Aaron Burmeister, 45, was born and raised into a mushing family in Nome. Both parents were immersed in dog mushing and became involved in running dogs through Howard Farley in the early 1970s.
There is a lot that has to go into keeping an active dog healthy, but one of the most important in keeping a sled dog going strong is caring for the muscles, tendons, ligaments and fascia of musculoskeletal system.
Watching the fluidity and...
A three-mile long sideroad snakes through the birch and spruce forest off the Chena Hot Springs Road, about an hour out of Fairbanks, Alaska. Three miles – that’s easy-peasy on a nice fall day, but I imagined the herculean effort it takes to keep...
Aaron Burmeister, 45, was born and raised into a mushing family in Nome. Both parents were immersed in dog mushing and became involved in running dogs through Howard Farley in the early 1970s. “I grew up raising and racing dogs,” said Aaron. His...
Nome musher Stephanie Johnson has taken budding musher, 12-year-old Haley Evans, under her wing and is teaching her the ropes in all aspects of keeping and caring for a dog team.
Johnson’s kennel named “Almost Heaven Huskies”, consisting of 26...
The 2021 Kobuk 440: A race pummeled by storms
The Kobuk 440 is named the toughest dog race above the Arctic Circle for a reason. The race takes teams from the coastal town of Kotzebue across Kobuk Lake and up the Kobuk River to the village of...
“When I first picked up the wiggling newborn in June 2011 the only remarkable thing about him was the abundance of energy that seemed to course through him and spark from every limb. As all mushers do in those first moments holding a newborn, I...
Talkeetna musher Dallas Seavey crossed the finish line at Deshka Landing on March 15, a Monday morning, at 5:08 a.m. winning his fifth Iditarod, and thus tying Rick Swenson for the distinction of holding five Iditarod championship titles. Seavey had...
The list of bad behaviors in sled dogs is nearly endless. Some dogs growl, grab, bite and fight. Others bolt the wrong direction; they won’t slow down or stop; they dash to or flee from strangers; they bark, shy, squirrel away, can’t be caught, or...
In December the Iditarod Trail Committee announced that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 49th running of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog race will follow a different course, one that won’t lead dog teams up to the Bering Sea and ultimately to Nome....
In this edition we feature a dog who is no longer with us, but helped Iditarod musher Aaron Burmeister to become the musher and person he is today. In his own words, Aaron talks about his dog Rocky.
Rocky was out of our old breed of dogs, going...
In this edition of Mushing Magazine, we feature the sled dogs of Alix Crittenden and Frank Teasley. Fielding a top team in the annual Wyoming Stage Stop Race and other world-renowned sprint races, Alix and Frank share the story of their cooperative...
The following wise words are from longtime race marshal Michael McGowan who most recently gave a rookie orientation to new racers at the Alaska Dog Mushers Association in Fairbanks, Alaska.
This is the Golden Rule: Leave your ego at home. It does...
On Friday Dec. 18, the Iditarod Trail Committee announced that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 49th running of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog race will follow a different course, one that won’t lead dog teams up to the Bering Sea and ultimately to...
The Yukon Quest is regarded as the most grueling thousand miles by dog sled in the race world, but did you know that this goes beyond the mushers and the incredible canine athletes? Some races on the road system require handlers. What do handlers...
The number one rule is: Know your dogs.
I have seen dogs unable to stand and in shock on a 45°F day after running on snow and I have seen dogs race hard at 50°F over a much longer distance, only lightly panting. I have seen short-coated white...