The dogs have long been considered the “real athletes” of the Iditarod and the focus of my students year in and year out. Every year my class asks me “Where can I find out more about the Dogs?” The first place I direct them is each of the mushers websites listed on the bio page at Iditarod.com. Many of the mushers have a “Meet the Dogs” tab or something similar. Or they have a “Sponsor a Dog” page that has more information. The kids love the dogs. That is something that makes teaching about the Iditarod every year so easy.

This year however, I started to explore the dogs featured in Jeff Schultz’s “Faces of the Iditarod” project. There are a growing number of K9 faces found there, even as the race is going. This is a new page that I will be sharing with my students when I return. The stories in this project are fantastic. I love learning about the litter themes that go with these dogs. Beans, from Martin Buser’s team is from a coffee themed litter, and Elway, from Riley Dyche’s team is from a litter of what he calls “Broncos Greats” or any current or future Hall of Famers from the Denver Broncos NFL team. There are so many interesting stories about mushers, volunteers, and of course, dogs on this site. It is found on the right hand side of the Iditarod website, but here is the link to browse it now: https://faces.iditarod.com/

There are also so many wonderful stories out there about the dogs and their journeys to becoming sled dogs. One such story is that of Sammy Davis Jr. – a dog from Lev Shvarts’ team. There is a wonderful video on the Insider of him explaining how this dog came from a shelter and worked his way onto his Iditarod team. Check out the video here: https://iditarod.com/video/from-the-shelter-to-lev-shvarts-iditarod-team-meet-sammy-davis-jr/

Zeke is another dog that has been becoming more well know in the Iditarod world this year, not because of his bloodlines or name, but because of his back story. Zeke is a dog in rookie Kaylin Davis’ Iditarod team this year and has come an incredibly long way from the first days she laid eyes on him. Click the audio on the link here to listen to a comeback story for the ages.  https://faces.iditarod.com/zeke/

Zeke. Faces of the Iditarod Copyright 2019 & 2022 by Jeff Schultz Photography Inc.

Kona, from Jaye Foucher’s team. Photo Credit: Megan Moberly

Much like Zeke, Kona is a member of Jaye Foucher’s team who has been through quite an ordeal recently. During one of her training runs, Jaye’s team was involved in an accident with a truck that actually struck her team. One of her dogs did not make it, and another was very badly injured. As a result of this, Jaye had to withdraw from the race this year. During a recent zoom meeting (talking about dog mushing) with a small town in New York, the musher being featured was Megan Moberly. Megan is based out of New Hampshire and is actually staying at Jaye’s house and taking care of her dog Kona, (and some of her other pups) as she recovers. It was an incredible coincidence and a wonderful moment to see that Kona is doing so much better. 

A final noteworthy dog story comes from current Iditarod musher Sebastien Dos Santos Borges. As it states in his bio on the Iditarod website, “I started dog sledding with shelter dogs and I still have some in my team, they guide me daily. They are not the strongest, (or) the greatest but they are my family, my friends.” I love this sentiment. It proves that anything is possible, you don’t have to have the best dogs out there, or pull from the top bloodlines of other kennels to live your dream. That is exactly what Sebastien is doing this year. 

Also check out this video of Martin Buser talking about the relationship between the mushers and their dogs from this morning. It is the perfect example of the incredible bond between them. https://iditarod.com/video/martin-buser-and-the-connection-with-dogs/ 

In closing, as an update about my status, I did test again this morning. Yet again, it was positive. However, it was a much fainter line than it has ever been! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now. I will get out on the trail… and soon. In the words of my favorite music group, “No matter how cold the winter, there’s a springtime ahead”. From Thumbing My Way by Pearl Jam. 

Teachers: A very common project that us teachers do every year is to have our students research a musher and do some sort of a write-up about them. Given the resources available with the “Faces of the Iditarod” project, an interesting extension or option might be to have your students research one of the dogs. Try to find out their backstory, their litter and kennel. Maybe they are being borrowed from another team? This might be an interesting project to try out!