Purchase a bag of Diamond, Extreme Athelete 32/25 by calling:
Erickson Seed Feed and Pet Supply in Houghton, MI
906-482-7071
send us an e-mail to inform us of your purchase so that we can let you know we picked it up and can thank you.
"The most important beast in a team was the lead dog, and Sarqaq’s was almost
unbelievable in its intelligence and its love of mushing at the head of six
other dogs almost as capable. It was the lead dog who disciplined the
others, who threw its total weight into the straps, who kept the sled always
moving forward and who designated the track. It was responsive to Sarqaq’s
commands and even anticipated them, and although it could not be said that
it loved its master, for it stayed aloof from humans, it obviously did love
the job of leading the team and protecting the heavy sled they drew.
Dog number two in line was known as the swing, and it was its responsibility to transfer the leader’s decisions to the dogs behind. Often when the lead dog died or became too old for continued service, the swing took over; in the case of Sarqaq’s team, this would not occur, because although his swing was admirably suited to that job, it would not make a good leader; it was too amenable to suggestion.
Of an importance almost equal to the lead dog was the last in line, the wheel dog, for it was its task to see that the moves of the other dogs did not imperil either the safety or the progress of the sled. A knowing wheel could be worth the whole remainder of the team if it saw to it that their considerable efforts were properly applied to the moving sled, and Sarqaq had about the best wheel in the business.
That accounted for the three principal dogs; the others were lumped together as the team, and sometimes it seemed as if they did the hard work. Each dog had a name."
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"An Eskimo with seven good dogs could harness them in either of two ways: some excellent drivers liked to have three pairs, each pair yoked side-by-side, with a lead dog in front, his chain locked into the chain which ran down the center and attached to the sled. If a man had seven or nine superbly trained dogs long accustomed to this hitch, that was the way to do it, but there was an element of show in such a harnessing.
Tough-minded men who liked to move a maximum weight of cargo hitched their seven dogs in tandem, one directly behind the other, with each dog’s harness tying directly into that of his follower. Such a hitch had the advantage of allowing the three key dogs—lead, swing, wheel—to perform at maximum and to utilize whatever skills they had mastered. Sarqaq, who had done much hauling in the areas bordering on the Yukon Flats, preferred the tandem hitch and used it to perfection."
From James A. Michener’s Alaska 1988, paperback page 478 & 484
Dog number two in line was known as the swing, and it was its responsibility to transfer the leader’s decisions to the dogs behind. Often when the lead dog died or became too old for continued service, the swing took over; in the case of Sarqaq’s team, this would not occur, because although his swing was admirably suited to that job, it would not make a good leader; it was too amenable to suggestion.
Of an importance almost equal to the lead dog was the last in line, the wheel dog, for it was its task to see that the moves of the other dogs did not imperil either the safety or the progress of the sled. A knowing wheel could be worth the whole remainder of the team if it saw to it that their considerable efforts were properly applied to the moving sled, and Sarqaq had about the best wheel in the business.
That accounted for the three principal dogs; the others were lumped together as the team, and sometimes it seemed as if they did the hard work. Each dog had a name."
============================================================================
"An Eskimo with seven good dogs could harness them in either of two ways: some excellent drivers liked to have three pairs, each pair yoked side-by-side, with a lead dog in front, his chain locked into the chain which ran down the center and attached to the sled. If a man had seven or nine superbly trained dogs long accustomed to this hitch, that was the way to do it, but there was an element of show in such a harnessing.
Tough-minded men who liked to move a maximum weight of cargo hitched their seven dogs in tandem, one directly behind the other, with each dog’s harness tying directly into that of his follower. Such a hitch had the advantage of allowing the three key dogs—lead, swing, wheel—to perform at maximum and to utilize whatever skills they had mastered. Sarqaq, who had done much hauling in the areas bordering on the Yukon Flats, preferred the tandem hitch and used it to perfection."
From James A. Michener’s Alaska 1988, paperback page 478 & 484
