At one point in life, I might have agreed with you. But when I went to Alaska and met a dogsled team, and all those dogs wanted to do was pull that sled. When one of the mushers (I dunno what they’re called) was walking around getting a team ready, the dogs would run up excited wagging their tails wanting to be chosen next. They were legit sad every time they got passed up and would whine until the next round. They seemed like some of the most well taken care of dogs I’ve ever met. And being Alaskan huskies (basically mutts but much healthier than Siberian huskies), they genuinely needed the stimulation of taking turns pulling the sled.
I got to pet and play with them, and they had puppies on the glacier as well to socialize them with the adult dogs and humans. They were all such happy pups. One of the dogs was this beautiful female Alaskan husky and I was told she had been the leader of four different Iditarod teams, and as I walked up to her she flopped into the belly rub position. So I asked the guy if I was allowed to give her a belly rub, and the response was ‘she’d be offended if you didn’t!’ So that’s how I got to give a world class athlete a belly rub.
Meeting the dogs changed my entire opinion on dog sledding.
Cochise22 t1_jazf3g3 wrote
Reply to comment by acbo_1 in Alaska's arduous Iditarod kicks off with ceremonial start by besselfunctions
At one point in life, I might have agreed with you. But when I went to Alaska and met a dogsled team, and all those dogs wanted to do was pull that sled. When one of the mushers (I dunno what they’re called) was walking around getting a team ready, the dogs would run up excited wagging their tails wanting to be chosen next. They were legit sad every time they got passed up and would whine until the next round. They seemed like some of the most well taken care of dogs I’ve ever met. And being Alaskan huskies (basically mutts but much healthier than Siberian huskies), they genuinely needed the stimulation of taking turns pulling the sled.
I got to pet and play with them, and they had puppies on the glacier as well to socialize them with the adult dogs and humans. They were all such happy pups. One of the dogs was this beautiful female Alaskan husky and I was told she had been the leader of four different Iditarod teams, and as I walked up to her she flopped into the belly rub position. So I asked the guy if I was allowed to give her a belly rub, and the response was ‘she’d be offended if you didn’t!’ So that’s how I got to give a world class athlete a belly rub.
Meeting the dogs changed my entire opinion on dog sledding.