Facts | Quotes | Help the dogs | News Reports | Dog Care
Mushers | Recreational Mushing | Links | Home
A Kid's Thoughts

Cruel dog training

Dogs who die training for the Iditarod

Training alone, without racing, is harmful to sled dogs

Dogs whipped and beaten

Use of force is widespread

Dogs are forced to train by pulling very heavy loads

Cattle prods used on dogs

Water training can be deadly or harmful

Dog deaths and injuries from training

Mushers told how to avoid detection of prohibited medications used during training

Dogs on training wheel left unsupervised

Dogs get a matchstick-up-the-butt

Puppies trained to race are under great stress

Dogs run for many hours

Sled dogs train on treadmills

Dogs who die training for the Iditarod

There is no accounting of how many dogs die in training each year.


Training alone, without racing, is harmful to sled dogs

Training results in significant gastrointestinal damage:

"I reviewed a recent study about gastrointestinal damage resulting from training and racing sled dogs which appeared in a  well-respected veterinary journal. Two of the more interesting conclusions presented were:

Training alone, without the additional stress of racing, results in significant, measurable gastrointestinal damage. 

and

Serious stomach ulcers and other significant, measurable gastrointestinal damage results from racing as little as 100 miles."

- Dr. Paula Kislak, DVM, President, Association of Veterinarians for Animals Rights
- Email to the Sled Dog Action Coalition on December 17, 2006


Training creates negative metabolic and physiological imbalances:

"Hypoglobulinemia in resting, conditioned sled dogs may reflect the immunosuppressive or catabolic effects of intense endurance training."

- McKenzie EC, Jose-Cunilleras E, et al. "Serum chemistry alterations in Alaskan sled dogs during five successive days of prolonged endurance exercise," Journal of American Veterinary Medical Association, May 15, 2007

"Hypoglobulinemia is a lower than normal concentration of globulins proteins."

- vetconnect.com.au, September 1, 2007


Dogs whipped and beaten

Dogs beaten into submission:

"They've had the hell beaten out of them.""You don't just whisper into their ears, 'OK, stand there until I tell you to run like the devil.' They understand one thing: a beating. These dogs are beaten into submission the same way elephants are trained for a circus. The mushers will deny it. And you know what? They are all lying."

-Tom Classen, retired Air Force colonel and Alaskan resident for over 40 years
-USA Today, March 3, 2000 in Jon Saraceno's column

Dogs beaten for going off of trail to sniff or lift a leg and for going too slowly:

"Punishable offenses include pulling off of the trail to sniff or to lift a leg, going too slowly, not keeping the tugline tight, disobeying a command, being aggressive to humans, or fighting with each other." "...A 'spanking' may be administered with...a birch/willow switch."

- Hood, Mary H. A Fan's Guide to the Iditarod, Loveland:Alpine Blue Ribbon Books, 1996


Musher says Alaskans like dogs they can beat on:

"I heard one highly respected (sled dog) driver once state that "'Alaskans like the kind of dog they can beat on.'"

- Welch, Jim. The Speed Mushing Manual, Eagle River: Sirius Publishing, 1990


Musher says beating dogs is very humane:

"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...A whip is a very humane training tool."

"Never say 'whoa' if you intend to stop to whip a dog." "So without saying 'whoa' you plant the hook, run up the side 'Fido' is on, grab the back of his harness, pull back enough so that there is slack in the tug line, say 'Fido, get up' immediately rapping his hind end with a whip...."

- Welch, Jim. The Speed Mushing Manual, Eagle River: Sirus Publishing, 1990


Musher says mushers should always have the whip with them:

"Denis Christman passed on a piece of advice that he had gotten from Bill Taylor years earlier. Never let the dogs see the whip until you are actually going to use it. Hide it, but always have it with you."

