"It is unclear how these racing dogs can keep running, despite heavy blizzards, temperatures as low as –40°F, and winds up to 60 mph. No other animal has been found to come close to the physiological attributes these dogs display."
The article goes on to quantify attributes that allow these dogs to perform so well, and for so long...
- Rapid adaption to exercise and the ability to sustain and recover
- Tremendous aerobic capability
- Ability to rapidly convert fat into energy
- Possible physiological attributes that enable endurance through high energy production and efficient use of energy
It's worth a read and may help us to make better bird dogs.
I was told by a very reliable source, a few years ago, that the Alaskan Sled Dog has pointer bred into it. JT
ReplyDeleteJared, I believe that many of the sled dogs do have some pointer in them - bred in for speed.
ReplyDeleteIn this vein, I am pleased that you posted a picture of Strike standing still... that way I can get a good look at her...
Wouldn't be interesting to compare like measurements of well conditioned, all-age pointers and setters to the sled dogs......
ReplyDeleteWhen we were in northern Sweden last February, we went and visited a musher's kennel. He did mention cross-breeding to pointers although with a few interesting footnotes: anything more than a quarter pointer didn't have the coat to deal with the temperatures; and, at least in Scandinavia, it was almost as if they were creating a new 'class' of sled-dogs, 'Scandinavian hounds' or 'Euro-hounds'. The explanation was that they simply didn't have as strong a set of dogs to breed to in Scandinavia as in Alaska, But the sense was that they also weren't trying to race these dogs against Alaskan dogs (and so, in their own regional competitions, everyone was racing the same kind of dog).
ReplyDelete