David Bowie, one of Michael Baker’s dogs

One of the things I’ve thoroughly enjoyed is talking to mushers about their dogs. When you speak to a musher, he/she is able to tell you everything about each dog on the team. You’ll hear them share about their personality, age, eating habits, lineage, and so on.  It’s fun hearing the unique dog names across all of the teams, too. 

When litters of puppies are born, mushers will often use a theme to guide naming the dogs. For example, Matthew Failor has a litter of dogs named after heavy metal bands. Kristy Berington told me that she’s racing some dogs that are from a litter named after The Muppets. Cindy Abott raced with dogs from a litter named after precious gems. 

***Teachers*** Use this activity with your students that challenges them to categorize different dog names based on particular themes.