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| "Dog Trucks" or "Dogboxes" are used for transporting the dogs and, sometimes, for training runs. The truck's engine is used to help the dogs and to regulate the speed of the run. |
Truck Training
November 13, 2001
Seavey's Iditarod Racing Team--Tyrell Seavey
When we started training in August we had 46 dogs that were "hopefuls" for this years racing team. Amazingly, after nearly 450 miles of training they are all still in the team doing well. This leaves us in a difficult situation now, because we are going on 25 mi. runs with a maximum of 16 dogs per team pulling the snowmachine it is really hard to keep that many in shape. So, the solution is to pass some dogs down to the "B" team.
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| "Dog Trucks" or "Dogboxes" are used for transporting the dogs and, sometimes, for training runs. The truck's engine is used to help the dogs and to regulate the speed of the run. |
Starting tonight we are going to be running the racing team on our truck. We will load the dogs into the dogbox on the back, haul them to Skilak Lake Road, and then harness them to the front of the truck and go on a 30 mile run. The advantage to Skilak Lake Road is that it is flat and smooth compared to the wild hair-pin cornered trails we have been running on, plus the truck offers more control so we can run larger teams. Two twenty-dog teams will be ideal so we are going to drop out six dogs who will either race the Jr. Iditarod with Dallas or will do tours for the rest of the winter.
Recently we have been spending time working on this winter’s racing schedule. We want to incorporate at least two 300-mile races into our schedule this year, besides the nearly two thousand miles of regular training. The popular choices seem to be the Copper Basin 300 in Glenallen Alaska; and the Kusko 300 in Bethel, Alaska. The Klondike 300 in Big Lake, Alaska, also is appealing. We have chosen these races for a variety of reasons, which include trail conditions, number of checkpoints, amount of mandatory rest, and last but not least, prize money.
I have been spending a large amount of my free time working with two young potential leaders, Petey and Yonkers. What young leaders do when put in front alone for their first time is hard to describe, but it includes a lot of turning around, squirrel-chasing, line-chewing madness. It also includes a lot of hair-pulling, nail-biting madness for the driver! But, inside of all this there is a fine art. You need a trail that is provides a challenge, but not one that is overly difficult. Because you want to introduce new things to the dogs without intimidating them. Also you always want to challenge their abilities but you never want to set them up to fail.
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| Iditarod musher Mitch Seavey prepares to head out on the trail. The temperature was about -20 when this picture was taken. |
Once they are calmed enough to run in front and not cause to much trouble you can start training them gee and haw (right and left respectively). Right now Petey and Yonkers are in the gee/haw stage. I am really excited about this pair because they are going to be in my Iditarod team next year and they are already showing so much promise.
Reporting from the front lines,
Tyrell Seavey
Sterling, Alaska