A Handler’s Perspective on A Rookies Journey
January 12, 2006

Handlers are sometimes a strange breed of animal. They come in different sizes and shapes as well as ages although the vast majority are young and strong. Handlers can be the girl or boy down the street whose main duty is to scoop poop on a regular basis to hired handlers who receive a salary (usually small) as well as room and board. Room can be a spare room in the house, or a cabin “ off the grid” which means no running water, no electricity and no inside bathroom. It is not unusual for a musher and his/her family to live like this also. In fact, in Alaska, outside of Anchorage and in the northern parts of Canada like the Yukon Territory this is not an unusual way to live at all. It is all rather ordinary.

Handlers frequently have the day to day care of the dogs and kennel which allow a musher to concentrate on running the dogs and “chasing” snow when conditions at the home base are less than favorable. Typically the day includes with “scooping poop”, at least twice a day….and if you have a large kennel, can be considerable amount of stool. It is picked up with a hoe or a shovel, (in winter it is easy because it freezes rapidly) and then shoving it into a contraption that looks like a dustpan with a long handle. It is then transferred to a garbage can in a small kennel or onto a sled which is pulled along the dog boxes.

Feeding usually takes place twice a day in the winter and many kennels give out extra snacks during the day depending on work conditions for the dogs and the cold. Food is usually prepared in large buckets and is ladled out with something that looks like a large gravy ladle which holds a couple of cups of food. Additives are put in either food or bowls. Some of the more common additives are extra vitamins like vitamin E which helps dogs to metabolize fat, Probiotics, Zinc for feet, some form of omega 3 and 6 oils, and extra fat for increased caloric needs. Almost every musher has his own “secret” additive.

Foot care is enormously important. No feet, no race. Feet are inspected daily, looking for web splits, abrasions, and injury. Nails are kept clipped. Hair between pads are sometimes clipped short although some mushers don’t believe in that. Joints are inspected every time a dog runs….Now think about this…..12 major joints per dog…..wrist, elbow, shoulder, ankle, knee, and hip…..multiply that times 16 dogs and you get 192 joints per dog team…….and if you have 80-100 dogs you can do the math. That does not include the muscle groups that you massage. Dogs are massaged at every checkpoint and after every race……..Most kennels keep excellent and daily records of each dog and how they perform, how they eat, how they poop, and how their attitude is for the day.

After the daily chores are done, the dogs are run. In the beginning of the season they are started very slowly……sometimes as little as 2 miles but as the stamina and muscle mass increases, the miles increase and soon they are running 50 + miles back to back. Most people start very slowly to build muscle mass. Hooked up to a 4 wheeler you can start at 4-5 MPH You put a small number of dogs in harness and put the ATV in 3-4th gear so they are pulling against the compression of the engine.. This can take 6 hrs a team….Usually towards the early part of the season you take smaller teams so you can watch each dog carefully. When you return to the kennels, the dogs are watered, fed, and checked again for problems.

Grab a quick snack for yourself and then you start on the mundane work of fixing harnesses, ganglines, tuglines, necklines and sleds…..Most mushers make their own lines and this can time consuming. Oh yes, and then there is the matter of booties……4 feet, 4 booties, 16 dogs, 64 booties…….they are attached by Velcro and when you wash them all the Velcro sticks together and you have to pull them apart…..Now if you “live off the grid”…..you have to haul water, wash stuff by hand or go 30 miles to uses the laudramat……by that time sleep comes easily and not many mushers have to use artificial means for getting to sleep.

As race season nears, and conditions get better, you bring out the sleds and the excitement in the dog yard increases. When they see the sleds, and the dog houses are white with hoar frost they dogs sense that it will be time to run. They know……and they wait……and they love it…….Mileage and runs get longer and longer and it usually is necessary to try new trails and snow conditions. Dogs need to learn to go through water, on different kinds of ice, around trees, and up and down hills. They learn how to pass other teams without reaching out to visit, and to pay attention to the business at hand. The first races of the season are usually 120-150 miles and as the season progresses they add on mileage so before long you are running 200-300 mile races. Excitement builds……some races have as many as 100 entrants….that is lots of dogs, lots of volunteers, lots of handlers, and lots of mushers. Dogs get so excited, they bark, jump and hammer their lines. They want to run, they need to run, they love to run.

And then, the signal to run is given…….”.lets go”……and all is instantly quiet…..There is a trail to run…….and new sights to see and smell and experience……all is well…..all is quiet except for the squeak of the runners of the snow and the padding of the bootied feet running swiftly through the landscape.

Bonnie Foster
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