One of the most frequent questions we get asked is how we train dogs in the summer. In short, in our climate, it’s too hot for dogs to “work” in harness from June through August. They can free run, but pulling anything when it’s over 50 degrees F. would cause a husky to overheat.
However, when the temps start to dip below 50 degrees, typically in early September, we hook up the dogs to an ATV, also known as a four-wheeler, or in recent years, we switched to a side-by-side, a fancier version, safer than the ATV because it has an overhead frame and seat belts, all serving to protect the driver and passenger if the thing tips over.
The dogs are all attached to the front of the machine via a gangline, just as they are to a sled, and the machine is running. There are non-mechanized ways that mushers can use to train dogs, various kinds of carts, but generally they don’t have a lot of stopping power and therefore, as the musher, there isn’t a ton of control so you can’t run a large team. Also, it’s hard to train on super hilly or rocky terrain without an engine to boost the dog power. Some mushers also train with actual vehicles which give a lot of control, but this eliminates the ability to use any kind of trail that won’t accommodate the width of a vehicle.
For us, the small Honda Pioneer side-by-side has been the perfect training rig. We can hook up 16 dogs on the gangline, and it has a parking brake that actually holds the team. Two of us can ride in the thing comfortably, the gas is controlled with a foot pedal instead of with your thumb (unlike an ATV or snowmobile) and it has a steering wheel. It’s more like driving a car or golf cart. If it was fully enclosed with a heater, I’d really be living high, but maybe that will be our next upgrade. So for now, it is still a very cold endeavor. Sitting on one of these rigs for hours on end is just chilly. The only silver lining about our warmer-than-usual weather this year is that I am also warmer-than-usual while training, and for once I’m not spending my hours thinking about foods I want to eat. Usually by this time of year we are enduring temps in the teens, and most days this year we are still training in temps in the high 30s.
This year, because we have 29 adult dogs that we are training and a handler that we are trying to utilize, we found that one training rig wasn’t cutting it. We really needed to be taking two teams at one time to be getting enough training miles each week. It hasn’t helped that the weather has been completely uncooperative (only cool enough to train in the am hours and some days too warm to train at all). Given our racing aspirations, we decided to purchase an older ATV to allow us to train a second team.
It’s been a while since we’ve trained on a regular ATV, though last year we did use one like this for a bit as we were training for the Iditarod. The thing regularly spewed black smoke and I think that alone distracted me from all else about it. It went back to its former owner. This year, I volunteered to run the new-to-us ATV while Matt used the Pioneer. We each hooked up our own team, he took 16 dogs while I took 12. He took off with his team and in my own frantic excitement to get going behind him, I was focused on just getting my machine started, a series of punching and pulling the choke button, the ignition, the starter, the gas lever, the key, and the push button gears. It would fire up but then somehow when I’d hit the gas it would die, so I had to start the process over again. Meanwhile the dog team is lunging of course, and I finally just opted to untie my rope holding us to a post and finally everything fired and we shot out of the yard.
Two hundred yards later, the team accordioned—the leaders were suddenly in the middle of the team and everyone was snarling. I struggled to get the emergency thumb brake to hold. Finally, I jumped off because it was clear no one was going anywhere and a fight was about to ensue. Everyone was tangled up and this was really unlike these leaders to stop like this. Then I realized it was all my fault as in my panic to follow Matt out of the yard I forgot to take the snowhook off the leaders, and somehow they pulled it along until that moment when it stuck on something, and that made everybody stop.
Off we went. I soon found that using the hand brake or foot brake was worthless to stop this team, especially while chasing another team. If I really had to stop, I would have to find a tree to jam the thing against. Otherwise, forget it.
The next time we ran, his team took a right turn where they should have gone left, taking us through a deep ditch and when my machine hit that, I stood no chance. I flipped, the machine on top of me. I suppose I was lucky that Matt saw what happened right away and was able to come help me extricate and flip it back upright. I felt some cracking in my back and hoped it was nothing more than a light chiropractic adjustment. Everything seemed to move okay, so we kept on going. Needless to say, I was sore for a few days after.
So it goes, another year of watching the forecast, wishing for snow. We’ve hardly seen a flake so far, hopefully that changes soon. Until some inches of white stuff accumulates, we’ll keep on wheelin’.