[tmatlack]

Heraldnet article today: http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20160317/NEWS02/160329996/When-poodles-raced-in-the-Iditarod-they-weren't-half-bad-

[treeswarper]

I know of a lab, who retrieves sleds.

[Snowbrushy]

Once I met the medium sized standard poodle and I was blown away about what a cool dog it was. Happy Fun Smart. Thanks for reminding me. At the time I said to myself that if I ever give up on the springer spaniel as a pet I want a standard poodle. A very cool dog!

[JPH]

Standard poodles are cool dogs (although the haircuts can be a little over the top sometimes). The little yappy ones give them all a bad rap.

[mike]

Mix it up and you get a winning combo.

yesterday afternoon

[tigermn]

[boot up]

I knew someone whose lead sled dog was a standard Poodle. They dog hated me though, because when I showed up in winter, that meant he would not be pulling a sled that day. Dogs love to pull sleds.....or have "jobs" in general.

[GrnXnham]

I lived in Alaska when he ran those poodles in the Iditarod. It was big news and very controversial. People were saying it was cruel to the poodles because they simply didn't have the coat required to stay warm in the extremely cold temperatures they encounter on the trail of the Iditarod. The sled dogs in Alaska have been bred to withstand extremely cold temperatures comfortably. Poodles, even when you let their fur grow out, simply aren't as resistant to cold.

[mike]

Poodle coats are very warm except when wet. They don't shed water like a dog with hair. Wouldn't be a problem in AK in winter.

[Bedivere]

[GrnXnham]

Wow! There are some real experts here on whether or not a poodle can handle Alaskan winters. Much of the concern about the poodles' well-being was coming from Alaskan veterinarians and breeders of Alaskan sled dogs. These are people who are knowledgable about which dogs can and can't handle Alaskan winters. Also, for much of the Iditarod race, the dogs aren't active. They are resting. A dog can't run over 1000 miles continuously and the musher has to sleep, too. Many of these rest periods are in blizzard conditions where the dogs just have to sit in the snow and wait it out. There's more to having a cold resistant dog than just having long fur. The sled dogs have a very dense undercoat that many of the other dogs don't have. This gives them a big advantage. The typical Alaskan sled dog isn't a husky or a malamute like most people think. It's actually a designer dog (mutt) where they mixed several different dog breeds to come up with the best dog at being fast, strong, intelligent, and able to resist the cold. Here is another article on Suter's poodles and it mentions how his dogs got cold. http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19901224&slug=1111229

[tmatlack]

Graham X, Yea, the Iditerod dog is a long way from your giant Malamute or Samoyed..much smaller and hard for laymen to see much "husky" in them. And, thanks for your 1st hand experience and input even though you get mildly flamed for it. It ain't nothing personal, just internet forum Ack-Ack. Thanks again. Tom the OP

[Bedivere]

[wolffie]

Pembroke Welsh Sled Dogs

[DigitalJanitor]

The word on the street was that the poodles stuck to the ice when they were resting, so they had to chip the dogs off when they got up in bad weather. A typical Alaskan husky's coarse guard hair will prevent that from happening, which seems infinitely preferable under the circumstances. For recreational dogging especially down here in the comparatively tropical NW a standard poodle would be fine. My uncle ran Bouviers along side his sibes down on the Oregon dunes. I ran purebred GSPs in central WA, which worked great as mushers battle heat down here. Plus when skijoring on steep iced up trails I could cut them loose and work my way down a ridge and keep them nearby + have them come back for me when things mellowed out again. The hounds figured out this maneuver quickly and got quite good at rumbling down to the next switchback and then stopping until I caught up. Good luck doing that with siberians....