The size of the sledding team makes a difference; however, the team will travel only as fast as its slowest member. As well, the amount of weight the team is pulling will affect its overall speed. Some racers average 10 to 12 miles per hour at the start of a race and maintain a speed of 8 to 10 miles per hour.
Even for a born musher, pulling sleds up to 100 miles in a day is hard work. Sled dogs require a lot of calories — up to 12,000 calories per day. A diet consisting of meat, fish and commercial dog food, fed many times throughout the day, keeps the dogs going.
A sled dogs speed depends on a variety of factors, including weather, the planned travel distance and the condition of the trail. For shorter distances, sled dogs may average 10 to 14 miles per hour during the course of a day of mushing. If conditions are poor, such as extreme cold or fresh snow, the dogs speed can drop to 6 or 7 miles per hour. In a sprint race that takes a day or two, sled dogs may reach up to 15 miles per hour.
Perhaps the most famous dog sled race is the Iditarod, the 1,100-mile journey between Anchorage and Nome, Alaska. Teams of 12 to 16 dogs pull a racers sled through grueling conditions, including blizzards, fog, ice, strong winds and temperatures as cold as 40 degrees below 0 Fahrenheit. It takes a team of dogs more than a week to course the Iditarod, averaging approximately 8 miles an hour.
Despite the heavy load they carry, sled dogs dont tend to be particularly large. They may weigh as little as 35 pounds and more than 70 pounds, though generally they range between 45 and 60 pounds. A sled team strives to have dogs of similar size and gait, so they can maintain the same speed as a team and move in a consistent, efficient fashion. In addition to the Siberian husky, the Alaskan malamute and Canadian and American Intuit dogs are popular breeds for sled dog duty. Most sled dogs are mixed-breed dogs, referred to as Alaskan huskies.
When visiting with children it is wise to warn them ahead of time that they are entering the ‘house of the dogs’. Please see that the children know how to behave around the dogs and that they don’t scare the dogs by poking or teasing them. The guides will be happy to show you the ideal dog to stroke if your child is a little nervous, so please feel free to ask, rather than allowing the children to approach the dogs on their own.
However, after heavy snowfalls, it can be almost impossible for the musher to find the tracks so he has to rely on the memory and smells of his dogs to pick the correct route. Days like that can be hard work but they are also really fun and feel very adventurous.
Please do not, therefore, simply base your decision on which operator to go with purely on price. Investigate the manner in which the dogs are cared for year-round. Look at the philosophy of the company and the quality of product that they pride themselves on and base your selection on criteria like those other than purely on cost.
We would both like to race, one day, since most dog mushing racers say that the thing that they find most difficult is their own organisation, planning and survival as they navigate across 1000s of km of terrain in tough conditions. For us, that aspect would be second nature since we have been racing for years in races lasting up to 10 days across some of the most challenging terrains and in some of the most challenging conditions in the world. However, the proven systems for dealing with the dogs in a racing scenario would be new to us. Learning this new skill excites us as a concept. It is still to be seen whether or not it would also excite our dogs who are currently simply trained to love to run as opposed to race but seven years in, we now have some very good dogs so I dont think we can use the excuse that the dogs would necessarily be the ones holding us back much longer!.
Beware, also, that the dogs like “to steal” and eat mittens and bonnets so avoid leaving them ‘just out of reach’ since somehow the dogs always manage to reach them. Some like to lick ears – beware of ear-rings – and some will jump to catch your hair or the tail of your hat if they are hanging down. It is wise to remove earings and to tie your hair back before playing with them.
The Reason Why Huskies Can Run Long Distances
But how is it that they’re able to expend so much energy for such a long duration of time? Where is this energy all coming from?
According to Scientific American, researchers have identified a metabolic switch that happens in Huskies during long distance racing. In the 2005 study, drivers ran their Huskies through 100-mile races for four to five days.
However after every 100 miles, researchers took a small sample of the dogs’ leg muscles to test for protein levels, enzyme activity, glycogen levels and other various factors.
When animals eat food, their bodies transform the carbs into a form of sugar called glucose, which is then used to provide energy. However Glucose is then transformed into Glycogen, which can easily be stored in the animal’s muscles.
During the first few days of the race, sled dogs draw energy from the glycogen stored inside of the muscle. This is completely normal and in-line with what most dogs typically do. But as the race went on, what the researchers found was shocking.
As the sled dogs needed to go into overdrive, their metabolic switch goes off and they start to draw energy from sources outside their muscles. Instead, muscle cells begin to extract fat directly from the bloodstream, where it can then be used as energy fuel.
During races, Huskies will have a build-up of fat in their bloodstream mostly thanks to the high-fat diet that these dogs consume. But don’t worry, Huskies are equipped to handle the high amount of fat.
The sled dogs contain higher mitochondrial density (think of them as cellular power plants) than virtually any other animal. What still remains a mystery though, is how the fat in the bloodstream can get into the cells in the first place.
And before you throw your Husky into a thousand-mile race, keep in mind that this metabolic switch is not as developed in your every-day average Huskies.
It’s likely that this physical gift was the result of breeding, having descended from long champion lines of racing dogs, which dates back several generations and over a hundred years.
THIS is Why Huskies Can Run 100 MILES Per Day
Did you know that champion sled-dog Huskies can actually run over 100 miles a day? In fact, there are a few that keep breaking world records year after year! And while some of the top Huskies can run 1,000 miles in 8 days, what about normal every-day Huskies?
Huskies are naturally active dogs bred for endurance and long-distance running. An average Husky can run 10 – 20 miles in a session (compared to 2 to 5 miles by the average dog). But with training, an average Husky can run 40 miles at a time. But what’s amazing is that sled Huskies can top 100 miles per day, thanks to their genetic metabolic switch!
Huskies running well over 100 miles a day sounds ridiculous, but it’s true. Interested in knowing how this is possible? In this article, we will examining the extraordinary stamina of the Husky and the reasons why they’re able to run an absurd distance.