LEADER OF THE PACK
by Shane Nyman - Shane Nyman is a 21-year-old writing student at Northern Michigan and is a 2004 graduate of Negaunee High School. He is also the Features editor of The North Wind and has lived in the Upper Peninsula for his entire life.
Somewhere in northern Maine ’s dark wilderness, with the night’s temperature dipping to 20 below zero, musher Stan Morgan’s corneas froze. At first, as he raced through the damp, frigid air, he thought his headlamp was losing power. It wasn’t until nearly 50 miles later, when his team of dogs pulled him through the bright lights of the finish line, that he realized why he couldn’t see.
There was a moment afterwards, while spending the first three hours after the race with heating pads and gauze pressed over his eyes, when Morgan realized how lucky he was to have Aurora, the treasured leader of his dog sled team.
“A good lead dog knows the scent that's on the trail from the other dogs,” Morgan said. “I really couldn’t see the turns. She got us home to the finish line.” Thanks to Aurora and an on-site doctor, Morgan had no permanent damage to his eyes after his close-call in Maine ’s Eagle Lake 100.
As with any team of humans, for a team of dogs to be successful, it must first have a strong leader – both physically and mentally.
“The leader’s most important muscle is what’s between their ears,” said the 66-year-old Morgan, who has been racing dogs for over 36 years.
With the lead dog’s mental abilities being so vital, one of the most important qualities a lead dog must have is confidence. Ed Stielstra, who at 38 has been racing dogs for 15 years, said he believes the dog must first be self-confident, but also have a total trusting relationship with his or her owner.
“I think most importantly, the dog has to be bonded to the musher. It has to be 100 percent trust,” Stielstra said. “If you’re going through a storm … the lead dog has to have 100 percent faith in the human that we're not going to let them drive too hard or get on their case if they make a mistake.”
Morgan said that although a musher must have a very good bond with each of the dogs, he or she probably has an even stronger bonding with the leaders.
In one particular case, Morgan said he had a very special relationship with a lead dog he owned for 11 years. “That dog almost knew what I was thinking before I thought it,” he said.
Although the mentality and decision-making skills are crucial for a lead dog, there are strong physical characteristics that are also essential.
46-year-old Mark Churchill, who has been raising and racing sled dog teams for 17 years, said there is a certain physicality that he looks for when finding the right fit for a leader.
“A good leader has to be hard-driving,” Churchill said. “They’re never satisfied with the speed they’re going, and they’re focused on going forward all the time.”
In a sport with such tight competition, sometimes a set of strong, experienced lead dogs can push a team ahead of the pack.
“A lot of the time, just one or two dogs will set the pace, and that’s what separates a lot of good teams; just a couple of good, hard-driving lead dogs,” Churchill said.
Stielstra also stressed the importance of quickness in a lead dog, because after all, a race is a race.
“If your goal is to be competitive, a really important facet of a lead dog is speed,” he said. “You’re only going to go as fast as your lead dog.”