest-

ed, but it wouid also make the dogs that had run more tired'

TS: Exactly. So I think we'll stick with that'

The same in Yellowknife where it was a L2 dog pool and you

could only hook 10. We always took 10, and some of the guys

like Sam and Jacques started with 8

on the first day. I think that backfires

on them a bit. You're taking too

much out of each individual dog.

That's the same deal as to whY we

run such big teams in the ONAC, on

the third day, they've done less work.

SDS: Did you rotate the dogs

according to a premade Plan or did

you just eye them uP each daY?

TS: Just kind of eYed them uP. It

still doesn't give you a lot to rotate,

it's only 4 dogs. We tried to rotate

fresh leaders everdaY. We had

enough leaders, and we tried to give

the leaders days off before they ran

each day.And some of the dogs surPrised us,

stage after stage after stage it was

easy for them. The hardest thing for

our dogs and for BuddY in that race,

was the parts of the stages that had

no trails. Honestly parts of the race

had no Lrai ls, snow uP over their

back, no bottom.

SDS: ls that because i t snowed

immediately after the breakers went

through?

TS: No, they couldn't get the

breakers through, there was too

much snow for them to even get

through it. The second stage in

Oregory the previous 10 daYs it had

snowed 7 feet on that mountain. The

big trail groomer broke down, so

they tried to get one from another

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IlOpen North AmericanlChampionshipI l \DRA .anct ioned Open/Unl imired clas 'I

Itof Race of ChamPionsI o-dog. B-dog, rnd Open

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200s

2005

ALASKA

Come roce in thespri nt- mushing cap ito Iof the wortd!

We hove troilsovailoble for troining'ond world-closs roceseverY weekend duringthe championshiPseoson.

Our Limited NorthAmericon is the bigges,SDRA Points event ofthe year!

pr

club and they couldn't getthrough the snow.

SDS: That must have been theSmph day.

TS: That was a terrible dayfor us. If you stepped off thesnowmachine out there rr wasup to your crotch. That washard. If there was a foot ofsnow or 6 or 8 iinches of snow,as long as there was a bottomon it, that was ok. They wereactually swimming, I don'tknow how anybody can trainfor that to be honest with you.The distance guys, Swingleyand them they walloped usthat stage. And it was reallydepressing for Buddy too. Ibelieve so much that dogs feedoff of how you feel. Youractions and the way you arehandling yourself. They feedon all that stuff. It was frus-trating and we got a little bitoff our game plan that day.

Then the next day wewent to a longer stage and hadto run a 22 nile loop twice. Well the second time around it, thedogs had all packed the trail nicely, we wacked them by like 25

Buddy Streeper at the Anchorage Fur Rondy 2004 photo: John Gomes

or 30 minutes or something.

SDS: What kind of post racecare, I'm talking about mas-sage, liniments, neoprenewraps/ did you do for thedogs each day?

TS: We, like in Yellowknife,where you are running on 1 l2inch of snow on top of ice, wegot into the habi t of learningto Algyval and wrist wrapthem. but we didn't do thattoo much in Oregon orWyoming this year.

SDS: How much do youthink the physical ability ofthe driver contributes to theteam's performance? Asopposed to say, Sprint Racing?

TS: The drivers don't run asmuch as you think. Peoplecan't run that far. It has some-thing to do with it. I meanthere was that big debateaobut Wendy Davis, being a

marathoner and in real greatshape and what not. Certainly we had an advantage orrJ, ,o*"-one like John Woods, do you know Tohn Woods?

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SDS: I know the name, not the Person'

TS: He's in his 50's, probably weighs 230lbs' too big a man for

that stuff. Same as Loyd Gilbertson who raced it the year

before. Too big u guy. It certainly helps if you can peddle and

run and stufl 6ut I don't think it matters any more than any

other kind of racing'

The biggest thing is to have patience' Buddy's learned a lot

about i{at from being a golfea and from running Yelloknife'

You just have to have Patience'

SDS: Well that can be said for a lot of endeavors'

TS: Let the race come to you' We had a 25 minute lead the

ii.rt auy of Oregon well that's huge' A1l you have to do is nurse

it fromihere. In Wyoming we tied with Wendy the first day'

""Jtf-t" loaded a bunch oi dogt the second day' so we had this

huee lead again and ,-t",,", *or' a stage' It is a lot easier driving

froin the front with some time to spare' You can run your own

race then.

The mountains were interesting, you know' because where I live

it's flat. We don't train on any hills' So we went up to where

Hans Gatt lives in Attlin, andtrained for two weeks' But to be

efficient in the hills you d,on't have to do very much hill train-

i^g. if-t"y just have to know what it is' keep putling up it' and

that there is an end. in sight' Most of the teams that train in the

t-,iitr, ur" slower in the hil's. The see a hill and they slow down'

SDS: Do you think the teams that train in the hills all the time

can ever develoP anY sPeed'

TS: No. I know Jacques (Philip) they train where it is real hilly'

and in Yelloknife, we'd ruce for 50 miles side by side' then in the

Iast mile there is a half-mile uphill, we would gain a minute on

that hill. And he trained on hillsl Cliff Wang told me that too'

he said "don t overtrain in the hills"'

SDS: What type of sled did you use for the stage races?

TS:WeusedtheDanlermid-distancesled.I t ,s l ikeaspr ints led..iy

" f.t, longer. It has a Sft' basket' It's only about 3 or 4 lbs

heavier than the sPrint model'

SDS: Even on the days with the deep snow' you didn't use a

tobaggon, or a sled with a bottom?

TS:Dontownone.OntheMt.HooDoostage,wewerepushingsnow with the brushbow' We use P-tex runners and have them

stone ground and waxed by- a ski shop every day' They .matched the structure and ihe wax for the conditions each day'

I think that helped a lot too, especially in the warm

conditions where the wax becomes more important'

SDS: Ok, after the Wyomiing race, you had some time off' what

did you do to get the team ready for sprint races?

