Dogsled Racing

1st Answer:

For the dogs, the Iditarod is a bottomless pit of suffering. What happens to the dogs during the race includes death, paralysis, frostbite (where it hurts the most!), bleeding ulcers, bloody diarrhea, lung damage, pneumonia, ruptured discs, viral diseases, broken bones, torn muscles and tendons and sprains. At least 142 dogs have died in the Iditarod, including two dogs on a doctor's team who froze to death in the brutally cold winds.

Dog beatings and whippings are common. During the 2007 Iditarod, eyewitnesses reported that musher Ramy Brooks kicked, punched and beat his dogs with a ski pole and a chain. Jim Welch says in his book Speed Mushing Manual, "Nagging a dog team is cruel and ineffective...A training device such as a whip is not cruel at all but is effective." "It is a common training device in use among dog mushers..."

Jon Saraceno wrote in his March 3, 2000 column in USA Today, "He [Colonel Tom Classen] confirmed dog beatings and far worse. Like starving dogs to maintain their most advantageous racing weight. Skinning them to make mittens.. Or dragging them to their death."

During the race, veterinarians do not give the dogs physical exams at every checkpoint. Mushers speed through many checkpoints, so the dogs get the briefest visual checks, if that. Instead of pulling sick dogs from the race, veterinarians frequently give them massive doses of antibiotics to keep them running. The Iditarod's chief veterinarian, Stu Nelson, is an employee of the Iditarod Trail Committee. They are the ones who sign his paycheck. So, do you expect that he's going to say anything negative about the Iditarod?

The Iditarod, with all the evils associated with it, has become a synonym for exploitation. The race imposes torture no dog should be forced to endure.

2nd ANSWER:

The dogs are checked out carefully by a Veterinarian at each & every check stop. If they look the least bit sick or injured in any way, they are taken out.

Most of the owners love their dogs and keep a good eye on them too. Paws and bodies are carefully checked over constantly throughout the race plus temperature, pulse rate, blood pressure, etc. That is BS that they are not checked out by the Veterinarians who are there to check them at the different check stops. Many rules have been put into place to insure that the risk of the dogs getting injured are greatly reduced such as the required booties for paws. Sure there are some bad owners out there but they get caught at the Vet checks. Most of the owners are good owners that love their dogs dearly & have put a lot of training and love into each of them.

What a very negative and biased answer is the First Answerer! By the way, one of the Veterinarians that volunteers there is a friend of mine & torture as stated in the first answer is not allowed.

That's what I'm tryin' to figure out. So far I know total to top 30 teams is $875,000.

Same proportions as last year they say but don't say what that is. source idit. rules pdf file found on www.iditarod.com

Aproximately last year: winner 70k+dodge truck, 11th ~30K, 30th ~10k, I think. After 30th, each finisher gets $1049.00.

ACTUALLY! it was only $510,000 that was awarded to the top 30 winners! oh! and if christian beadles is out there, i just wanted to say, will marry me?

about 4-5 depends HOW heavy the sled is ;)

he is called that because he and dorthey page

The "Golden Harness" is most frequently given to the lead dog or dogs of the winning team. However, it is decided by a vote of the mushers, and in 2008 was given to Babe, the lead dog of Ramey Smyth, the 3rd place finisher. Babe was almost 11 years old when she finished the race, and it was her ninth Iditarod. The "Rookie of the Year" award is given to the musher who places the best among those finishing their first Iditarod. A red lantern signifying perseverance is awarded to the last musher to cross the finish line. The size of the purse determines how many mushers receive cash prizes. The first place winner also receives a new pickup truck.

The Iditarod, an annual dog sledding race held in Alaska, is a challenge for mushers and their dog teams alike to compete and complete the 1,600 mile trek from outside of Anchorage to Nome, Alaska.

The dogs used in this race must be strong, determined, and have an extreme amount of endurance. This means they also need a lot of food. An inactive sled dog in summer months only needs about 1,000 calories a day. A sled dog in the Iditarod, however, can consume up to 10,000 calories a day.

With up to 16 dogs on a team, that is approximately 160,000 calories a day that a musher may need to provide for all his hard working huskies.

Actually a lot of mushers nowadays no longer use full breed huskies they use a lot of mutts even some dogs can be part hound.

The transmission is not building up enough pressure to shift. Check your fluid and fill if needed. If fluid is fine change the trans. filter and the pressure modulator. If that does not fix it have the tourqe converter flushed.

If that does not fix it, you may need to have the transmission overhauled or have the transmission replaced

Another thing, check your linkages!!. there could be a lose linkage on the transmission, or it could be seased.

the dog sled is made of bits of drift wood put together. the sled has 2 runners, and planks going across the middle.

The above answer is not correct. The original "qamutiq" was made from frozen fish split longitudinally and laid end-to-end, then wrapped in frozen seal hides which were lashed with strips of more seal hide. These two runners were then kept parallel with pieces of bone or antler which was lashed to each runner. Contact surface between runner and ice/snow was a mixture of mud and moss covered with a glazing of water or urine.

Today, modern "qamutiit" are made of long pieces of dimensional lumber, 2 inches thick by perhaps 10 inches high and of various lengths. The cross pieces are made of smaller pieces of dimensional lumber and everything is lashed together with strips of sealskin. The contact surfaces between the bottom of the wooden runners and the snow/ice are either thin strips of steel or special, thick plastic, the same material as is used in dogsleds below the treel ine.

It is a dogsled race that takes place in Alaska. There is a ceremonial start in Anchorage Alaska, however, due to the urban nature of the area, after the ceremony the race moves to Willow Alaska, about 80 miles north of Anchorage, and goes from Willow to Nome Alaska.

Rick Swenson [b. 1950] is the only five-time winner of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race that's held in the United States of America across the state of Alaska. Because of that achievement, he's called the 'King of the Iditarod'. He finished first in the 1,049-mile race in 1977, 1979, 1981, 1982, and 1991.

The exact date to this answer is: March 3, 1997 This is why the race starts on this day.

Norman Vaughan,who took the red lantern in 1990 at the age of 24

During the off season a sled dog will be fine on a high protein dog food such as: Momentum, Red Paw, Eagle Pack, Caribou Creek, etc.

Once the team is training again in the fall the dogs will have supplements to their food such as fish, beef, pork, chicken, mink, etc. It usually depends on what kind of meat is available near the musher.

Often times mushers will add corn oil or fish meal for a few more calories. During the Iditarod and Yukon Quest these dogs can burn 12,000 to 14,000 calories a day. It's definitely important to give them what they need when they need it.

The musher pedals not the dog (s). It means pushing the sled with one foot while riding the back.

A conductor is the one who leads a choir

During the early years of the Iditarod Race, the mushers only traveled the northern trail. After several years, the Iditarod Board of Directors realized that the smaller villages were being heavily impacted by the race coming through their village year after year. It was decided to use both sections of the trail.

This decision had a three fold effect. The northern villages of Ruby, Galena and Nulato only had to deal with the large group of mushers, press and volunteers every other year. The second effect was that the race was able to pass through the actual ghost town of Iditarod. Lastly, the villages of Shageluk, Anvik and Grayling were able to participate in the race.

iditarod.com/learn/iditarodtrail.html

It is a dog in the Iditarod who is "dropped" because he cant go on because he is sick, injured, ect.

it is the person who controls his sled dog team in the iditarod

The father of the iditarod is Joe Redington and the mother is Dorothy Page:)

Just over 1150 miles by dog sled from the starting point of Anchorage to Nome in Alaska.

(Although the true mileage is 539 on a straight shot)

72 rookies registered for this years iditarod .thats all i no about this cold harsh race