Interesting article in Saturday’s WSJ.
Iditarod sled dogs have VO2 max of 110-120 and burn 200 calories per pound per day!
They put us humans to shame…
Albert
My German shorthaired pointer kicks my ass on any given day
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look up a hummingbird, or a bee.
you’ll see some wild numbers
My German shorthaired pointer kicks my ass on any given day
Don’t overlook the PUG, with it’s powerful hindsections.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/03/dog_sledding.html
Big Picture today has some good shots from recent events.
I love #6 – “Come on, get the beer already and let’s go home!”
I wish my face looked like #11 & #14 when I was racing…
Thanks
Jeff
For short course, GSPs cannot be beat. I pretty much have to redline it just to keep up with my two girls.
Couple summers ago we went on an Alaskan cruise, one of the tours we did was a summer dog sled camp. Real Iditarod dogs, “that one won it two years ago, over there, she won it last year,” etc. Part of it was riding in the wheeled sleds they used to practice. When we got to a hill, they hooked a tractor to the front to pull the sled up,. They said they didn’t allow the dogs to go uphill with weight as they, in our terms, go anaerobic, whch they don’t want them doing in races. These animals are bred to go long and aerobic.
Ooh, we did the dogsled thing in Alaska as well. Those dogs are amazing. Side note, they really wanted to tear each other up the whole time.
But THIS was the best part:
yeah they did, well at least the alphas did. REALLY get to see canine society in action there. Two alphas together? forget it
Think pronghorn. Top speed of 60mph, and can hold 30mph for a long time. Nothing can match it, not even people on horseback.