Four Days of Dogs

After saying goodbye to Brit-Marie and Pere-Nils, we toured the countryside for almost four full days with our dog teams, crossing frozen rivers and lakes and staying at “wilderness cabins”, which are huts with wood-burning stoves but no running water or electricity. They were quite cozy, and all came with a separate sauna, warmed by another wood-burning stove. Another stove would warm the changing room, and yet another would warm water for the dogs’ food.

Lubos, our Slovakian guide and dog master, handled everything and even cooked for us too, with the help of our other guide, Jordana. I helped feed and clean up afte our 28 dogs morning and night and was impressed with the food quality (raw) and rations.

It was interesting to see the life of working husky, which can be summed up by 3 words: eat, sleep, run. In northern Sweden they use Alaskan huskies since they are hardier and run faster than other breeds. Mine were the fastest 4 dog team - 3 big males and one female: Adam, Herman, Tiger (who ran the Iditarod), and Tina. They all had such distinct personalities, and they all looked very different too. What I learned is that Alaskan huskies are not really a “breed” but a real mix, and they can vary greatly in appearance – just look at the various dogs in the photos.

The procedure was to put the harnesses on the dogs, then clip them to the pull lines of the sled. The sled has to be anchored in the snow, or else the dogs will just take off! They only have only 2 settings when harnessed: stop and go. To stop them or slow them down you have to use a brake on the sled. They love to run, needless to say, and just getting the harnesses out causes them to start whining and howling in anticipation. They’ll start the noise again if you stop for too long on the trail. They only rest after a good run, and it’s satisfying to see them conked out in their beds of straw or doghouses at the end of the day (one of the big cabins had about 50 dog houses for dog teams).

The dogs thrive in really cold weather. When it starts to get over 0C, they get too hot and slow down greatly. The whole concept of them sleeping out in the snow took some getting used to for me, but everyone assured me that they are happy out there, and overheat quickly, even in wooden doghouses. The dogs do have to adjust somewhat to a so-called life on the run: they poop and pee while running, and scoop up bites of snow for drinks of water.

In the 4 days I became quite fond of my team, especially the goofball Herman, who loved to be petted and give kisses. I will miss them. Photo: Herman tries to clean my face.


Above: Adam and Tina, my lead dogs.


Right: Tiger enjoys the dog house.

To see a video of the dogs in action, click here.