- Welch, Jim. The Speed Mushing Manual, Eagle River: Sirus Publishing, 1990


Puppies beaten:

"On many occasions, I witnessed the mother in law of an Iditarod musher strike puppies with a wiffle ball bat (a hollow plastic bat, approximately three feet long) to quiet them in harness and teach them to line out before a run. The puppies yelped and hit the ground, whimpering and clawing at the ground to try and get out of the way, trapped by their harnesses being hooked into the gangline."

- Ashley Keith, former musher and Iditarod kennel employee who now rescues and rehabilitates abused sled dogs
- Email to the Sled Dog Action Coalition, April 28, 2007


Alaska veterinarian says mushers crack ribs, break jaws or skulls:

"Veterinarian Jeanne Olson talks of cracked ribs, broken jaws or skulls from the use of two-by-fours as a punishment enforcer.

'There are mushers out there whose philosophy is...that if that dog acts up I will hit that dog to the point where it would rather die than do what it did, `cause the next time it is gonna die.'

Olson looks me right in the eye when she says this, and I ask her if people have actually said this to her. 'Yes,' she says 'and they're even proud of it.'

Sled dogs most often don't get another chance. Many mushers kill dogs who fight, act up, don't run as fast or even contain traits that are not desirable."

- Stephanie Land, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Department of Journalism website, 2007
- Dr. Olson has been practicing veterinary medicine in Alaska since 1988.


High-profile musher seen beating dog:

"Ten years ago, this sled dog was saved by one of [Arna Dan] Isacsson's friends, who came across her as she was being beaten by a musher while still harnessed to the team. Isacsson asked me not to use the dog's name for fear the incident will be linked to that high-profile musher even today."

- Lisa Wogan, Bark Magazine, Jan/Feb 2008
- Arna Dan Isacsson lives in Fairbanks, Alaska


Use of force is widespread

"Cim Smyth of Big Lake said while any kind of force should not be allowed on the Iditarod Trial, he doesn't know of many mushers who don't discipline their dogs during training."

- Mary Pemberton, Associated Press, April 28, 2007

[From the Sled Dog Action Coalition: During the Iditarod mushers are by themselves most of the time. They could easily use force on their dogs without being seen. When mushers habitually train their dogs using force, why wouldn't they do it during the Iditarod when there is far more at stake?]


Dogs are forced to train by pulling very heavy loads

Anabolic steriods an issue because dogs are forced to pull trucks and heavy sleds:

"The dogs are pulling sleds totaling more than 400 pounds each. To prepare, teams might pull a truck. No wonder anabolic steroids are an issue."

- Greg Cote, Miami Herald, March 5, 2002


Dogs pull trucks:

"How is Emmet [Peters] training with no snow on the trails? ‘Well, I saw Emmet hook a team to his truck,' Mark [Nordman] reported."

- Mark Nordman, is Iditarod's Race Marshall
- Joe Runyan, "Weather Confounds Iditarod Mushers" on Cabela's website, Feb. 22, 2002


"Some people use their truck. This method, though it gives control to the driver, is fraught with pitfalls. The driver is unable to sense how fast and hard the dogs are working."

- Jim Welch, The Speed Mushing Manual, 1990


"Martin Buser told me of a trick he has used when training with his truck. He has a length of very heavy chain between his front bumper and the rear end of the gangline. The chain is long enough so that he can see it from the driver's seat and heavy enough so that the dogs have to be pulling fairly hard in order to keep the chain from drooping on the ground."

- Jim Welch, The Speed Mushing Manual, 1990


Dogs pull ATVs:

"I always try to free-run the dogs with a four wheeler whenever I can."

- Doug Swingley, Iditarod race winner
- Joe Runyan, "Doug Swingley-The Greatest Ever?" on Cabela's website, Feb. 25, 2002


"Susan [Butcher] harnesses a team to an ATV."

- Dolan, Ellen. Susan Butcher and the Iditarod Trail, 1993


"The four wheeler is a great training tool."

