Alaskan Adventures - 3/4
After our jaunt through the Tracey Arm Fjord (which you can read about here!) we spent the next 3 hours getting to Juneau where we would be stopped for about 5 hours. I had been to Juneau before, but last time was to do a whale watching tour + hike and this time I wanted to get to pet some animals, so I signed up for Sled Dog Summer Camp and it’s exactly what it sounds like. Every summer, sled dogs from around the US and Canada make their way to Alaska to continue their training in the summer months because their homes tend to be too hot for their glorious bodies. This particular camp had over 200 sled dogs when we showed up and in the photo above, you can see each of them has their own little house. Now, before you freak out about their conditions let me assure you that A) these are working dogs and this is how they need to be trained to do their job B) they are meant for outdoors and LOVE to work C) They are taken care of exceptionally well ( they get breaks, LOTS of food, constant exercise, even their own puddles to cool their little paws off in) and D) their trainers are exceptionally loving towards them.
Each sled team has 36 dogs so that they can alternate out 12 dogs at a time so they do not get overworked or over-trained. And, as a body image educator, I particularly loved when they said they didn’t care what their dogs looked like, they only cared about their performance. We grew up with movies showing us what sled dogs “should” look like, but just like humans, we’ve been told a lie. Those dogs are literally just for show and would never last a day pulling an actual sled - while they are beautiful and lovely, they aren’t the ones that do the actual work. These dogs burn up to 20,000 calories a day - this is why sled dogs are not ideal as house pets - they literally neeeeeeed to run and run and run some more.
After a brief history lesson, we then got to help the doggos get ready for their race season by piling into a cart led by their mushers. These beauties pulled us for 2 miles through the mountains, stopping every so often for them to cool off because it was surprisingly quite warm for Juneau.
At the end of the tour, they allowed us to help with “puppy socialization” and I had the pleasure of snuggling a cutie little sled pup. He really liked my hair and snuggled right into my shoulder - I tried to smuggle him home, but after my husband almost had a nervous breakdown when I fostered 2 pups, I decided against it. All in all, this was an amazing 3 hours spent getting some pets in and hanging out with the dogs and their mushers. If you head to Juneau in the summer, I highly recommend checking it out!
