Like most new mushers, I thought training dogs meant hooking them to the gangline and putting on the miles. I could get my hands on about training and tried to apply what I read, but it still seemed as though I was just along for the ride. Over the years I spent hours listening to and watching other experienced mushers. I began to visualize what they described and incorporated what I could into my training runs. Training a dog team is more than taking the dogs for a run.
Training means having a strategy and identifying specific objectives for each run.
I try to identify the specific training objectives I want to accomplish with each run. What does my team, or a specific dog need to learn, or if necessary, unlearn. Once I determine the training objective for each run, I plan so the dogs have an opportunity to do what I want them to do. Here are a couple specific training objectives and examples of things I do to help ensure my dogs have an opportunity to be successful. Dogs lean into the harness when they pull and this helps ensure the dog is not thrown off balance.