Iditarod Headquarters is shining bright on Vet Check Day! 

These canine elite athletes are the star of the show today.  And today, the heroes of making the Iditarod Sled Dog Race happen are the volunteer veterinarians.   Visitors watched the Vets expertly do their craft as they applied HAWL to every dog.  HAWL stands for: H- Heart and Hydration, A- Appetite and Attitude, W- Weight, L- Lungs and Legs. 

These dogs are pros in having their paws examined, their hearts listened to, their legs bent and stretched and were very patient and practiced in getting checked out.  

Four time Iditarod Champion and five time Leonhard Seppala Humanitarian Award Winner Martin Buser is wrapping up his teams vet check before heading back to his Happy Trails Kennel and then out onto the trail this weekend.

Dog mushers trucks come in all designs and colors.  It was fascinating to see how the canine athletes travel to training runs and races and enjoy hanging out in their home away from home.

Teachers:  Try a quick Iditarod Math Warmup using a Dog Truck Math problem with your students today! 

Dog Truck Math: Design new dog door cutouts for a dog mushers truck.  Use attributes of shapes to design the cutouts.  Geometry Iditarod style!

Primary:  

K:   Design a dog door cutout that is a rectangle created by what two shapes?

1st: Design dog door cutouts that when installed, show a pattern on the side of the truck using circles, squares or triangles. 

2nd: Design a dog door cutout using two shapes with 2 different attributes that when installed show a pattern on the side of the truck.

Intermediate:

3rd: Design two dog door cutouts using different polygons with one shape being a quadrilateral. 

4th: Design two dog door cutouts using designs that must include an acute angle and an obtuse angle. 

5th: Design three dog door cutouts that are two dimensional figures. Use as many attributes as you can but only one attribute can overlap between shapes. 

6th:  Using the dog door cutout shape on one of the trucks shown, approximate what the area of the cutout is in relation to the size of the dog door.  Dog door is approximately 12X10 inches.