Off to the races

STRATFORD, Wis. – A fondness for competition and the animals is what drew both Joe Carey and Jamie Perry to sled dog racing and eventually to each other.
The pair live near Stratford where Carey manages a small herd of dairy goats, and Perry works as a dairy nutritionist.
Carey first started racing sled dogs 13 years ago, while Perry began 27 years ago as a middle school student.
“My dad was selling dairy chemicals, and a dealer he worked with had sled dogs and was looking for someone to race an extra team he had,” Carey said. “I ran his dogs that first year and was hooked. The next year, I bought four dogs from him and a puppy.”
Perry’s story started following a unit about sled dog racing taught in her English class.
“I talked my mom into letting me get a Siberian husky,” Perry said. “Little did she know, when we went to pick that dog up, two would be coming home. By the time I graduated from high school, I had 21 dogs.”
The two connected through sled dog racing, and between their two kennels, the pair own about 40 dogs.
Most of the dogs Carey and Perry race are a performance crossbreed known as Eurohounds, which vary from the dog most people envision when they think of sled dog racing. Only about one-third of their dogs are Siberian husky.
“Eurohounds can have a variety of different breeds behind them,” Perry said. “There is some husky but also usually some pointer-type blood behind them too. They are bred for particular traits that make them excel at racing, and they are smaller dogs than a husky.”
Most of the races Carey and Perry run are short-distance sprints, which typically range from 4 to 12 miles. They run teams of 8-10 dogs. Perry’s daughter, Riley, an avid youth musher herself, runs a four-dog team. They have an extra six-dog team available that friends also sometimes race for them.
“When we go to races, we usually travel with 26 or 28 dogs,” Carey said. “We take our racing teams, but we’ll also take puppies with us for the socialization and the experience.”
The dogs usually run in pairs within the team. The lead dogs are the front pair, while the second pair are referred to as the point. The dogs closest to the sled are called the wheel dogs and are typically the largest dogs on the team. Any pairs between the point and wheel dogs are referred to as team dogs.                                                                
“The lead dogs take all of the commands,” Perry said. “The point dogs are kind of like co-pilots and often become lead dogs. The wheel dogs are the ones that turn the sled, while the team dogs provide power.”
The dogs learn from each other and can develop into good lead dogs, but both Carey and Perry agreed it is fun to watch when they have a dog that emerges as a natural leader.
“There really isn’t an alpha dog,” Carey said. “There are some that are a bit bossier, but we won’t keep a dog that is aggressive toward other dogs. They can cause problems when the team is hitched.”
A sled dog is typically in their racing prime for only a couple years. Training begins just before a dog turns 1 year old.
“The average dog is at their peak from about 3 to 5 years old,” Carey said. “By the time they are 6 years old, you can see them start to slow a bit. By the time they are 8 or 10 years old, they’ll move down to what we call our B-team. They still love what they’re doing, they just aren’t as competitive.”
Close attention is paid to the dogs’ diets to help them reach the desired level of performance. They are fed a high-quality kibble that is 20% fat and 32% protein, which was developed by a fellow musher.
“The protein is higher than the average commercial dog food, but a sled dog’s nutritional requirements are higher too,” Perry said. “They don’t need to eat as much of this food, either, to meet their needs.”    
Both Carey and Perry have high standards when it comes to choosing the dogs for their teams, and both have made key purchases from across the U.S. and Europe that they are looking forward to developing.
With the bloodlines they are developing, Carey and Perry produce a litter of puppies every other year and market their genetics to other mushers and breeders.
“We typically have people lined up for puppies before the mating even occurs,” Carey said.                                                                                                                
In addition to snow racing, they also participate in dryland racing. The couple hosts an annual dryland race the first weekend of November. This fall, the dryland race saw 162 teams competing, making it the largest dryland race in the Midwest, according to Carey and Perry.
During a typical racing season, Carey and Perry travel to five to seven race events, and have taken in as many as nine in one season. They have traveled into Canada to race in Manitoba, eastern Ontario and Quebec, and have raced in New Hampshire. Carey has qualified for, and competed in, the world championship races for both snow and dryland racing. Only 100 teams, from around the globe, are invited to participate in the championship races each year, Carey said.
“Sled dog racing is really becoming more and more popular,” Perry said. “The state of Wisconsin has the largest racing club outside of Alaska. There has been a huge insurgence of one- and two-dog events, and you see all kinds of breeds running.”
Races are timed events; each team has a set start time and are clocked as they cross the finish line to determine placings.
“The people we meet and race with are a big part of why I love racing, but it is really about the dogs,” Carey said. “It is truly a sport. You really work with the dogs. It is a joint effort. You pedal, push and run with them.”