The following wise words are from longtime race marshal Michael McGowan who most recently gave a rookie orientation to new racers at the Alaska Dog Mushers Association in Fairbanks, Alaska.
In December the Iditarod Trail Committee announced that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 49th running of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog race will follow a different course, one that won’t lead dog teams up to the Bering Sea and ultimately to Nome....
In this edition we feature a dog who is no longer with us, but helped Iditarod musher Aaron Burmeister to become the musher and person he is today. In his own words, Aaron talks about his dog Rocky.
Rocky was out of our old breed of dogs, going...
In this edition of Mushing Magazine, we feature the sled dogs of Alix Crittenden and Frank Teasley. Fielding a top team in the annual Wyoming Stage Stop Race and other world-renowned sprint races, Alix and Frank share the story of their cooperative...
The following wise words are from longtime race marshal Michael McGowan who most recently gave a rookie orientation to new racers at the Alaska Dog Mushers Association in Fairbanks, Alaska.
This is the Golden Rule: Leave your ego at home. It does...
On Friday Dec. 18, the Iditarod Trail Committee announced that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 49th running of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog race will follow a different course, one that won’t lead dog teams up to the Bering Sea and ultimately to...
The Yukon Quest is regarded as the most grueling thousand miles by dog sled in the race world, but did you know that this goes beyond the mushers and the incredible canine athletes? Some races on the road system require handlers. What do handlers...
The number one rule is: Know your dogs.
I have seen dogs unable to stand and in shock on a 45°F day after running on snow and I have seen dogs race hard at 50°F over a much longer distance, only lightly panting. I have seen short-coated white...
February 24, 2020, Nenana.
I was scurrying around the staging area surrounded by 12 of my sled dogs preparing to embark on the 2020 Serum Run Trail Expedition.
Soon, my dogs and me would travel through a small grove of trees to the Nenana River...
In each magazine we highlight one particular dog that has gained fame and glory beyond its own kennel. In this edition, we celebrate Silver out of Brent Sass’ Wild and Free Kennel.
“To put it simply, Silver changed my life!
In 2002 I was out...
This racing season, Brent Sass and his dog team claimed the third Yukon Quest victory and a fourth place finish in the Iditarod. Sass, 40, operates the Wild and Free Kennel consisting of 60 dogs in the wilderness of Alaska.
Sass grew up in...
Almost any way you look at it, Beetle-Bug is not a very good sled dog. Born in our 2012 “Bug” litter of husky pups, he lacks the smooth fast trot of his brother Cricket, the power and superior conformation of his sister Junebug or the cheery drive...
Tanner won the 2013 Iditarod, but more than winning the race and running the Iditarod trail multiple times, he was instrumental in successfully navigating what Mitch Seavey has described has the most extreme and difficult run in his 50-plus years of...
Robert Cooke and his Siberians have been part of many major long distance races in Canada and Alaska. In this edition Mushing Magazine features his dogs in the Super Dogs section. In order to provide context and gain insight in Cooke’s operation,...
Inside Boss’s canine cranium a glorious plan was conceived: One day she would become the lead dog. Her dream seemed far-fetched, though. How could a runt who weighed only 60 pounds be capable of leading a team of 22 hardened Alaskan malamutes that...
I have never had one of those dogs that has saved my life, knows instinctively where the ice on a lake is weakest and dragged the team away from it; the leader who has, when the team has plunged through rotten ice, single-pawedly, pulled the entire...
This edition of Mushing Magazine features the German dog team of Tetzner Racing Farm from Burg, Germany.
Michael Tetzner has been traveling to Alaska for years to participate in the sprint race circuit. His homebase is a farm spread in Burg, located...