so assuming you are gonna do distance or recreational i talk to my friend about what you should look for when buying a distance dog. remember she and your friend mean you.
"For distance like i run or longer she wants tough dogs with tough heads and good appetites. They need to have a steady trot that they can keep up for 7-12 hours with just a few breaks. Basically the same thing I'm going for. Of course she'll need leaders that are always ready to get up and go as well as know directional commands. They need to be completely comfortable with running in a team and about 55lb is the ideal size range. This should give her an idea, although every musher will have preference...which you will discover by spending time on the trail. one such preference would be amount of coat on the dog since distance races are run in cooler temperatures."
" the first thing to remember about mushing is that mushers love their dogs... because of this it is extremely important to only breed the best because sleddogs live to run. I know Hollywood portrays mushers in a bad light at times but the fact is that there is little difference between a show dog kennel "ethics" and a sled dog "ethics". the goal is to breed high quality dogs and have a plan to integrate them into the team and/or having good enough dogs that you can sell them to another team. You don't need several litters a year to field a competitive team... unless your dogs are highly sought after. very very few musher kill the dogs they can't sell or don't need. most only kill the dogs that are going to live in pain if they don't"
"For distance like i run or longer she wants tough dogs with tough heads and good appetites. They need to have a steady trot that they can keep up for 7-12 hours with just a few breaks. Basically the same thing I'm going for. Of course she'll need leaders that are always ready to get up and go as well as know directional commands. They need to be completely comfortable with running in a team and about 55lb is the ideal size range. This should give her an idea, although every musher will have preference...which you will discover by spending time on the trail. one such preference would be amount of coat on the dog since distance races are run in cooler temperatures."
" the first thing to remember about mushing is that mushers love their dogs... because of this it is extremely important to only breed the best because sleddogs live to run. I know Hollywood portrays mushers in a bad light at times but the fact is that there is little difference between a show dog kennel "ethics" and a sled dog "ethics". the goal is to breed high quality dogs and have a plan to integrate them into the team and/or having good enough dogs that you can sell them to another team. You don't need several litters a year to field a competitive team... unless your dogs are highly sought after. very very few musher kill the dogs they can't sell or don't need. most only kill the dogs that are going to live in pain if they don't"
ok so what's rec? Is that same as distance?