- Joe Runyan, Winning Strategies for Distance Mushers, 1997


"Comparatively few Iditarod fans realize that when the snow is gone, we still mush. Instead of a toboggan sled skimming over the snow, the driver rides an all-terrain vehicle."

- Lew Freedman & Dee Dee Jonrowe. Iditarod Dreams, Seattle: Epicenter Press, 1995


"We've been running our teams for a couple of weeks with ATVs on unpaved local borough roads." [Alaska has boroughs, not counties.]

- Bowers, Don. Back of the Pack, Anchorage: Publication Consultants, 2000


"Dogs are hooked up to all-terrain vehicles for runs."

- Jon Saraceno, USA Today, March 5, 2001


Dogs pull heavy car chassis:

"[Terry] Adkins kept his dogs working through the summer, dragging a heavy car chassis through mountains near his home."

- O'Donoghue, Brian Patrick. My Lead Dog was a Lesbian, New York: Vintage Books, 1996
- O'Donoghue was a reporter for the Fairbanks News-Miner


Pulling heavy loads harms dogs:

"In order to condition dogs for racing, they are forced to pull heavy loads like vehicles. Not only does this put inordinate stress on their cardiovascular and respiratory systems, but it also causes strains and fractures of their musculoskeletal systems and rupture of the tendons and ligaments of their joints. In addition to painful acute injuries, almost all dogs allowed to survive until middle age will experience crippling arthritis from cumulative, repetitive damage to the spine and joints."

- Dr. Paula Kislak, President of the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights, September 7, 2004 email to the Sled Dog Action Coalition

Cattle prods used on dogs

"There is an undeniable need, in some cases for negative reinforcement.

One of the most effective tools for doing this is an electrical shocker. I always bought the small pocket models available at stores that sell stock supplies which are inconspicuous, yet effective."

"This is the way I do it. Stop the team and snub them to a tree. Say the name of the offender, 'Blazo,' in a firm voice and give the slacker a short blast of electrons."

"When he slacks off again, say his name again. If Blazo doesn't hit the tow line, try it again. Usually a couple of times is all it takes."

- Runyan, Joe. Winning Strategies for Distance Mushers, Sacramento: Griffin Printing Co.,1997
- Joe Runyan reported on the Iditarod for Iditarod sponsor Cabela's Incorporated


Electric shock to terrorize dogs is very detrimental:

"The use of electrical shock to terrorize a dog is very detrimental on many levels. It will force a dog to exceed his reasonable physical limitations and predispose him to painful injuries. And psychologically it creates fear and apprehension which degrades his quality of life. The shock stimulus itself, if inaccurately calibrated, can cause localized burns or sudden cardiac arrest."

- Dr. Paula Kislak, President of the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights, September 7, 2004 email to the Sled Dog Action Coalition


Water training can be deadly or harmful

Tethered dogs forced to train by treading water:

"While [Jeff] King's idea was to string about 15 dogs at a time between two boats so the dogs can swim laps around the lake for 90 minutes, Lindner's game plan is much more compact. About eight dogs jump into his [Sonny Lindner's] 7-foot-deep pool and get a workout for about 45 minutes.

"'They're just treading water in the pool, but they tread or otherwise they'll sink,' Lindner said, pointing out that treading water for close to an hour is hard work."

- The photo which accompanied the article showed Lindner's dogs treading water with one tether attached to the collar of each dog.
- Jon Little, Cabela's Iditarod website, October 27, 2006
- Little formerly wrote for the Anchorage Daily News.


Forcing a tethered dog to tread water can be harmful:

"Forcing a dog to tread water while tethered by the neck for 45 or more minutes, and the only alternative is to sink and drown, will likely result in over-exertion and exhaustion.

Under these negative circumstances they may easily inhale water and choke or develop pulmonary inflammation or aspiration pneumonia."

