National Geographic: Those Wonderful Dogs Page #3

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as from Seattle to Los Angeles

Its name, Iditarod, is said to come

from the trail that

was once the lifeline linking far-flung

villages in the interior

Two-time champion of what is called the

"last great race on earth" is

A world-class athlete

and now a celebrity

she is going for an unprecedented

third consecutive win

She hopes to beat her 11-day record

and take home the $30,000 first prize

"Five minutes until we drop?

Yeah."

"I've been racing in the

Iditarod for ten years now

And I think over all the years

I've been basically in the top ten

and I think that all comes

from my training ability

with the dogs and the time

that I spend with them

and the conditioning

that I put on them

And then the rest has

to be up to the dogs

I've got good dogs

and I bred them and raised

them purely for long-distance racing"

Many observers feel that the time

Susan spends with her dogs

and the affection she lavishes on them

are key elements of her success

Fifty-three teams will leave

at two-minute intervals

"Ten, nine, eight, seven, six,

five, four, three, two, one, go"

"All right"

"Over the years I've really seen that

dogs love to

race and know what it's all about

When they see a team in front of them

they'll pick up their pace

and want to pass around them

And what I found out

is they know then

when there's no other team in

front of them

because there's no dog scent

on the trail"

In 1975 when she moved to

America's last frontier

the adventuresome 20-year-old

first lived in a tent

then single-handedly

built a log cabin

She was 30 miles from

her nearest neighbors

the nearest road

She started out with only three dogs

and today has a breeding kennel

with 130

Susan raises only Alaskan Huskies

a line bred from Eskimo and Indian dogs

"Well, I changed the teams

around today, David"

"Susan runs Trail Breaker Kennel

with her husband

David Monson,

himself a champion racer

"I was born in Cambridge,

Massachusetts

but I've always felt I was born in the

wrong century and in the wrong place

And so I kept moving

north and west

And I've always loved animals

and they've

been the most important thing

in my life

And so I was looking to

incorporate living

in the wilderness and working with dogs

and I found the

perfect thing"

"How's your baby. How are they?

Hi, guys. Heigh-o"

In the early days of

sled-dog racing

breeding was often a

haphazard mater

But Susan Butcher knows that good racing

dogs don't just happen without

careful planning

"Every summer I raise a number of

puppies-between 50 and 100 pups

And I'll pick out two

of my best dogs

Usually if I have a very fast dog

but maybe it doesn't have

a good enough coat

I'll breed it to one

with a good coat

"But the most important thing

is that they

have bred into them the desire to

pull and the desire to travel"

And travel they do

every day, with either

Susan or her dog handler

These four-month-old pups are

learning that running

that running is fun and that being

with people is fun

"There's a lot of mushers that don't

really like

to make their dogs into pet dogs

and feel that they have to keep them

very separated

to make them a working animal only

But I feel that the best thing

that you can do

with a dog is to really bond them

to yourself

So we're just trying to teach them to

respect us and trust us and vice versa

I have to trust my life in their

hands all the time

and they should learn to trust me

with their life

And then when you're

out there racing

that trust is what's going

to make you able to win"

"Are you going to be my

next all-time best leader?

Are you going to be my

all-time best leader?"

Every night Susan and David

bring a few dogs

into the cabin for extra attention

It's done as part of Susan's

training strategy

but also because she quite

simply adores her dogs

"Every fall is a really exciting

time for me and for the dogs

As the temperatures

get colder

we just develop a certain

excitement towards winter

When it starts to get cold

the dogs just start

making a lot of noise

running around their chains;

they're just antsy

They want to get going

They just show me in many ways

that they're ready to roll

ready for the racing season"

All the adult dogs are run three to

four times a week throughout the year

As with all athletes

conditioning is vital

to their performance

When snow cover is too thin

to be safe for the sled

the dogs pull an all-terrain

vehicle left in neutral gear

To some 200 miles

of trails,

Susan adds new ones each year to

keep the dogs from getting bored.

"A lot of people would look at my life

and think it's a lot of hard work

But for me,

it's a labor of love

I spend all day long with

my dogs and work with them

And I'm my own boss; there's

no one telling me

what to do or at what time to do

I live way out here where

I can go anywhere

and do anything at any time of day

And I love that freedom"

"The best things for

long-distance racing

dogs are a fast trotting speed

and then they have

to have good feet

and you just want them

to have a good attitude

Their heads are bent

and they're just going for it

and they're paying attention to you

and you're paying attention to them

and you just are

working as a team"

Like a coach with

marathon runners

Susan gradually increases

the length of the runs

Her goal is 50 miles

without tiring

The dogs, never more happy

than when on the trail

joyfully oblige

Twelve to sixteen hours a day

the routine seldom varies

The culmination in March: the chance to

compete in the most punishing

race on earth

The mushers, as sled-dog

drivers are called

brave temperatures that

can drop to 40 below

Except for one mandatory

they may sleep only an

hour or so each day

and only after the dogs

are tended and fed

The route can be potentially

treacherous at every turn

In 1985 a moose

attacked Susan's dogs

forcing her out of the race

On the last leg of the race

along the frozen Bering Sea

mushers encounter the

most severe weather

It is Susan Butcher's

tenth day out and

she is trailing as she has for

most of the race

Now, a violent storm has forced

temperatures to plunge

and swirling snow has obliterated

much of the trail

Both Susan and the dogs are pushed

to the limit of their endurance

The storm has thwarted her nearest

competitors

who have stopped to wait it out

Undaunted,

Susan Butcher charges on

In Nome expectant

crowds gather

The ham-radio operator at the

last checkpoint has reported

that the first musher might reach

the finish line at any time

In 11 days, 11 hours,

and 42 minutes

a jubilant but exhausted Susan

Butcher becomes the

first person ever to win the Iditarod

three consecutive times

Susan is a full 14 hours

ahead of any other musher

Some will not cross the finish

line for several more days

Amazingly, Susan could have made even

better time than she did if

she had wanted

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