Over the past weekend the Alaska Dog Mushers Assoc in Fairbanks hosted the Open North American Championship Sled Dog Race. This is three day sprint race attacting entries from all over Alaska and international competitors from Canada. On the first two days the teams race a 19.8 mile circuit and on the final day the route is 26.9 miles.
L-R: Aliy (middle, standing) helps with split timing at one of the checkpoints; sprint team sprints by
Aliy and Allen went along to watch and even helped with the timing crew! It was great to see different kind of racing; Boy, do those dogs go FAST! Allen’s mushing roots are in sprint racing but Aliy has not had the opportunity to ever see this race because she has often still been in Nome after the Iditarod. The timing of the races this year made it possible to go see it.
L-R: Start line, sprinting through the field
Congrats to Salcha’s Arleigh Reynolds who successfully defended his championship title.
Yahoo…congrats to Arleigh !! I work with his cousin Kevin here in NY and heard he once again won the title along with placing 1st (again) at Fur Rondy! Sled dog racing has many flavors…but one common denominator….dogs, dogs and more dogs! Gotta love the dawgs!!
It was great to see you at the race and friends of mine commented on how good it was to see both of you downtown supporting the Open North American. One thing I've learned about true champions is that they love watching dogs no matter what type of racing they do.
We fans can cheer just as hard for y'all during a sprint race as we can during a distance one. I hear the sprint mushers like to brag about how they get to run the dogs but then sleep in a warm bed every night – I can see how that might hold some appeal…
Wow! That is a completely different kettle of fish altogether !!!
How interesting !
Thank you SP Kennel for exposing us to different kinds of mushing!
You all are great!
Is Aliy thinking…
"I can catch him?"
Shiner must have said "See, I told you it was fun!!!"
Thanks for posting this about sprint racing. Good looking dogs. Great to see Aliy helping with the timing.
Hope you are healing quickly, Aliy.
For those of you who want to watch yet another variety of watching speedy dogs and great handling, the AKC Agility National Championships is running this week in Harrisburg, PA. It's kinda our Iditarod. 🙂
I had to pull my dog due to a health issue, so I won't be going. You can watch all the runs, all jump heights this year online, also Challengers and Finals on Sunday. It's true competition, the best of the best.
Here's the link to the livestream if you're interested. Runs Thurs through Sunday.
http://images.akc.org/pdf/events/agility/national_agility_championship/2014/Livestream.pdf
funny dog lol