TRANSCRIPT

SL: Dogs and their training for the World Championship Dog Race has changed enormously over the years. In the early 1900s and through the 1970s, the majority of the dogs in the races were actually working dogs. They pulled loaded sleighs daily in the winter and were usually fed on a diet of fish, oatmeal and rice with carcasses of deer, moose and elk thrown in, sometimes caribou. They lived out of doors and were big, strong animals, weighing anywhere from 80 to 100 pounds. The dogs on my father-in-laws team averaged about 90 pounds. They were usually part of the livelihood of the musher who owned them, and were very well cared for. Since the advent of the snow machine which replaced the dog team for making a living in the outdoors, this sport has really changed. Dogs are now an extremely valuable asset and a lot of money goes into breeding, feeding, housing and transporting kennels. We have friends that are dog mushers and I know that there have been dogs that have been worth ten to fifteen thousand dollars, where when my father-in-law was raising them, he received $1,000 for a dog and it was unheard of in those days. Doc Lombard bought his leader for $1,000 and he was amazed to get that amount of money.