Cross Breeds

Can a mutt compete or any other type of dog in an Alaskan race ?

Instead of a quincenera, next year, I'm having a sled dog race. My parents agreed to take me to Alaska to compete. I have a German Husky, a Pointer Mix, a Wolf Husky mix, and 4 German pointers. Are they elegible to compete ? Thanks Nikki your answer was great as well as animal @s.

Public Comments

1. Yes the dogs in sled racers are mutts. They breed them for speed, endurance, and loyalty. No one breed of dog is perfect so they take the best mutt and breed them to another mutt, resulting in a better mutt. I am just concerned if your pointer mix and German pointers are short haired. They may get cold. I love my mutts!
2. There are no restrictions on breed for the Iditarod.. there was a POODLE team that ran!!... for other racing competitions you'll have to look at their rules but MOST races do not restrict by breed. They may get a bit COLD though!! One of the fastest sprint teams (6 miles) I've ever seen was a 3 dog team of German Short-hair Pointers... but they had to wear jackets in the Minnesota winter- I can't even imagine Alaska weather.
3. That team of poodles that competed in the iditarod did not complete the race. They also raised a big stink with the animal rights activists. The result is that for that race the dogs have to be a northern breed. With seven dogs you will be competing in a sprint race. Any breed of dog can compete unless it is a purebred race. Most races are not but sometimes breed clubs will host a race for their breed. I would recommend training all 7 dogs and entering a 4 or six dog class with the best of the bunch. You might not be allowed to race the wolf mix because of no recognized rabies vaccine. Pointer crosses have been tearing up the sprint races in recent years. Most of the dogs on my team are husky-pointer crosses. edit: A good place to find races and other information is sleddogcentral.com
4. I don't believe there are restrictions on breed types for dog sled racing, however, while I'm sure your husky mixes will do fine, I'd be worried that the German pointers might freeze at night. Huskies and Malamutes were bread for pulling and surviving in the snow, they have a double coat of fur and special fur padding in their ears and on their feet. Have you ever driven a sled with your dogs before? It takes an incredible amount of strength and you need to spend months training your dogs not only to follow and obey the commands but also to run in sync next to each other, otherwise they'll just pull you where ever they want and every dog will run in whatever direction it chooses. There are no reins, you only have a foot brake and vocal commands. Each of those dogs can easily pull you off your feet on their own, as a team they will be incredibly difficult for you to control. If you are only 15 as I suspect you are because you mentioned quinceanera, you are much to young to race in a race like the Iditarod (which is over 1000 miles) and usually requires a team of 16 dogs.I doubt they would allow a 15 year old to run a race like that by themselves. How long is the race you're planning to partake in? I would suggest 5 km or 10 km if you never done it before. If you are just interested in doing a sprinting race which is 5-15 kilometers, there is no need to go to Alaska, you can find races such as this in Canada, or in many other places in the winter.Just search Google for dog sled races near your town. If both you and your dogs don't have the proper training, it can result in injury or death for both you and the dogs. Please be careful, and good luck.