Training is Underway
September 19, 2001
Seavey's Iditarod Racing Team, Seward, AK--Tyrell Seavey
Four-wheeler training is well under way by this point in the season. The racing dogs are taking turns pulling the ATV around a seven-mile course. They started with four miles and have worked their way up, progressing quickly since for them training started in May pulling tourists around a two-mile trail for my family’s tour company.
We have to start really early every morning to get the miles on before the sun comes out and melts the frost. The dogs don’t sweat like people or horses so their only methods of cooling down are through their tongues, feet and ears. So we are real limited as to what temperature range they can perform in.
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| Danny Seavey (left) and Jim Gallea (right) on the morning after packing out a giant bull moose shot by Tyrell Seavey. This was the last time we packed moose out without the help of the dogs. Over 650 pounds of meat plus the antlers were carried three miles out of the woods. One of the pack frames broke under all of the weight. The antlers are four and a half feet across! |
In years past we have bred a some Greyhound into the bloodlines. One of the main advantages of the Greyhound, besides their natural speed and grace, is their light fur coat, because of this they can run in much warmer temperatures than a purebred sled dog. The biggest downside to greyhound is their flaky attitude and their finicky appetite. So, to counter that we have started breeding in some German Shorthaired Pointer, a tough resilient breed of hunting dog. In our experimentation so far, they have performed well.
At this moment we are giving the dogs a couple of days off. My dad, younger brother, Dallas, and I are currently trying to perfect a different pastime—moose hunting. In the case that we are able to track down a large bull, we will haul it from the hunting area by dog team, as no motorized or wheeled vehicles are allowed. In the past we have butchered the near-2,000 pound bulls in the field then loaded the meat into dogsleds and dragged it back to the parking area where we can take it to the processors by truck. The operation has always gone quite smoothly considering all the obstacles encountered (rough terrain because no snow is on the ground), and we are planning on doing the same thing this year if we are lucky.
As the nights are getting colder and the runs longer, we have started to increase the dogs’ food intake. Their diet consists of dry commercial dog food, cooked salmon and beef fat. Since the dogs like salmon so much, we cook and mix in other things that are not as palatable, but still important in the dogs’ diet. These things include rice, oat flour, bone meal and canola oil.
Thank you for your interest in our sport, please join all us mushers in praying for a long, cold snowy winter! See you next time.
Tyrell Seavey