- Dr. Paula Kislak, DVM, President, Association of Veterinarians for Animals Rights
- Email to the Sled Dog Action Coalition on December 17, 2006


Dog deaths and injuries from training

Dog killed by snowmachine:

"The road [Denali Highway] is also laid out perfectly for long training runs, which have become the norm for Iditarod and Quest mushers these days."

"The open road allows snowmachiners to travel at high speeds and one musher had a dog killed earlier this winter when one of two snowmachines that were racing down the road ran into the musher's team."

- Tim Mowry (Fairbanks Daily News-Miner), Juneau Empire, December 30, 2007


Dog killed by moose:

"So as the moose closed with the dogs, they now charged toward it.

'They couldn't get up to a very fast speed because of the drag,' Smyth said, 'but the leaders got past. The moose started working on the swing dogs. He kind of raised up for a one-two strike.'

One of the dogs was hit hard and went down, then got stomped hard. Smyth thinks now that must have been Fido.

The moose, Smyth said, 'came down on him with both front feet, and then it just started with the rest of the team.'

As the dogs rolled on, the moose came racing up the gangline, hooves flying, until it got to the sled." "When Smyth turned back to his team, he saw immediately that Fido was down."

"When he went to the dog, he found him struggling to breathe. His stomach was distended, his sides swollen. Probably, the blow from the moose had ruptured blood vessels and he was bleeding internally. In that case, there wouldn't be much that could be done even if a veterinarian was there, and the nearest veterinarian was tens of miles away."

- Craig Medred, Anchorage Daily News, January 25, 2005


Dogs fatally injured by motorized vehicles:

"A 23-year-old North Pole man was charged with reckless driving in connection with the hit-and-run death of a sled dog last October."

"According to musher Jeff Holt, Tanner ran through the intersection of Peede and Brock roads and struck Goose, a leader, shattering his jaw so severely the dog had to be euthanized."

"Goose was the second of Holt's sled dogs to die at the hands of a hit-and-run driver.

Chip, an older lead dog, was killed during a training run in early 2003 when a six-wheel all-terrain vehicle drove into Holt's 10-dog team and over the sled Holt was driving. Two other dogs were injured; the collision left Holt with a broken hand and damaged sled."

- Amanda Bohman, Fairbanks News-Miner, July 14, 2005


Two dog teams drown in freezing water training for Iditarod:

"I got out on the ice with the lead ten-dog team. My wife [Kristen] was behind me, following with ten more dogs. I got about a mile and a half out, and the ice didn't seem safe to me. Sure enough, the sled broke through the ice and I went into the water."

"Then my team pulled the sled out of the water and I was able to get myself out."

"I said to Kristen, 'Let's start for home and the dogs will follow us.' For a while it looked like it was going to work. The dogs would have a lighter load and the ice might hold.

But then the dogs got farther and farther from shore, and they got tangled up in a big ball in the harness. From twenty dogs all spread out, now there were twenty dogs all concentrated in a small area. It was a thousand pounds of dogs. Kristen and I were almost to shore when we turned back and saw this mayhem of splashing dogs. I was in shock. Kristen said, 'The dogs have fallen in.' I said, 'Get the canoe.'

By the time we got back with the canoe, there was nothing moving there."

"I remember looking down into that hole and seeing a gang line and dogs and black water, and I knew that we had lost them."

- Dave Olesen, Iditarod musher
- Freedman, Lew. More Iditarod Classics, Kenmore: Epicenter Press, 2004


- At 50 degrees below mushers and dogs fall through ice:

"No matter the temperature, moving water under the ice can break the surface, which explains why dog mushers fall through rivers and lakes in the Bush while the temperature is a raging 50 degrees below, [Marc] Scholten said."

- Andrew Petty, Juneau Empire, December 4, 2005


Eight dogs injured:

"Eight of Dr. Knolmayer's 20 dogs were injured at some point this winter.

It was more injuries than I expected, and some of it might have been because of our training in the mountains -- dogs aren't designed to run downhill. They've all improved, but a week and a half ago Tomahawk was injured. He's my best and toughest leader, but I don't think he's going to make the race," Dr. Knolmayer said."