TS: Three weeks after the Wyoming race' we did the Canadian

-hampior,ships

in Ft' Nelson' 2 days at 20 miles each day on a

flat-ass freewaY.

We left Wyoming, gave them 10 days off' run them 5 miles chas-

i"; ih; ,n'o**uitti'te, slow, gave them a day off' took them 8

miles chasing the snowmachine, give them a day oIf' took them

io *if"t .hur'ing the snowmachine, gave them a day off' then

drove them in tle team 14 miles, we trained 20 dogs, 10 of them

were stage racing dogs and 10 were dogs we ran shorter all win-

ter. Then we took 2 days off then went racingl

SDS: So your idea, I'm assuming was to stretch them out again

with all the free mnning?

TS: Yes, it wasn t enough time though' This race here is a fast

race 20 miles in 61 minutes or so. Eddy handed us the first day,

-n"" rn.y said go his team wouldn't start and he spotted us a

-i.,rlt" ur-ta u nulf the first day! We had a few freebies' The

other teams that should have beat us are Bittl and McGee' but

,t-r"V"aii"', think they had enough miles on them so they

ducked out into the 10 dog classl On the second day Buddy had

to load a dog, Kobi, becauie the pace was too.fast and he was

;" ; stiff] But then he ran all three days of the Rondy and

bNeC. He just wasn't ready for the speed'

SDS: Between Ft Nelson and' the Rondy whai did you do?

TS: Maybe two runs of typicai sprint training' 12 mile runs'

Then ttre Rondy *u, ,uy-'lo*"t thut-t the,Ft' Nelson race' It was

."uiiy .uty for ihe Stage Race dogs, it really was' The sprint

aogJ -"t""'a

really reidy for it' They weren't race hardened'

unX plus, ,t"rr", got trained for 10 days during Oregon' They

*"." o. the tru& but there was no place to train' We had an

i.rit.y on Little Dee the third day of the Rondy and had to

t*it.ft her out of lead coming home' but to the stage racing

dogs it was a Piece of cake'

SDS: What about between the Rondy and the ONAC'

TS: We weren't ready for the ONAC' It was just that we needed

more time running on good fast trails' The dog team hadn't run

".,o,reh in those hlgtttt-rilg fast conditions' Not only the stage

;;:;;"gt, but ahJthe oih"t op"t' dogs' Now with Little Dee

out we Lad to take a point dog out and put it in lead' This cre-

ated a huge hole in point posilion, and that is where we screwed

up, made ou. biggest misiake of the last few years' We put a

z"r. old on poiniihut shouldn't have been there'

SDS: Was that the dog buddy loaded the first day?

TS: She was out of the game two miles into the race' Out of the

gu*" plu". We always "have

a problem with point dogs' it's an

imporiunt position and I don't like to run leaders on point' I

like to runleaders way back in the team so they can rest more.

when they are not l"uiit'g' A point dog has to be a smart hard

driving dog, a pace setter' On the third day' they finally got

their feet under them.

KW

SDS: You felt they got better as the race progressed.

TS: Yes, we beat Egil pretty good on the third day.

SDS: What are the plans for the Streeper camp in 2005?

TS: We are going to go to the Attaboy3O0, then after that I,mundecided. We'll train them to go to Oregory then if theWyoming race is too late, I won't go because it is too late tobring them back for sprint racing. I sure hope we can go toWyoming though, because it was a lucrative race and it is a lotof work to train {or just one Stage Race. I think this year I,l1train more dogs farther distances. I actually had this idea forlast yeaq, but didn't stick with my game plan. Last year wetrained 26 or 28 for stage racing, this year we might train 40.

SDS: So you haven't left sprint racing behind, it,s stil part ofyour plan?

TS: No not at all. There aren't enough stage races yet. youcan't survive on two races in January.

SDS: Ok here's the money question, and I know you're alwaysplanning ahead, so I'm not afraid to ask it. Any plans for theIditarod in the near or far future.

TS: Not for me.

SDS: What about Buddy, he got a taste of "overnighting,, at theAttaboy.

TS: Hell, we had never slept outside in our life before the

Kiki Aastrom will be a strong "challenge/'for a medal in Dawson City

(Continued from page 11) From Norway I get the informationthat at least three mushers plan to participate at the IFSS WCin pulka and skijoring, maybe as many as four. But that is notfor sure yet. Sweden also plans to have their best teams onthe start line at the WC but who it will be is not yet decided.

IFSS World Championship in mid distance wil l be held inOregon January 2005 within the Atta Boy stage race. HannesKronbach, Germany, won the gold medal at the IFSS World

campout night in Oregon, we were so afraid of it. We thoughtthe dogs would be up all nighf not being in the truck. We gotin there, put the coats on the dogs, put the straw down and theywent to sleep quicker than the Iditarod dogs did. Buddy maywant to try some mid-distance stuff, but the Iditarod, not me.

End.

Championship mid distance 6-dog class 2003 in Todtmoos buthe has decided not to defend his title. "First I thought of goingto Oregon and the World Championship but it is too expensiveto travel with a dog team all the way lrom Germany,,' he says."l also think that it is too early in the season, beginning ofJanuary to hold the WC." Hannes has a small kennel and for

Helmut Peer is always a threat to win. inset: Helmut with dog-pal Max

this season he will have nine dogs to race with. ,,lnstead of theWC I will race at the Alpentrail and maybe travel to Swedenlater in the spring to do some racing there, so no trip to the U.S.& WC for me"

ln the next issue I will present some of the European chal-lengers for top positions at the IFSS World Championship 2005.

Helen Lundberg

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