Polar Husky World 
Running The Team
As I said, it's hard to be a lead dog because you have to listen all the time. But it is also tons of fun because you get to check out everywhere we run FIRST, and you get to hunt! As you may know, if you're not the lead dog, the view never changes! Leading the team is fun, but it also requires lots of hard work, listening, and responsibility.
Paul and Mille have commands, telling us which way to go. To go right, they yell, "Gee;" to go left, "Haw." The command to stop is "Whoooa." We don't always listen to that. Some happy sound - like, "Yip, yip yip!" - makes the team run faster!
We run at an average of three to four miles per hour. Of course, we can go much faster, but since we run for months and months AND with a heavy sled that most often weighs between 1000 and 1200 pounds, we try to pace ourselves. Competitive racing dogs run at about ten miles per hour in a race like in the Iditarod. They only run for ten days or so, though, with a sled weighing 120 to 150 pounds - about 1/10 the weight of ours! So, it is very different. We are like the freight trucks of the business. We are really, really strong and can even pull a 1,200-pound sled while running. Our pace is not super-fast, but it is steady and we are easily out for three-to-four months straight.
