Sled Dogs

Denali still uses working sled dogs to patrol the park.  The sled dogs are used in the winters, and during the summers, they pretty much hang out.  The dogs do a few presentations to show people exactly how they do work in the winter.  We stopped in to see their presentation.

 Here they are.  The sled dogs are all Alaskan Huskies.

 This is their kennel area, and they live in the same area during the winter.  The younger dogs (less than two years old) live to the right, and the older dogs live to the left.  We learned they retire the litter of dogs when they reach 10 years old.  At that point, they adopt the dogs out to waiting families.

The park ranger is hooking the dogs up to the dogsled.

 They get so excited when they realize it is time to work they have trouble even controlling the dogs to get them hooked up.

 Here comes the sled.  Normally, in the winter, they have around 10 dogs to a sled.  They have a few who specifically run as the lead dog, and a few who run at the back, but she said otherwise, they can run about anywhere in the lineup.

The ranger is giving each dog some water and a bone.

 Hot, even after a short ride

Tired puppy...we learned by a year-old, the dogs are learning how to be part of the sled team and can run on some short runs.

 They were all really sweet.

The kids really enjoyed seeing the sled dogs and especially liked the new puppies one of the dogs had.  Jennifer was able to tell us a lot too, as she worked as a dog musher this past winter.