Training Begins!

September 15, 2001

Snowcrest Racing Sled Dogs, Seeley Lake, MT--Jim Gallea

This is the start of training for my second Iditarod.  This year, I am going to start training about 30 dogs, of which the best 16 will race with me in the Iditarod, which starts March 2, 2002.  Even though we live in the Montana Rocky Mountains at an elevation of 4000 feet, my family doesn't train the dogs year-round because it gets pretty warm in the summer months.  However, the dogs entertain themselves by running around their areas in our dog lot (this is the musher term for the area where we keep our dogs), watching squirrels in the trees, and trying to catch Velcro, the cat who seems to know just where each dog's chain stops.  During the summer, we also do some free-running with the dogs, where we let a couple of dogs loose and let them run around our property.  Sometimes we even take a few dogs out jogging or biking in the evenings.  However, whenever we let our dogs loose, we need to keep a watchful eye on them because they love to run, and we don't want them to wander too far from the dog lot and our house.  

As soon as summer begins to turn to fall, and the mornings and evenings are cold, we begin training for the Iditarod.  The dogs have been excited for the last couple weeks.  They feel the cold in the morning air, and they are anxious to hit the trails again.  Today is their day!  The four-wheeler, or ATV, that we use in fall training has had an oil change and a tune-up, the lines and harnesses that connect the dogs to the four-wheeler have been checked twice for any worn or torn spots that could weaken them, and we have run over the trails with the four-wheeler to ensure that no trees or brush are blocking them.

At 7 AM my parents and I were in the dog lot setting up the four-wheeler.  We tied it off to a tree so that the dogs couldn't pull it (they can even with the brakes locked), and we set out the gangline, or towline (the line that all the dogs are attached to).  We found each dogs' harness (harness size and style varies depending on the size and build of the dog), and placed it on the ground in the position where the dog would soon be jumping, barking, and straining to go.

Ten minutes later, all fourteen dogs were in the team, and the noise in the dogyard was deafening as all of the forty-five dogs we own barked and howled with excitement.  My mom and I hopped on the four-wheeler, untied it, put it into third gear, and called to the dogs, "Alright, Orion, Lovell [the lead dogs]!  Let's go!"  Instantly, every dog in the team stopped barking, lowered its head and tail, and began to run.  The speedometer on the four-wheeler shot past ten, and leveled off near fourteen or fifteen miles per hour.  The dogs were pulling a five hundred pound four-wheeler with two people in third gear at fourteen miles an hour, and they were getting no help from the engine!!  

I applied the brakes a bit as we continued down our driveway and toward the old logging roads that we train on.  We didn't want the dogs to go as fast as they possibly could because this is just the start of a six month long training season, and, like world-class Olympic athletes, the dogs need to gradually build speed, strength, and intensity.  We slowed even more as we started up a few small hills, and soon the dogs were running at a very easy pace still pulling the four-wheeler without help from the engine.  

We stopped to rest about one third of the way into the three and a half mile run that we were doing.  After making sure the brakes were securely locked, both my mom and I jumped off the four-wheeler and made our way up and down the team, playing with the dogs, patting them on the heads, scratching their ears, and saying, "Good dogs.  Good dogs!" over and over again.  We stopped a second time on our way home, repeated our praise of the dogs, and then ran home.  Although the most beautiful and picturesque moments with the dogs occur during runs on snowy winter trails, the sheer joy that the dogs get from running, especially when it is their first run of the year, is a feeling that can't be captured on film.

By the time we returned to the dog yard, the temperature was around 50 degrees Fahrenheit, which is hot for a sled dog.  We gave all the dogs water as soon as we stopped in the dog yard.  The dogs don't sweat over their entire bodies like people do; they only sweat through the pads of their feet and through their tongues, which is why dogs pant the way that they do.  Water not only helps to keep the dogs hydrated, but also helps to cool them off when they are hot.  It's just like us going swimming. 

Once the dogs had their water, and once we had a chance to give each one last pat on the head and rub behind the ears, we took the dogs back to their houses, where more water was waiting in their water cans.  Many of the dogs know to just run home after we run them, so we often just let the dogs loose after we take their harnesses off.  By the time we are in heavy race training in January, all the dogs will be used to being let loose after a run, and everyone will be let loose at the end of a run to play a few minutes before returning to their houses.

Because it was so hot, we couldn't run the second group of dogs this morning, but they will get run tomorrow.  Soon, the mornings will be colder, and then we can run both teams in a single morning.  This is important because we formulate a training schedule that will allow the dogs to build strength, speed, and endurance.  Following the schedule and not getting behind our training goals are very important.

This year, we have a very good team consisting of many veterans of the Iditarod along with a few two year old dogs that have never run the Iditarod.  About three quarters of the dogs in my team are dogs that we have raised since they were puppies.  The other quarter of the dogs are dogs that we have purchased from other mushers.  With the exception of four new dogs this year, all of these dogs have been in our team for at least a year and undergone training with my family for previous Iditarod races.  I have trained and raced over the past few years with nearly all of the dogs in the team, and I am looking forward to getting to know each dog even better as this training season progresses.  Our goal for the year is to have a great time throughout training and racing, and to be as competitive as possible in the Iditarod, hopefully finishing in the Top Twenty.

Future updates on the progress of my team, and on the progress of Mitch Seavey's Iditarod team training in Alaska will be posted on a regular basis over the next several months.  Soon we will also post a few new features to this site, including a description of the concepts and logic behind the training and preparation that will monopolize our lives for the next half year.  Please stay tuned, and feel free to send me feedback and questions at dogboy@ultimateiditarod.com

Thanks for joining us on the adventure of a lifetime!!!

Jim Gallea, Iditarod Musher, Snowcrest Racing Sled Dogs, Seeley Lake, MT