For competitive canines, nutrition, hydration, can rival training in mushing success
Dogs have chow down
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Two of Kasilof musher Jon Littles dogs get a drink during a fall training run. Water is a key, but often overlooked, ingredient, he said.
Photo by Joseph Robertia
Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of five stories leading up to the Tustumena 200 Sled Dog Race starting Saturday. Wednesday’s story is on T-200 veterinarians.
“We can rebuild him, better, faster, stronger.” It may be a sound bite from the “Six Million Dollar Man” television series, but the statement holds true for how much mushers put into their dogs, particularly in regard to nutrition.
“In a pie chart of importance for sled dogs, it would be genetics, conditioning and diet,” said Kasilof-based musher Jon Little.
However, he said feeding sled dogs — particularly those training for or competing in a race as demanding as the Tustumena 200 — takes more than just buying a bulk amount of whatever dog food is on sale at the supermarket.
“Almost anything you could buy in the supermarket would fail for racing sled dogs,” he said.
Little said he orders from manufacturers that specialize in high-performance dog food.
“Sled dogs need lots of calories — high-quality calories, and a lot of that comes from these dog foods loaded with fat and protein from high-quality ingredients,” he said.
Little said studies have shown that a racing sled dog can burn up to 10,000 calories a day, a stark contrast to the roughly 2,000 calories the average human consumes per day.
In fact, the only humans that come close or have similar caloric burns to sled dogs are athletes competing in the Tour de France, Little added.
Even with high-performance feed, though, getting so many calories into a sled dog is more difficult than it sounds.
“You can’t just give them one big meal,” Little said.
He explained not only would the stomach of a sled dog not hold that much volume of food, but feeding more than can be properly digested leads to, well, waste — which, as Little put it, “can express itself in lots of brown runny ways.”
Little said attempting to feed sled dogs one huge meal also would be equivalent to a human eating a big Thanksgiving dinner.
“And, just like you wouldn’t want to run after eating a turkey and all the trimmings, they don’t want to run with full bellies. It slows them down,” Little said.
Instead, Little said distance mushers often opt to feed their dogs several small meals throughout a race, and will supplement their high-quality kibble feed with chunks of fat, salmon, beef and other meat.
“In a race, about every three hours I’ll pull over and give them some dry dog food in the snow, or a few ounces of salmon or a small piece of fat. Then, at the checkpoint, I’ll feed more of a full meal with plenty of water,” he said.
Little said that almost as important as the musher knowing how to feed, is the dogs knowing how to eat, and thats aggressively. Little said he teaches all his dogs, like these pups, to eat aggressively from a young age.
Photo by Joseph Robertia
Little said each musher seems to have their own way of doing things when it comes to meal preparation.
“Some mushers like to soak the dry food in water until it is soupy or gooey like pudding, but I like to mix the food with the water right before feeding. It’s like a big bowl of cereal that way,” he said.
Little said the dogs then have several hours to digest their food while resting during the mandatory breaks in the race.
Also, Little said he frequently returns a few hours later and offers the dogs plain water to ensure they stay well hydrated.
“Water is a key, but often overlooked, ingredient,” he said.
Almost as important as the musher knowing how to feed is the dogs knowing how to eat, and that’s aggressively, Little said.
“They’ve got eat aggressively,” he said.
Just like cars won’t run without gas, sled dogs won’t get far down the trail if they don’t have food to burn.
“If they don’t eat, they’ll get tired more quickly, and may not have as much energy,” he said.
While this could affect team performance, Little said the bigger concern is it also could be a risk to the weary dog’s safety.
He said a dog that is too tired may not have the same energy to jump over holes and other obstacles, which could lead to an injury.
Little said he teaches all his dogs to eat aggressively from a young age.
“We teach them from pups,” he said.
This is done by putting down small amounts of food and only leaving it as long as the pups are actively eating it, he said. If they lose interest, he’ll pick it up and try again a few hours later.
“They pick it up pretty quick,” he said.