By Joe Runyan
Imperceptibly at first, the trail climbs steadily toward the Alaska Range. The snowmachine traffic decreases as the distance from the last road increases. The trail has a hardened bottom, but is rarely icy-smooth as it was near Knik. Pulling is tougher because the dogs trot on a fluff of loose snow, which can be two to six inches deep. Tug lines connected to the back of each dog’s harness are tight. With 16 dogs in the team times four is 64 legs steadily pulling, and 16 dogs times 55 pounds is 880 pounds of husky.
It is like having a well-conditioned horse in front of a light sled with 64 individually pulling legs - which is a lot of power. Needless to say, it is also a lot of traction. The calorie demands of the dogs are increasing dramatically now that the race is in the second day, and the musher must do everything possible to keep calorie intake and calorie burning in balance. Otherwise, of course, the team would lose weight and weaken. Just to give you an idea of the dynamics of energy involved, visualize a 60-pound pet dog, like a Labrador, that trots around the neighborhood, barks at the mailman, chases a ball in the backyard, and spends a lot of time on the front porch. This dog has a metabolic demand of about 1,500 kilo-calories (kcal) to 2,000 kcal per day, and will happily eat around a pound a day of a good-quality commercial dry dog food.
A hard-working Alaskan husky on the second day of the Iditarod has a metabolic demand of close to 10,000 kcal. It will have traveled over 100 miles, and working awfully hard to pull a sled as well. This dog is ravenously hungry and will need to eat six times as much as the Labrador in the backyard. This truly is a phenomenon, and of all the specialized traits of a sled dog, this is the one that impresses me the most. I am amazed that the husky is able to do it. I have been around Alaskans for 30 years, and I have never taken for granted their incredible ability to do work. I am awed when I see teams traveling with apparent ease for another 120-mile day. To do this, mushers feed a high-fat diet, carefully supplemented with vitamins and minerals. The art of feeding has been advanced by practical experience and good science. Almost every major dog food company on the North American continent sponsors an Iditarod dog team, and has benefited from research with the working sled dog.