- Capt. Amy Hansen, Air Force Link, March 4, 2005


Dogs' paws are injured from running on hard, frozen ground:

"The scant snowfall across the state has forced frustrated mushers to leave their sleds in the garage and instead train their dogs with four-wheelers." "Some mushers have reported that running on the hard, frozen ground has damaged the dogs' paw pads." "'With the frozen ground, the little rocks become like very rough sandpaper,' he [musher Linwood Fiedler] said."

- Ron Wilmot, Anchorage Daily News, November 17, 2002


Lead dog injured before the race started:

"Gebhardt had a trying winter training and nearly lost his chief leader to injury before the race began in Anchorage on March 3."

- Lew Freedman, Anchorage Daily News, March 21, 2001


Dog needs 10 stitches:

"Two weeks ago, Jonrowe said she had a mishap with her new lead dog, 3-year-old Softail. An ice hook snagged his back leg while she was practicing with another team. The injury required 10 stitches. 'I couldn't cry. I couldn't say anything. I just picked him up and put him in the sled,' she (Jonrowe) said."

- Anchorage Daily News, "Mushers into Skwenta," March 6, 2000

Dogs hit by semi tractor:

"During a training run along the George Parks Highway, a pair of his (Dave Straub's) lead dogs bolted across the pavement in front of a fast-moving semi tractor and trailer." "The semi slammed into the dogs at almost full speed, instantly killing three, injuring another."

- Craig Medred, Anchorage Daily News, March 7, 2000


Moose attack injures dogs:

"Macky said the moose jumped the team again, stepping in the one empty slot where a dog was missing.

'She was just ornery,' Macky said....

One of Mackey's dogs was kicked between the shoulder blades."

- Jenni Dillion, Peninsula Clarion, March 10, 2004


"When she was two years old, a moose stomped through [Ed] Iten's team during a training run, shattering Zoey's leg with a single stamp of its cloven hoof. Her leg was literally flopping around."

- Jon Little, Cabelas Iditarod Coverage, website March 11, 2006
- Jon Little formerly wrote for the Anchorage Daily News.

One dog dies of heart attack and another injured in Iditarod qualifier, the Knik 200:

"Only six days off the jet from London, standing on the runners of a dogsled for only the third time in his life and still trying to shake the jet-lag our of his head, Englishman Allen Garth wondered what he was doing in the middle of a sled dog race through the frigid Alaska wilds."

"He'd signed with the legendary Joe Redington to train for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race...."

"Only a few hours away from the starting line, Garth endured the trauma of a dog death in his team."

"'I had a dog die after 18 or 15 miles out,' Garth said.

Veterinarians determined the animal had a heart attack."

"He was loading the carcass of the dead dogs into his sled when a fight broke out in his team. That resulted in a serious gash on the foot of one of his lead dogs."

- Craig Medred, Anchorage Daily News, January 15, 1991


Chief vet tells mushers how to avoid detection of prohibited medications used during training

"All prohibited drugs must be out of the dogs system at the time of the pre-Race veterinary check. Most anti-inflamatories such as pherrylbutazone and aspirin, which may be used on an injured dog during training are out of the system by 72 hours after they are given. To give a wide safety margin, I recommend that you discontinue all prohibited medications 2 weeks before the start of the Race unless they have been authorized by the head veterinarian."

- Chief Iditarod veterinarian, Karin Schmidt, DVM
- 1994 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, Musher's/Veterinarian's Handbook


Dogs on training wheel left unsupervised

Joe Reddington, Sr. watched TV:

"He [Joe Redington, Sr.] invented a dog wheel that looked like a Ferris wheel turned on its side. He could hook up as many as thirty dogs at a time and watch them run in circles, sort of like gerbils. The dogs trotted ten or twelve miles an hour around and around a loop of a hundred and fifty-five feet.

