Husky News

The 11th annual Canadian Challenge International Sled Dog Race in Prince Albert is on Feb 13. The race will have Melfort and area flavor with Kolby Morrison from just north of Gronlid competing.

Morrison breeds and trains Alaskan Huskies for the sport at KRM Racing Kennels, which is located near Gronlid. He has been at the full time job of racing, and breeding since 2004.

Morrison came to the sport through his love of the outdoors.

“It is just something I always liked and wanted to do, I grew up in the bush, hunting, and in the outdoors all of the time, it is just something that I have always been interested in,” Morrison said.

His family also runs outfitters at Carrot River. The training area was not good for his dogs, so he looked around and located an ideal area near Fort A la Corne.

The racer has to develop his dog team through breeding and training.

“It is no different than raising race horses or anything like that, they are not a registered breed,” he said.
He explained that the Alaskan Huskies are a mix of various breeds.

“They still have some of the original Huskies, but not a whole lot, they have shorter hair, and they are a smaller dog. Basically that is for speed, “ he said.

The dogs average around 50 pounds, and run 10-14 miles per hour. They average this speed for about 150 to 170 miles, over a 24-hour period.

He is at the point where he has dogs that are in his team that are 2 or 3 years old. Racers go for mixes of bloodlines; there are eight to ten generations of bloodlines. With each bloodline having different characteristics.

“You have to pick what kinds of dogs you like to run, and the personality you like.”

“I like a happy, outgoing exited team,” he explained

“The biggest thing is the attitude, the appetite, they have got to eat well, and the durability,” he explained.

This helps the teams develop a rhythm for racing, because the dogs are bred similarly. Alaskan Huskies perform better in warmer weather.

In the races themselves, the team runs for six or seven hours and then rest for six or seven hours.

“On a 24 hour time period you are probably going to do about two runs and two rest,” he explained.

This time can either be spent at prescribed checkpoints, which are every forty to seventy miles, or on the trail, depending on the racers preference?

“Between the breeding and the training, you have got to put those two in combination and make that work,” he said.

The dogs training begins in August, so that they are ready for the season, which begins, in early January. Morrison describes the warmer months between April and August as the Huskies “vacation”.

In mid-August he hooks the dogs up to a quad for running, to slowly acclimate the dogs to running again. By around Christmas the dogs are running 60 or 70-mile runs.

“You have to have them where, by New Year’s, they are ready to run six hours continuous,” Morrison explained.

He trains the dogs on trails that are directly out of his yard. Out of his yard he can access up to a 70 mile run for training. It is preferable to have at least 1500 miles training before a race.

“They run best at anywhere between 15 and 25 below, you get warmer than 15 below, they are still going to run but they are not going to run as hard, or be as enthusiastic,” he explained.

To perform best there must be symmetry between dogs and driver.

“You have to have the dogs prepared is the biggest thing, have them ready for all of the different conditions, having them ready to run back-to-back runs,” he explained.

Racers must also adapt to conditions. This comes from knowing your dog team and how they will perform.

The Canadian Challenge is a 320-mile race. It starts in downtown Prince Albert on Feb. 13, and then goes to La Ronge, where the next run takes the teams to Stanley Mission, and up to Grandmothers Bay on the Churchill River. The race then finishes in La Ronge.

Source: The Melfort Journal