Fourteen-year-old Reba walks slowly beside her owner, Jackie Winkowski, as Winkowski makes her rounds through Snowy Plains Kennel in Gwinn, Mich. Reba, a white and sandy brown colored half-Siberian Husky and half-Alaskan Husky, has been a sled dog for half of her life. Now old, Reba suffers from arthritis and is no longer able to pull a sled. Instead, Reba has become what Winkowski calls her “housedog.” An earned privilege Reba now enjoys is being allowed inside the house, where she can contently curl up on her blanket which is spread across half of the family’s green leather couch.
The dogs at Snowy Plains are like family to Winkowski and her husband Jim, both recreational sled dog mushers who have been involved in the sport for 17 years. Out of the 24 dogs at Snowy Plains Kennel, six are retired. “As long as they eat and are happy we keep them for their natural life,” Winkowski says.
Just like human athletes, sled dogs cannot compete for their entire lives; old age is the most common cause for retirement. Usually, a sled dog is retired somewhere between the ages of 7 to 10, although some dogs are retired before that point, and some continue to pull after. When it is time for retirement many dogs end up like Reba, living out the rest of their days comfortably on their owner’s couch. Not all mushers can keep all of their retired dogs which means they are usually put up for adoption. Unfortunately, not all of the dogs go directly to a comfortable home, some are dropped off or abandoned at animal shelters where they are forced wait for someone to adopt them.
A musher spends a great deal of time with his or her dogs which makes it easy to tell when a dog is ready to retire. “If they don’t want to give rides they’ll tell you,” Winkowski says. “It’s unusual if they don’t want to run, if they see the sled and want to go in.”
At almost 16, Junior, who is Reba’s father, is completely deaf but still enjoying life at Snowy Plains. Winkowski explains, “Even a blind dog can run.” A dog can run blind by picking up the rhythm and movement of the dog next to them. Some dogs can even lead blind.
Not all kennels are like Snowy Plains. Tasha Stielstra and her husband Ed are competitive sled dog mushers who own Nature’s Kennel Sled Dog in McMillan, Mich. The Stielstra’s compete in many races, including the U.P. 200 and the Iditarod. Stielstra has been involved with the sport for 12 years and during that time, she has had to retire her fair share of dogs.
Stielstra says she is able to tell when a dog is ready to be retired. “They get more sore or more injuries than maybe they used to have,” she says. A longer recovery time after training or races is a factor with older sled dogs. Some dogs might be able to do tours – for a fee Stielstra provides sled dog rides to interested individuals – but they are not as excited to run as they once were. “When the harnesses come out and they get hooked up, you can just tell they’re not as excited, their hearts are just not in it.”
At the Stielstra’s kennel, dogs are retired around the ages of 7 to 8. When a dog is approaching retirement Stielstra begins to look for a family home to place the dog in. She says, “I think a lot of mushers keep their dogs with them. But we have such a large kennel we can’t do that.” Although Nature’s Kennel is a larger kennel, there is still not enough room to keep all of the dogs that are retired. The Stielstra’s have developed their own type of adoption system to place their retired dogs in good family homes.
Not every sled dog makes a good family pet, and some dogs will not adapt to family life at all. Sled dogs are used to living outside which often means they are not housebroken, do not know how to walk on a leash, and are not used to the warm temperatures of most homes. Often times, these dogs will end up in animal shelters. Ashley Mink of the Marquette County Humane Society says the shelter does not see very many retired sled dogs in their facility, although it does happen. Mink says one family in particular frequently brings retired sled dogs to the shelter.
Tim Hunt, a local veterinarian and musher has been racing sled dogs for 15 years. His dogs are usually retired around the ages of 8 to 10, although he had two ten-year-olds that ran the Iditarod last year.
Like Stielstra, Hunt is not able to keep all of the dogs he retires. He also uses an adoption system to place his dogs in good homes. Hunt says what mushers decide to do with their dogs after they are retired vary between different areas. He compares areas in Canada where mushers will usually keep their dogs to “down here there are more people to find homes for these dogs.”
From a veterinarian’s point of view, Hunt says most sled dogs “Stay healthier in general than the Labrador down the street.” He attributes this to the dogs “getting a tremendous amount of exercise” and their active lifestyle.
For dogs like Reba, there are medications available to help ease the pain caused by arthritis. A heated kennel, an occasional nap on the couch, and lots of love and attention from Winkowski might not hurt either. According to Winkowski, raising sled dogs is “a long term commitment” but she adds that “mushers wouldn’t do it if they didn’t love dogs.”
