Presidents
Message
During this time of the year it’s always good to take care of those
cleaning and repairing chores in the kennel and on the dog truck. It’s
also a good time to think about that “better team” you want to put on
the race trail for 2010. I found an article in the 1968 November Gangline
Newsletter that is still relevant today on how to select the correct
sled dogs. It will be interest to see how mushers apply this idea. Enjoy
the great weather and I look forward to seeing you at the next meeting.
Lance
Selecting Sled Dogs
The importance of having dogs with the proper color eyes on your team
cannot be over emphasized. This is especially true of your lead dog.
The color eyes your team should have depend on the area in which you
live and race.
Those teams south of the State of Oregon should be composed of dogs
with brown eyes. These teams receive more of the direct rays of the
sun. Brown eyes have the capability of filtering out most of these harmful
rays. You have only to observe the indigenous population of the Southern
regions to ascertain the valid¬ity of this statement.
The opposite is true for teams north of Oregon. In the winter time the
sun is lower and more indirect rays of the sun are striking the earth.
There is a vis¬ibility problem however, caused by gloomy skies, fog
and occasional snow storms such as are prevalent in the State of Washington.
The blue eyed dog has the capability of penetrating this gloom and hence
has an increased range of vision. Snowplows usually have blue flashing
lights because it increases visibility. Or you can observe the Scandinavian
people. They have blue eyes.
Those of you living in the State of Oregon have a unique situation.
Since you are mid-way between the areas prev¬iously mentioned, you have
a conglomerate of the best and worst conditions of each. It follows
therefore that your dogs should have one brown eye and one blue eye.
By using split-eyed dogs, you have a team which can take advantage of
these conditions.
A word of caution is in order. When you are running in an Oregon race,
it is extremely important that you note the direction of the race trail.
If the trail runs in an easterly direction, make sure that you use dogs
with the brown eye on the right side. The opposite is true for trails
in a westerly direction, i.e. the brown eye should be on the left. It
would be in your best interests to establish a breeding program aimed
at producing dogs with each eye having brown and blue coloring. These
dogs would be unbeatable in either Washington or Calif¬ornia. R.U. Bullible,
B.S., M.S., PhD. (Editors note; After receiving the above article, we
investigated the author’s credentials. We looked into the degrees listed
and found out that they don’t mean what we usually think; in this case,
we all know what B.S. is. Well M.S. means “more of the same” and PhD
means “piled higher and deeper”.)