a 62 lb. dog, all things being equal, will be a more effective sled or skijor dog than an 85 lb. dog.
the limiting factor is cooling capacity. bigger dogs can't stay cool enough to use the additional peak power.
Iditarod dogs are almost always, with a few exceptions, 50-55 lbs.
Same with unlimited class sprint racing (10-30 mile "sprints").
Big males (ie 60-65 lbs.) go to limited class (ie four-ten dog teams) where the pace is lower, and extra power per dog is beneficial.
My 66 lb. female Beauceron is a far, far better skijor dog than my 85 lb. GSD was in his day.
In the 1970s-80s we had two alaskas, and a Canadian Eskimo dog. the Eskimo dog could out torque the other half of the team, but at 80 lbs, stocky, with a thick coat was virtually always on the verge of over heating.
Andrew, thansk for the reply....sounds like a light beauceron! I did some helper work with one who just loved to slip off the sleeve and go for my throat! Seriously, he was a very strong dog and very intimidating.
thanks for the encouragment...I hope to have the male pull me, my wife, and two little ones on a sled...last winter, Maine had a LOT of snow, and this year, it should be fun.
My mid-sized Czech female has much more energy and endurance than my 90lb. Czech male. Physical maturity, I believe can vary from dog to dog, as does mental maturity, though some claim that DDR lines are slower to mature mentally. Since we're on the subject of weight, a visitor today told me of a dog he met at a the breeder's of his previous pet. Can I believe that their stud was actually 160lbs.?!
I have a 75 pound(maybe) Shepherd who people tell me must weigh 90, I had a very muscular, but 88 pound Rott way back when that always weighed 150-160 to the general public.
Peter, good luck with the sled pulling. I'm in Newfoundland, and am aware of the Maine climate: I believe there are a number of dog sledders in Maine.
I can imagine that places like Rangely Lakes have good snow and good cold for dog sled work.
I've done skijorring with my dogs, which is much higher paced, especially when a rabbit crosses the trail.
I've skijorred while pulling my own toddler in a pulk, which requires some coordination and foresight!
As a teen-ager I did use our sled dogs to bring in firewood, which was heavy slow paced work, so it can be done. Involved a fair bit human work on the upside of the yes ma'ams, etc.
I think it is like any other dog training, you never want to ask the dog to do more than he can happily do.
I remember trying to get my dogs to pull a xmas tree home one time, and they weren't impressed. It was human power that brought that tree out of the woods.
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Re: Opinions on my Czeck male....
[Re: Peter Hyatt ]
#82400 - 08/24/2005 12:35 PM 
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