'You could sit there and watch television and put forty miles on the dogs,' said Redington who admitted he did that a few times."

- Freedman, Lew. Father of the Iditarod, Kenmore: Epicenter Press, 1999


Dogs get a matchstick-up-the-butt

"Training a dog to poop on command is challenging at best, so [Rex] Jones uses the old matchstick-up-the butt trick.

'The irritation of the matchstick helps them clean their system and therefore run a better race,' said Jones."

- Rex Jones is the owner and operator of Arctic Paws Kennel and Sled Dog School in Chugiak, Alaska.
- Jillian Rogers, Yukon News, March 8, 2006


Puppies trained to race are under great stress

Janice Blue: "Dr. Kislak in one interview you did with Andrea Floyd-Wilson who is the host of All About Animals, the radio show, a couple of years ago, you mentioned that a lot of these dogs are very young, and just like children, where their bones are still growing, they're not fully developed and that creates all kinds of problems."

Dr. Paula Kislak: "Yes, the growth plates, which are the cartilage plates that are important in bone formation are not mature in large breed dogs for at least up to two years and usually later. And these animals are started training much younger than that, and so it puts unbearable stress on the bones and the tendons and the ligaments and the cartilage and that's why so many of them wash out early. And the ones that don't wash out early, that actually make it to the race, then develop crippling arthritis within a year or two after that. And if they're good breeding stock, then they're kept alive even despite the crippling arthritis and their kept in these horrible freezing cold outdoor conditions."

- Janice Blue is the host of the radio program Go Vegan Texas, KPFT
- Dr. Paula Kislak, DVM, is president of the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights
- The interview was done on February 27, 2006


Puppies beaten:

"On many occasions, I witnessed the mother in law of an Iditarod musher strike puppies with a wiffle ball bat (a hollow plastic bat, approximately three feetlong) to quiet them in harness and teach them to line out before a run. The puppies yelped and hit the ground, whimpering and clawing at the ground to try and get out of the way, trapped by their harnesses being hooked into the gangline."

- Ashley Keith, former musher and Iditarod kennel employee who now rescues and rehabilitates abused sled dogs
- Email to the Sled Dog Action Coalition, April 28, 2007


Dogs run for many hours

Matt Anderson makes dogs run for 9-hours in a 13-hour period:

"After digging a path into his house, Anderson will hook his dogs up around 5 p.m., pack up enough gear to spend the night outside, and take off.

Anderson and his dog team will run for most of the night. They will camp out approximately four hours.

'I'll usually get a couple of hours of sleep then,' he said.The tired team of dogs and musher will return home around 6 a.m."

- Bren T. Boyce, The Nonpareil, August 20, 2006

[People who know dogs know that by nature they love to sleep.]


Sled dogs train on treadmills

"Treadmills, also found on [Michael] Vick's property, are commonly used to exercise sled dogs...."

- Michelle Tsai, Slate.com, July 20, 2007

("Michael Vick formally accepted a plea agreement from the federal government today at the United States District Court here, pleading guilty to a felony charge stemming from a dog fighting ring run from a property he owned."

"Within the statement of facts, which accompanied the agreement, Vick admitted to funding the dog fighting operation and the gambling associated with it and to being complicit in the killing of at least six dogs that underperformed."

"In the statement of facts, Vick said that he agreed to the killing of “approximately 6 to 8 dogs that did not perform well in ‘testing’ sessions,' adding that 'all the dogs were killed by various methods, including hanging and drowning.'”

- Michael S. Schmidt, The New York Times, August 27, 2007)

Back to the top


Articles about the Iditarod

Dog deaths

Poor veterinary care

Mushers mistreat their dogs during race

Dog injuries, sicknesses and extreme stress

Problems with Iditarod rules

Greed fuels the Iditarod

Abuse in kennels

Iditarod history

 

Facts | Quotes | Help the dogs | News Reports | Dog Care Mushers | Recreational Mushing | Links | Home A Kid's Thoughts