VET CHECK: RABIES: STILL A THREAT WORLDWIDE
The discovery and documentation of rabies dates all the way back to antiquity. Even Aristotle mentioned this deadly virus-caused disease in his writings. The rabies virus has been found worldwide, except in Antarctica and a few other isolated regions such as Japan. Limited to mammals including bats, rabies is usually…
RUNYAN JOURNALS: SPOT, THE LEAD DOG
Of the hundreds of sled dogs and hunting dogs that I have known over a lifetime, now well past half a century, and the countless others I have discussed at coffee tables around the world, no dog stands in such pathetic relief as my lead dog Spot.Spot, I am embarrassed…
THE BIG LAND CHALLENGE: LABRADOR, CANADA
Even among the dedicated mushers who run competitive races, the intrepid souls who enter Labrador’s Big Land Challenge Sled Dog Race stand out. It is one thing to stand on the runners for miles on end behind a team of dogs. It’s quite another to do it laying flat on…
MUSHING MAGAZINE PUBLISHER INTERVIEWED ON SLEDDOGPODCAST.COM
Mushing Magazine publisher, Greg Sellentin was interviewed last week by Tim and Gena Dewey of sleddogpodcast.com. A podcast is simply an audio file that you can listen to on your computer. The really neat thing about podcasts is you can use a program such as “iTunes” to automatically download new…
ALASKA STORIES: 250 MILES 8 DAYS 300 MILLION YEARS INFINITE MEMORIES
Two brothers hike, unassisted, across the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to Gates of the Arctic.Over the past year we’ve run several accounts of winter-time mushing over this amazing patch of the globe. For this installment of the totally non-mushing related “Alaska Stories” we have chosen an equally adventurous summer “stroll”…
GEAR GUIDE: HARNESS ROUND-UP
It didn’t use to be this complicated. We have more choices today than ever before when it comes to choosing a harness for our sled dogs. A seemingly simple piece of equipment, the harness has evolved quite substantially from the padded leather yoke seen in old photos. Well, it has…
SHAKEDOWN AT SHEEP MOUNTAIN
Mushers can be meticulous, methodical, and on occasion a few are down right obsessive.Just ask Zack Steer, race director for the Sheep Mountain 150 Sled Dog Race in Sutton, AK, who again this year heard the familiar sound of his fax machine beeping and spitting out paper at 12:01 a.m….
GO NORTH! CHUKOTKA 2007 EXPEDITION
Our original plans had us traveling with our two Polar Husky teams and four people from Provideniya, through the Bering Strait north to Uelen, then heading west following the coast line of the Arctic Ocean to Pevek, a total of approximately 1,000 miles. We had been working on getting here…
SUPERDOGS: RUDI RROPERTZ
Rudi Roperts of Borken, Germany is a veteran of open class and mid-distance sled dog racing in Europe and in Alaska. He has won pretty much all there is to win in Europe including the Pirena stage race, and Euro-open class championships. I have known Rudi since 1995, and am…
EVERYBODY INTO THE POOL!
Years ago I had a Dalmatian named Mookie and we did everything together; camping, canoeing, skijoring, biking, but what we really enjoyed was swimming. Now, Dalmatians aren’t the calmest of dogs and maybe Mookie in a boat wasn’t the best of ideas. Still, as I would struggle to right the…